Me and Mom's-trip to California in 1945 When about 55 years of age I told Mom and Dad that my earliest memory in my life was of standing on a large wooden platform looking at a ship moving close to that platform. I further remembered that there were a couple of rows of white-uniformed sailors on that ship. I then said to Mom that I remember hearing her say “Look for your daddy!” “There he is, Dicky; wave to him.” Wondering what that memory was all about I asked her to “fill me in on details of what that was about”. Mom looked at Dad for a short moment and with a smile she turned to me and said the following; “Dick, after receiving notice that your Dad was coming home from the war I asked your grandma and grandpa to take us to the Tulsa Union Train Station so that we would be in Long Beach to meet your Dad when his ship came in. Dick, you were a good little boy in that train all the way to California. During that long trip, you only ate and slept.”Another memory needed to be addressed so I asked the folks about a Quonset hut and why was that in my long ago memory. Dad’s response was, “that’s where we three stayed after I got off the ship.”Dad left this life in 2009 and Mom three years earlier. As is the tradition after the loss of parents, I proceeded to sort through the possessions the folks left behind knowing full well that there would be some items that I previously didn’t know existed. The following continuance of this story is about just one of those endearing items that I found during this process.Taped under the lid of a small handmade cedar chest was a handwritten message from my Mom that said, “Kids, Dad made this little cedar chest for Grandma McGuire when he was 14 years old.” Immediately, it was recognized that Mom was now talking to me since Tom, my brother, was also gone.Inside the chest was a small metal filing box that had a note saying, “Memories of my family”. Yes, Mom also wrote this note. Inside this box were filing envelopes, each with the name of a family member. In the envelope with Dad’s name was a receipt dated in March of “45” for the renting of a room in Long Beach. The question that I asked myself, “Why was this receipt of importance to Mom?” Then, the most important memory of my very young days that Mom and Dad helped me with when I was 55, provided the answer.The receipt for the room rental was the room in a Quonset hut Mom had rented for the loving couple that I knew throughout the rest of my life. The date on that receipt was nine months before the birth of my brother, Tommy Clint McGuire.After relating this story to Mom’s youngest brother, Ralph, my Uncle Ralph said with a smile, “Dick, I remember my mom, your grandma, telling your mother, “Katherine, if you go to California to meet with Wallace you’ll come home pregnant!”End of this true story. short little white items