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Getting colder. Wendax was closer with one of his guesses.
I was born in Calgary, Canada, but lived in a very small town not far from Calgary. It was situated on the edge of a large lake in a wilderness area with many streams and wooded regions. We lived in an apartment above my father's store until he bought a house However, the house he bought was located on the other side of the lake, which was several miles across. So, the following winter, after the lake froze over" my father had the house or not. loaded onto a large sled and then pulled across the frozen lake, by horse teams, to the new location near 0 store. There was a tribe of Blackfoot Indians that lived nearby, and almost always you could see a few of them in town. There was seldom any trouble with them, although they did have a reputation for thievery. I don't know if the reputation was justified. Occasionally a band of Gypsies, in their colorful costumes and wagon would wander through. My mother always warned me not to go near them because they were known to kidnap children. One other memory I cherish with great clarity is my catHe was an enormous cat, weighing 18 pounds, and fittingly, named Jumbo.When I was five years old my parents emigrated to the United States. We traveled by train to Blaine, W A. The train made many stops along the way, and at each stop there always would be indians coming up to our train window to sell things. We finally arrived at Auburn, W A where we were to live. I entered grammar school there. After three years my family decided to move to California. To accomplish this, my father purchased his first car. He didn't know how to drive a car, but he had owned a motorcycle with a sidecar. Once, with my mother riding in the sidecar, he turned a corner too closely and the sidecar wheel ran up over the curb, throwing my mother out onto the lawn. Fortunately, there were no injuries. Anyway, he decided to teach himself how to drive. We lived adjacent to the grammar school I attended, so he practiced driving on the large playground area of the school after school hours. Due to his lack of experience with cars, he drove around for two days with the emergency brake on. Eventually when he became sufficiently confident of his driving ability, we loaded everything we owned into the car and headed for California.Upon arriving in California, we settled in Pasadena where I again entered grammar school. I guess "settled" is not the correct word, for we moved several times around that area in the next few years. My father had a restless streak that eventually led to us moving 43 times before his death. Once we moved from one apartment to another one next door in the same building. One other time, we moved back into a house we had previously lived in. Even with all the moves, we still remained in the Southern California area.I graduated from high school in 1935. The effects of the depression years were still being felt, and my parents could not afford to send me to any of the well-known universities in the area. So, I entered Los Angeles Junior College, a two-year school where I majored in chemistry. As yet, I had not acquired an interest in cars or racing Upon graduation our family's financial condition was such that I could not continue my education. I went to work for a large paint company in Los Angeles as a chemist. I stayed there twelve years, including a three year interruption for service in the Air Force. I eventually became chief chemist and plant manager for the lacquer and synthetic enamel division.My first racing contact was in 1939 when some friends took me to Muroc dry lake for the hot rod races. I found it fascinating that these young people could take the best engines that Detroit produced and double the horsepower. They did it, without engineering experience or education and, most of all, without much money. None of us had much money in those days.
