California, 1958-1969
The Early Years, 1958-60
I grew up in southern California in the 1930's. I was born in Whittier and I remember my grandfather’s place in El Monte and my early boyhood was spent in Long Beach, especially on the beach and in the parks. And what a wonderful climate. We often took a Sunday afternoon drive in my Dad’s Model A Ford into Orange County when they still had orange trees there and inexpensive fruit markets were in many places. I remember the wide boulevards and the beautiful Mediterranean style homes and the wonderful climate where kids could play outside year round. And we did. My brother and sister and I roamed the beaches and played in the parks, taking a peanut butter sandwich for lunch so that we didn’t have to take time out to go home and eat. I remember dropping that peanut butter sandwich in the sand one time only to discover that it didn’t matter how much you “dusted it off,” it was impossible to eat a peanut butter sandwich that had sand on it. So I stood around a picnic table, trying to look pitiful where a family was eating their lunch, hoping they would give me something to eat. They did. ^-*)
World War Two began for the United States with the attack on Pearl Harbor December 7, 1941. (Minnie’s Uncle Bill was stationed at Pearl Harbor when it was bombed. He was washing up for breakfast and when he heard the sirens, he ran. The heel of one of his shoes was shot off. J-74) Obviously there was a great deal of excitement and activity in California. We had blackouts, air raid drills, and even some nervous anti-aircraft fire on the coast sometimes at night. And in November, 1942 we moved to El Paso, Texas because my Dad, who was an accountant, got a job in defense industry there. I was 9 years old then in the 4th grade. So I grew up in my teen-age years in West Texas, but I always missed California and the beauty of the beaches and the coolness of the climate.
So it’s not surprising that after Minnie and I were married and we were discussing long-term plans, I kept talking about California. We also discussed the possibility of moving to Colorado or Oregon or Washington. And we looked at “tract houses” and considered buying one for $8000. I was a veteran and had the G.I.Bill and FHA loans were also low. But I had such a great desire to show California to Minnie. I just knew she would love it. And she did. And it was a wonderful place to raise children because they could be outside all year round.
What neither of us realized, though, was how much Minnie would miss her mother if we moved away. We didn’t realize the intensity of it or the feeling of aloneness and “you’re on your own” attitude that would occur. Minnie’s mother told her, “You must go where your husband wants to take you.” And Minnie knew that, too. For my part I was just so enthusiastic about sharing that lovely world of my childhood with my dear wife and children. And we did. And it was idyllic in some ways. But we had not foreseen the difficulties that you will see as this story unfolds.
Many years later Minnie evaluated our move to California this way: “In 1958 Bill and I with our two little ones left Texas to move to Southern California. I had always lived in Texas and was able to see my mother very often.”
“Then I found myself in California with a 3-month old and a 15-month old–and a loving husband. Seeing new things was exciting, but I had not realized how much I would miss Mother, Patsy and my brothers. This was such a growing up experience for me. I was 21 years old.”
“Letters, phone calls and visits helped. I am glad my mother didn’t discourage our move as being away from family caused me to draw closer and closer to Bill and to depend on the Lord.” J-101
Minnie was 70 or 71 years old when she wrote those words of wisdom. But if I had realized the pain it would cause her and her mother and sister I probably would have made the decision to buy that “tract home” in San Antonio. And our lives would have been quite different. And God would still have taught us the lessons He wanted us to learn. And we would have had a happy home either place.
Through it all we learned a lot about the providence of God. The Lord has a way of getting us where He wants us and more important, He has a way of teaching us what He desires to teach us. He is more interested in how our character and our relationship to Him is being formed than He is in the particular place where He guides us. And we know some of what He wants to accomplish because He revealed it in His Word. He wants to make us more like Christ in our character and attitudes. He uses our ignorance as well as our knowledge to guide us. And He puts us through the hard times that we are reluctant to put ourselves through. You saw what Minnie wrote, “[It] caused me to draw closer and closer to Bill and to depend on the Lord.”
That’s precisely what the Apostle Paul wrote when he talked about the hardships they experienced: “But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God. . . .” 2 Cor. 1:9 NIV Nevertheless, separations are one of the most painful parts of life in this fallen world. And we look forward to the day when there will be no more pain or sorrow, including the pain of separation. But we did see her family often. Every summer or at Christmas we made that long drive from California and across Texas. And more important than where we lived was how we lived especially in our relationships together and as a family. And that, as Minnie indicated in what she wrote, that was very strong indeed. And for that we are especially thankful. We went through difficult times together and that brought us ever closer to each other and to the Lord.
But back to our story. Look at the picture at the beginning of this chapter and see how beautiful it was in Santa Barbara the first time Minnie and Jeannine saw the ocean. We had just crossed the desert in summer time without air conditioning. (In those days we just had an air-cooling water fan in the window.) We stopped at road side parks for picnics and to rest. . After the hot desert it was so refreshing to get across the mountains surrounding the Los Angeles basin and were met with the cool breezes from the ocean and the magnificent seascapes. Minnie fell in love with the place just as I had. And the fruit and vegetable markets were wonderful after such a hot summer.
Jeannine sent this picture to her mother and wrote this on the back, “Mother – This is on the beach. Oh how Jeannine Jo loves it! That is Billy's bassinet back upon the beach.”
The first order of business after initially seeing the surroundings, though, was finding a job and God in His providence gave me the first job I applied for, a teaching position in the Long Beach Unified School District. And things were really difficult financially. The school credit union helped us out with a loan so that we could drive back to San Antonio and rent a trailer and bring our things to California. By this time Minnie was pretty exhausted as you can sense from this picture I took of her at the Grand Canyon on the way back to California on our second trip.
Minnie and I were both so thankful that I had been given a job by the Long Beach Unified School District that paid more than the preceding year. My salary in San Antonio had been $3650. a year and Long Beach paid me $5070. that first year. But it wasn't enough to support a family so I had to get paid on a 10-month basis rather than a 12-month. That meant we would not have money to live on the next summer.
Our first apartment was on Long Beach Boulevard, very noisy on the second floor so we needed to move to a quieter place as soon as we could. But our little family was happy together as you can see from these pictures of Jeannine and Little Billy.
Finances were so tight that first year in California that Minnie made the reluctant suggestion that she should apply for a federal government job since she already had a top secret clearance. Both of us knew that was not a good idea, but we reluctantly thought of it as a possible “short term” solution. It was a mistake and we both realized that it was and so it was very short-lived. But we also learned that God can use even our mistakes to work out His purposes for His kingdom and for our lives. The place where Minnie worked was called Maywood Air Force Depot and during the lunch hour almost everyone went to the Officer’s Mess except Minnie and one other civilian employee. So while they ate their sack lunches in the office they got acquainted and Minnie found out that he was “Jehovah’s Witness” and did not know the Lord as his savior. So she told him the truths of the gospel from the scriptures and he listened politely and they had several discussions. We were already in the habit of inviting people to our home for dinner and conversation and we both saw hospitality as a ministry towards others as well as an enjoyable social occasion. And Minnie was an excellent cook! So she invited this young man [I can’t remember his name!] and his wife to our home for dinner on a Saturday evening. We had long conversations about the Lord and salvation and the Bible and they also met us one Thursday evening at the Church of the Open Door for Dr. McGee’s Bible class.
The friendship ended when Minnie resigned from her position in just a very few weeks, but several years later she received a phone call from a man who asked if she was the “Minnie Burnside” who had worked at Maywood Air Force Depot. She told him she was and he identified himself as her co-worker in that office. He said he wanted her to know that gradually the Lord had worked on their hearts and he and his wife had noticed that there was a strength in Minnie’s and my relationship and they recognized that it was because we knew the Lord that we also treated each other so kindly. He and his wife both discussed what they had heard and seen and decided to go to a neighborhood Baptist church where the Lord brought them to Himself. Obviously this was very good news to both Minnie and me and it was a good example of how God brings fruit out of our lives and efforts to serve Him.
I was paid only once a month by the school district so we had to manage the little money we had quite carefully. We used a cash envelope system and set aside money for each of the necessities of daily living. And Minnie was VERY good at finding the “specials” at each of the grocery stores. She made a list of exactly what we would buy at each market and since she did not know how to drive a car in those early years, we would take the children to each of the stores and make those purchases each monthly pay day. It was actually an enjoyable outing, particularly when we went to the fruit and vegetable market. And I worked carefully on a family budget.
One day I came into the kitchen very excited with the budget in my hand and told her, “Look, Honey, I’ve got it worked out. We’ve got enough money to get by and you won’t need to work anymore! Then you can stay home and take care of the children. That’s more than enough for you to do.” And I showed her how all the figures added up and we could make our payments and buy the groceries and even have a small allowance for clothing occasionally. So she was very happy and immediately submitted her resignation to her employer.
The next pay day I set aside the cash in envelopes just as planned and began writing checks to pay the utility bills and other payments. And suddenly I realized that there wasn’t enough money in the bank to pay all of the bills and I couldn’t quite figure that out. So I went back over the budget very carefully and compared it with my pay stubs and then I realized what had happened. I went into the kitchen laughing and told Minnie, “Guess what, Honey!” I made a $100. addition error in the budget so we will be $100. short of what we need every month. And I laughed and laughed because I thought it was so funny. Minnie’s reaction was a little different. She said, “Well, what are we going to do?” I told her that obviously the only thing I could do was to get a part-time job to make that extra $100. a month–but I was so happy that she could stay home with the children that I didn’t mind the extra work. And we learned again that God can use our mistakes!
And He immediately gave me a job at a neighborhood Western Auto store as a salesman. I worked two evenings a week helping customers find what they wanted. I remember one evening a lady came in and wanted to buy a television set. Well, that’s a big purchase so I began helping her find the one she wanted and started to write the sales order when she casually made the comment, “Boy, my husband is going to be mad at this!” because she was wanting to open a charge account to make the purchase. I talked to her a little more to find out what she meant and she explained that she had opened charge accounts all over town and of course that was very difficult on the family budget and her husband was frustrated at her irresponsibility. This was on a Friday evening and so I suggested to her that maybe she might want to go home and talk about it with her husband and then if they wanted to open the account, she could come back on Monday. Well, that sounded good to her so she thanked me and left.
Unknown to me, however, the sales manager had overheard the entire conversation–and so had the store manager. The sales manager was “hopping mad!” and confronted me with “losing a sale.” I told him, “Well, we’re supposed to ‘love our neighbor as ourselves’ and it’s a matter of love to be concerned with irresponsible purchases so I was just acting in love being more concerned about the welfare of the customer and her marriage than whether I made a sale or not.” The sales manager didn’t quite see it that way! And he chewed me out. I don’t remember what he said but it wasn’t very helpful.
But scripture also tells us that “The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will.” Proverbs 21:1 Well, it was the store manager and not the king that the Lord gave me favor with, but “the rest of the story” is that the store manager actually liked what I told the sales manager and he took a personal interest in me and our little family. As Christmas 1958 approached, we all knew we would have very little money for Christmas and yet this was the first Christmas that Jeannine was old enough to understand what was happening. And I really wanted to get her something that she liked a lot, a toy horsey to ride, and Billy was old enough for a little red wagon. It just “so happened” that the horsey and the wagon both had been on display and had been slightly damaged so that they couldn’t be sold at full price. The manager told me that if someone wanted to buy either one or both, they could have them at a greatly reduced price. Well, I found “someone” to buy both of them–but I couldn’t have afforded them at full price. Just another “small” example of how God looked after us in those difficult years (and has continued to ever since, of course.)
Here are some pictures from Christmas, 1958, and a later picture from April, 1959 showing Billy also riding the little horse. The other pictures are from Easter, 1959. You can see that Minnie is wearing a maternity dress, carrying Cheryl. We lived in a beautiful house with a wonderful back yard with a fig tree and they wanted us to buy it, but we couldn’t afford it and eventually had to move when it was sold.
The Lord’s kindness was shown in a VERY unusual way one night while I was working at Western Auto and Minnie was home taking care of the children. The telephone rang and the caller asked to speak to me. Minnie told him that I was at work at Western Auto but she could take a message. He said he knew that I was a teacher and wanted to know why I had not applied for an evening teaching position with the Adult Division of Long Beach City College. Minnie told him that I knew about those positions but that I had been told that they were available only to teachers with master’s degrees and that I had just started my master’s degree at Long Beach State College (which I had in order to have a little income from the G.I.Bill). And she asked him who he was. The man told her, “I am Dr. Norvell, Dean of the Evening Division of Long Beach City College.”
So Minnie asked him how he knew her husband and he told her that he was in my adult Sunday School class at Truitt Memorial Baptist Church and so he knew that I had the ability to teach adults. (I knew he was in my class but I didn’t know who he was or the significance of his position.) He asked her if I might be interested in teaching in the Adult Division and she told him, “Oh, I know he would. He’s mentioned it before.” So he told her to tell me to come by his office to sign papers and I could teach in the fall semester of 1959. So that’s how the Lord got me started into college teaching and also eventually eased our financial situation considerably because the part-time pay was much higher than Western Auto.
But that didn’t solve our problem for the summer of ‘59 when Cheryl was born. That was the most difficult summer in my memory as I tried to get enough part-time work to support the family, but also because Minnie became VERY ill with fever and a throat infection at the same time she had to take care of her new baby–and I had to work long hours and was not there to help with the children. We had no income that summer except what I could scrape together with two part-time jobs and the G.I.Bill for summer school. I worked as a coach in a day-care center at a public park and then at night I drove to downtown Los Angeles to sort mail in the evenings and got home around midnight each night.
After Cheryl was born on July 27, 1959, Minnie had to take care of herself and a new baby and our two other small children. Then she got very, very ill. I came home one night at midnight after working at the post office and she was sitting on the floor holding baby Cheryl and had the other two children asleep beside her. I touched her face and she was burning up with fever. She said she was so dizzy that she was afraid to stand up for fear she would fall. I immediately put in an emergency call to Kaiser clinic since that was our medical plan. A doctor immediately made an emergency call despite the late hour and realized the situation. He gave her an intravenous antibiotic and other medicine and instructions to me as to how to care for her and our three children. What a difficult summer it was! The Lord gave Minnie a friend just a few doors down the street, a mother with children just a bit older than ours. She was so-o-o helpful during those days of great need and I’m grateful to her to this day.
Minnie’s mother had come to see us in March and was a very big help during the time she was here. She loved California and her grandchildren very much, but she obviously couldn’t make a second trip that soon after the first one.
Lolly (Cheryl) made a sweet addition to the family and everyone loved her and took care of her. These pictures were taken Easter, 1960.
Lolly (Cheryl) made a sweet addition to the family and everyone loved her and took care of her. These pictures were taken Easter, 1960.
Minnie worked hard to take care of her family, but it was a happy family. Here is Minnie under the fig tree. She was the mother of 3 children and yet still 22 years of age.
We took the children to Disneyland, just a few miles from where we lived, every year.
Finally in 1960 I was able to take the family to Yosemite. You'll notice that Minnie was pregnant again.
These pictures are from the next year when Minnie’s mother came to visit and brought her granddaughter Vanessa.
Christmas 1960 was especially eventful for us because Jonathan was born Christmas night–two hours after midnight. Minnie had a difficult delivery but he was finally born well and healthy and we were thankful for that. Minnie was 23 years old with 4 children and only 3 ½ years between the oldest and the youngest.
While we were waiting for Jon to be born, we made a candy house for the children and they loved helping us make it (with plenty left over for them to eat). You can see it in these pictures. Lolly was fascinated with it and sometimes helped herself to some of the candy. My Dad and Mom came to see us just before the baby was born.
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