Lucky she took me back

I caught a bus outside the gate and settled back to enjoy myself. This was late in the afternoon. About midnight, the bus driver told us this was the end of his run and to catch another bus, but he didn’t know where it was and left. I got out, watched people get off when I saw a guy head off like he knew where he was going. I followed him and he took me right to the next bus. The others were straggling in for about an hour. It was two blocks from where the guy let us out.

I finally made it to LA then took the bus to Whittier. Got in town just as it was getting light. I headed up Comstock to my parents, left my stuff there and headed up to Dorothy’s parents to see Dorothy. She was very glad to see me again. I was lucky she took me back as a husband. I had been gone for so long.

We stayed with her parents until we could get property to build a house on Sunset Dr. We worked hard to get it and start having it built. It took a full year to build because there were so many houses being built. There were not enough houses for people coming back from the war. The builders were stalling on ours so I got permission to take lumber from one house that they started after ours. I got permission from the police to pick it up at night after work so they could start building again.

We were out at Ruth and Malcom’s house one day and he kept saying I should be a plumbing contractor. So I took the test and got my master plumber’s license and started my own business as Sunset Plumbing. I took service calls 24 hours and any work I could get. Built it up to a very good business.

After a long time, I was working on a house about 5 miles from home. I had picked up my tools to leave and walked back in to see if I had everything. The owner had just gone to the garage to lock up. He came back and walked through the big glass sliding door without opening it. He got cut in his throat and had a lot of other cuts. I grabbed his throat and stopped the blood with one arm and held his arm with the other. I pulled him over to the phone and told him to call for help. They took 45 minutes to get there. I had to hold him together. The medics had to pry my hands off because I had to hold on so long I couldn’t release my fingers to let go of him. Even then, the drawer under the phone was a quarter full of blood. I drove home and Dorothy had to help me in the house. I was in shock. After the man got well, he told me he had the worst sore neck, but he was happy to be alive and thanked me.

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