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Landa Street house early this year - note the new driveway Installing rebar (steel reinforcment) for garage wall Wasn't sure why this planking was installed on the floor, but then it occured to me that this is inner side of one of the walls that will be tilted into place. The rebar is already installed in the left wall here, and this would be the 2nd surface of the rectangular solid that will be a side wall. Bob at left, and crane guy right setting up the crane Looking down from crane bucket(photo by Ruth) as walls were about to be poured Ruth looking down on crane operator Framing the garage roof. Note the "boat" in foreground at the right - this is the vessel Bob and Ruth used, with the car and rope to haul heavy material up to the building site. Underneath the 9" thick concrete about to be poured, quite a few 4"x4"'s were needed to support the weight while curing. Starting the pour for the roof New 1950 International pickup could not be parked in the garage while cement cured Bob says the rough appearance of the garage roof here is caused by leaves Bob starting to put fence around top of garage roof Ruth and Bob working Fence top all in Bob's nieces, Janet and JoAnn with his dad, Thor Janet & JoAnn at grandma & pa Johnson's place Bob's only nephew, Richard Rupp(1951 - 2013) with his dad Francis	Unremembered (Jimmy Olsen?), Don Stafford(Perry White?), dad (Clark Kent?), Emily White(Lois Lane?) on 4th floor of 205 South Broadway office of Mapping Division of LA County Surveyor Bob remembered his first county job: I passed this written test and was interviewed for the position of Senior Civil Engineering Assistant in 1950 by Randle Lunt, who was in charge of the Waterworks Division of the Mechanical Department of the County of Los Angeles. One of Lunt’s responsibilities was the management of waterworks that served 12 scattered populations in the county totaling about 10 thousand households. The Division employed about 30 people who operated the water well pumps, plugged the water main leaks, read the water meters, prepared and mailed water bills, collected money and shut off the water supply to households quickly after it was noticed that payment was overdue. The staff that Lunt supervised consisted of one contract resident who usually resided near each of the 12 waterworks, who also was one of the local plumbers, Two meter readers shared reading the 10 thousand meters each month. (They also visited each house and rang the doorbell once each month, as a convenience for customers to pay.), Two clerks who prepared the water bills, recorded payments on a ledger with pen and ink including any charge for turning the shut-offs back on. The County Board of Supervisors, during the previous years had been forced into the water business, which usually was a private business enterprise failure. Failure of such enterprises would leave enterprise customers destitute. While I continued a career helping to manage such water districts, the County continued in its population growth to have various other water service problems and with each of these, the Board would refer such problems to the Board’s legal staff, who would pass on the technical details to Lunt. Populations growing faster than the development of water resources demand the attention of the local government. Land owners usually seek other people’s money to construct the infrastructure needed to support their land developments. If limited local water supplies can somehow be extended, community growth becomes feasible. If such things are demanded at Board meetings, the Board expects its legal staff and Lunt to report back to them the procedure, the details and the costs to satisfy these demands. If the problem was about water supply, Lunt and his staff became accustomed to jump through the hoops. Examples of such problems are as follows: 1. A small Mutual Water Company, isolated has a single water well drilled down to bedrock. The underground overpumped water table level has descended below the level of the bedrock. The same water table level has 200 feet of underground available water if a 300 foot deep well is drilled. The cost of laying a pipe and drilling and equipping the suggested well is $50,000 which could be raised following a petition, election, formation of a tax district and sale of municipal bonds. Petitioners have a choice to either be County Board or self governed. 2. A large coastal community, bordering on the Pacific Ocean has a number of private water supply enterprises and has so overpumped the underlying water basin that sea water has intruded the basin, contaminating the enterprise’s water well supply. Imported water may be available if a contracting agency is formed and if a $10 million municipal debt is authorized by the voters. Lunt is asked to prepare a report including a preliminary design, cost estimate and a sample petition. Included with the petition is a negotiated promise that an existing agency has agreed to sell the water needed to hold back the sea water intrusion. 3. Another example was when the State Water Project, designing a canal , pumping, plants and reservoir to transport Northern California water to the south, found that communities in the south had no southern contracting agencies in existence to deliver the product and inspired communities to organize to make such contracts. The Board asked Lunt and his crew to study the problem . Lunt ‘s crew began an assembly line to draft the plans, estimates, and petitions needed to create a dozen such contracting agencies that extended beyond Los Angeles County into the surrounding Counties of Ventura. Kern, San Bernardino, Riverside and Orange. The forgoing describes part of my work in the water business from which I retired in March 1978. Other parts mainly either consisted of consultations of individual citizens with water problems who had been referred to us or consisted of designing water improvements for County Parks, Jails, Hospitals, Camps and remote isolated facilities. One odd-ball assignment was to design the County Air Raid Warning System. Our crew pioneered with the introduction of computers, remote control systems, radio communication. Other County Departments soon followed our example. Ruth got plastic surgery performed to fix the scar on her neck. Ruth, before (or after?) plastic surgery to remove scars The concrete garage was completed this year. Ruth had some interesting and helpful neighbors on Landa Street. One was Charlie Hanna. He was an older man who was born circa 1880, and was very knowledgeable on how to do pretty much anything. He noticed Ruth struggling to carry buckets of sand up the hill one day, and carved her a yoke, so that she could use her shoulders to carry 2 buckets with less stress on her body. Over the years he gave sage advice to Ruth -- who soaked up such knowledge like a sponge. She was always fond of Charlie. Robert recalls on Bob and Ruth's collaboration from 1947 to 1961: "We kept at a stiff program of earning money and using all of our spare time for our do-it-yourself home for 14 years with annual breaks for a 2-week vacation -- clean living with minimum pleasures. About this year, we began talking about children and enlarged the house to about 1500 sq. ft. We were required by the city to build a garage. The house furnishings were the cheapest. We had a minimum social life, entertaining few friends, and mostly relatives." The garage was perhaps the most gigantic project Bob undertook. It involved forming the box of a 2 car concrete garage about 30' above the road. The pictures at left show the progress, reaching a climax on the day a crane was used to transport concrete to the finished form. Early in the year, Ruth and Bob bought a yellow International pickup truck. Rather than pay the $200 delivery charge, Bob decided that they should fly out and pick it up themselves. The airfare was about $200, but it provided an opportunity for Bob to stop and visit his relatives in Ironwood Michigan. Bob remembered: In June of this year, Ruth and I flew in a Constellation to Chicago. Weather was stormy, and when flying into Chicago, it was fogged in, so they had to circle in the Lockheed Constellation for 3 hours before landing. Then connected to a DC2 in Chicago and flew to Springfield OH, home of International Harvester. Picked up our new IH pickup there and then drove to Ironwood to visit relatives, including his dad's mom, Alida, whom he met for the first time. After visiting, we drove back to LA. IRONWOOD Cousin Wesley (Bob's Uncle Iver & Emmy's son) Bob's Aunt Emmy and cousin Evert Ruth at Bob's grandparent's house standing by Bob's Uncle Arvid with his wife Isabel standing by the house. Ruth, Bob's Uncle Arvid, Alida(Bob's dad's mom), Aunt Isabel sitting. Bob's cousin Midge recalled the tree with the red berries is a Mountain Ash. Birds eat these berries, even after they ferment, and hilarity results from such drunken birds! She said all the buildings are gone now. The house became an art gallery and sold Midge's handwoven baskets, but a fire destroyed it, but a new building was constructed and the gallery continued. Isabel sitting on stairs with Alida standing by her house ? and ? Thor by his 1950 Nash Commander
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Marian's family about this time Thor has another disappointing fathers day - his son never made him an album like this! Bob showing off sign with his name: "Antelope Valley... R A Johnson"	Ruth battled a bout of Iritis this year. She became pregnant and quit her job at Title Insurance and Trust Company. While at home, she remedied problems with their lot: it was susceptible to mudslides during heavy rains, as it sloped at about a 30% incline. Ruth started terracing. Bob continued working for the county of LA. Ruth at Navajo Reservoir in AZ about this time Bob continued to keep up with his best friend, Tim. Tim with his first son, Jack Flossie with Jack Flossie with (perhaps her mom) & Jack
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Bob's first child, Julie was born this year Bob launching boat with brother-in-law Francis and wife of partner, Mrs. Sepulveda Ruth with Julie this summer at Morro Rock in Sequoia Marian holding Julie Janet, Jo Ann, Richard & Marian? holding Julie at Bryce Canyon	Ruth bore Bob's first child, Julie near the end of May of this year. A couple months later, Bob recalled: The Tehachapi Earthquake,7-21-52 broke the diagonal tie-rods of the Lancaster 125-foot tall 50000 gallon elevated water tank and did serious damage to the underground pipelines.The County Mechanical Department sent me in a pool car up from the LA office to help.The regular work force up there were valiantly trying to restore water service. It did not matter that I had a soft job in an office in downtown LA, I was needed to fill in for the plumber who ordinarily read the water meters because he was needed to weld those tie rods together, so I quickly learned how to find, uncover and read the numbers on the meter registers. Meter boxes get flooded by lawn irrigation, Register glasses are buried in silt. Large dogs guard this territory effectively. In this desert area formidable creatures are attracted to and inhabit the meter boxes. The vinegaroons are faster and larger than the cockroaches and display a stinger that shames a scorpion. I carried a tin can to bail out the water and needed to keep wiping rags cleaned to expose those numbers behind the fogged and silted dial glasses. It is surprising how the wiregrass, in a months time since the meters were last-read could so quickly bind the cement lids in their boxes. I learned that some customers have a malevolent attitude toward anyone that is a part of the billing process. I noticed one water meter that someone had turned around so that the meter reading was lesser than the previous month's reading in my book, This could be noticed also by the little arrow which is on the meter. When I spoke to the plumber that I was relieving about this, he said the customer should have reversed the meter again two weeks ago in order to balance the book. Reading 500 widely scattered meters took me several days. The County put me up in Elmer Cleary's Hotel in a swamp-cooled back room, but I had to pay for my food. I was briefly relieved from the scorching heat one afternoon by a spectacular lightning storm. Ruth gave birth to her eldest, daughter Julie. While at home, Ruth worked on controlling the mountain of mud that encroached on the house with each passing storm. Ruth orchestrated building the necessary terracing both above and below the house. The couple continued construction of their 3 story addition. The bottom story became the basement. Robert recalled: "Within 6 months (of giving birth to Julie) Ruth got a job at Gladding McBean as a china painter. We employed babysitters on a full day basis. Our income became more limited for the continuing construction of the home." 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! This car must have been traded in about this time, as the family drove a maroon Ford convertible for the next few years. Robert also recalled: In 1952, a Mr. King had applied for a permit to build a drive-in hamburger stand in my Waterworks District No.1. His permit required the construction of a 500gpm fire hydrant within 200 feet of the stand. We needed a right of way to extend pipe to the hydrant and I prepared a deed and went to Long Beach one night to get Mr. and Mrs King to sign. That stand sold burgers for 25 cents each under the title "Burger King". Jef researched this and found no Burger King at that location in 2017. Bob said that even the fire hydrant wasn't there. Jef also heard another contractor had done work for the King family(Burger King) home in LA. It is not known if the founders of Burger King were those who started this burger store. It is only known that the current Burger King franchise started in 1954 in Florida. The inventor of the fast burger cooking machines used in the original McDonalds burger places was located in Long Beach, however. These machines were used in the InstaBurger Kings, which, after fiddling with the design of the machines, was renamed Burger King, circa 1954.
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1 year old Julie helping with the new 3-story addition(this is floor of 2nd story (1st story is split level). Landa Street house addition on July 30, 1953 Julie playing by pool as house addition progresses House viewed from Hanna's house Bob assisting on construction of 3 story fireplace/incinerator chimney, Landa Street, November 1953 Landa Street house at end of this year Bob and Julie	Ruth bore Jef at the end of summer of this year. Jef was Bob's only son, and 2nd child. Bob had a story that in his haste to get to the hospital in San Fernando for Jef's birth, he got a ticket for going thru a red light, which he insisted was yellow. Jef Probably late this year, Bob's cousin Eva and her husband Al Wario came from Michigan to help build the 3 story addition. They resided in Ironwood MI, and welcomed enjoying a warmer winter in LA. Eva got a job as a waitress and helped with baby-sitting, while Al helped with construction. Bob continued to visit with Tim and his family. Tim with Jack Flossie with Jack Flossie in the mountains
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Julie, Al Wario, and Bob holding Jef in newly finished living room Sister Marian with her family Bob with son Jef in Bob's current car, a (1951?) Ford convertible Son Jef's 1st birthday cake This was in Judie's album Julie with Bob's cousin, Eva Ruth's sister, Virginia, holding Jef Camping in Mammoth this summer Bob by his homemade camper in the sierras At the campsite with family friends, the Tierneys	Ruth and Bob built a deck around the new addition, so that they could walk around their house at the same level. The couple made a giant swing using 2" steel pipe in the garage roof area. This being the only large flat area was equivalent to a "front yard". Also a little cement wading pool was made for the young kids. The pool was used for a few years, and the swing was removed in the mid-60s.
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Landa Street house about this time	Bob worked on the local civil defense for LA County this year, in addition to his main job for the County Water Department. He recalled: "In 1955 I visited San Martinez Chiquita Canyon where an old hand dug water well served a level 10 acre parcel. Due to neighbors boring deeper wells and to the increased population in the area. it was necessary for the resident to deepen this dug well. The 200 foot deep well was 6 feet square timbered with redwood to ground level. "His do-it-yourself method started by erecting a braced timber gallows supporting a pulley block over the hole. 300 feet of 3/4 inch hemp rope threaded through the block with a hook down the hole and a hook for his car,driven by his wife was used. He rode a 50 gallon bucket down the hole, his wife backing the car according to signals made to her by his son at the top of the hole. At the bottom, he with pick and shovel loaded the bucket and signaled it to be lifted to the surface, he waiting below while his wife drove, his son dumped the diggings , bucket sometimes going down with timbers to extend down the bracing, this routine repeated hundreds of times to lower the bottom a few feet each day. Not many people will accept these working conditions today. "In 1947,when Ruth and I were starting the house on Landa Street, we did something similar. I bought 300 feet of 3/4 inch hemp rope and a pulley block which I tied to an oak tree above our building site. I had delivered to the curb 5 cubic yards of mixed rock and sand. I had also a sheet of aluminum, 3 x 6 feet which I made a sled with pine sides. Ruth drove the car down Landa Street while I loaded the sled, walked it up, dumped it, pulled it empty down while Ruth backed up, we repeating the routine many times to get the 5yards and30 bags of portland cement up the hill." Bob recalled: "The first television set that I ever saw was in 1940 at a neighbor's home. Elmer Kassahn, stepfather of Chester Mateer, was the man who operated the radio repair shop everyone relied on to keep our radios working. The Magnavox Color Projection Console in his living room was served by LA's experimental TV broadcast station atop Mount Lee, near the Hollywood Sign, only for about 2 hours on certain announced evenings. "During ensuing years, TV was to be seen while on shopping stroles during the XMAS season in Department Store window displays, people sometimes crowded around the windows to get a glimpse of the news program in fuzzy flickering black-and-white. Until the price of a set came down, service more reliable, and interesting talent and programs sponsored, the radio was the better. "We bought our first Set in 1948, a 12-inch screen black-and-white, left turned off most of the time except for the 15 minutes of news and about 2 hours of weekly comedy or talent shows. Addiction to this was kept in check by our developing aversion to constant interventions of commercial advertising propaganda. "We found that TV was a useful aid to entertaining our children and we got our 24-inch color TV about 1955 and started watching the entertainment shows regularly more than 2 hours daily. About 1963 we began to see that TV was retarding the kids homework and encouragement from their teachers steered us to our library and everyone in the family was to cut down TV time and we started reading books again. "One day in 1965, our TV needed repairs, but we put it in the back room and used it as a table, never replaced it. Keeping interested in the live activities around you, tempered by reading, and now that I am retired, getting outside and unglued from a couch, is a good substitute for the TV." Bob also remembered "In 1956 at the opening of Disneyland in Anaheim, me and my 3-year old son were so desperate to find the men's room that we approached 5 nearby men in suits and asked the direction. Walt Disney took my son by the hand and led us quickly into the right place." Bob continued to visit with Tim & his family. Flossie with Jack & 2nd son, Jerry Tim, Jack & Spooks Myrtle & Spooks
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	Thor, probably back in Ironwood about this time
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Bob's 3 kids playing on garage roof Janet, Bob's eldest niece turned 14 this year
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Julie Bob's cousin Eva. Bob recalled: "Cousin Eva died about 1972 of leukemia. She, being childless, was so desperately envious of our prolificity that she volunteered to take care of [our] 3 kids in Ironwood while I worked in LA and Ruth took her well-deserved vacation in Europe(1958). When Ruth decided to extend her stay in Europe, Eva demanded that I immediately come to Ironwood and get [my] kids. "Instead, I sent my mother to Ironwood and she flew [our kids] back to LA and cared for [them] until Ruth returned." Jef recalls: "Ruth believed Judie blamed her for this, even though it was all Bob's idea. This may have been part of the reason for Bob and Ruth's divorce in 1961".	Bob at this time with his Civil Engineer imprint Julie, Jef & Elsa about this time
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Family gathered around baby grand piano.	Julie about this time playing with Tinker Toys Julie pulling Elsa in Ironwood
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