Back row: Thor, Judy, Bob. Front row: Pearl Lamont(the grandmother of Marian's neighbor friend Pearl Hosterman), Mrs. and Mr. Ed Burroughs, and Marian. According to Bob, "Ed was our 'across-the-alley' neighbor, who was a retired photographer from Tombstone AZ. He was in Tombstone at the time of the Earp-Clanton shootout at the OK Corral, and taught me how to develop my own photos". This park bench is in Bixby Park, Long Beach

Bob

In 1937 Tim's mother, Myrtle Gorline bought a new Ford Coupe and Tim, at the age of 16, had his driver's license. Myrtle had a friend, Gertrude Munson, who had a cabin in Hi Vista, 20 miles east of Lancaster, so I rode in the new car, Tim driving, up to the cabin which was a simple waterless shack, 3 miles beyond the Hi Vista village, where Gertrude had a real estate office.

Some inhabitants of this extremely scattered desert community were pensioned war veterans who had been granted 160-acre parcels of land as a reward for their service by the US government. Austere living in beautiful isolation at the ends of long rough trails, cooperating with each other hauling their weekly supplies of food and water apparently appealed to them. Myrtle had explained to us that, while these "Desert Rats" appreciated visitors, it was considered inappropriate when visiting to ask for a drink of water.

We camped in the cabin overnight and in the morning we decided to drive up toward Shadow Mountain, the nearby hill. Tim was driving up a sandy drywash,when the cars left rear axle broke. We then walked west 10 miles to the nearest telephone and called Myrtle in Tujunga.

Myrtle called my father in LA and the next morning my father arrived at the cabin in his 1929 Essex Sedan with a tow chain and towed the Ford back to LA, Tim learning to follow and keep tension in the chain.

In 1960 The County Board of Supervisors referred a petitioner from Hi Vista to the County Engineer and I was the employee delegated to deal with it. Hi Vista is entirely situated on a large nearly level granite outcrop, having no underground water, and lying east of the Antelope Valley Groundwater Basin, the nearest water resource.

I wrote a proposal that the people have an election to form a 30 square mile tax district and authorize a 3 million dollar bond issue for drilling a well in the adjacent Basin, lay 30 miles of pipe, and construct a half million gallon tank atop Shadow Mountain.

I went to local meetings to explain this to the voters, and at an election, they approved it and inside of a year the water was in the pipes, and Myrtle's friend, Gertrude was one of the new tax district's first customers to not have to haul her water 10 miles.

Joe Cosney, responsible for maintaining and operating the Antelope Valley water districts reported soon after to us that a man from LA with his family on a desert day-trip visit to a remote place in Hi Vista, was caught camped next to one of the fire hydrants, where he had built a small dam in an adjacent hollow, and made for his family's enjoyment a swimming hole with water from the hydrant.

Bob recalled (in July 2015):

My companions of the past winter, Don Rydeen and Duane Raymond who were sometimes members of Boy Scout Troop 35 and competitor newsboys on the corners of Manchester Blvd. and Figueroa St. Invited me to camp with them for two weeks at the San Bernardino National Forest Grout Bay Campground at Big Bear Lake. Duane’s father let us drive the family car equipped with an umbrella tent, but we had to bring our food and stuff, and buy the gas. We each had about $10 to buy snacks and gas.

We decided to each spend $2 for a horseback ride. I had never ridden before, so Don and Duane plotted to inform the wrangler that I should get the big horse since I had the most experience. They had ten riders who were to be guided around a 2-mile trail. While I was first in the saddle and the other 9 were getting saddled behind me, my big horse was so raring to get this ride over with that he took off galloping. And my first ride took me around the track in less than 4 minutes. The wrangler was spitting mad, Nevertheless, I spent the next hour in the dust of the other 9 riders, but getting twice the mileage as my companions.

Later the next week, Duane’s car wouldn’t start and we pooled our remaining money buying carburetor gaskets and fruitlessly tinkering. Duane’s father said on Tuesday that he couldn’t come up to tow us back to LA until Sunday. We were financially broke and we had a can of corned beef, a can of beans and a dried-up half loaf of white bread to last us to Sunday… So we said, ‘Let’s climb Grayback’. San Gorgonio Mountain was a 50 mile round trip from Groueeet Bay and a 10,000 foot climb and descent. Halfway to the mountain, we came to an apple orchard and stole a hat full of small green apples. We arrived at Dollar Lake that evening and supplemented our meager diet with what we found by sorting the contents of the campground garbage can. We found a half-full can of Hershey’s Cocoa swarming with ants. Boiling this with lake water and stirring vigorously made it possible to decant the ants and it was quite acceptable. We climbed to the summit and finished our beans Thursday. And snacked on hard green apples, otherwise enduring hunger until Sunday morning.

My mother commented that night about the way my face bones stuck out. I recommend a week of teen-age starvation as being an essential factor for gastronomic appreciation. Bon apatite!