When Grandma came to visit us in California, we lived in a trailer that was smaller than the travel trailers many of you have. As you can imagine, it was crowded and we lived outside much of the time. The quonset hut was located in Hollywood (just barely), although it has a Los Angeles address. These quonsets were common for returning service men who moved to the LA area after the war. There have been many westward migrations and this was one of them. My father was a chaplin at Rodger Young Village located in Griffith Park which was a "camp" for the service men waiting for housing. As an aside, the trailer was sideswiped on a bridge on the way out and my father had his insurance with his brother H. Ray. There are many pictures of Carol and I with the trailer and in front of the quonset. I have several of the letters that Grandma sent east while living with us.
Some of you might be thinking that the quonset is pretty big. However, Carol reminded me that we had only half of it. Another family had their entrance on the other end and it was cramped quarters. When I moved to Iowa City in 1969, the University had quonset huts for some student housing and I had a friend who lived in one.
Here is a written description from my father.
We lived at the rear of Pacific Home in Burbank, Ca. (we knew it as the Old People's Home) from January 1947 until August 1948. The old Building for Pacific Home was destroyed in 1972 in an earthquake. Thomas was born when we lived here in a 23 ft. (including tongue) house trailer. The trailer an American (brand name) Trailer Co. was made in Southern Michigan. We paid $1500 for it and pulled it to California from Mishawaka, Indiana to Los Angeles April 8 1946 to May 6, 1946. We lived in it until August 1, 1948 when we moved to the Quonset Hut at Chapman College.
4 comments:
I have heard you talk about it, but now I have a visual to link to it. Thanks for posting it.
Wow! Now I know why Tom Brokaw calls them "the greatest generation" because they were content with what they had.
Will someone please tell me there was an air conditioner sticking out of a window on the other side of this trailer.
On what David said, remember too, that these were the kids that survived the depression. Dad told me that we used the facilities inside the "Old Peoples' Home". The weather is reasonable in LA, not too hot, not too cold and not humid. Sorry, No AC. The quonset was a bit like living in a large metal culvert that had been cut in half lengthwise. It was cheap and easy construction. Can you imagine a curved wall like that? Imagine, both of these were like living in a tin can for over 3 years. Yes, we were very grateful for what we had. We didn't have many "things" but we had family and each other.
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