(This is a continuation of my Grandmother's life story. For more posts about Grandma, click on this link.)
...Life was not easy. They found jobs as they went, traveling from Calexico up to Los Angeles where they visited with family, and then on to the French Camp area outside of Stockton. Trading for gas rations wherever they could, working the fields harvesting crops and barely making ends meet, was daily life for this newly wed couple. It was the summer of 1942 and Grandpa finally got a job working in the ship yard in Stockton, but it still wasn't enough to make ends meet. I imagine the excitement and also a little bit of fear as Grandma realized on their journey north that she was with child. So my Grandpa, the work horse, took up a second job at International Harvester working on the tractor assembly line. Though it was exhausting, they felt lucky for him to have work. They lived in a number of homes from the time they left Oklahoma till they reached Stockton, renting whatever space they could. But I'm sure with her belly swelling with life she was more than ready to start putting down some roots. Determined as ever to make a home for the family she and Grandpa were about to begin.
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