Bob, Ruth, and visitor George Staybolt, aircraft engineer from Douglas

Bob's folks, Judith and Thor visiting

Bob wearing his GI leftovers in January

Snow by driveway

Snow scenes taken on street at final descent of Landa to Whitmore street

Panorama

Landa Street house

Bob's dad, Thor, and Bob

Ruth took this pic of Bob in his '41 Ford this year after Ruth got blue tiles at a discount from Glady-McBean for brother Gerard & wife Amy (their house pictured here in Pomona) - Amy wanted Ruth to go to the trouble of replacing blue tiles with beige ones!

The couple continued working on improving the house, getting a sewer connection, finishing the floor & bathroom by April 1948. Since so much had to be done to get the house in order, Ruth did most of this work, while Bob continued working for the county. One of their methods for getting building materials to the house (50' above the road), was to make a 'boat' using a piece of aluminium sheet metal purchased surplus from an airplane factory and 2"x10" lumber. They attached a rope and pulley to this, and Ruth drove the truck down the street. The boat, usually containing sand for their concrete, was then pulled up to the level of the house.

This was before credit cards, so they waited for Bob's paycheck, cashed it at the bank (they didn't even have a checking account), went to the lumber yard, purchased the building materials, and went home to build with the new materials.

In fact, the couple did not even have a bank account all the way into the 60s, living paycheck to paycheck.

Bob remembers driving Ruth to various Badminton tournaments. She usually won, but was only there for fun.

As they would in each of the following years, the couple drove around the country and camped. That summer, they went up to Oregon to visit Bob's Uncle Charlie, camping at various points of interest, including Crater Lake.

Ruth continued working at Title Insurance (T.I.), typing trust deeds.

Bob recalls: "Progress on the house was slow. A 3 room, 20 x25-foot, with a flat roof, dug into a notch on the steep hillside with a primitive set of 40 steps ascending through the mud and poison oak we were proud to call home. We occasionally entertained guests at intervals between spending long sessions of buying and portering materials up to the site, digging, forming, pouring, measuring, cutting, hammering, erecting, wiring, plumbing and working on scaffolds. Sometimes accepting offered advice and help from sympathetic neighbors. All of this during evenings and weekends, while 5 days a week, going to our office jobs, clean, rested and presentable."