1955 - The Trailer Years Begin

1955 Being hired by IBM meant moving to Milwaukee. We decided that we would move the trailer to the Jacobs Trailer Park on the northwest side of town. It was a nice park with concrete pads and patios. We found that living in a trailer when the temperature was below zero was a challenge. One night at 15 below Joan cooked our dinner and we sat down to eat. Later when we went to clean up we found that we had no water. I crawled under the trailer and found that when I had wrapped the water line there was a small gap just as the line went into the trailer. I took a drop light and placed it against the line and went back inside. Suddenly the water started to flow. I decided that I would leave the light there for a little while longer to warm the line some more. While we were doing the dishes we smelled smoke and I ran outside and found that the light was touching the tar paper on the bottom of the trailer and it was starting to burn. I moved the light and adjusted the insulation on the water line and then everything worked fine. We got our first electric bill from the trailer park and were shocked at the cost. I did some checking and then went to the office and complained. They said that the meter indicated that was our usage and they would not make an adjustment. After I complained we noticed that the street light in front of our lot was out. I complained about that several times and they said they would fix it. However, the next bill that we received was much lower. The assumption we made is that they were running the street lights on the individual lot meters. We moved soon afterwards so the problem remains an assumption. The IBM plan was to have me work in Milwaukee for about 6 weeks and then go to Endicott, New York for about 6 months for Customer Engineering School. We had two options. We would all go to Endicott or Mom would go back to Janesville. I talked to my manager and convinced him that it would be cheaper for IBM if I took the family and lived in a trailer park in New York. He agreed and the trip planning began. We knew that we would not be able to pull the trailer with the Plymouth so we went looking for another car and found a 1953 Dodge with a V8 engine. I installed a hitch and we packed the trailer and in the beginning of March we started our journey. The trailer towed quite well and we sailed along. At that time there were no interstate highways. The only good road was the Pennsylvania Turnpike which ran part way across the state. With the exception of Chicago, most of the other roads were two lanes. The weather was good and we made good time across Indiana and Ohio. In Youngstown, Ohio, I stopped at a gas station to ask where the connection was for the turnpike. When I walked back to the car I noticed that the

trailer was tipped down at the hitch. When I checked I saw that the cross member that the hitch was connected to had bent. This was caused by the rough roads and the fact that I did not realize that I should have strengthened the cross member when I installed the hitch. This was on a Saturday and I went looking for someone to straighten and reinforce the cross member. I finally found a man who did that work at his farm and he said that he would do it the next day. We found a motel and the next morning I went to the farm. The man said that he did not have a jack so I took out my bumper jack and we raised the car. He was pushing some metal supports under the car when the jack broke and came down on his thumb. I had to find some pipe to lift the car to allow him to get free. His thumb was badly damaged and I told him that I would take him to the emergency room for treatment. They looked at it and told him that it was swollen too much for them to do anything and that he should see a doctor after some of the swelling went down. I took him back home and he told me of a farm implement dealer who might be able to help me. This man looked at it and said that it was bent as much as it could bend and that we could just ignore it and keep going. I thanked him and went to the motel for Mom and Karen. Off we went again on our journey. We found the turnpike. It was very nice pulling the trailer on a good road. We approached a rest area/gas station and I asked Mom if she needed to stop. The sign said the next stop would be in 30 miles. I checked the gas gauge and figured we had plenty of gas for that distance and Mom didn't need to stop so we continued. However, when we got to the next stop it was closed for repairs. Also about that time it started to snow. It was starting to get dark and the roads were icing up. And now the gas gauge was getting close to empty. There were no towns or exits. At one time we were going down a hill and a semi passed me and the vacuum started to pull the trailer around. The road was slick and when I stepped on the gas to get the car moving faster than the trailer, the car could not get enough traction. It was very scary for a few moments until everything straightened out. Because it had been warm, the shoulders of the road were very soft and some cars had become stuck in the mud. I was afraid that we would not be able to get back on the road. There was a traffic jam at one of the tunnels and some of the trucks were having trouble getting started again. They were shoveling gravel from the shoulders to get traction. By now it was dark and cold. Mom was holding Karen in her arms and the gas gauge was now on Empty. It was a very scary moment. Suddenly we rounded a bend and saw the lights of a town. It was Somerset and there was an exit. I drove off and into the driveway of a motel. There were a line of people waiting to get a room for the night. The manager came out of one of the rooms and wanted to know who it was that was blocking the drive with the trailer. When I told him that we wanted a room he pointed to the room he had just left and told me to take that room and to move the trailer into the back parking lot. I said thank you very much and Mom and Karen quickly went to the room. I parked the car and trailer and we thanked God for getting us safely to Somerset. The next morning I went to fill the gas tank and it appeared that I only had 3 tenths of a gallon left. We went to the restaurant for breakfast and decided that we would call Morgan Drive Away again and let them take the trailer the rest of the way. That was the last time I towed a large trailer. As we drove from Somerset to Endicott we realized that we never would have been able to handle the trailer on the remaining mountain roads. When we arrived in Endicott we found a trailer park on the road between Endwell and Johnson City. It was a brand new park and they still had plenty of space available. It was built on a corn

field that was used the prior year. It was a nice park except the owner had never run a park before and we had to teach him some of the things he needed to do. After we had been there a little while, we realized that when he put in the streets he had not anticipated the fact that when the ground started to thaw the roads just floated on the top of the ground. If you drove quickly there was no problem, but when you stopped the car it would often start to sink into the ground. His solution in the beginning was to put more gravel in the holes, but he didn't realize that it just disappeared in the mud. We finally were able to convince him that he had to put rocks in there to build a base. We enjoyed living in the area and we took many short trips in random directions. At that time there were no safety things in cars and Karen just rode in a seat that hung from the seatback. On many of our rides we would ask Karen to point the way we were to go. This gave us some very interesting rides. During this time Karen thought anything with 4 legs were kitties. So, on our rides around farms she would often get excited about the Moo-Kitties that she would see. She also enjoyed watching the Kitty-pillars in the dirt around the trailer. There was a young family that lived behind us and Karen and the husband Don would often sit on the porch steps and have some long conversations. It was an interesting time to be in Endicott. IBM was expanding very quickly and there was not enough room in the Ed Center to train all of the people so they took over many different vacant properties. I had classes in a grocery store, an Oldsmobile dealership, an old fire station, and several others. There was a piano in each of the facilities and once a week before classes started a man who worked in the factory would come and play the piano. We used our IBM song book and had a great song fest. It sounds corny but it did loosen everyone up before we settled in for the class day. Near the end of my training, I was told that they had over-hired for the Milwaukee branch and there was no place for me. They asked if I had any objections about going somewhere else. I told them that I would not go to New York, Philadelphia, or Chicago. At that time I was not aware that IBM had an office in Rockford that serviced Janesville. They offered Baltimore. One of my classmates was from Baltimore and I talked to him and he told me what a great town it was and that we would like it there. I was conditioned by the Navy not to challenge the orders. They also did not tell us that we were allowed to have a look-see visit before we made up our minds. We asked them if we could go back to Janesville to pick up stuff that we had left there when we went to Milwaukee. They said yes. It wasn't until sometime later that I found out that they had not disclosed a number of benefits that we should have been made aware of. They got us in Baltimore very inexpensively. We said yes and told them to move the trailer to Baltimore. We looked up a trailer park and made a reservation. We then went to Janesville, picked up our things, and headed down to Baltimore. When we arrived we found the trailer at the end of a nice tree-lined, dead end street. There was a small hill with a chain link fence that ran alongside the lot. On the other side of the fence was the Martin Aircraft Company. And the building that was adjacent to us was the test facility for their jet engine development. We quickly found that when we were sitting on our patio and they fired up an engine we had to shout at each other. Suddenly the

engine was shut off and we were still shouting. The security patrolled the fence and we and Karen had some good conversations during that summer. After working for about 6 months in downtown Baltimore, I was transferred to the Martin Aircraft Company. Martin was very convenient because we were living next to the plant. However, after another few months, there was a small swimming area on the bay that was around the corner from us, that was called Miami Beach. One day I took Karen over to see Miami Beach. When we came back she ran in and told Mom that I had taken her to Daddy's Ami Beach. After not too long we realized that the 36 foot trailer was squeezing us too much. We were not yet ready to buy or rent a house so we decided that we would upgrade. At that time they had not started to manufacture anything that was wider than 8 feet, so our choice was an increase in length. We settled for a 46 foot long Westwood trailer from a dealer who was between Baltimore and Washington. We had a delivery date set and my manager told me that I would be going to a two week class in DC. I talked to the dealer about delivering the trailer to DC instead of Baltimore. I then convinced my manager that it would be cheaper to pay my trailer moving cost and trailer park rental than to pay my hotel and meal expenses. They agreed and the dealer found a site that was on the island across from Jefferson Memorial. At this time Gail was working in DC and Mom and Dad Osterhus were planning to come to DC for a visit at the same time we were going to be living there. We made the move in the 36 foot trailer and then at the end of the week they parked the 46 foot on a lot and put the 36 foot alongside. We put some boards between the two trailers and simply walked from one to the other to move our things. When the 36 foot was empty they took it away and we were moved. That night it was cool so I started a fire in the furnace. Suddenly the trailer filled with smoke. This was caused by the oil and paint on the furnace and ducts. There was no danger but we knew that we had to run the furnace for awhile to burn off the residue. We turned off the heat and the next night I stayed in the trailer while Mom, Karen, Grandma, and Grandpa went to Gail's for dinner. I opened all the windows and doors. I then started the furnace and made my supper. I expected a period of smoke but was surprised that it had already burned off on the first use. As it turned out, the DC site was great because we were living almost in the center of DC. It was the perfect place to do sightseeing from. When the class was over the trailer was delivered back to the same trailer park. This was more in the center of the park, which was away from the aircraft plant noise. After working for about 6 months in downtown Baltimore, I was transferred to the Martin Aircraft Company. Martin was very convenient because we were living next to the plant. However, after another few months, IBM needed a CE to cover the Army Chemical Center and Hartford Mutual Insurance in Bel Air. This was considered a remote territory. This meant that I would be working on my own. The calls came into a phone number at the Chemical Center account. The customer kept a listing of where I was and acted as a remote dispatcher. It was a major change for me as I had total responsibility to keep the customers satisfied. By this time we had spent a year in the Baltimore area and we decided that we would

really like to move back to the Midwest. I told my manager that I would like to transfer to the Rockford branch office. He told me that it would take at least a year to find an opening there and replace me in the Baltimore branch. I told him that we would be willing to wait.