We Arrived: For This Time

By Robert S. Weil

"In his first autobiographical tale Teenage Hobo, author Robert S. Weil shares what it was to be like to be on the road with his two other brothers (the oldest of the group was 14 years old). He deliberately finished the story with the statement 'we arrived'. Readers would then ask him what exactly happened afterwards. So begins the rest of the story in We Arrived.

The three brothers were reunited with their mother, a widow, and the rest of their siblings upon setting foot in Los Angeles. Adroitly weaving his stories right after their harrowing journey for 30 days between Cincinnati, Ohio and Los Angeles, California.

Weil vividly recounts the events that followed thereafter in We Arrived from a near death experience on an alfalfa farm to hearing the horrifying news that Pearl Harbor had been bombed.

In later chapters, Weil tells of the family traveling east again, having his own career, meeting his soul mate, and what it was like to survive the Second World War, with pictures."

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: May 29, 2012
• ISBN: 9781477117422

Robert S. Weil

Many years ago, my family and I would make trips to the mountain campsites for our vacation. We found and, generally used, the campsite in the high country of Yosemite. It was named Camp White Wolf. There were several other campsites, but this was one where there were individual sites large enough to set up our large tent. There was what must have been a water runoff nearby, although usually dry when we were there. At the site, there was a picnic table and a rock-lined pit for a campfire. After we had set up our tent at our campsite, we would take walks to see and enjoy the beauty of the comfortable woods. The clean, cool air felt so very good on our faces. The four children had their pleasure in climbing among the huge boulders. They would make games among themselves. Sometimes they would investigate the many different insects or small animals that they would see. I carried a notepad with me. I would tell them to draw a picture of what they saw. Later, we would then check the books we had at home to find out about what they had seen. Every year there would be something different. One time, there was an eagle soaring among the trees, not having to flap its wings, using the mountain’s updraft to stay aloft. In the city where we lived, there were few of these wondrous sights.

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Contents

Dedication

Introduction

We Arrived For This Time

Chapter One

Mother And The Welfare Agency

Chapter Two

The First Trip Out Of California

Chapter Three

The Beginning: After We Arrived

Chapter Four

Los Angeles

Chapter Five

Day-Care Service

Chapter Six

Then There Was Pearl Harbor

Chapter Seven

My Near-Death Experience

Chapter Eight

Victorville And Recovering Health

Chapter Nine

Traveling East Again

Chapter Ten

Florida To California

Chapter Eleven

Texarkana:

Independent Life Begins For Me

Chapter Twelve

Beginning My Career And

Meeting My Soul Mate

Chapter Thirteen

My Soul Mate

Chapter Fourteen

In The Beginning

Chapter Fifteen

Off California Coast

Chapter Sixteen

We Survived World War Ii

Dedication

This is dedicated to James (Jim) Worth Weil.

He was so little discussed about and yet he became a big part of this family.

Even though there is not much mentioned about him,

he is never forgotten.

Introduction

We Arrived for This Time

In my opinion, all people should keep a journal or set of records having to do with their own life. The record would be for at least the reason to provide information that they alone have been involved in. I realize there are some things that are preferred to be forgotten about, a wish that had never occurred.

Those do not need to be written of. There may be developments that led up to those occurrences that would explain other situations.

Think of it carefully.

This is a continuation of the record I made when I wrote my first published book, Teenage Hobos.

I deliberately finished that story with the statement, We arrived. I hoped that would raise the curiosity of the readers to want to know about what happened after that. It turns out there was more than I expected.

What happened next? many would ask me.

This is exactly what happened. So that is the reason for this book.

When my brothers and I arrived in Los Angeles, we still had to get to San Pedro, the city on the coast of Los Angeles. I had with me the address where my older brother Bill lived, and that was where Mother probably was. I tell of that portion of our trip, and how Don Hill was told to get lost. The guy had just thought he had found a person that would support him, a big mistake on his part.

After we joined Mother then, there were several other events that occurred that are mentioned in this book. By looking at the contents of this book, the reader will see what I am referring to.

There was the case where I had a near-death experience. Another case was when I worked on an alfalfa farm. For those that have never worked on a farm, there would be experiences spoken of that might interest them. Also, we had once again taken a trip back east, even though I felt it to be a big mistake.

What was in the mind of Mother?

These are events that occurred during my younger days and that got me to adulthood at an earlier age. I try to relate a few things that include my brothers Jack, David, and our youngest brother Jim. For those things that occurred to them, they should write their own experiences.

After returning to Mother, my responsibility had ended. Still, I always had a concern about them and attempted to help them when I could.

It was that often as not I was no longer around them, so I had no idea what they were experiencing. This will explain what led to the separations at times and why we would go our separate ways or they would go their separate ways.

I hope this book might open the mind of the reader to where they would say,

I had some similar experience, and maybe I should write mine down. I’m willing to bet that there are several good stories out there that need to be related, at least so that they will not be lost in time. Your children may like to know what happened that led to the reason they are now here.

Chapter One

Mother and the Welfare Agency

To bring the reader up to date, I need to relate some information on activities that occurred before we arrived in Los Angeles after that tedious trip.

I will get to it.

Dad had died suddenly leaving mother with six children and no income, other than what she could provide, and not much of that.

It was in 1938, with the Depression that had the country in its grasp. Jobs were few in availability, and many families were in poverty. We were just one of these many families.

Uncle Rob was the uncle of Mother from the marriage of her mother. He was a preacher to an American Indian tribe located near Bakersfield. He was greatly respected and a very good God-blessed man.

Mother had such respect for him that when I was born, she named me after him. His name was Robert Milton Staveley. I became Robert Staveley Weil. He was pretty proud of that fact, and so am I.

Uncle Rob was living with us at this time and was able to be the adult needed to look after Mother’s children. Uncle Rob was deaf, and there probably was little he could do in our care, but he was always there. That was all the welfare agencies were concerned about. After renting a house upon our first move to San Pedro, California, Uncle Rob bought a home on Nineteenth Street.

(A house is a shelter; a home is a place where love abounds.)

On paper, he put the property in my name, since he and I were pretty close; after his wife had died, he had no children of his own.

Of course, he had to keep the deed to the property in his name so that there would be no complaints from the welfare agency.

And believe me, they would have complained about that.

After Dad had died, mother was put on a widow’s equity from a California Welfare Agency.

This agency had some pretty strict rules that we were required to follow.

As a poverty-stricken client, we were supposed to stay that way.

One example was a kitchen range we had that Dad had bought Mother when we lived in the valley.

We did very little in cleaning this stove so that it would look pretty bad to the agent. Otherwise they would have complained about that. They felt that we were not only poor but needed to look that way as well. At least this was the impression they gave us.

Another example was when my brother Jack and I would get jobs mowing lawns or selling magazines. The agent would subtract that income from Mother’s check.

It appeared that we were not to be allowed to improve our living condition.

Also, there was the beginning of what was called the Child Labor Act. That was to keep young people younger than seventeen or thereabouts from being exploited into work. This is another story that the reader should look into. I do not agree with having the government control the freedom of the American people, but this was one act that took many laboring children out of plants.

Possibly there might have been a better law established to accomplish that. There are those that want too many government agencies. Our constitution would be a better tool.

California Welfare Agency

Here is another example. One day Mother’s sister, Aunt Clara, came by to visit us at our house in San Pedro.

She wanted to do something for Mother and the family. This is the way it should be. The families or the church should be the aides.

Aunt Clara saw that we boys needed a haircut, so she took us all to a barber and had our hair cut neatly. For the four of us, this cost her about $1.00.

The welfare agent found out about this and had the cost of the haircut deducted from Mother’s check.

We were a poverty-stricken family, and they intended us to remain that way.

This was what they seemed to think, and were doing, in their job, I guess.

Mother had gotten all she could stand from the dictatorial people running the agency.

She got so angry with this that she notified the agency she no longer needed their help. She told them why, but she heard not one word from them, naturally.

They could probably care less anyway; they had plenty others to help maintain their jobs. As the saying went, This is the depression period.

The depression had nothing to do with it!

Chapter Two

The First Trip out of California

Mother got a job in Los Angeles working for some entertainment people. She had many friends in that industry from her past work. Mother managed the care of their homes and sometimes put together a small meal for them.

After a period of driving between Los Angeles and San Pedro, Mother decided that the best thing to do was to move the family to Los Angeles, where we would be closer.

After talking