Our Move To Taft

There is quite a bit to this Story. I hope you will learn something from it.

As mentioned before, Jay was out of work, and had taken a trip North to see if he could locate work for his Truck. When he went into Hartman Ready Mix in Taft, CA he made a deal with the owner with a Hand Shake only. No time was given for the term of the verbal contract, but things worked out so well that Jay worked for them from 1965 until 1973. The work was pulling loads of concrete into the Oil Fields and Building sites all over Kern County.

I have told you about the House in Taft and how we came to get it, but I didn't get into the sale of the home in Pico Rivera, CA. This was our first experience of seeing just how the Lord moves his children from one place of abode to another. It was a job to get the house ready for sale. Jay was able to come home on week-ends once in awhile to get things completed for the sale. The kids and I were busy doing what we could.

I don't think the move was to be as big a trial for Dawn as it was for Paul. He had been pushed around by the School System so far as his High School was concerned. He had been sent to a new High School in Santa Fe Springs for his Freshman year, which was hard on him. Then when they were to advance as Sophomores, they were transferred to the School he had wanted in the first place, which was El Rancho High School in Pico Rivera. He went there as a Sophomore and Junior only to be told his Senior year would be in Taft High School. This did not set well. He had qualified for the Honor Choir at El Rancho and they were to make a trip to Europe to sing. The
change would mean he wouldn't have anything in his Senior Year. Rebellion was the order of the day from there out. Nothing would change the move, so I tried to do all I could to make the move bearable. Paul made up his mind he would attend school, but he would spend all the rest of the time in his room. I had to settle for that, there was just too much to do to do otherwise.

Now for the house. It was brought up to the best standard we could make it. We needed a Realtor to list it, and to the selling. Before we got that far, a Lady knocked on the door and said she had heard we were going to sell. I assured her that information was correct, and she
told me she would buy the house. End of story. It appeared to me that the Lord intended us to make this move, and He had sent someone to make the transition possible, post haste.

The house in Taft was not ready when we got there, but the garage was finished so we could put all of our furniture inside and lock it up. We lived in the small one bedroom apartment Jay and Mac were renting. It was a tight fit for a few weeks, but Mac was great at sharing, and they both were glad to have a cook and housekeeper after so long a time at doing things for themselves.
When we moved into the house, Mac kept the apartment and worked for a few months more then found a job closer home. We surely missed him.

Well, Paul found that Taft had a few more opportunities than he had figured on. Number one was, it was Oildarado Days and he was allowed to grow a beard. A very nice one too, it was. It was Summer when we moved so he had time to get acquaited with the town and with all the fun things that were taking place, he got to meet some of the young people in town. On a very different footing than he might have going to High School on the first day. All in all it turned out to be a good thing.

Taft is a Western Town. The kids dressed quite casual, jeans and tee shirts. While Paul had been going to School in a City setting and the dress standard was much different. He had been wearing dress slacks, dress shoes and short sleeve dress shirts. The first day of School he made quite a picture. All the girls particular were impressed with the "new boy". He was told right away that the beard had to come off. He would have been more upset I believe if his first day of
school had not been so favorable. The guys didn't resent him, and the attention of the girls was
more than welcome. Paul found he fit in, in fact he had a better time than he thought he would have at a bigger High School with the Choir perks thrown in.

Dawn started Junior High School her first day, and fit in quite well. Being a small town, the kids both found they were befriended quite well on their first day. Dawn became active in Drama and made good friends right away. Paul found he had many interests with some of the fellas and was added to a band right away. Of course that drew me into the mix. I made fancy reversable vests for the band members to wear. I was happy they had some place other than our house to practice however. Jay had made some good friends through work and so it was up to me to make my own nitche in town. It took some time, but we all settled in very well, thank you.

Paul graduated the next summer and prepared for his Mission for the Church of Jesus Chirst of Latter-day Saints. While he waited he signed up for classes at Taft Communtiy College and here again found he fit in very well. He went to the Councilors and asked if they had ever had male cheer leaders for the football games. They told him no. He offered to work out with the girls and was given an O.K. so long as he was willing to furnish his own clothing. It had not been budgeted for. He bought a pair of black slacks and was fortunate enough to find a matching sweater to what the girls had. He was accepted and that year was even able to attend the Potato Bowl with the team in Oklahoma. That was a fitting climax to his year I would say.

His Mission caused some problems with the Ward Leadership. It seems that Small Town Wards have a quest for "Appearance". Something we had not had to deal with where we came from.
For a time we felt we might have to apply to the Ward we came from to get Pauls papers to be submitted. Once the Bishop realized he wasn't going to force his will on us, he gave in and with
"reservations" sent Pauls papers in. Our next problem was with Paul being ordained an Elder. Here again the Bishop wanted to exert his will over ours. He wouldn't allow Pauls friend from Pico River to be the one to do the ordination. By then I had had about all I was willing to take, and I called the Stake President whose name was Pettit. He assured me that Paul could be ordained by anyone at any time and in any place he chose. He realized we were having some problems, and assured us he would see to it that this was stopped. In the final stage, I guess the worst was dealt us. Pauls call, as you might know, goes both to him and to the Bishopric of the Ward. There was some mix up in Pauls Call being delivered. I called the Post Office and was not able to decern what had happened to it. Before we got our letter, the Bishop got his and without calling us, made the annoucement in Sacrament Meeting where Paul was to go, even before he
knew himself. Talk about trials. All and all I would have to confess our time in the Taft Ward will not go down in our memory as one of the bright spots in our Church Membership. As if that was not enough to tell, when Paul returned from Vietnam (where he went following his Mission)
one of the Ward Memebers who was not happy with Paul approached him after Sacrament Meeting one Sunday and told him to his face: "I wish you hadn't returned from Vietnam".
I have always chalked that up to sheer stupidity. Fortunately Paul didn't live in the Ward all that much longer, but the effect I am sure stayed with him. Added to a number of other things,
I suppose it was one of the major reasons he fell into inactivity for a number of years. How greatful I am however that what he had learned and had a testimony of kept him from loosing his testimony totally. He has been able to come back, and join once again in full Membership.

It was about this time we realized that work was getting to the point the truck and Jay would have to find other employment. Jay went South this time and was able to find a Broker who would line up work for him in Orange County. Again it was time for us to move on. To add to the problem of selling, the house across the street was identical to ours, except they had a few upgrades and a built in pool. Jay had put a pool in our house, it was in the ground, but not professionally built in. Everyone told us we would never be able to get our money out of the house. We continued to ready the property to go on the market, and had hopes we could get our price. I don't suppose it would surprise you to hear that once again, a Lady came to our door and wanted to know if we were selling. I assured her we were. She told me she had looked at the place across the street, but the people wanted more for it than she was willing to pay. When I
told her what we were asking she offered to buy. Again we were assured the move was what the Lord wanted.

I guess I should add that at this time Paul was engaged to Jan Nelson and Dawn had just graduated from Taft High School and was working at the Telephone Company with a very good job. Her Dad had bought her a New Datsan so she had a good car and good income to pay for the balance on the car. She and Jan would live in the house until it had cleared escrow. So Jay and
I were able to move to Anaheim, CA where we had found another home. There is more to this story, but I will add it with the Anaheim experiences.

Written this 4th day of May, 2009
by: Eileen C. Rosenberg