Mom and Dad were born in Aledo Illinois and Westmoreland Kansas, respectively. Each began their odyssey toward adulthood in these communities. My last essay described that portion of their lives involved with arriving in California, which was very circuitous to say the least. What about those years in Aledo and Westmoreland before striking out for “Sunny California”? Then what about their lives in California after arrival until 1935? Other than some old photos, childhood stories are rather scarce. In fact, most of Mom’s childhood was spent traveling, or moving about, beginning at age seven and ending when the Grahams finally settled in Santa Ana when she was age 14.
One of Mom’s earliest photos is her being held by Grandmother Minnie Graham. Mom appears to be about age two in this photo.
The best photo of Mom appears to be one taken at a photographic studio. Her age appears to be between three and five. Check out those high button shoes!!
Finally, here is a photo of Mom standing in an arbor of some sort. I believe this photo was taken at one of those times when her head had been shaved because she does not appear to have any hair. Mom told Roberta her head had been shaved several times due to some unspecified diseases. It is difficult to assess her age in this photo due to its poor quality and not any way to estimate her height.
While there are a few additional photos of Mom, it is difficult to determine where they were taken either from her height or the background. There are not these problems with early photos of Dad.
One of the earliest photos of Dad was taken while still a baby. This photo has Dad in a gown sitting in a chair with older brother Walter standing by his side.
Next is a photo of Granddad Price and the three little Prices--- Walter, Robert (Dad) and Gladys--- taken in 1913. Walter would be age seven, Dad age four and Gladys age two. Everyone appears to be in their Sunday finest--called “Sunday go to meet’n clothes”.
Dad did not relate any special stories about his childhood, except a few general comments. Probably the most specific thing he mentioned was using the “outhouse” in the winter and how cold it would be with wind whistling through the cracks in its walls. Dad’s schooling was done in a one-room schoolhouse with several grades in the same room. I do remember asking how the grades were separated and were there separate lessons for each grade. He indicated each grade sat in a different part of the room and the teacher would spend time with each group to instruct and give assignments. Dad listed for his own record where he attended school for each grade. After reviewing this record, it appears Dad may have changed schools much like Mom had experienced. A table of his schools shows attendance in four schools before high school.
Of the schools listed Cree must have been a school near Westmoreland. Fostoria is a town near Westmoreland, thus probably a change of residence. Roxana is probably a school name most likely in Fostoria. Holcomb is a town in western Kansas indicating another change in residence. After Dad quit high school he spent about a year in Pagosa Springs Colorado working before resuming his journey to California and eventually continuing his education.
It is unclear whether Dad had any jobs before leaving for Colorado. However, he was a Kansas farm boy meaning he had “chores” that had to be done. I just do not remember him mentioning a job he was hired to do. In my view, Dad’s first job was as a cowboy and ranch hand in Pagosa Springs. Dad never told me specifically what he did on the ranch, but he did mention a couple of stories about his time there. Apparently, Saturday night was when he was free to do whatever his heart desired. His usual choice was to ride into Pagosa Springs. He never mentioned what he did in Pagosa Springs, probably because he did not want to corrupt me. My visual image of him riding into town was on the finest horse from the ranch. He destroyed that image when he told me his mount was---a mule! How disappointing!!! His other story involved following orders of the ranch owner and Dad’s expected result occurring.
Dad was always first up in the morning to start the day’s tasks. I have no recollection if he slept in a bunkhouse or in the main ranch house—it’s possible he never told me. As the weather turned colder the rancher asked him to start the stove so the ranch house would be warm when he and his wife got up. It seemed that the house did not heat up fast enough for the rancher, so he instructed Dad to put a little kerosene on the wood before lighting. Dad told him that was not a good idea, but the rancher said: “Do what I tell you,” or words to that effect. So, the next morning Dad followed orders. After putting some kerosene on the wood he put a match to the wood. Dad said, “I saw the tell tale green smoke coming off the wood. I quickly closed the stove door and left the ranch house as fast as possible.” Walking quickly toward either the corral or barn he heard a muffled explosion. Turning around he saw a black cloud of smoke rising from the stovepipe chimney. Dad said, “I knew what happened and did not return to the ranch house.” Dad went about his chores for the morning and when he returned to the ranch house for lunch there was soot all over the room--everything was a black. Dad claimed the rancher never said a word to him about the accident and never asked him to put kerosene on the wood again. At some point in 1927 Dad quit the ranch and headed for California, while by this time Mom was settled in Santa Ana and had entered Santa Ana High School.
What did Mom and Dad do after arriving in California? What were Walter and Gladys doing? How did they earn a living? When and how did Mom and Dad meet? When did they marry? Where did they live? What did they do after marrying? Can these questions be answered with solid information and facts? Some can be answered with a qualified yes, others with a resounding no. I have some knowledge gained through stories, some family records and recently discovered photos and school records. Using this information and connecting some dots enables a window into their lives up until the time I was born. Basically the time period to be covered is from 1927 until the summer of 1935.
Although Mom and her folks arrived in California around 1920 they did not have any permanent residence until 1926. This date is when Mom’s school records show continuous attendance in the Santa Ana school system. In 1930 the Grahams (Granddad, Grandmother and Mom) are listed in that year’s Federal Census in Santa Ana at 849 North Garnsey Street. A photo of the Grahams probably was taken in Santa Ana, since Mom appears to have reached her final height of 5’ 2”.
Mom lived at the Garnsey Street address until meeting and marrying Dad. School was about 3/4 mile from home and would take about 20 minutes to walk to school. While going to school it is difficult to say what her social life was like. Based on the number of people that signed her High School annual, it appears she had several friends and acquaintances. Her best friend is not known and whether she kept in touch with any of them is also not known. There is some information to suggest she attended church, probably with Grandmother Graham.
Mom considered herself a Baptist, probably following her mother and Grandmother Clifford in this faith. Among her records I found a certificate indicating attendance in an Aledo Baptist Sunday School class. Roberta knew Mom played the organ at church, probably in Santa Ana. In fact, Mom surprised Roberta one time when she sat down at a neighbor’s piano and played. Mom had learned to play both organ and piano, I rather suspect learning to play was connected with church. Reading Great-Grandmother Clifford’s obituary shows she was well known in the Aledo Baptist Church, even mentioning she played the piano. It is not too much of a stretch to assume that Grandmother Graham also was a Baptist and played the piano. It should be noted that Grandmother Graham was also a member of Eastern Star, the women’s branch of the Masons. There are no records indicating which Santa Ana church Mom attended, nor are there any indicating she had any sort of job.
In the back reaches of the “Black Hole” called my brain there is a faint recollection that Mom worked as a secretary. Roberta seems to remember Mom having a job in the Orange County Courthouse. Is it possible this job at the courthouse was in a secretarial position? Perhaps working in a typing pool? Mom just never talked about her life before marrying Dad, at least, nothing that has been filed away in my memory banks. How my folks met is another mystery. Neither of them mentioned how it happened. Of course Roberta or I ever asked--- heaven only knows why. Seems like we were just two uninterested kids. However, they were married a little over a year after Mom graduated from high school during the summer of 1932. I do not believe Mom worked after they were married. They were married during the Great Depression when unemployment was very high and finding a job would have been very difficult during this tough economic time. I believe Mom was a full time housewife and then a mother/housewife after I was born. Dad’s situation was another matter.
When Dad arrived in California from Colorado it is reasonable to believe he went to Orange to see Granddad Price and brother Walter. There is a photo of Granddad Price’s house in Orange at 452 North Glassell Street where Granddad Price, Step-Grandmother Price and Walter lived. Chapman University now owns the house and is shown in very excellent condition in a recent photo.
New family information discovered in a letter from Aunt Florence indicates that Granddad Price married Opal Stoves on January 3, 1924. It is not known if Dad ever lived at the Glassell house, although there is a photo of him standing next to a house I believe is Granddad Price’s. I believe it is one taken just after arriving from Colorado since he is dressed like a cowboy.
Based upon these photos and Dad telling me of driving an orange truck, I believe Dad lived in or around Orange for a while before moving to Riverside. Thus, I believe his first job was driving the orange truck. He would drive to the orange groves where freshly picked oranges were loaded onto the truck. After filling the truck he would drive to the packinghouse and unload the oranges. At the packinghouse, oranges were crated, or boxed, readied for market. My instincts are that this job was in or around the city of Orange. According to Mom, Granddad Price owned some orange groves and Dad might have been working for him.
Adding to the my belief that Dad lived in or around Orange is based on Mom telling me that Dad, Granddad Price, a Mr. Baker, and his son Clinton (Clint) Baker did prospecting for gold in the desert. It is unclear whether Walter joined them on any of these prospecting trips. However, a couple of photos of Dad and Walter in the desert sometime in 1931 leads one to believe these prospecting trips initiated their later interest of roaming the desert “rock hounding”.
When I told Roberta about these prospecting trips she remembers hearing something about a mine, but I’m not sure this was a mine owned by either Granddad or Mr. Baker. Dad and Clint remained friends into the 50s (another story for later). Dad had a couple other jobs but I suspect they were held after moving to Riverside.
When Dad moved to Riverside is unclear, but Walter worked for the Southern Sierra Power Company (Cousin Carol information), presumably Walter’s reason for moving to Riverside around 1928-29. I suspect that Dad moved to Riverside about the same time, because Dad and Walter are listed as boarders in the 1930 Federal Census. To my understanding Dad worked in an auto shop in Riverside. During his work in the shop he became friends with a young man by the name of Rex Mays. In the 1930s Rex Mays gained fame as a race car driver and was of the most noted at the Indianapolis 500 Memorial Day Race. The Indy 500 would enter my life due to Dad telling of this friendship (another story for later). Besides working in an auto shop, Dad spent some time building campgrounds and even fighting forest fires. Dad worked either for the U. S. Forest Service (USF) or with the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). The CCC was one of FDR’s make work projects that built a lot of campgrounds during the Great Depression. However, it is my belief Dad began this job prior to FDR’s election, so I believe he worked for the USF.
There are two stories Dad related to me while he worked for the USF. I believe he was working somewhere in the Cleveland National Forest. He was working as a member of a crew battling a forest fire. There is no information or idea how large a fire or how many men were involved. In any event at some point the fire trapped Dad’s crew. Dad and his crew were near a stream when trapped by the fire. According to Dad, they used some stones to help dam up the stream and laid down in the stream to keep from being burned by the fire. If that had not worked, you might not be reading this story—-and you would not exist either. His other USF story involved a prank played on another USF employee.
For reasons unknown, someone in his base camp had captured a bobcat and had placed it into a cage. There was a fellow USF employee, let’s call him Joe, who would tease and torment the animal. The bobcat would hiss, snarl and try to get at Joe. I’m not sure how long Joe had been teasing it, but the bobcat would react every time Joe walked near the cage, even without being teased. One day while some others were attempting to take the bobcat out of the cage it was strangled by a wire loop around its neck. Dad and another fellow knew Joe was in his tent and did not know the bobcat was dead. Dad and his partner in crime picked up the bobcat by its legs and carried it to Joe’s tent. Before entering they began shaking the bobcat like it was trying to escape their grip. They entered Joe’s tent carrying this “angry gyrating” bobcat and threw it toward Joe on his cot. Joe’s reaction was to actually run out through the back of the tent ripping the tent to get out. The entire camp was in an uproar over this event. If I’m not mistaken Joe quit the camp after this bobcat episode. Whether this stunt happened before or after the auto shop is unclear. Also, it is unclear when Dad decided to return to school. To me it seems logical that returning to school was either after the auto shop job or the USF stint. All that is known for sure is he went back to school.
As a guess, Dad’s return to school was something he recognized was necessary to obtain better paying jobs or it could have been his natural curiosity to learn more and improve himself. Perhaps Walter’s attending Riverside Junior College was also a factor. Regardless the reason, Dad returned to high school in Riverside for the 1929-30 school year. Dad graduated from Riverside Polytechnic High School in 1930 at the age of 21. Whether during high school or by attending night school Dad learned drafting and sought jobs as a draftsman. I know Dad’s schooling continued beyond his graduation from high school by attending night school. As a result, he obtained a job with the Orange County Flood Control District (OCFCD)in 1931 as a topographic draftsman. Due to obtaining this job, he returned from Riverside to the Orange-Santa Ana area. Recently discovered photos taken in 1931 lead to this conclusion.
One of these photos is of Dad and younger sister Gladys next to Ford Model A Coupe. Since Gladys was living in Santa Ana in 1930, the photo was probably taken there.
In addition to the photo of Granddad Price’s house there is a photo of Gladys taken at Granddad’s “ranch” in 1931. I had never heard anything about this ranch nor is there any indication of its location. Gladys is shown with an unidentified woman. Based on the above photo of Dad and Gladys, I believe Gladys is in the white dress. The woman in black is most likely a friend.
As for the “ranch”, Granddad Price owned orange groves were near downtown Orange. Perhaps this ranch was at the one orange groves. While that is possible, there was also a photo of an oil well on the ranch. To my recollection there were no oil wells near downtown Orange. Just another mystery to which there is no answer.
Another photo taken in 1931 shows a Ford Model A Convertible sitting in front of the Graham’s house at 849 North Garnsey Street in Santa Ana. I am not sure whether the car is Dad’s or the Graham’s, but the importance of the photo is that Dad had met Mom! A photo of the Garnsey Street house today is also shown.
Thus, it appears Dad met Mom sometime in 1931, probably after she graduated from high school. Is it possible that Dad working for the OCFCD and Mom working at he Santa Ana Court House “bumped” into each other there? It is certainly possible because Santa Ana is the county seat of Orange County and the OCFCD would more than likely have offices in the courthouse. To me such a scenario is likely---it sure makes for a reasonable story. Especially since there is no recorded history of when they met—so why not make up a reasonable story?
Family records show they were married August 3, 1932 in---Yuma Arizona!!! Why in Yuma? Who knows? Maybe they had to elope because Granddad Graham would not give his permission since he thought Mom was too young, or maybe did not like Dad. One more Price mystery that remains forever lost in time. Regardless of the reason, or reasons, they went to Yuma and said, “I do”. This photo was taken sometime, I believe, around the time they were married.
What can I say about the way they are dressed? Dad wearing suspenders has a pocket watch (see the chain) and wearing a tie--really in the height of fashion!! Sure would like to have seen the colors in Mom’s dress, because it looks to be a colorful print. After returning from Arizona what happened? Well, 1933 was an eventful year for them.
First, on March 10, 1933, the infamous Long Beach earthquake struck. It was a 6.4 magnitude shaker, which resulted in major damage to Long Beach and surrounding area, including some in Santa Ana. Dad being a farm boy from Kansas had never experienced an earthquake prior to this one. Dad’s immediate reaction was to run out of the house as fast as he could to stand in the middle of the street until the shaking stopped. Mom, the Grahams and neighbors thought it was certainly unusual behavior if not down right funny. Dad did not believe it was amusing at all.
Also this year, they visited Yosemite National Park. The first photo shows Mom next to the car, I believe drinking water. Notice the camping gear on the rear of the car--- and Mom’s wearing a skirt.
What is interesting is that Grandmother Graham accompanied them on their trip to Yosemite. Can you imagine having your mother-in-law on your first camping trip with your wife—it would have been interesting. Here is a photo of Grandmother and Mom with El Capitan in the background.
Finally there is a photo of Yosemite bears looking for handouts.
While this sight was common up into the 1970s or 1980s, you will certainly not see scenes like this in national parks today. Now feeding bears is not permitted and bears that become accustomed to humans are either re-located or put down. Being this close to wild bears is too dangerous for both humans and bears. Bears did not discourage them from camping.
Spending time in the outdoors camping, fishing or hunting would be activities they would teach their children to love also. Dad was a good fisherman and he loved fly-fishing. This photo shows a nice trout he caught at Big Bear Lake in 1933 also. Definitely would have been his way of relaxing after the earthquake. Dad was a man of many talents. His ability to fix things or tackle something new was beyond belief.
I believe sometime prior to my birth, Dad did some ink drawings that to me are spectacular. They are done in India ink, the ink used for drafting during his time at the Orange Count Flood Control District. I have three of those drawings and remember a fourth that neither Roberta or I can find. The first drawing is of pronghorns (antelope) running and jumping over cacti. There are 2 drawings in a single frame mounted side by side.
The next drawing is a fantastic scene of a stagecoach holdup. The detail is exquisite. It is the only signed drawing, although the signature may not be visible in the photo.
These photos are deceptive. because the holdup drawing is the largest while the pronghorns are smaller. These three drawings were visible hanging in our folk’s house. I had these drawings framed about 12 years ago with archival glass to prevent fading. This glass made taking a photo difficult due to reflections and somewhat darkening the photo. There was another drawing that for some reason was mounted on a cabinet door in the my folk’s garage. The drawing was of an Eskimo and his dog team. We cannot find this last drawing---drat!!
Neither Mom nor Dad ever had wedding rings, at least ones that would be recognizable as such. Mom wore a ring on her left hand that had an oval black onyx with a diamond in the center. Dad also wore a ring on his left hand that was a tiger eye stone mounted on a silver ring. I remember Mom saying she had the tiger eye re-mounted and gave it to Dad. I believe these rings were their wedding rings and they had special meanings to them. Dad’s ring has a special meaning to me and I wear it today. It is my way of keeping memories of both Mom and Dad close. This photo of the ring does not do justice to its true beauty.
Yes, this time period is rather sketchy. It is difficult to tell a coherent story without more facts. Especially as to the when Dad worked for the USF nor where his home residence was located. I know Dad’s schooling continued beyond his graduation from high school by attending night school. I’m not sure where or when these classes were taken. I believe these classes were taken before World War II, since that is about the time he began working for the U. S. Navy as a civilian employee.
Hopefully, my way of connecting the dots is not too outrageous and my folks are not shaking their heads in disbelief while watching from heaven--or laughing at my fictions story of their lives.
