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Archiver > CAMODOC > 2001-09 > 0999467642
From: "Billie C. Reynolds" <>
Subject: Pickard Family
Date: Sun, 02 Sep 2001 14:55:20 -0700
Return to the Golden State
The family didnt stay long in Pueblo. Edythes sister, Gladys, had
married Walter Palmer and they were living in El Centro, California,
were Walter was a supervisory position over all of the melon farms in
the county. Gladys and Walter also owned a dairy farm outside of El
Centro where Tom and Frances were not living and running its operation.
The family was concerned about the difficult time Roy and Edythe were
having and Gladys invited them to come to California. Walter offered
Roy a job and a place to stay until they got settled.
The family was also deeply concerned about Ruth. Ruth was nor married
to Elmus Pullin and had two sons, Glen and Billy. But, Ruths health
had remained delicate since the illness that claimed the life of Mae
(Elizabeth) and caused the family to leave the ranch at Red Rock. Now
she had been diagnosed with Parkinsons Disease.
Gladys was convinced that if Ruth could get to California and be seen
by the doctors at the newly opened and very prestigious Loma Linda
Medical Center she could be cured or, at least helped.
Gladys finally succeeded in convincing Ruth to make the trip with Roy
and Edythe. Elmus did not want Ruth to go but finally, reluctantly,
agreed.
So it was that Roy and Edythe, with Clare, Charlotte, and baby Martha
Jean, and Ruth, Glen and Billy boarded the train in Pueblo, Colorado,
bound for El Centro, California.
The Fates determined that, like so many other family endeavors, this
train ride would not be without incident. Glen got sick on the train
and, by the time the train reached Albuquerque, New Mexico, he was in
critical condition. The family had to leave the train and get Glen to
the hospital.
Elmus was notified that Glen was very sick. He drove to Albuquerque to
be with his family in his car and took them back to Colorado. Roy and
Edythe and their girls boarded another train and went on to El Centro.
*
The hot, dry climate of Californias Imperial Valley worked wonders for
Roys health. And Edythe was delighted to be near her mother and Tom
again. The family split their time between helping Tom and Frances at
the dairy and house sitting for Walter and Gladys.
Walter and Gladys had three children Verna Mae, Virginia Louise, and
a son, Walter Lee, who suffered from asthma. When his asthma attacks
became severe, Walter and Gladys would bundle him up and drive him over
the mountains into San Diego where the salty ocean air soothed his
labored lungs. On these occasions Roy and Edythe took are of their home
in El Centro.
Walter made good on his promise of a job and Roy was working as
Walters assistant and representative to the melon growers. It wasnt a
job Roy particularly liked but it was work and the pay was steady. Roy
had done as Mr. Malten, his boss at the mill in Gary, had asked and had
kept in touch. It wasnt long before Mr. Malten send word to Roy that
the new steel mill in Pittsburg was ready to open and there was a job
waiting for him. Roy left almost immediately, promising to send for
Edythe and the girls as soon as he got settled and had the money.
Gladys and Walter had purchased a house in San Diego and now spent most
of their time there were Walter Lee could breathe easily. Edythe
maintained the El Centro house. The desert heat was oppressive. It was
so hot that Clare would have to hose the chickens down with cool water
several times a day to prevent them from dying from the heat.
Edythe waited to hear from Roy but the days passed into weeks without a
word from him. One day, as she glanced through the newspaper, she
noticed an article about the sheriff of Contra Costa County and
recognized his name. The idea came to her that he might be able to
locate Roy and let her know where he was and if he was all right. She
wrote him a letter explaining that Roy had left El Centro to work in the
new steel mill.
Several days later she received a reply from the sheriff. Roy was
indeed working at the mill and he gave her the address of the Bay Hotel
where Roy was staying.
Edythe and the girls missed Roy. A family should be together, not
separated by hundreds of miles. Why had he not sent for them? What was
he doing? Besides, Edythe was desperate to get away from the scorched
earth of El Centro. She decided to take control of the situation. She
was grateful to Gladys and Walter for providing a home for her and her
children but now it was time to join her husband. She packed up her
prize possession, her Singer sewing machine without a cabinet, and
trudged up and down the streets of El Centro offering the machine to
every shopkeeper and store owner in exchange for enough money to obtain
bus tickets to Pittsburg for her and her children..
Her determination was finally rewarded. She sold the machine, bought
the bus tickets and returned to Gladys house to pack up their few
remaining belongings. She called her mother who had Tom drive her into
town to say goodbye. Then Edythe called Gladys in San Diego to let her
know she was leaving and the house would be untended. Finally, just
before they boarded the bus, she sent a telegram to Roy to let him know
they were on their way and when the bus was scheduled to arrived in
Pittsburg.
They arrived in Pittsburg on September 8, 1933, Martha Jeans second
birthday. Roy was there to meet them. After hugging his wife and each
of his girls, he asked Edythe, What did you go and do a damn think like
this for?
Edythe was not in the best of moods. The bus had been a local
stopping at just about every bend in the road. The trip was long, hot
and dusty. Charlotte had fussed a good part of the way that she was
hungry. But, she had turned her nose up at the nourishing soup that was
all Edythe could afford to buy for their dinner. Martha Jean was
restless because of the long hours of inactivity and, to make matter
worse, she had diarrhea which add to her crankiness.
Clare helped her mother with the younger children but there was little
she could do to lighten her sisters moods. More than once, on the long
trip, Edythe wondered if she and made the right decision. Maybe she
should have waited for Roy to send for her. She wasnt feeling too well
herself and, although she wasnt absolutely positive, she was pretty
sure she was pregnant again.
When she saw Roy at the station, though, she knew this was where she
was supposed to be. Roy took his family to his room at the Bay Hotel.
The Bay Hotel was a rooming house for men only and was not set up for
women, let alone children. The owner agreed, under the circumstances,
to let Edythe and the girls stay overnight as long as they agreed to
stay in the room. Only absolutely necessary trips to the bathroom were
permitted.
The next morning Roy left to search for a place for the family to
live. When all the other men at the hotel had had their breakfast and
gone off to work, the owner went to Roys room and invited Edythe and
the girls downstairs for breakfast.
Roy found a small, furnished apartment house on 6th Street owned by an
Italian couple named Volente, and settled into a routine designed around
Roys shift work at the mill.
On May 5, 1934, Edythe gave birth to Earlene Mae, her seventh and last
child.
Clare, now 13 years old, was a willing helper to her mother. Her
interests had not yet focused on boys. Instead, she was a tomboy and an
accomplished tree climber. It seemed to Edythe that whenever Clare was
needed to be found, with her friends, in a tree. She seldom caused or
got into trouble. Trouble was six-year-old Charlottes department.
Charlotte was energetic and impish. She was bright and inquisitive with
a cheerful disposition. She also needed careful watching because one
was never sure what shed be into next.
Martha Jean, at two and a half, was busy exploring the confines of her
would and, like all toddlers, needed constant watching. While all of
the girls would share the inherited stubborn streak, Martha Jean was
developing it into a high art. She was reasonably well behaved and well
dispositioned, not a problem child or trouble-make, but when her mind
was made up about anything, she was unmoveable.
*
Edythe was beginning to get restless and felt the little apartment was
too small for their family now. Roy, who was never really comfortable
in town, agreed, and they began looking for a house they could afford to
rent. In her heart, Edythe probably held the same distaste for being
under a landlords thumb that her mother had.
They found a house in an area of West Pittsburg then known as Ennis
Tract. Charlie and Zora, who had followed them to California rented the
house next door.
The two families got along well and with Roy and Charlie both working
at the mill, their proximity was most convenient.
--
Billie C. Reynolds
Anita "Jean" Waters-Reynolds
http://www.rh2o.com (Family Genealogy)
http://www.rh2o.com/modoc/ (Modoc County Genealogy)
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| Pickard Family by "Billie C. Reynolds" <> |