With R.W. having problems we decided to move back to Los Angeles. On one of my trips, I bought a house in Woodland Hills, close to the Canoga Park R.W. facility then being completed, and returned with a picture of it as a pre sent for Esther. I told her that after the baby came, if she wanted to, we would look around and buy a house that suited her better. We lived in that home for 20 years, more by far than any other. Suzanne was borne soon after we arrived there. (When Suzanne was interviewed for her residency in Denver she was asked if she had ever lived in Denver -- she said she didn't know how to answer the question.)
Until the Canoga Park facility was completed I had a long commute to El Segundo. One day I received a call at work -- the hill, one door from our house, was on fire! Everyone at work seemed to be aware of it. (Esther's relatives in Seattle saw it on TV and were concerned, but didn't realize how close it was to our house).
I was more aware than the others. It seems that Henry and Bob, and our neighbor's two boys, had found a cigar and had gone into the hills to smoke it. Before they realized it the hill was on fire. Henry tried to stamp it out with his rubber boots, but couldn't, so he came home and called the fire department. He suggested that they come to our house if they wanted the story. Esther's first indication of trouble was when the fire chief knocked on our door. When he saw Henry he suggested that be taken to the hospital. The heat had burned his feet and he couldn't get the boots off!
To make things more exciting the smaller neighbor boy was missing and it wasn't immediately obvious that he was not in the hills surrounded by the fire! We learned later that he had just run away.
The official report listed the fire as of "undetermined origin"!
Another interesting event about this time: For some reason I needed a ride home from El Segundo one evening and accepted an offer from Don Swanson who lived near us in Woodland Hills. He warned me that his route took him over the Old Topanga road, a narrow and very tortuous affair, and that his headlights frequently went out on the turns. I guess I didn't believe him, because I joined him for the ride. The lights did go out, but would come back on. It was a slow ride home!
Both Irving and Henry were active in the Boy Scouts. For several summers Irv was in charge of the Valley 50 mile trail, which meant checking out its condition, reporting on potable water and being prepared to go out on the trail if he heard that a troop was in trouble. Irv was so busy, just being a scout, that he didn't work toward the Eagle rank until too late but he was allowed to become an Eagle Scout. Henry had a different responsibility at the camp -- he was in charge of maintenance and the garbage detail.
A number of the neighbors had swimming pools, but we didn't as I thought it a poor use of the yard. I compromised on a trampoline and Bob became very expert at tumbling on it. In High School he joined the swim team as a diver and, in his second year, placed third in the San Fernando Valley Competition. That came to an end when he became involved in passing marijuana from one of his friends to another. He wouldn't inform on the others and was kicked off the swim team (I suspect that he tried the marijuana, but I am positive that he was never a regular user -- there was no smoking in our house.)
Irv was a very responsible youngster and served as a baby sitter at an early age. We needed no other baby sitter for Suzanne. He frequently baby sat for the Swansons who had a very large swimming pool and trampoline. Don later became Dean of Library Sciences at the University of Chicago. Don and Shirley separated about that time -- Don was paying too much attention to his work and not enough to his family.
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