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They had closed the old school and were in the process of finishing up James M. Monroe school. We had to go to school in Inyokern temporarily and that was a mess. A lot longer bus ride and we didn't fit in well with the kids from Inyokern as there was a lot of friction between the "Cresties" and the "Kernies" as we called each other at the time. After a few months we were again moved back to Ridgecrest and we started in our new school. What a treat it was to go into classrooms of modern architecture and smell the newness of it all. Everything at the school smelled new, the paint, the furniture, the coatrooms, the office and they even had a brand new shiny flagpole where the custodian raised the flag every morning and took it down every evening. The only bad part of all this was my Mother hired on as the secretary of the school and I guess I don't have to tell you what that meant. Every time I got into trouble, which was not frequently but often enough to be taunted by all the kids, because my mama swatted me instead of the principal like them. Mr. Doug Brewer was teaching the 6th grade and he also was the coach for all the sports teams and events which occurred between the schools in the valley. (In 1984 I ran into Mr. Brewer at the laundromat in Ridgecrest.) He hadn't changed all that much and was a much more pleasant man then I remembered him to be. It was nice to talk to someone I had known so long ago.

1950 and 1951 passed by with the same breakneck speed and the same rapid development in Ridgecrest. New businesses were springing up all over. We were about as modern as any small town in the states by that time. We had a fair every year, and we had parades, and a rodeo of sorts, and the Dust Devils hot rod club was born and they started drag racing at Inyokern airport. (More on this later) I was in the 8th grade and all of us thought we were really hot. It was our last year in "elementary" school and we were having a field day. I had begun to play the trumpet a couple of years before and was having some fun in the band. We also had Mr. Brewer for woodshop and that wasn't a bad experience either. The one drawback was that Mrs. Wise (The former principal at Randsburg) was teaching 8th grade and we didn't get along too well. I got to visit with my mom for swats more this particular year then ever before. (Not fun!!!) Ridgecrest had a paper which came out once a week. We were on the map and a trip to LA was no longer a two day excursion. If you timed it right and didn't linger to long you could go to and return from LA in one day. We were HOT!!!

My bosom buddies (Mitchell Miller, Robert Walker, Vincent Smith, and a few others) all came into our first .22 rifles about this time. I used to invite them all out to our house on the weekends and we would all go on rabbit kills. My Dad was interested in growing a garden so he sometimes subsidized usJust by walking up the canyon you could see upwards of a hundred rabbits in an hour or so. Over a period of time we all became crack shots and would bring home more rabbits then you can imagine. I had a little black Cocker Spaniel named Tarbaby during this time and he just loved to run jackrabbits. He wasn't an awful lot bigger then a jackrabbit but he sure loved chasing them. It was a lot of fun to watch him leaping bushes in a single bound in an attempt to pounce on a rabbit which had already moved. I don't think that poor dog ever caught a rabbit but he tried a million times..

During our walks and drives to find good rabbit hunting we came across and observed almost every animal and reptile on the desert. Some were hostile and some were scary. We even saw a mountain lion one day which was unusual as they don't use the desert as a habitat. Most of them are found up in the mountains. Coyotes, quail, hawks, owls, rats of all genres, chipmonks, roadrunners, woodpeckers, bats and lizards of all varieties were the order of the day. Of course we had to be watchful for the advent of a rattlesnake or sidewinder.

1952 was the year of the big rain on the desert. We had rain for two days and it was a really hard rain. There were flashfloods all over the desert and the roads washed out. Highway 6 was cut in several places with 20 and 30 foot wide washouts. The Highway from 395 to highway 6 headed toward Mohave at the "Y" was washed out in several places. All the dirt roads looked like washouts and were in some cases impassable. Many of the homes in the canyons in the Sierra Nevada's were washed out and there were some deaths on account of it. For several days you couldn't venture off the beaten path as you were sure to become mired in the muck and mud which was caused by this torrential rain. It took some time to repair the roads and return traffic to normal. The entire desert appearance was changed because of this flood and for many years it bore the scars of this disaster. China Lake was actually a lake for about a month that year and we all used to joke that we ought to go buy a boat and enjoy the water. Of course it was only a few inches deep at the deepest and it disappeared quickly.

Long before I ever got a drivers license I used to drive around on the dirt roads near home. We had an old '37 Ford coupe that a guy had left out there because it was overheating. I would take a couple of 5 gallon cans of water and throw in the car and then take off. When it got too hot I would stop, take the radiator cap off and let her blow. Then after a while I would fill it up with water and take off again until it got too hot to drive and repeat the above procedure. I kept telling my dad that I sure would appreciate his help in fixing this so I could drive around uninterrupted. He kept saying, "One of these days." Finally he got tired of hearing me complain and got his tool box and we went out there and he found several things wrong with the cooling system. After he got thru fixing things he told me to fill up the car with water. I did and used up all that was left including the water bag for drinking. I was going to go in and fill up a couple of containers but he said "No its fixed now we will just drive around the loop and come back we won't need water because I think its fixed." So off we went and sure enough true to his word we drove four or five miles and the car didn't overheat. So we decided to take a trip down in the valley close to the railroad tracks. That was a distance of about 5 miles from home. About 2/3 of the way there something popped in the engine compartment and right away the car started to overheat to boiling. Of course we didn't have any water and so we thought we would just sit there and wait for the car to cool. We waited for about a half hour and I tried to crank it up but it wouldn't start. Thinking it was still too hot we waited another half hour and tried again. It still wouldn't start. So Dad says I guess we better walk home.

I reached for the water bag and then remembered we had used ALL our water to fill up the radiator and I hadn't gone back to get any more. It was 3 1/2 miles back home and it was all uphill. By the time we had walked the first mile we were spitting cotton and felt very uncomfortable. By the time we had walked the second mile we were really in trouble. We had both put rocks in our mouths to make spit but after a while that doesn't work either. We were down to walking about 100 yards at a time and stopping to rest by the time the 3rd mile passed. On the way we had to pass by Rinaldis well and cattle corral. Now the water in the water tanks was always scummy and the tanks were covered with green slime so I had never had a drink from the tanks. But when the wind was blowing and the windmill was cranked up I had drunk from the water pipe and it wasn't bad. There wasn't a breath of wind that day and so we drank from the tanks. It wasn't good tasting folks, but it was wonderful!!!! After drinking our fill and getting sick a little from not marshaling our thirsts we managed to get on home. The next day I had the runs from drinking that water. But to me it was worth it at the time. Lesson relearned. If your going out on the desert - TAKE LOTS OF WATER!!!!.

This is what Ridgecrest Blvd. looked like when I got my drivers license. Mitch Miller and his family lived in a house right across from the courthouse in those trees you see behind the toy shop. The car I took the test in was parked along the street right in front of their house and directly across the street from the courthouse. That was where my car starting faux pas occurred. I can still hear the peals of laughter!!!

It was about here that I got my drivers license. That was a great day!! I woke up excited and stayed that way all day until I walked into the County Building to take the test and perform the drivers test for the examiner. Before I went over to take the test my friend Mitchell Miller's mom told me it would be easier for me to do the drivers test with an automatic transmission and that I could use their car. I was just overjoyed at all the support I was getting. I went over and took the test and passed it with 100%. Then I met the drivers test examiner and we went out to the Miller's car and I slipped the keys into the ignition and twisted and nothing happened. I had never driven the car and didn't have a clue as to how to start it. I quickly excused myself and ran into the Miller's house and asked Mitchell's mom how to do it. She immediately broke out in peals of laughter. I was afraid there for a minute she wasn't going to be able to tell me because she was nearly apopleptic with laughter. She finally told me how to do it and I got back in the car and started up and took my test. I noticed however, that the examiner was smiling and laughing the whole time. I did pretty well on the drivers test and when we returned we went back into the County Building. As I was completing my paperwork I could hear the examiner in the back telling all the clerks and others of my faux pas. There were peals of laughter following me out the door as I left with my brand new shiny license in hand. At dinner that evening with the Miller's I had to put up with their mirth and laughter for almost a half hour before they dropped it.

My dad was proud about it and he would let me drive everywhere and he would brag to all his friends about how good a driver I was. Soon he told me that it was time I had my first car. We went to LA and found a 1948 Ford club coupe which I really loved and I drove home by myself that day. I really learned to drive on the back roads of the desert. I used to take off in the morning and drive just everywhere. I became so familiar with all those old roads and washes I could go anywhere in just a very short period of time. I learned how to make that old Ford go airborne on those back roads and also learned about all the driving tricks and methods needed to drive fast. I was indeed a speed freak and am to this day. I never drive the speed limit and have pushed the envelope so many times it seemed natural to me. Of course over the years I have paid the price of driving in this manner and there are many State Coffers with my money in them. Also there are many wasted cars left along the way.