The days in Glendale passed quickly. Uncle Max arrived with his new wife Rosemond and their adopted son, Steve, who was about 10 years old. While they were visiting we celebrated Lesley’s 4th birthday with birthday cake and ice cream and games. She dressed up in her new cowboy hat and toy pistols with holsters.

She also received a new bicycle

Steve and Lesley enjoyed flying a kite over the desert. However, once it was way out in space no one wanted the job of reeling it in, too much string to rewind.

After about a week Uncle Max and his family drove on to California to visit friends.

Roland was finishing up the jobs he had committed to and we also started to think about moving on.

But first there’s a little background information you need to know:

Several years before we left New England Roland’s mother’s sister, Helen, and her husband, Ken, and two daughters, Nancy and Priscilla, moved to Escondido, California. Her other sister, Florence, middle aged and unmarried, went out to California to visit Helen. She was on vacation and due to come home when Roland’s mother received a telegram saying, “Getting married. Staying in California.” It turned out that Roland’s spinster (and very formal) aunt had met and married a cowboy while visiting Helen. The family was shocked.

We were about to leave for California to meet the new cowboy uncle and visit Helen and her family.