the california years
Nana and Papa arrived in California on 6/22/1938. As it turns out, there seemed to
be plenty of work around Vallejo, a welcome change to what had been going
on in Colorado, to include a lot of construction at the Mare Island Naval Base. Nana
and Papa decided to stay and work in Vallejo (actually Papa decided, Nana reluctantly
agreed - she had just turned 20 years old at the time, and had not spent a lot of
time away from her family), and so they both stayed initially with Nana's cousin
Ruth and her husband Toby but later stayed in a $10 a month apartment provided by
a Cannery in Benicia, which is where Nana had found work. The couple that had come
to California with Nana and Papa returned to Colorado after a short visit.
Papa always felt that he was pre-disposed towards carpentry. As a young child he
would take the wooden crates which were used to deliver groceries, tear them apart and
use the materials to construct something new. He seemed to always have been mechanically
inclined, which he thought came from his Daddy. Vallejo proved to be his opportunity
to learn and excel at carpentry; there was construction work available all over the area,
and it was no problem for him to consistently find work between their arrival in
Vallejo and the start of World War II (a period which was still considered to
be depressed).
By this time Papa had developed the traits (both good and bad) that would follow him
through life: he was ambitious, he was a perfectionist, but he was also prone to
anxiety and susceptible to stress. It was important for him to learn excellence
in carpentry, and he felt that the best way to do this was by learning to build, and
then reinforcing through repetition, stairs and roofs, some of the most challenging
carpentry work available at the time. Although he was just 23 years old,
and the Union imposed restriction for the age of an apprentice was 21, he was allowed
into the Union and worked different jobs paying $0.75 per hour.
In no time at all his skill was proven to his superiors, and soon he was making the
journeyman wage of $1 per hour although he was not formally (per the Union) considered
a journeyman.
In 1939 Nana, a bit homesick, took a bus trip back to Canon City to visit her parents.
Papa drove back out to Colorado later to visit his family in Kim and to pick up Nana in Canon City.
In all, their initial years in California were good. Work was constant, and they
continually explored their new state, visiting San Francisco, the Pacific Coast,
Clear Lake, Yosemite, friends in Sonoma and Napa, and other spots around Vallejo
and the Bay Area.
In the beginning of 1941 Nana was pregnant with their only child, Jerry Lee. Owing
to the difficult life they had both led thus far, and since they were both determined
to provide their child with everything that they possibly could, they decided in advance
to have only one child, a decision that in later years they may have come to regret now
and then (as Papa would say I made it out alright with 2 siblings, there's no reason
that Jerry could not have, too).
Also in the beginning of 1941 Nana's parents moved from Colorado to Vallejo; Nana's sister Fairy had
already moved to California by this time, and so Nana's immediate family
were now all nearby. Papa's Mother, 21 year old brother JY, and 16 year old sister Frances
were still living in Kim on the ranch. They were living in a rented house on Mariposa when Dad
was born on May 23rd, 1941 (the hospital bill totalled $53.70).
With the relatively stable work that Papa had found, they were able to purchase a house soon
after on Alameda Street, in Vallejo.