1968 - THE BEGINNING OF OUR GLENDORA YEARS When we returned home we decided we needed more space, so we moved into one of the three bedroom units. We also started looking at the choices of areas where we wanted to settle and buy a house. At first we pretty much settled on the Covina area. It was a nice clean town with good schools and convenient to my work. Well, having gone to school in Glendora, I had a very strong preference for Glendora, but that was a pretty expensive location, and I just couldn’t see how we could afford to buy there. We were looking at a house in Covina which I figured was in our price range. One weekend we were driving around looking at houses. So just for fun I drove up to Glendora. Jean was as taken with the town as I was. I drove up to the east end where the new country club is. And I told her that this is where I would live if I had the money. There was a new housing development where the developer had about thirty lots, and he was building six to ten houses at a time. There were ten houses in the first phase and there were two left. Just for fun we stopped to look. I looked at the price, but it was a little more than we could afford. We loved the house, it was exactly what we wanted. I got all of the information on cost and financing. On the way home we talked about it, and it was pretty clear we both wanted that house. So I started figuring. Running the numbers. I had already run the numbers on the house in Covina. Those numbers fit our plan. So I did a comparison on the two houses. And guess what? Because of the financing and escrow costs on the new house versus the used house there was only a difference of about $3 a month. We could live with that. We called the builder that night and told him we would take the house.

We moved in February 1968 and paid $30,250. We had our dream house. I couldn’t believe we were really there. I was more than I had ever dreamed. In those days, you had to put in all of the yards, fences and a patio. The house was unfurnished and it would take some time, but we were exactly where we wanted to be. The whole neighborhood was a busy place. We met all of our new neighbors. Next door to the east was Ron and Barbara Hull. He was an All American football player on UCLA’s 1960 Rose Bowl team. He was an assistant football coach at Cal St LA. They didn’t have children. On the other side was Bill and Iona Pollard and a son Billy and daughter Nancy. They were maybe fifteen years older than us. He owned and operated a garage downtown. Next door to the Pollards. was John and Doris Bucannon and they didn’t have any children. John was a sales rep for an Aero-Space company. He was an avid golfer, hey belonged to the Glendora Country Club, which was about a quarter mile from us, and Doris was the Club Social Director. I kept thinking Doris looked familiar, then all of sudden it hit me, she was the hostess at Mr. Steak where Gary, Jerry and I used to hang out. Jerry had taken her out a couple of times. From then on she avoided me like the plague. Next to John and Doris were Gary and Linda Shepherd. He owned a Pioneer Chicken store in Glendora. They had two young boys Scott and Steve and Linda was pregnant with twins. Next was the Farmers. Her name was Josie but I don’t recall her husbands or daughters names. The house right across the street from us wasn’t occupied very long by the original buyers. They moved and Wayne and Nancy Ely bought it. Next to them was a strange couple. He drove a very expensive Maserati and was always gone. I remember his name was John, but I can’t remember her name. There was speculation that he was in the money laundering business. They eventually rented the house to a young doctor who was just getting out of the army.

It turned out that lady luck was with us again. The house we almost bought in Covina had an old railroad track right behind the fence in the back yard. We were told it was an old spur line that was no longer in service and was being torn out. It later became a Metro Link track.

1968 DOING IT THE HARD WAY At Honeywell, I had worked my way up from Draftsman to Designer. Then one day my boss called me in and offered me a deal. The company would reclassify me from Designer to Associate Mechanical Engineer with the stipulation that I get my degree within three years. I had already spent two years at Citrus J.C. playing football. Not a lot of progress academically. Some credits accumulated at night school. So, in 1968 seven guys that worked together at Honeywell went back to school at night to get our degrees in engineering. We all enrolled at West Coast University, and proceeded to work full time and carry a full load going to school at night. Not the easiest way to get your education and it was expensive, but Honeywell would pay the way. Four of us were majoring in mechanical engineering and three in electrical engineering. It would take us about three years going to school two hours a night, three or four nights a week and working full time. Then you study on Sunday from eight in the morning till six in the evening. Sound difficult? You have no idea, it was the most difficult thing I had ever done in my life. But we made a pact to get that degree. Just to make it a little more challenging, we just bought the house and I had to put in all of the yards, fences, patio and all the other things that needed doing

MAY 1969 MY GRANDPA DIED

WILLIAM (BILL) PORTER MARTIN
b. July 14, 1892 d. May 25, 1969
This was my grandfather, The Old Man as he was referred among his family. He was hated by many and loved by a few. He was a man of many talents, he was a bootlegger and a drunk. He was a very unique character you could write a book about. My mother once said “he was the most evil man she ever knew. He was a hard act to follow. I remember one time when I was about sixteen (anyway: I was old enough to drive) I drove him up into the Beaver mountains to fish at Little Reservoir. I wasn’t fishing, because I didn’t have a fishing license. Of course he didn’t have one either, but that was ok because if you were over 70 you didn’t need one. I don’t think he ever had one anyway. It would have taken the thrill of the challenge out fishing. So to put the thrill back in the game he played with the game warden he would fish with hamburger, which was illegal.. Well, I was hiking around the lake and he was sitting on a box next to the lake. At that time in his life, he was on churches (that’s another story). I came back and sat with him. He caught a couple of fish and handed me the pole. I told him, I didn’t have a license. He said to go ahead, there’s no one around. Well I caught a couple and rebaited with hamburger. When I went to cast, I looked over my shoulder and guess who was setting in his truck watching us fishing. It was Thell Riley, the Game Warden. I handed the pole to Grandpa. The Warden came moseying down to where we were. Grandpa greeted him like an old friend. How’s the wife and kids and that kind of thing. He looked at me and said “do you have a license”. Grandpa spoke up and said “ he was not fishing “, and the Warden said “ I always thought when you are holding a fishing pole with the line in the water, that was called fishing”. Remember Grandpa was sitting on a box with hamburger all around him on the ground. I thought we were in big trouble. It turned out that the Warden was a good friend of my dad’s. He just looked at me and told me to tell my dad hello and quit hanging around with this old outlaw, because he would get me in trouble.

DECEMBER 1969 UNCLE RALPH DIED

DAVID RALPH MARTIN
b. February 2, 1930 d. December 13, 1969
Ralph was the eighth of nine siblings in the Martin family and he was gay. He was the first of the eight living siblings to pass. Reva died three days after birth. That was at a time when “queers” were kept in the closet. The family could not deal with the fact that he was gay. They chose to sweep it under the carpet and ignore the obvious. Hell, he had the nickname “Sara” from the time he was a little kid. He liked to dress up like a girl and he was the one that picked the name “Sara”. He got married and she got it annulled the first week. He joined the Air Force and he was discharged after a year. They had no tolerance at that time. He ended up as a hairdresser in West Hollywood. I visited him several times and I think he found his safe place. He was a very nice man, and he deserved to be happy. Uncle Ralph was a great dancer. He and his sister Virg could really rock and roll. He died December 13th, 1969 of a brain aneurysm while serving dinner at a party among friends. He was 39 years old. Far to young.

SEPTEMBER 25, 1970 KEVIN WAS BORN We must have had some free time because on September 25th 1970 Kevin Scott Martin was born. He was the first child born of Ernest and Jean. It was a very hot day (over 100) in Covina. I had taken her to her doctor’s appointment with her Gynecologist across the street from The Intercommunity Hospital in Covina. When Dr.Mulder examined her he told us to go across the street to the hospital and check in. He figured she was getting pretty close. So, we checked her in. They came with a wheel chair and hauled her away. This was before the days when the whole family sat in on the birth. They showed me to the waiting room. Well I waited about 45 minutes and Dr, Mulder came out and told me we had beautiful baby boy. He said have you heard of the La Maz Method and I said yes, and he said The Martin Method is much better. He told me they just got her in bed and she just delivered him to us. No fuss at all.

OCTOBER 20, 1970 MY GRANDMA DIED

WANDA IRETTA MARTIN (EASTON)
b. March 5, 1899 d. October 20, 1970
She was my beloved grandmother. She along with Doctor McQarry welcomed me into this world. She was the person most responsible for the survival of her first grandchild (that would be me). Unfortunately, less than a month after her first greatgrandchild (my Kevin) was born we lost her. She never got to see him. One of the hardest working people on earth. She was married to that outlaw grandfather of mine at age fifteen and gave birth to ten children. Even though she was the nicest and most loving person in the world, she had a funny quirk. She loved to scare people. She once laid in the ditch one night in Greenville with an old coat and hat on, to scare her own kids, Mitch and Ralph, who had been sent to get milk from uncle James farm about a quarter of a mile away. They were not supposed to stay till after dark. They stayed anyway to listen to some program on the radio. It was a dark night and when they came up the lane from uncle James’s farm, she jumped up out of the ditch making weird noises and chased them home. They were only about five or six years old. My mother told her that if she ever scared me, she would disown her.

TOUGH TIMES FOR MY MOM AND DAD We were entering the ‘70’s when a terrible thing happened to my dad. His business partner and supposedly his friend took off with everything, leaving him holding the bag on several houses they had deposits on that dad didn’t know about. Woody was arranging loans on the side and doing business with another silent partner. Dad made the mistake of letting Woody put everything in Woody’s name. He convinced dad that was best way to handle the tax issues. He played my dad for a couple of years and left town overnight and leaving everyone thinking dad was part of the scam. Dad ended up having a heart attack. He survived and eventually cleared his name with the people that mattered. They stayed in Carson City and he retired as a Superintendent for the State of Nevada. My dad was a proud man and I think the fact that a friend could do that hurt a lot more than losing the business. As it turned out, the contracting business went on a boom right after that and two of the guys that worked for them ended up rich. Don’t know what became of Woody, but I hope he rotted in hell.

Jean’s dad and mom came down again when Kevin was a toddler. I enjoyed having him as a guest. I liked him and I think he liked me. He was not a complicated man. He knew what he liked. He liked his family. It was obvious that he adored his wife and clearly always had.

We took he and Wilma out to Palm Springs and then down to Indio to see an old friend he used to work with. A couple of days later we took them to San Diego and Tijuana. I’ll never forget how he got into hysterics with Kevin. He was just starting to talk and screwed-up some words. In this particular case when we would go by a truck, Don would ask Kevin what that was and Kevin would eliminate the “r” and replace the “t” with an “f” , all at the top of his lungs. It was pretty funny. When we got to TJ Don wanted to try Tequila. He slipped into a Cantina to give it a try. That night when we got home, he wasn’t feeling well, and it was pretty obvious he had met Montezuma. He finally confessed that he intended to get a shot of Tequila , but he chickened out and got a whisky with a water back. That water will kill you.

We need to insert a little history on Donald Ellsworth Yantis. In 1962 he was diagnosed with lung cancer. He was a heavy smoker. They had to remove one of his lungs. Do you wonder how addictive cigarettes are? Even after the surgery he was sneaking cigarettes. His side of the family had a strong addictive tendency. His two sisters were alcoholics. And he was really a controlled alcoholic. That’s really scary to see that kind of thing in your bloodline. My side of the family has a pretty sad legacy with respect to alcohol addiction also. My old pal Gary has been moving along nicely with his child bride and new daughter. When we were bachelors, he was an Underwriter for Allstate, you know “The All Hands” people to make some decent money. He tried a very interesting change of pace.. He was a sales rep for Del Monte. He sold prepared entrees to restaurants, Airlines and Hotels. He would take his show on the road and prepare dinner for his customer, starting with a variety of entrees prepared by chefs in Del Montes kitchens, and then frozen. Let me tell you, they were very good. We tried them all. Then he went to work for Kaiser Steel as a sales rep. His goal was to make money. He and a co-worker decided there was an opportunity in the steel business to start their own company. There was a unique product line in the steel business that had a need. They decided to fill that need. All of the mines in Utah, Colorado and Nevada had a big need for shoring fabric and anchor plates, The fabric was similar to chain link fencing material, And the anchor plates six to eight inch diameter washers with a long bolt to secure the fabric to the ceiling and walls of the mines. They, as the middle man would order from the manufacturer, arrange shipping and deliver to the mines. I am glad to say they were very successful. He was able to turn his Denver University football scholarship into the good life and a comfortable retirement. Unfortunately, like myself, old age has not been kind to him. He has a number of health issues.

MARCH 1972 WE HUNG IN THERE TO THE FINISH Remember back in 1968, when seven of us started at West Coast University to get degrees in engineering. Well on March 24th 1972 two of the original seven had hung in there and earned degrees in Mechanical Engineering. My buddy Lee Menown and myself. When I started I had no idea how I was going to get it done. I could never have come close without my wife Jean’s support. It took a team effort.

TO TOP OFF A GREAT YEAR RICK WAS BORN Rick Matthew arrived a little over a month later on May 1st of 1972. Jean woke me at about two in the morning. Her water had broken. I wanted to call Dr. Jackson, Dr.Mulder’s partner, and get to the hospital. But she said she was fine and the pains were mild and miles apart. No need to bother the doctor in the middle of the night. I was not as relaxed as she was. The pains kept getting closer. I was a wreck. She finally let me call the doctor. We drove to the same hospital where Kevin was born in Covina. I parked in the front parking lot and we walked to the front entry. It was four in the morning and the door was locked. We then walked all the way around the building before we found an open door. We got her into the delivery room. Doctor Jackson arrived and shortly after that so did Rick.

JUNE 1974 - JEAN’S DAD DIED

DONALD ELLSWORTH YANTIS
b. September 28, 1910 d. June 12,1974 June 12th 1974.

This is a very sad day for Jean’s family. Her loving father Donald Ellsworth Yantis passed away today, he was 64 years old. He had a long battle with cancer. Unfortunately I didn’t have the privilege of knowing Don for a long time, but for the time we had he became an important part of my family. He had a quiet presence about him. He worked very hard all his life laying linoleum and carpeting, sometimes seven days a week, to support his wife and three girls. They lived in an 800 sq ft house , with two bedrooms and a makeshift bedroom in the basement. At one time he had four girls when Deeana, his niece, had to move in. Just imagine living in this small one bathroom house , with five women. He probably took a shower with the hose in the back yard. He and I had some good times together. He loved sports and I had the privilege of taking him to a couple of Angel games. It was so much fun to see him enjoying himself. Besides sports, he liked to belt a few. His side of the family were deep in alcoholics. It was a constant battle. With the help of his wife and family he managed to stay ahead of the boogeyman.. Jean and I and his grandchildren will all miss him.

SUMMER OF 1975 FIRST TRIP TO ZION, GRAND CANYON AND BRYCE CANYON We had just bought a new Ford Torino station wagon and decided a trip through Zion, Grand Canyon and Bryce Canyon National parks was in order. We could swing through Beaver and maybe get Dan to put his trailer up in the Beaver mountains and we could camp with kids for a couple of days. The kids were just a little young to appreciate the beauty, but I can guarantee they will have the opportunity to see them again.

Ford Torino Station Wagon

Bryce Canyon

1975 CAMPING IN THE BEAUTIFUL BEAVER MOUNTAINS When we finished taking the loop through the canyons we drove on to Beaver to visit the family. As usual uncle Dan was very accommodating and we pulled his camping trailer up on the mountain, where we set up a camp site. These are the same mountains that my dad was working for the forest service before we moved to California. That was before they had any public camp grounds. We just camped in the wild. We were alone with nature. One night the whole family came up to the camp and cooked steaks on a grill over the camp fire. There had to be about twenty relatives We were at about 10,000 feet, so a couple of drinks could knock on your rear and they all had to drive that mountain road in the dark. We had a lot of fun and the food was delicious

Camping on Big Johns Flat

AUGUST 1975 - THE HORSE RACES IN ELY NEVADA The Martin family always had a liking for the horse races. They all grew up racing their horses as kids. All of the small towns in Utah, Nevada, Arizona and Colorado have race tracks (usually ½ mile) and have race meets sometime during the year. Beaver always had their race meet on the 24th of July. When I was a kid, Monte and I used to have a lot of fun picking the horses. Then in the sixties and seventies my uncle Dan bought a couple of horses and raced them at the California tracks. They made the circuit of Pomona, Santa Anita, Hollywood Park and Del Mar. Ever since I was a kid, we would go to the races at Santa Anita. We would play the rerun of races on the radio in the evening and using the forms in the newspaper, we would see who could pick the winners. The family in Utah got together a group of family and friends and went to the races in Ely Nevada.

Ely is a place where real cowboys live. They have real cow poop on their boots. The saloon is the real thing. That’s where the gaming tables are. When you bet on the horse races, you may place a bet on a horse that shows 5 to 1 odds on the board and when he wins they give you 2 bucks with an explanation that the tote board is only an estimate. One time I bet on a horse and while they were loading the gate right in front of the grandstand, all the horses were in the gate, and my horse broke through the gate, leaving his rider in the gate. The outriders chased him all the way around the track. The loaded starting gate was just sitting there waiting, and my horse ran right into it at full speed and went down. Well I figure if he wasn’t dead he would be scratched. Silly me. They got my horse on its feet, brushed him off, put the jockey back on and stuffed him into the starting gate, and away they went. Believe it or not, he won the race. He was so juiced that he’s probably still running.

1976 - A LESSON IN HOW PEOPLE COMPLICATE THEIR LIFE It was somewhere around 1976 because Mark was about sixteen. I got a call from Peg (my ex-wife). She wanted me to meet her at the Fontana Courthouse, so I did.. Mark had been arrested at a party for drinking or some related charge. We had been having a problem with Mark. We got him released without a problem. Then I made the mistake of asked her if there was a problem at home. She started to cry and told me her husband Leo was gay. The jerk had five kids and was fifteen years older than her and they had been married for about ten years by that time and he informs her he’s gay. Even I had to feel sorry for her. She made some choices ten years earlier that, apparently are not working out well for her, on the other hand I consider myself the luckiest man alive. Remember this was a time in our lives when we were knee deep in teen-agers. Mike seemed to be under control. He had applied for a scholarship to a Catholic College in Pennsylvania and was accepted. He was a very bright young man. Michele was acting like a teen-ager. Mark was on his way to being a real problem. We have some work ahead of us.

1977 - DECIDED TO ADD A SWIMMING POOL Well here it’s 1977 already and in November Jean and I will have been married for twelve years. It’s been a great twelve years. In that time we have lived in our house for over nine years. Of course we have added two boys to our little family. Kevin is seven and his little brother Rick is five. Things were going pretty well and good loans were available, plus the boys were at the right ages, so we decided to add a pool. Jean and I designed the pool with a spa located off the master bedroom. It turned out to be a beautiful addition and it also the timing for building a pool was perfect. The cost to build a pool more than doubled in the next four to five years. The cost to build our pool was $9,300 and the Garcia’s next door built about the same size two years later at a cost of $23,000.

Michele has grown into a beautiful young lady. When we moved here she went to Bidwell Grammar school. She always made friend s easily. She made a couple of good friends, Vicky Schober and Lorrie White. Vicky was the daughter of John Schober. I talked about John when I started at Honeywell and we still work together. Michele loves kids. Well our neighbor, Linda Shepherd had twins, Brian and Bruce, right after we moved in. Michele was a God send for Linda because she really had her hands full with the twins and two other boys under five years old. Then when Kevin and Rick were born she was a great big sister. She was perfect until she got to her teens, that’s when she discovered boys and the boy’s discovered her. She was a beautiful girl. It was a battle all the way through high school and a year at Citrus. About that time she got involved with a biker, like a Hell’s Angel type of biker. His name was Ron Jonnason, and he was exactly what he wanted to be,. a low life on a bike.. We had a knock down drag out confrontation with her. She said she didn’t want to live by our rules and she was going to move to Seattle and live with her cousin Jan, Jean’s sister Carol’s daughter. She offered and we accepted. So at nineteen she moved to Seattle

1978 - JEAN’S SISTER CAROLWAS DIAGNOSED WITH CANCER At that same time Jean’s sister Carol was diagnosed with cancer of the throat. She had really never gotten over her divorce from Joe nine years earlier and was a drinker and a heavy smoker.

JUST WHEN YOU RESOLOVE A PROBLEM, UP POPS THE DEVIL Michele had just moved to Seattle to room with her cousin Jan, when Mark, my youngest son from my first marriage, showed up at our door. His mother had kicked him out. He had gotten in with the wrong crowd, smoking dope and trying to be a school drop-out. So we took him in. I thought maybe I was going to lose Jean. Here she was with two young boys and just gotten rid of one problem and in walks another. Mark was in a continuation school, where they put the problem students. He was starting his senior year and was way behind. First we made it perfectly clear that he was going to follow our rules. He was going back to the high school and he was going to graduate on time. I had regular appointments with his counselor to make sure he was doing what he should to get through the year and graduate. It was really a tough year for both Jean and I. Probably worse for Jean, I got to go to work. After dragging him by the hair through his senior year, the last day of school, he didn’t show up for a history exam (which he needed to pass to graduate). His counselor called me at work and I called Jean. She ran all over town before she found Mark. Then she had to arrange a last minute make-up exam with the history teacher, who went way out on a limb, to accommodate us. Mark got his diploma and moved out. His counselor sent Jean and I a diploma with our name on it and a note telling us we earned it more than he did. I tried to get Mark to stay and go to school at Citrus or join the Military, but all he wanted was to be on his own. He didn’t like people telling what to do. He made a choice, and he will pay the price.

SEPTEMBER 1978 - JEAN’S SISTER CAROL DIED

CAROL ARLENE (YANTIS) PIGNATARO
b. SEPT 3 1934 D. Sept 9, 1978

Just a little over four years after losing her father, Jean’s older sister Carol died as a result of cancer of the throat. It was particularly sad because she had just turned forty-four and gone through a divorce. She was so unhappy she turned to the bottle. It was such a tragedy. Her mother and two sisters and two children and all who knew her and loved her will miss her.

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