V1951-GM2

Our KC KS Apartment & Julia’s arrival

This was an excellent apartment, ours was first on the left lower floor. That’s our new 51 Oldsmobile in front right. On a first outing with baby Julia, we got stuck in mud, at dusk, intending to turn about. A newly constructed turn off was rock covered dirt, now mud, never used before. I used bumper car jack to lift back wheels on scrap wood then jacked up front end, by pushing the car off the jack the car was inched back to the black top road. There was zero traffic and temperature was dropping to freezing.

We first met Don Calkins, fellow engineer, & his wife Vera in Detroit

Mary and Vera became close friends, both pregnant, they saw same Dr in KC MO. They laugh when retelling of having a flat tire on the Interstate viaduct between KC KS and KC MO – these two pregnant gals got out and changed the tire with no help while cars whizzed by.

These photos were taken before leaving for the hospital when Julia was born

My mother Ila came to help when Mary had baby Julia

Left photos are at apt in KC KS, right is at Rell Landau home in Oberlin KS

We bought and fixed up this new home in Mission KS. It had a full basement used for laundry room, work shop and family room. By the time we sold it and moved to CA the lawn and new trees were well established. We liked that home and would have preferred to stay. Above right Julia helps daddy

Mary came down sick when pregnant with Monica. The problem was associated with allergies. Thus Monica was not as robust as Julia when born. When about a month old Monica came down with a severe cold. Aunt Margaret came and took Julia with her to provide Mary more rest and time to care for Monica. We rigged a tent over Monica’s bed and kept a steam generator going full time. The Dr was convinced this provided better care than if in a hospital. At night I slept on the floor beside the bed, as Mary was very tired and needed sleep at night. I periodically got up and used a syringe to clear mucus from Monica’s nose. The Dr was right, this worked and both Monica and Mary were soon recovered – and Julia back home.

Our next door neighbor and I went together and fenced in the back yard, they had a small boy, Julia’s playmate.

Julia left Monica right Christmas 1954 Mission KS

Julia and Monica were still little girls when we moved to CA, I had drove out first to get settled, then went back to move family. A van carried household goods, except for heavy shop tools which I put in a trailer and towed behind the Olds. Our car did not have air conditioning, so in addition to putting up diapers material to shade the sun, Mary stripped the girls down to their panties and used wet towels to keep them cool. When we stopped to eat I noticed people stared at this nice looking lady with the cute and happy kids. They completely ignored the guy with them, who with circles under his eyes was pooped, wanting to get down the road. Out of sight I’d pause and appreciate how lucky I was to have this lovely family in my care.

Paying for Car & House

After being assigned to go to Detroit for preliminary training, I decided to trade in our 1957 ford on a new 1951 Oldsmobile. I don’t recall how I came up with the money to pay the difference only that I paid it off fast. Much of the time I was in Detroit on expenses, Mary was living with her folks, thus I could apply almost my full pay check to paying off the car.

Julia was born while we lived in the KC KS apartment, and after she was grown enough we would go on rides and look at new housing areas. We found a new home we liked in Mission KS and after much debate decided to buy it. I did not want to use my GI bill benefits for this first home as instincts said we may have to move – after all I was working on a defense job. I don’t recall how much we paid for the house or how much the down payment was for our conventional loan. My dad and Mary’s dad said they would help us out on the down payment. I took them up on that and borrowed about $3000, about half from each of them. I had always taken pride in being self sufficient, so we maintained a frugal budget so I could pay our fathers back as soon as possible. Both “objected” saying there was no need to cut ourselves short to pay them back fast. Yet it was comforting to them that we could and did. The down payment loan was paid off before we made the choice to move.

Driving & Traveling KC vs Detroit

KC KS & MO had many hills, as it was the intersection point for two rivers, while Detroit was relatively flat. I once took off early one cold morning in a C-47 model plane from Detroit to O’Hare Fld Chicago. There was much traffic & snowing in Chicago – though the train took longer it was much more comfortable.

Municipal Fld KCMO was at the intersection of two rivers, lower than surrounding hill’s. When landing we’d come in low over the old B-25 plant, as if following the rail road tracks to land. Taking off was in the direction of the intercity viaduct – this was still the era of prop jobs and pilots would apply maximum power heading down the runway then JUMP up hanging on the props to clear the viaduct, you could look out the window and almost shake hands with those in cars on the viaduct.

It could be very dangerous driving to work in KC on a cold winter morning – trying to climb a steep hill on ice covered paving – and stop on ice for a light going down hill. That was a very uncomfortable experience.

It was also awkward to drive a heavily loaded truck up steep hills in heavy traffic, interrupted with stop lights. Those trucks were equipped with clutch, brake, foot feed and stick shift. You had two feet and three peddles. It was an art form to not roll back into the car behind you, or stall the engine trying to move again. Automatic transmissions were a god send.