The Harrowing Trip to California

The move from Detroit to San Diego was an exciting and crazy trip.  Carol never spoke of the trip itself.  Carol had a VHS tape of an old movie called, "The Long Long Trailer" which stared Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz.  Whenever Carol watched it, she would say that the movie reminded her of their trip to California, but she never got into any of the details.

Back in the early 50s, the idea of living in a trailer was forward-thinking, similar to today's trend of rejecting the McMansion house and adopting a more independent life in a "Tiny House." An article in the Detroit Free Press, dated January 20, 1952, by Clarke Beach, describes the type of people who were adopting the Trailer lifestyle:

From Detroit Free Press, January 20, 1952

There is one person left on the planet who was there and who was old enough at the time to remember this big move--Lynda.  She was five years old at the time and remembers it quite clearly. Here is her story:

"When we headed for California, I recall many stops at RV camps and the "Trailer life."  I can only imagine what a nightmare it must have been to go across country with six little kids!  Buying the trailer took all the money Dad (Darwin S) had saved up.  He told us this, and told us quite often that we needed to take care of the car and trailer because they had to last us for a long time, and that it would be the house we would live in when we got to California.

It made such a big impression on me that I made sure I never did anything to cause damage.  I can even remember the license plate on our car--LPR930.

The trailer was the largest one you could get at the time.  The trip took place during late fall.  It was very cold, and there was snow all along the journey until we got closer to our final destination.

From Clovis News-Journal, NM, Dec 1, 1952

In New Mexico, we drove into a terrible storm.  Dad had a difficult time keeping the car and trailer on the road.  He kept saying, "How much longer are we going to be in this damned New Mexico!"  This is why I know that we were in New Mexico when the accident occurred.

The weather conditions got so bad that all of a sudden the car and trailer skidded off the road and rolled over.  It seemed like it was a slow and long roll over process, and everyone was screaming until the vehicles finally came to rest.

No one was injured in the accident.  Everyone crawled out of the car and went to the side of the road, which was deserted.  It was getting colder as time went on, and we were all starting to freeze.  Our parents knew they needed to get warm coats for everyone, and everything was inside the tipped over trailer.  They had Tim crawl to the top of the trailer and get in through a window to find our warm things.  He was the hero!  He came out with all our coats and some blankets.

So there we all were, all bundled up on the side of the road in freezing New Mexico, waiting for a car to drive by.  A few cars approached, but went on by without stopping.  Then a bakery truck and another passenger car came upon the scene and they both stopped to offer help and gave us a lift to the next town.  There were too many of us to get into one vehicle, so Mom, Dad, Tim and Baby Darwin went in the car.  Patty, Sue, Skip and I (Lynda) got to ride in the bakery truck.  In the bakery truck Skip and I sat on the floor, at eye level with cupcakes, donuts, and all sorts of tasty and tempting things.  We were really hungry, and everything smelled so good, but we knew not to ask for anything, and we were still really frightened.

The bakery truck got us to a small town and stopped at a cafe, where we were reunited with the rest of our family.   The next thing I knew, we were in a small motel room with two beds for all of us to share. We were there for several days, and it was a bewildering and scary time for us kids.    After a few days, our car showed up at the motel, repaired and ready to resume the journey.  We all piled inside and drove to the Allstate Insurance office.  Our parents went into the office to settle the claim and came out very upset.  Mom was crying and Dad was comforting her for what seemed like hours.  We learned later that the insurance company was not very helpful, gave them very little and made them wait a long time for the money that they did give them.  This is why I will never use Allstate Insurance to this day.

As far as the trailer goes, that was a disaster.  By the time Dad returned to the accident site with the tow truck, the trailer had been stripped and most of our possessions had been stolen, including all of Dad's photo equipment.  The only reason we didn't lose everything was because a farmer happened by and saw the vehicles, and he knew from his experiences living there that bands of thieves and Mexicans would take everything they could get out of the vehicles.  So he used his tractor to pull the car upright and towed it to his yard, then called the police to tell them where he took the car and why he did it.  So our belongings that were in the car came to California with us, and everything else, including the trailer, never made it out of New Mexico."


I don't know why Carol never shared this story with me.  I can only speculate that it was so traumatizing for her that she chose not to remember the details and after many years reinvented the memory in a more palatable form.