When I first went to work for Mr. Topper....

Back in those days, employees always referred to their bosses and called them by the formal name. Dick was Mr. Topper to me and I would never have considered calling him Richard or Dick. I can remember my interview and it's a wonder that I came across in any positive manner at all, considering how badly I wanted the other job with the diving company ( contacts for John), but I couldn't wait for the man to return from his vacation, so accepted the position when offered with Motel 6. I can remember that during the interview Dick asked me how I would respond to a letter he had received - giving me an idea of what he wanted to say. How I passed this part I have no idea, as I was not then nor have ever been good at coming up with 'composition' in my head. I am much better with a keyboard under my fingers where my thoughts can run free while the fingers just do the mechanics. I've also found out about myself is that if I want to write a speech (or a blog), or an important letter or instruction, I first 'write' it in my mind. I end up with a firm plan of what I want to say, then can run with it when I get to the typewriter (or computer now). So I know I mumble-fumbled my way through an answer for him - but apparently it was good enough.

Dick was gone pretty well most of the time the first couple of weeks I worked there and my training came from a gal called Terry (I think) who showed me how to process the daily reports when they came in and how to balance them and confirm the deposits etc. The job grew from there as I worked side by side with Dick in the same office. The two strongest impressions I formed about him were that he was (a) brilliant and (b) a little vulgar at times for my taste. I tried to take care of the latter once, but that went over like a lead balloon and if I had not needed the job so badly, or been such a wimp in those days, I might have quit. BUT, brilliant he was - his ability to handle all the responsibilities, problems, pressures was quite awesome, and it was fun to watch him take care of the major overall problem of Motel 6 growing too fast, constantly running out of money on the construction and expecting Operations to take up the slack. It seemed that Dick spent half his time, calming down the unpaid suppliers, making deals with them and basically keeping Motel 6 going. It's the behind the scenes story that will never be known about that 'household word' now. I admired his creativity also - always coming up with new ideas and ways to attack different problems.

We eventually were moved out of our joint office and Dick was given an office by himself and I had a separate reception area just outside. This was the view from the window - you can see the clock on the Santa Barbara courthouse. At five o clock each evening, Dick and I along with receptionist Mary would meet after every one else had left and have a cup of coffee together and just relax and talk. Along with the admiration for the brain, came the liking of the person and his outlooks and philosophies. We became good friends. Any of you who have been in my house and noticed the first cross-stitch I ever did, you will see it is of the Santa Barbara courthouse, the clock is set at 5pm.

Dick did many favors for John and I - gave John a job when the abalone adventure was over, made it possible for us to move into a house instead of the studio we rented. He was (and is) a good man. I remember one Christmas he took some groceries and dropped them off at Terry's doorstep. She was having a rough time then and she never knew where it came from.

Over time, I learned to admire the boss, enjoy the friend, and love the man.

Motel 6, Nain (close to 10!) & Grandpa

We stated earlier that when we arrived at this point we would write it jointly, but it actually is going to be two people's perspective of a shared time.

First a little backup prior to Nain becoming part of the team. I had started my flying lesson and had maybe 15 hours flying time. I soloed at 9 hours. No cross country or license yet, only student license. My training had been with a Cessna 150 twin seater and a Piper Cherokee 150 4 seater. To be licensed I must get 35 plus hours and have two solo cross country flights. I chose Las Vegas & Tucson as mine. I obtained my license Spring of 1967 (and my twin rating at Mt. Vernon, Ill in Spring 73). My last flight was in 1980. I am still licensed, but can no longer pass my physical. I had logged 1700 hrs flying, or over 300,000 miles, or equal to 12 trips around the world. FYI planes flown: Cessnas 150, 172, 180, 210, 336, 340, 421; Piper Cherokee 150, 160; Comanche 180; Twin Comanche & Twin Aztec, Of the above listed planes most were rentals except 1/2 ownership twin Comanche. 336 & 421 Cessnas were owned by Regal 8 Inns. We will be referring or telling about flying trips in our future writings.

The above is the Cessna 172 and below is 180 Comanche.
This is the twin Comanche.
The Cessna 421 was a 1969 twin engine, 7 passenger (with potty) pressurized plane with ceiling limit 24,000 feet. This allowed us to get above most weather. Speed 260 knots, 2-360 c.i. Lycoming Engines. The 336 Cessna was a new 1975 push-pull twin in-line engine, also presurized. Speed around 230.

It is Spring of 1965, Motel 6 has 14 motels in operation and 5 under construction. We are also operating and remodeling 3 motels for a lender (Kirkerby Natus (not sure of the spelling on this) Las Vegas, Palm Desert and Long Beach, which r4equired separate set of books, banks, controls and accounting.

Motel 6 had built a new two-story office building at 222 East Anapamu, Santa Barbara. We occupied one floor. We were split into three divisions (1) bookkeeping with 5 employees (2) Operations with 4 employees & (3) Drafting & Construction with 3 employees. My duties and responsibilities: With Construction:
1. Approve prints for building placement and useable flow for guest and operational problems.
2. Inspect building twice during construction to see compliance with plans.
3. Purchase and install furniture and equipment.
With Operations:
1. Interview and hire managers
2. Train managers
3. Control and approve all expenditures
4. Maintain cost control
5. Monthly motel inspections
6. Control maintenance at each motel
7. Take care of any local problems
8. Checking all daily reports from the motels and verifying bank deposits.
As a result of the duties I was desperate for help, so we put an ad in the Santa Barbara Press for a secretary. We had two applicants, one of which was Margaret Marsh. She was our second interview. Her duties were to assist me with typing, phone work, scheduling, foot work and to obtain full assistant status. The job was offered and she accepted. As I recall her wages was $425/mth. This was fair to good at that time. My impression? She was knowledgeable, nice, attractive, a little stiff and nervous. She did not emit sex - had she done so she would not have been hired. We already had one of those in the construction department!. We didn't need any more.
My office was about 16 x 16, my desk was one corner, the other corner we had a work table and back bar. This was Margaret's work area. The office was just off the reception area.
Work went on in the usual manner. Margaret turned out to be more than capable of her duties except phone work. I would give her calls to make and she would wait until the office closed then shakily make them.
The office closed at 5.00pm but our receptionist Mary worked till 6pm with Out-going mail, etc. We fell into the habit of a fresh cup of coffee after every one left, except Mary, Margaret and I. We relaxed and unwound.
Margaret learned fast and was soon able to handle most everything, proofing reports and making corrections by phone and mail, and sometime going to the local motels.
One day approx. 3 months into her employment we were in the office; I had a bad phone call and after hanging up I said (SOB or Gd......it). Margaret came marching over to me and stated "I am a lady, and I don't appreciate that kind of language". My answer was "this is a business world and if you want to be a lady I would suggest you go home have a baby and be a lady". I heard no more.
Margaret had been with us a short time and her husband John had not found work so I hired him to replace our chain major-job maintenance man. They needed a place to live and the company owned a house that Sue and I had used. It was empty and furnished. This was rented to John and Margaret.
Sue and I were living in our first owned home at 910 San Marcos Rd. One night we were in bed and I get a call from Mrs. Davis at the Beach location. Mr. Davis had been shot. I threw some clothes on and sped down there - approx. 6 miles. I got there right behind the police. It was an attempted robbery. Mr. Davis disarmed him but got shot in the arm in doing it. But he had the robber subdued and choked down. The robber's girlfriend, the lookout and driver, was taken in with the rubber. The police tested his gun. It had been used to kill a desk clerk in San Francisco about three months earlier. A trial was to the jury on this murder charge, with another suspect, when they learned of this. We received a letter from the city of San Francisco because it cleared their man and got the killer. It's a small world after all..... .......to be continued

Jan. '57 to Mar. '61 ......

....a short recap of my years on the patrol. Stories about this time could fill a book on their own. That's me on the left, taking the cycle training at the academy. After the academy I was assigned to Bakersfield area. My first thirty days were riding with an experienced officer, then I was turned loose and worked alone. This area was experimenting with one man cars on patrol 24 hours a day. Elsewhere patrols from 1800 to 0700 hours were always 2-man cars. I opted for the 2300 to 0700 shift as this allowed Sue to work and I could be home for Katy during the day. We were required to maintain a 415 report in duplicate and turn it in monthly. This report documented all hours worked, number of miles driven, accidents worked, citations and stops and were a complete record of your activity. One copy was turned in and you retained the other one.
During my tenure with the CHP, I recorded 327,000 patrol miles, with speeds in excess of 125 mph 50% of the time. I had two or three 'cliff-hanger episodes', but I was either lucky or someone upstairs was watching over me as I didn't even put a dent on any car.
I covered up to 50 fatal accidents. These were not pleasant and I try not to remember that part of the job.
I arrested over 100 cases of drunk driving. All were convicted with the exception of one. Her blood alcohol was .13 and in those days it took .15 for a violation.
I was shot by my fellow officer in an armed robbery stop. They turned out to not be the guilty ones, but the bullet ricoched off the roadway and struck me in the left arm. It wasn't serious, needed minor medical attention but no loss of work.
I was eligible for the sergeant promotion written test in my third year and I passed, but left the force before the oral test and final raiting to make sergeant. I was given several special assignments that my fellow officers didn't get.
A routine day would start with checking the schedule to see what area you were assigned to, pick up your camera (for accident shots), get the vehicle key for the one assigned to you and advise the radio operator you were on duty. From then on you worked your area and responded to radio calls. We had over 100 officers, one captain, one lieutenant and 3 sergeants - this was to cover 24 hours a day/seven days a week. We seldom had a sergeant even assigned to the graveyard shift I worked.
We had monthly squad meetings, and target range practice. These were on split days and everyone had to attend.
After a period of time I started to be pressured by about 1/3 of the officers. They didn't want to work and their attitude was that 'you had better not write over one ticket a shift' or they were all over you. I was called names, I found feathers in my locker and other harassment. I was not cut out for that way of doing things - my attitude was that if I was a ditch digger, I would be the best ditch digger I could be.
I tried to curtail my citing and started writing more warnings.
Our policy on speed was a ten mph leeway so 55mph was not written until 65mph. Kern County actually instructed us to loosen it up to 70mph. I used to issue tickets at 85 and warnings on the others. This was fine until one day, I was working 99 north. I turned around on a north bound vehicle just south of Formosa and got a speed check of 73 mph. I decided to look the other way. I followed at a distance and about a mile up the road this vehicle ran off into the divider and rolled over twice and wound up on its wheels on the other side of a bank. Both right hand doors were open and four bloody young ladies were hanging half in and half out of the vehicle. I had a real mess on my hands, giving first aid to all four while waiting 20 miles for medical help to arrive. They all survived, but I felt the accident was my fault - not theirs. They were speeding, yes. They lost control, yes. But I was being paid not to raise revenue, but enforce the law to save lives and injury. My duty wasn't to please my fellow officers.

Other factors started to figure into my decision to leave the Force. Wages in 1957 for construction was about $520/mth. CHP starting wage with 4 step increases of 1 a year was $345/month less 11% retirement. Net pay $310. By the spring of '61, with all the raises, I had topped out at $510 less 11% for a net of around $455. All this before taxes - by this time construction was up to about $675/month. While I worked CHP it was necessary for Sue to work and help make up the gap. She worked at Brook's department store in Bakersfield - a locally owned dress shop. This was the first time that Sue had worked outside the home since our marriage. Had I been allowed to perform the job I was paid to do without peer pressure, and if we could have afforded to have Sue stay at home, I would have stayed. It was the real job I loved.


The photo of Sue and Katrina was taken outside a trailer we lived in when we first went to Bakersfield. The one above - with our dog Mike, was taken outside a house we rented.

California Here we come...

Before John and I left Canada, we bought a brand new Ford Galaxie convertible, and in October 1964 we crossed the border from Ontario into the US late in the afternoon and made it to Green Bay Wisconsin the first night. Day One as a legal resident of the US, we stopped in Springfield, Illinois to see the Lincoln memorial and who should be there but President Johnson. He ended up shaking hands with us - so how many people can say they shook the hand of the President their first day. We were heading for the Bay area in California where John's diving school was, but had given ourselves plenty of time so that we could sightsee along the way. Highlights of the trip were the White Sands in Colorado, the Mesa cliffdwellers , seeing the men in their cowboy hats in Texas, seeing the Indians and crossing the reservations (the women looked like our image of Indian women, but the men looked like the cowboys with long black hair!
Grand Canyon was on our list of must-sees and we rode the mules down the canyon (that's me the second gal from the front). We went into LA and couldn't believe seven lanes of traffic each way. Went to Hollywood, saw the stars in the street, saw Santa Monica and went up the coast road to Santa Barbara. Fell in love with the town, but continued on up to the bay area, arriving on a Tuesday evening.
Wednesday we went house-hunting and found a furnished apartment we could afford in San Lorenzo and moved in on the Wednesday. Thursday I headed for the unemployment office, Friday went out on two interview and on the Monday started my job with Standard Register Company. John started his schooling the same day.

I loved my job there, but when John graduated and we started trying to find jobs for deep sea divers, we found that the school's brochure was less than honest in their promise of help in getting those magnificent jobs. After a month of beating our heads against a brick wall, we made the decision to go into the abalone business with a fellow graduate called Jack who was married with two children. We got a loan on our wonderful Galaxie and bought an old fishing boat in Santa Barbara - the area with the best abalone. We all moved down there, and found homes quickly

We had half the upstairs in this complex (a furnished studio) just a block from the beach. Jack's wife got a part time job in a dress store and I immediately hit the ads for a job for me. First interview was with a deep sea diving company (would have been perfect we thought - I could work John into the company!). Unfortunately the man who was to make the decision wouldn't be back for a week and I needed a job NOW.
Jack and his family couldn't survive on part time work for his wife and we needed my money to help out.

The abalone venture proved to be less than successful. We all worked on the boat, painting and repairing and pooling the last of our resources, sent Jack and John off on their first abalone run. They were to be gone for five days. The abalone brought $1 each on the market, and there was really big money that could be made, so Jack's wife (wish I could remember her name), the two kids and I excitedly waiting on the dock for their return on the 5th night. Here came the boat - we helped moor it. The total catch was ONE ABALONE. We tossed a coin for it and we lost.

My second interview that day was Motel 6 - working as secretary/assistant to the Operations Director - one Richard Topper!

(Dick has one more blog he wants to write about his CHP days), but after that we will join forces and ramble on about our life together......

Lowney May Topper

As I stated before, we were never told that we were loved, but my mother showed it every day in what she did and how hard she worked for us. No words were needed.
She not only performed all the housework, sewing, laundry, cooking, but also tended to the chickens and always had a beautiful yard full of flowers. Her days were never done, she just quit and went to bed.She was very serious about her Lord. We were taught our prayers and all the bible story book events. We prayed to bless the food, bedtime prayers to bless everyone and attended all church services - Sunday morning, Sunday evening and also Wednesday and Friday evenings - and any extra events that came up. Church was serious but also our entertainment. Movies were not allowed, so that only left radio (when we had one).
I was converted to her faith and baptized. I attended every service at church for a period of 18 months. Lowney's choice of church was the Church of God. She broke away from this and started her own small group. This idea didn't work out and she selected some independent churches.
My mother would never speak badly about anyone. Regardless of what they had done. Regarding me and religion. I was hooked. I assumed I would become a minister and I preached some of my best sermons at the age of 13-14 years while driving the tractor, plowing, etc. You would not believe how many services you could do in 8 to 10 hours on a tractor. I believed, but I had questions. These were answered to my satisfaction in later life and I now have a very strong belief and it is between me and God, not a man made church.
I thank my mother very much for this because of her teaching, it got me going in the right direction. Mom lived to the age of 82 years and 11 months and three weeks. I loved her and will always remember her part of my life.
The first photo above was taken on Kentucky Lake on a boat we rented. Photo number 2 is with Margaret and her mother, when Mam Thomas visited us in Illinois.
#3 is with Suzanne and Becky when they were quite young. #4 was taken at one of her birthdays, but I'm not sure of the age - and the last is one of our favorites.