Harry and Kathryn, with three of our other children in his car, George and me and three more in our car, we left from our son-in-law Ira and Thelma’s farm. I remember so well our first motel. It had two rooms and bath, but the owner didn’t know there were ten of us. We took our bed clothing and made a bed on the floor for the boys. We stopped several nights in motels, then finally came to the California state line and the kids sang “California Here We Come”. Jim was six, our youngest one. He always seemed to be the life of the gang for we all did get tired riding so far. When we got to the desert, here we met my brother Lester and son Carl with his little two and a half year old Mary coming to Meet us. So we stopped and talked awhile, then Carl took over driving our car for his Dad was so tired. After we left the desert and started in on the wide streets lined on both sides with palm trees and seen the big grape vineyards and everything looked so beautiful, to us we thought we found the promised land.

Carl took us to his place and, Nellie, his wife, had a nice meal ready for us. Carolyn, Lester’s wife was there, who we had never met. Carl and Nellie had a new baby girl, Joyce Ann. Lester and Carolyn had a baby girl too, Charlene. We got there on a Friday and till Monday we found a three bedroom house on 56th Street for $45.00 month rent. We soon had furniture to go housekeeping. Harry and Kathryn had one room and we all got along fine. Soon after we came to California we felt our first earthquake. We were all in bed and everything began to shake. Harry came to our room and said it was an earthquake. We got the children to school. It was George Jr’s first year in high school, so he went to Manual Arts High School. Blair went to Jr. High. The other three went to grade school, where a lot of black children went. Everything was different for each one.

George looked for work, finally was hired at a garage. He was given a truck and told to go to certain streets. Well he never drove a truck and didn’t know the streets, but he said he sat in the truck, tried everything till he knew how it worked, then started. He got along alright. Then just a month from the time we arrived, Pearl Harbor, then the War, and lots of work. He went to SPRR yards and being a railroad machinist before he was hired at once, so there he was for many years off and on.