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walked next door to a neighbor, my dad and mom made me stand there and ologize to him for taking the
matches. He understood we didn't burn down the house the fire department didn't come because no one
called them.

We were near the Washington Boulevard. At the rail yard, you could crawl up on them. They were
tall and you had to crawl hard to get up on top. We used to go there all the and we used to go there quite a
bit with a bunch of the guys and play underneath. Some men ran us out that was the end of our
entertainment. At the time there was not much going at school. You could go over to the school and play
ball or something but we were enjoying the neighborhood, remember this was the OLD DAYS.

Wes and I were best friends and he got me in trouble. I used to cut a "V" in one end of a 2x4, we
would then drive nails around the edge and string the nails like railing. We floated them down the gutter
when the water came down. That was in the early days, later on we got a little more industrious. There was
a big open,vacant lot down on the corner, so first dug a hole, really more of an indention, covered it with
boards and dirt, dug a enterance hole and tunnel to get it. We had a lantern in there a read books. We
never let girls in there. We made it look like it wasn't there. To get into it you crawled through the hole, and
tunnel. We got some more lanterns down there with kerosene lanterns you sure get a lot of smoke. We
didn't think of that. So whenever we would go to the "HOLE" we would bring flashlights, magazines or
whatever. We thought we were so cool. We used to go home and Mom would want to know where we had
been, we said in the tunnel. It got us filthy dirty. I think the owners of the lot finally found the hole and filled
it in. We didn't get to do that much longer.

Dad had a bunch of fishing reels and rods and tackle I did get into that much.

- -- - Chapter 39 Chapter 39 -- CHAPTER - 16 - ROCK n ROLL
Chapter 39 Chapter 39 --
5:45 am Ransom House East LA
Monday July 25th 1952

It’s dark. The bed is shaking. Is Dad trying to wake me up to go help him on a electrical job? Don’t
know. Why is everything shaking? It is not even 6 o’clock yet. It is Monday morning and I have to go to
school in awhile. Dad is saying get here in the doorway. Then the shaking finally stops. Dad says thar was
an earthquake. He then explains what an earthquake is. We go into the living room and turn on the
television. It is a big box of a thing with a “window to the world" least that what everyone is saying. We got it
just a few weeks ago and we were the Talk of the town, (at least of our neighborhood). T people on the TV
that was what it was called for short. Dad called the "Boob Tube” most of the time, They were telling us
more about the earthquake.

Most of the clocks, in the affected area, stopped at 4:52 a.m. on Monday, July 21, 1952,
in the small railroad town of Tehachapi, nestled in the mountain range separating two
California’s. ... It was the mostpowerful earthquake to hit Southern California in the 20th
century and the largest in the nation since San Francisco's in 1906

Well I guess it is time to get up and have breakfast. What a way to be wakened up for and 71/2
year old boy..We watched more about the “shaker”.

“…The 1952 Kern County earthquake occurred on July 21 in the southern San Joaquin
Valley and measured 7.3 on the moment magnitude scale. The main shock occurred at
4:52 am Pacific Daylight Time, and killed 12 people and injured hundreds, and caused an
estimated $60 million in property damage…… Total damage: 70 million USD

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