FLORIDA
The four of us arrived in Florida somewhere around April Fool's day 1960, which seems appropriate. We moved in with my mother and my siblings. There were still 3 of them at home, Kenny and the twins, Paul and Pat. With us in the house that made 8 (see how good I am at math?). Renee was still battling her cholic or whatever was making her sick. Of course, we had no job and no where else to stay. My mother was battling her own demons; remember she married my dad when she was 15.
I had never heard of a recession until I started looking for work but I am pretty sure 1960 was a recession year. I applied at what is commonly called a "job-shop". In other words I technically worked for them but actually worked for whatever company would hire me. I was hired right away by Radiation Inc, a down-range company (Cape Canaveral). The only problem was the distance, 85 miles one way! I was required to work 10 hour days a lot of the time, which made the paychecks good. I found a few other guys to carpool with me so I didn't have to drive every day. Still, the average day was 12 hours long at least (We Exceeded the speed limit a lot!). Ellen was stuck with taking care of two of our children and helping best she could with other chores. My mother was never known as a great housekeeper and was emotionally trying to cope with the loss of her husband 8 months prior to our arrival. Plus, Ellen didn't know how to drive!
It became very obvious that we needed our own place to live so on one of my few days off, we looked for and made a contract to buy our own place. Because I had my VA benefits we didn't need a lot of cash and of course I'm pulling in the "big" bucks at my job (with overtime). The house was in Ocoee, Florida which is not far from Winter Garden. I still thought I might be of some help to my mother, but how I don't know!
Now, we didn't arrive with a house full of furniture but managed to have enough to get started and bought on credit anything else. About that same time I decided my Ford Coupe wasn't going to be big enough for our family so I purchase a used 1958 Ford station wagon; I'm not sure why as we had no time to take trips as a family. Thank goodness for my Uncle Quincy and Aunt Teber. They helped Ellen a tremendous amount in my absence. Renee was MUCH happier in her own space and was crawling all around our terrazzo floors (colored polished concrete). She was a beautiful little girl (still is) with gorgeous black hair just like her mother. I regret not being there for those months I was in Melbourne.
. In case you thought my luck with automobiles had changed, don't. One morning I was driving alone to work and didn't feel well so decided I was too sick to work. As I was headed back home a driver made an abrupt left turn in front of me (it was still dark) and I hit her right side. Of course she had no valid driver license and no insurance. I had insurance because my car was financed. She received a ticket which didn't help me at all since she was uninsured, underage and broke. I was lucky as I had an attic fan in the back which wound up going through the windshield. How it missed me is a mystery. I put my car in the shop and was able to get rides and borrow cars when needed. The repair shop cobbled up the repairs and I refused to take the Ford back and turned it in. I owed less than it was worth but of course we needed an auto. It happened that my mother was dating a VW salesman and he fixed us up with a floor model 1959 VW. It was an ugly green but I didn't care! Best buy ever! I drove the VW more than 200,000 miles.
In December of 1960 Radiation Inc offered me a full time job working directly for the company. The catch was that it was 85 miles from home and they offered my 1/2 the pay I was getting from the job-shop. I had no choice but to refuse. It was a boring job to start and didn't look like a place to advance. Well, they terminated my contract on December 12th so now I'm out of work! The economy had improved so I had no trouble finding a job but at a cost. The starting pay was 1/2 of what I had been making. (Of course I didn't have to drive as far).I was excited about the job because it was in a profession I felt had a future. So, I went to work at a company called Dynatronics, Inc, an aerospace subcontractor. My job was as a technical writer in a team of 3 people. My boss was a fellow named Marcus Frutchey. He was an older gentleman and he and I had a great relationship. He was involved in the first sound movie ever! (A newsreel as it turned out). I don't remember the subject about which we were to write but I enjoyed my time there.
Unfortunately in spite of the nice feelings about my job, our finances were not good. We ran out of propane during the winter and our phone was disconnected. To make it worse we had financed locally a bed frame which was repossessed. And, when it rains it pours. Central Florida was in the path of a hurricane that year!. During the hurricane we went over to Mom's house (we had no phone!). A big old Ear tree came crashing down on the edge of the house. No one was hurt but I'm sure Ellen and the children were terrified.. Our house was undamaged, naturally!
It became apparent to me that Florida was not going to work for our family. Even though we had our own place, we were isolated with only one auto. No stores were in range to walk. It wasn't fair to Ellen or our two children, so again I made a decision to move, maybe back to California where I felt certain I could get a job with Convair: after all I knew the fellow in charge!
Dynatronics offered salaried employees 100 shares of stock at below list value (OTC). I took advantage and purchased the shares (with Mom's help). The shares immediately went up 4x in value. The only catch was I had to keep the shares for 90 days before selling. So I quit my job to move again. When I told my boss I was quitting he offered a nice raise but by then we had sold the house (they returned our deposit) and were ready to leave. I liked Mark but this just wasn't the right time for us to live in Florida, so we packed and left in our little VW. Everything we owned was in the Auto! (including Ellen's hats)
As we were going through Dallas Texas, I managed to catch a draft of a semi driver so we were able to really get speed. The trucker didn't think it was that much fun so he kept speeding up. Turns out that the police pulled him over and we cruised around him. The only loss was Ellen's hats. We had them kind of tied to the top of the VW and the wind removed almost all of them. I of course never noticed they were missing. Sidenote: in those days women covered their head when in church, hence all the hats, now missing!!
We stopped at the ranch to see Ellen's folks and I decided that I might as well look for a job in Denver as long as we were in Colorado. I stayed at a motel in East Denver and looked less than a day to find a job with Stearns Rogers Corporation as a technical writer. Now all we had to do was wait a few more days and sell our stock at the increased value! Next, our Colorado stay!
1959 VW beetle same as ours
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