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......