Papa was hired at Mare Island on 12/5/1941, 2 days prior to Pearl Harbor. He likes
to tell the story how he and his buddy Ernie went to apply; Ernie decided to stay
in the car, and upon submission of Papa's application he was immediately hired and
spent the next few hours on the clock at Mare Island. When he finally returned to
Ernie and the car, his response to Ernie's question of what took him so long
was simple: I was working.
Papa's job as a carpenter at Mare Island was considered essential, so while he was
drafted he did not have to go into the War as a soldier. He worked almost every day
from 12/7/1941 to Thanksgiving 1942, with hardly a day off. Although there was plenty
of work and everyone kept busy, Papa was not that happy with the work at Mare Island;
he didn't receive that much satisfaction from working with and for the Officers at
Mare Island, and so he was able to arrange a transfer as a carpenter to the local
hospital in Vallejo, which he started after a trip to see his family in Kim in 1943.
Papa worked at the hospital through the war until August 1946, at which time he was
finally let off and he then went to work for J.A. Bryant working projects all over
the area, to include in Vallejo grammar schools, Wright's Bakery, St. Vincent's Convent
and Mausoleum, the Exhibit building at the Napa Fairgrounds, the Officers Recreational
Hall at Travis AFB, and the William Jamieson in Green Valley, all until January 1955.
He was enjoying the work in the private sector, and still learning a lot about carpentry,
perfecting his trade. By this time, however, having met and worked with
many of the Vallejo School District construction workers and managers, he was able to
arrange a job with the Vallejo School District, in the Maintenance Department. The
job came to him much earlier than he had expected, and while he was interested in
working in the union for another 5-10 years (the amount that could be learned here
far exceeded what would be learned at the maintenance department for the school),
his life story of struggle, inconsistent work availability, and the need for financial
stability left him no other opportunity than to take the School job. On top of that,
Papa was continuing to excel at carpentry to the point where he had more and more work
as a foreman, which is not a job well suited to a man who stresses over details,
problems beyond his immediate control, and responsibility for the work of others.
Working with the school is what he needed to calm his nerves.
Papa began his work with the Vallejo Unified School District in January 1955, and
worked there until his retirement in 1976 at the age of 62. When he first started
he was earning just over $3 per hour, and upon his retirement he was earning $6.39
per hour.
Around 1950 Papa decided to purchase a 99 year lease for a lot in South Lake Tahoe;
the initiative was mostly due to Papa's Father-in-Law; Papa's primary interest in
the lot was simply to build a house. During the non-snow periods from 1951-1952,
Papa would travel with his 10 year old son and other friends to South Shore Lake
Tahoe in his 1950 Pontiac (an 8 hour trip then, a 3 hour trip today). The end result
was a cabin that they would own (although not necessarily use that much) for about
8 years, at which time it was sold to a friend for $7500.
After Dad started Junior High School, Nana began work as a hair dresser. She had
graduated from Beauty School in 1950, and soon was working in different Salon's in
Vallejo, to include "Ernie's" for quite some time.
The Tahoe cabin project gave even more inspiration to Papa to achieve the long held
dream of designing and building his own house. He was able to acquire a lot not
too far from their house on Alameda St. and in 1955 they began construction on his
ultimate dream, which is still their existing house to this day (Dec 2002). The
house was (mostly) complete in 1956, at which time the Johnson family moved in.
Amazingly enough, there are no photos of the construction or completion of the
house...
While there were not that many family vacations in the 1940's and 1950's, Nana and
Papa were still able to relax and have fun, and both have fond memories of weekend
trips to Tahoe, traveling back to Kim to visit family and friends, and a fad passion
for Square Dancing which was able to last about 3 years, from 1955 to about 1958.
In September of 1960 their only child Jerry was married, which was to then be the
start of their comfortable years, with steady jobs, a good standard of living, and,
with Papa only 46 years old and Nana 42 years old, plenty of good times ahead.
Dad was named after the family name of Nana's maternal Grandfather Jarell; Papa never actually gave any thought
to naming him Robert Lee Johnson II. They had been living in Vallejo for 3 years now,
had finally invested in the American dream by buying a house on Alameda Street in Vallejo,
and with Nana's parents also living in Vallejo there was an anticipation that for the
first time in their lives stability would take hold. They had led a very transient
life until California, and while the concept of staying put was foreign to them the
fresh change of life in one town was enjoyable. As it turns out they
lived in Vallejo for 66 years, nearly the rest of their lives.
Once Dad was born Nana quit her job and ended up staying at home with him until
around the Junior High School timeframe; this was somewhat unusual at the time, as
many women were working jobs at Mare Island due to the amount of men
who had been drafted for World War II. In looking through the scrapbooks it seems
that Nana must have been a typical doting mother; she dutifully recorded all of Dad's
"firsts", and would often times have his friends and the other neighborhood kids over
for play. She belonged to the Child Welfare Department of the Vallejo Women's Club,
where Dad's formula's, habit training, growth, and other features were meticulously
recorded in his baby record well into his third year. Nana was later involved in
Scouts, Woodmen of the World, and other groups typical of young and teenage boys.
