Note: Miss Harmon was my mother’s business partner in their nursing home. I grew up with her and considered her my family. After they sold the nursing home Miss Harmon moved back to Charleston, South Carolina, where she was from and where her aging parents lived.

Miss Harmon and her parents

Journal   February 8, 1953 Sunday

Slept until about 7:30. Gave Sandy her breakfast early. Miss Harmon gave us breakfast about 8:30 or 9 am. We spent the day visiting and seeing the house and yard. The house is brick. It’s in a lovely old forest with Spanish moss on all the trees.

I put both children in the tub where they loved splashing. Roland and I also each took a bath.

In the late afternoon we took a ride through old Charleston with “Uncle Rube” (Miss Harmon’s father) and Miss Harmon. Charleston was lovely with it’s high walls hiding quaint old gardens, old cobblestone streets, palm trees, and more. Then we drove home, put the children to bed after a bite to eat. Then we chatted until late – to bed!

Journal   February 9, 1953 Monday
After a quiet morning we ate an early lunch and took off for Magnolia Gardens. The ride was beautiful through tall trees meeting over the highway, hung with Spanish moss. In the gardens all the Camellias were in bloom. How lovely they were.

Sandy was very fussy all day. The kids fell into bed early. I did a wash. We visited all evening. We leave tomorrow after a pleasant visit.

Journal   February 10, 1953 Tuesday
Got up early but didn’t eat breakfast until about 8:30 or 9 am. Then we gathered odds and ends together and finally said goodbye about 10 am.
The weather was lovely. We humpidy, humpidied over Georgia’s rough roads. Then we got stopped by the police because our trailer was swinging back and forth but he didn’t give us a ticket as we weren’t breaking any laws.

We had to cross dozens of little narrow bridges – load limit 6000 lbs. On some we met trailer trucks. On one bridge a whole crowd of people were standing looking over the bridge. I thought I saw a body floating in the river so I rushed Roland out of the car to ask what happened and to tell the crowd that we saw a body. After awhile he came back and said no one seemed to know what happened.

Then I said, “Look, there it is again!”

What do you suppose it was? A porpoise. All the rest of the afternoon Roland mumbled about how foolish he would have felt if he had told everyone his wife saw a body in the river.

We stopped for ice cream about 3 pm. For awhile we drove beside the train tracks. A train came along and Lesley and I waved to the engineer. We stopped in a trailer park just outside of Jacksonville for the night.

Waving at the train engineer in Florida

Note: Traveled route 301 to Florida

Journal  February 5, 1953 (Jane)
Alarm didn’t go off this morning because I didn’t wind it last night. We left Bobbie’s at about 10:15 am. Stopped for lunch along the road – ate in the trailer. We were both delighted to have our home right with us when we stopped. Baltimore wasn’t as bad to go through as we had expected. About 6:30 pm we decided we’d better stop for the night at a gas station.

There was a little boy named Allen there. He came in the trailer to play with Les. I was opening a can of roast beef and he said,
“I know what that is – it’s old chopped up horse.”
I hope he was wrong.
Put the children to bed. We fell asleep during the evening – woke up – did the dishes and fell asleep again. This time in bed. We all slept like logs.

Journal  February 6, 1953
Woke up late again. We got ready and had breakfast in the restaurant in the gas station – a big stack of pancakes each. Finally got underway at 10:15 am. We drove until 1:15 pm. Stopped in a pine grove for lunch. Drove on until 4 – had a Dairy Delite around 5 pm. We stopped in Lucama, North Carolina for gas at a Shell station. We drove on but almost to the top of the first hill we were stuck. Roland tried to keep the car going to the top of the hill but the engine stopped. Consequently, we were stuck in the middle of the road. I got out to guide so Roland could roll it back off the road but the trailer wheel went to the edge of a big ditch. We had to stop with the car still in the road. Although we were tying up traffic in both directions no southerner would stop to help us “ yankees.”

In desperation Roland decided to prime the carburetor with gas. He told me to get in the car and start the engine to pull it off the road. As I stepped on the accelerator the carburetor burst into flames. Roland dropped the can of gas and lunged for the trailer to get the fire extinguisher. I grabbed the children from the car and waited on the side of the road with them until Roland put out the fire.

Finally a man from the gas station stopped in his car and told us he was sending someone to help. Soon a big tractor (without the trailer) arrived to tow us back to the station. The driver attached a chain (about six feet long) to the front of our car and to the back of his truck. We all got back in the car and he started off, immediately taking a turn down a very narrow dirt road with big ditches on each side. The truck took wide corners and went very fast. If he had stepped on the brake we would have smashed into him.

When we reached the gas station they told us they had sold us gas with water in it. We stayed at the gas station that night while they fixed the car. They had it ready about 7 am. The people there gave me the willies the way they looked at me. I locked all the doors.

Journal  February 7, 1953
We got started from Lucama at 8:45 am. Because Roland had said, “C’mon, it’s 10:15” we dashed out with hair uncombed, shoes untied, and took our places in the car. We had trouble all day with the car and the rain. It poured. The trailer swayed on the bumpy roads and driving was very difficult. The engine kept skipping from water left in the gas. At noon we parked in a drive-in movie for lunch. About 4 pm Roland had to drain water from the gas tank. He lay under the car in the rain while I put nighties on the children. Then we ate supper by candlelight on a slant with passing trucks rocking us. We called Miss Harmon in Charleston. (where we would stay that night). We arrived in Charleston about 9 pm. Exhausted!

Journal  February 2, 1953 (Jane)

Getting in the car to take off for California

We’re on the road. Roland is driving. First lesson for drivers towing a trailer. If you have to stop,  put the trailer brakes on FIRST, then the car brakes. That’s so you won’t jackknife. The trailer brake is a big handle on the floor that you have to pull. It’s installed on the right side of the car pedals and gear shift. 

Note: There were mirrors on both the drivers side and the passengers side so that the driver could use the mirrors to see both sides of the trailer. In 1953 there were no car air conditioners. Roland had made a playpen area for Sandy in the passenger seat behind the driver. Lesley had the rear seat with all her toys. There were no seat belts back then.

Lesley and Sandy in the car

We were a happy family, rolling along on our new adventure; two children, two parents and a dog. Our plan was to drive to our old neighborhood in Connecticut to say goodbye to friends the first night.

Journal (cont.)

Left Braintree at 2:20pm, mileage 29570. A few tears when we left but everyone tells us that they are coming to California. We were pilot and co-pilot from Boston to Connecticut, Roland looking in his mirror to see if he can pass, and me looking in my mirror to see if he can pull back into line. Arrived in Connecticut about 5:30. Had dinner with Russ and his family and said goodbye to neighborhood friends.

Journal  February 3, 1953

Off in the morning around noon. Stopped and ate lunch in the trailer just before New Haven. It was snowing and slush was on the road. However, all was clear by the time we finished lunch. Going through New Haven we missed the turn on the map and took the road right through the shopping center. Tried to console Roland, telling him it was shorter. But the road was barely wide enough to squeeze through. Roland would shut his eyes each time we met a big truck.

Hit New York at 6 pm!!! We went flying up and down hills, trying to make the green lights going up. Met everything – red lights, reckless drivers, cobblestones, stops on hills. We were so tired by the time we reached the New Jersey Turnpike that we had to stop and snooze. Reached my friend Bobbie’s house in Erlton, NJ, at 11:30 pm.

Journal  February 4, 1953

Stayed with Bobbie and her family all day while Roland worked on the trailer, shifting weight toward the rear-left. He also put wedges in the booster springs.

Called the folks tonight. They were all at Braintree waiting to hear from us. We are going to get an early start for Richmond Virginia tomorrow morning.