After Joe separated from the service in February of 1946, we moved in with Joe’s parents in Brooklyn. It was uncomfortable because Joe’s sisters, Betty, Ruth, and Irma, were still at home. We only stayed for a few weeks. We had no room of our own and Joe needed work. He didn’t want to go back to work for his dad delivering potatoes and onions as he had done as a teen. We decided we needed a change of scenery, so we packed up our few possessions and in March of 1946 embarked on a cross-country road trip to California.
My sister Ceil invited herself to come with us. She was squeezed into the backseat of the car in-between our possessions. She didn’t mind that. But we didn’t have enough money to get two hotel rooms at night. Ceil insisted she didn’t want Joe and I sleeping together while she was in the room, so I ended up sharing a bed with Ceil and Joe slept in the other bed. It took us about a week to get cross country – including an extra day in Beaumont, Texas when the car needed repairs. Joe and I were glad to get to California. Once in California, Ceil left us to room with an old friend of mine who had moved out to California.
