THE HANDS CHAPTER 6 LOWELL HAND HAND FAMILY MANUSCRIPTS

REMINISCING
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CHAPTER 6

UPPER LAKE AND LANCASTER

We came over the Tehachapi Pass in the snow and through deep sand just north of Lancaster. There just was no place to live so we stayed one night at the Lancaster Inn and then went "down home" to stay with Mom's parents, still in their old farm house. I went to first grade with my cousin "Freddie" for several weeks. Uncle Art, Fred and Darrel lived with grandma after uncle Art separated from his wife Helena who was chasing around with another man. sometimes the worldly crowd pays a heavy price for their worldly pleasure. About the end of March, 1921, Dad had rented a house. We called it the "yellow house" and it was right across the street from the Lancaster Grammar School where I finally finished the first grade. The "yellow house" wasn't too bad after we got rid of the bed bugs. It had two bedrooms, inside bathroom and a fireplace where we burned Joshua tree roots. They are rooted out when farm land is cleared around Lancaster.

The family financial condition improved slightly and then one day grandpa Ahlstrom came bringing a thousand dollar bill in an envelope which he handed to Mom. It was in lieu of one lot in his newly subdivided property at Florence. With the money for a down payment, the folks bought a three bedroom house for $3500.00. It was right on the main hghway through Lancaster and right across the highwaay the S.P. trains roared by at 60 miles per hour. but after a few weeks we got so the noise and ground shaking wasn't even noticed anymore.

In summer we sat on the front porch every evening to watch the heat lightning out over the desert in the east and wait for the S.P. Owl passenger train to roar through town at 9:00 P.M. sharp

Dad thought the owners of the store were dishonest in their business dealings and also charged too much for groceries. This meant that many people were buying groceries in the Los Angeles area and bringing their purchases home in their cars. He got together with brother Tom who wanted to get out of the foggy weather in Santa Paula. All the Hands are inclined toward sinus trouble. They borrowed $7000.00 from aunt Lula's aunt who was well-healed. Then they offered to but the Sell=Right Store but were turned down. So they opened Hand Brother's Grocery in a rented building recently vacated when Mr. Stege built a new meat market in town. They bought a new four cylinder Reo "Speed Wagon" that would haul about 2 tons in a pinch. Uncle Tom went to market in Los Angeles 3 nights a week and brought back produce fresh from the farmers, a great improvement for Lancaster housewives.

The store prospered and of course they ordered groceries wholesale through Dads old friend the Haas-Baruch drummer. Groceries arrived by Red Line Express a Lancaster trucking company. A new post office was built in Lancaster vacating the rest of the building so the store was enlarged and a warehouse was built at the back. Hand Brothers had six clerks plus Dad and Uncle Tom. they worked long hours, 7:00 AM to 6:00 PM 5 days and until 9:00 PM on Saturday when all the farmers came to town. Soon there was enough money in the bank to pay off the $7000.00 loan but aunt Lula's aunt didn't want to lose her good investment and Lula took her part. But Dad insisted they couldn't continue to pay interest on a loan they no longer needed. also, uncle tom had hay fever on the desert and decided he would like to leave. so after more funds accumulated, Dad bought uncle Tom out and his brother moved to Placerville. He started a store there but it wasn't successful and finally he moved to Phoenix, Arizona hoping to get in on the real estate boom.

Mom also had a terrible time with hay fever, so we went to Port Hueneme several summers to stay in a small cabin grandpa Ahlstrom had bought. We kids had a wonderful time watching ship load lima beans and citrus fruit and lumber boats off loading lumber at the pier. We walked for miles along the beach. I also pursued my interest in machinery. This time it was a steam pumping facility about a mile down the beach. Fuel oil which came by tanker was pumped to Oxnard where there was a large sugar mill. The pump operator took an interest in me because even at 10 years of age, I knew something about boilers, heaters and pumps. Typically some of the oil is atomized with live steam and blown into the boiler firebox. If you don't use enough steam the oil isn't sufficiently atomized and smoke comes out the smoke stack. But if too much steam is used a "flame-out" occurs and the wet oil collects on the red hot clinkers and reignites with a bang which can crack up the fire brick. I discussed such things with the day man. Then one evening after supper I went down to the pump house and found a new man on the job. He was having flame-out problems and didn't seem to know why. I said, "Why don't you do something about that fire?" He thought I was just a cocky kid and said, "Well why don't you fix it?" So I just went over and cut down on the steam valve a wee bit . He was really amazed and we became good friends.

Dad would come to Hueneme on the week ends with the truck and continue on Sunday night to the Los Angeles market then back to Lancaster with a load of produce for his store. Finally on July 4, 1925 he moved the family to Burbank, California. After that he was only home week ends right around the year. He would get to Burbank about 11:30 Saturday night and leave about 10:00 PM Sunday for the produce market and be back in Lancaster about 7:30 AM. That wasn't as far as going to Hueneme but even that pace couldn't be continued forever. Norris was born at the Burbank Hospital Nov. 26, 1925.

I had learned to drive the Model T delivery truck before we left Lancaster. I would go the back streets to uncle Toms house and Dad would come with the Reo all packed with empty crates and gassed up ready for uncle Tom to leave when he got up about 9:00 PM. Then Dad would drive over to our house with the Ford. I was 11 years old. In Burbank I began to drive the Reo trucks at age 13 as long as Dad was with me. During the school year I only got involved on Friday night and Saturday. By summer I was working full-time at age 14. One night I took Bert with me to market and we had to stop for a police inspection in Glendale. The policeman was just about to let me go on but looked again and said, "How old are you?" So I told him, "I'm just past 14 (the minimum age for a driver's license in those days). Then he wanted to see my driver's license and I said, "The truth is doc, I don't have one yet because I'm in Lancaster all week and can't get to Los Angeles in the day time to get one." Well he wasn't there to hand out tickets so he grinned and said, "I could make it rough for you, so you get a license right away." Needles to say I said thanks and took off before he changed his mind. I would meet the other truck and Bill Litchfield who drove it, and between us we would load 4 or 5 tons of produce on each truck and drive them back to Burbank. Dad would sleep until about 1:30 or 2:00 AM, meet us down at the boulevard and take my truck. Bill and I would take turns driving the other truck and be in Lancaster about 7:30 AM.

But that wasn't all. One day each week we made a trip to Randsburg, about 2 hours each way. There was soda pop to deliver on another day (Dad had the Coca Cola franchise). And one day we ran around the egg route picking up cases of eggs which we delivered to Glendale. So when I left home it was almost 24 hours before I got back.

In about 1929 the Continental stores decided to come to Lancaster. They wanted Dad's store but only offered to pay for his stock so he said no and they opened up down the block beyond the alley. The Safeway decided to put stores in Palmdale, Lancaster, Mojave, Tehachapi, Randsburg, Lone Pine and Bishop. It looked like a price war might ensue so Dad sold to Safeway. they gave him a contract to supply produce for all these stores and he got a similar arrangement fro Continental. then he became the manager for the Continental store. That is when I was involved the most in driving. We had two 1928 model Reo trucks, with 50 horsepower and two wheel brakes. They were not easy to drive with 4 or 5 tons on board.

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