Part 4

After receiving my letter and corresponding briefly, ranch owner Henry Chamberlain came to Bakersfield to visit with me where I was staying with my cousins. He told me about his ranch, what he wanted accomplished, describing the house, milk cows, chickens, fruit and nut orchards, equipment and transportation, plus the $60 per month income that went with the job.

After driving out to see the ranch, high in the malibu covered Santa Monica Mountains overlooking the blue Pacific and the Channel Islands, I was anxious to get back and tell Mr. Chamberlain that I wanted the responsibility of managing his ranch for him. He was pleased, and we quickly developed a true liking for one another.

Mary and baby George were with my parents at their home at 715 E. Culver Street in Phoenix. George had been desperately ill with diarrhea, but I had no idea how ill until he and Mary arrived at the ranch in California. He'd recovered enough strength to stand with help, but looked like the photos we've all seen of starving children - all eyes, ribs and ears, and I was shocked at his appearance. However I loved Mary for her faith in the long term meaning of our marriage and family, and for her bravery in driving to California with the baby and my youngest sister Betty Flo. They'd made the trip in our old Plymouth to join me and begin a new life on an unknown ranch in a hidden corner of these coastal mountains.

It was a real adventure when we first arrived at Deer Springs Ranch. To get to the ranch Mary had only the scantiest of directions and no map, so she managed to follow another track on past the turnoff to Deer Springs until it ended on a point of a cliff that fell away almost straight down 1,000 feet to churning ocean far below. The little box sided tin shanty that was the lone structure on that windblown and treeless point of land had a dull light seeping through a dingy window, indicating someone was inside. Mary was sure her presence was known for a pack of hungry looking dogs of all sizes and colors set up a racket, and the baby started to cry needing to be changed and fed.

Summoning up all her courage and buoyed by concern for her baby, Mary made her way through the pack of dogs to the door, not certain that somehow this wasn't just a bad dream. Responding at last to her knock an ancient witch like woman came to the door, yelled at the yapping pack, and directed Mary back about three miles to a gate where she'd find round white millstones standing on both sides. When at last Mary and Betty Flo found their way to the ranch they were exhausted from their ordeal, yet comforted knowing their trip was complete. Without beds to sleep on that first night we were all so tired that blankets laid out on the hard floor were enough for us.

Breakfast early the following morning was meager, dry bread and a can of wieners. What was left of the baby food that Mary brought with her was not enough to last more than a day, and between us we had only a few dollars to last until our first payday, money we needed to save for medicine and other essentials. Our assets consisted of a completely empty house to live in, a truck with gasoline to run it, an expected shipment of personal belongings and furniture somewhere in route, and another two weeks until payday. We needed food and medicine enough for two weeks, but how to get it was the real problem.

Oxnard was our nearest supply point. Driving down the mountain ranch road to the coast, then north along the coast road through a broad green farmland valley to Oxnard, we considered what to say when we asked the grocer for two weeks credit on supplies we so desperately needed. We need not have worried. When he saw our starved looking infant in Mary's arms and heard our story he told us to get everything we needed and not cut ourselves short. With grateful hearts and high hopes we drove back to the ranch and our new home, filled with eagerness for our new surroundings and the promise of a brighter future. Betty Flo, my youngest sister, was not yet driving but willingly helped by taking care of the baby while enjoying the adventure of roughing it at our new ranch home.