Just after the sixth grade, in the spring of 1960, We again went on the move. We were basically "Fruit Tramps", the whole family going from ranch to ranch, crop to crop. Working the harvest to make a living. We moved from Ballico to some cabins my Dad's Uncle Homer owned on Highway 99 on the edge of Ceres. Like it the Trailers it took more than one cabin for our family, I am thinking we used three but might have been just 2. I think shortly after we moved dad got a job on a different ranch. But Mom the girls and I would drive around looking for a harvest to join to make money. We picked Apricots, Blackberries, peaches, and Strawberries that year. One day Mom was not with us and Phyllis had the car, we found a Strawberry Harvest and joined in. The girls would pick the berries, and I would carry the trays, to the trailer to be counted. Well we had a problem in that the girls would constantly leave too long of stems on the Berry's, and I would get told and return to tell them. Well at some point Phyllis said that's ok I am tired and getting ready to quit any way. so when I went back with the next load the foreman again started complaining and I said that's ok we are going to quit anyway! and with that were were no longer picking Strawberries. He told Phyllis that he had planned to move us to the Frozen Strawberry crew where stems could be longer, But I had quit for us LMAO.
I loved picking apricots, the trees were smaller in this field and I could really help. We did not stay in the cabins long and found a house to live in.
While we were in Ballico, Betty had gotten married and moved back to the Imperial Valley to El Centro. Her Husband was abusive, and she left him and returned to us, but he came to try to get him back. I remember the confrontation between him and her and Dad. At one point he got into his car and we think he was going to try to pin Dad between the cars. Anyway he finally left without Betty and they got a divorce.
I started 7th Grade at Walter White junior High School, I had never heard of a Junior High, Where I had been it was elementary till 8th grade then high school. I joined the "Safety Patrol" and was guarding crosswalks before and after school. I made a few friends, and even made friends of the prettiest girl in school. Lela Burg!! Long Silky Blond hair, and not a stuck up girl. I talked to her many times on the phone. Had quite a few friends, but wasn't Mr popular either. It was here that a neighbor friend and I tried smoking "grapevine" cause it was supposed to be just like cigarettes! maybe that is why I never took up smoking. I enjoyed may friends there and was hoping we would stay there but we would be moving again the next Fall.
The biggest event to happen in Ceres, was when Mom got mad and moved out. She made it look like an argument gone bad, but we found out later that she had planned it with a male friend and she ran off with him. Dad and Pat went to try to bring her back but he refused.She had left many times that I could remember and I was tired of it when Pat came back I simply told her "I am Glad shes gone, and I hoped she would not return this time" She didn't!!! At some point Dad got a job on a ranch in Hughson Ca. The "Matthews Brothers Ranch" and was offered free housing again. By this time, Betty had met another man, Jake, and moved out with him and Phyllis had hooked up with his Brother Charles. So Dad Pat and I moved to a two story rundown house in the middle of a peach ranch. LOL More on that later.
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