When I was about seventeen Dad had one of the operations on his eyes and was supposed to not lift anything over 5 lbs for several weeks. Keeping him from hauling hay, feeding cows and doing all the chores that have to be done everyday was a full time job. Jim was on his way back to the states from his mission in Mexico so they decided to meet him in LA, visit Marguerite, who lived in Northridge, CA and visit Jean who lived in Las Vegas.

Dad could not drive and Mom wasn’t very confident in her abilities by then so I drove them to LA I drove all the way to LA except for about an hour that I asked Mom to drive so I could sleep. I learned to parallel park between two hay bales and had driven to Billings a couple of times but had no idea what I was getting myself into at Las Vegas or Los Angeles. I couldn’t even imagine having 4 lanes of traffic going the same direction at the same time. This was all so different than our two lane roads in Wyoming and I was ill prepared for that trip. Other than missing the turnoff because I was in the wrong lane a few times, I think I did pretty well.

This trip coincided with the Watts Riots during the late 60’s which made it “oh so much more interesting.” Carlos had tickets to a Dodgers Baseball game the first night we were there but was really leery about going because they were predicting bombings and shootings at the game. Dad wanted to go so Carlos decided to take the chance so Dad, Jim and I went with him. I believe they played Philadelphia and we were able to watch Sandy Koufax, Maury Wills and a few other stars play. There were no riots or incidents but lots of scary people hanging around the stadium. It turned out to be fun and we were glad we went.

Marguerite and Carlos had a swimming pool at their home and one afternoon we were in the pool splashing around and having fun. Dad decided to join us and tried to walk through a sliding glass door. Luckily, the only thing hurt was his pride.

When we got back to Vegas Jim wanted to run down to Needles, CA and visit Don Cutler who was still out on his mission. Dave Cowley had recently gotten his pilot’s license and offered to fly us over to Needles. We had a fun day but never did connect with Don. Jim told me the other day that he did get a letter from Don later saying he chased us back to the airport and pulled in just in time to watch our plane leave the ground.

Judy Tippetts Wray