Uncle Oscar furnished the BEST playground

 The First Playplace

Now, Friday..

I miss life on the road and the compact quarters. Sherry has mixed emotions, misses some of it. She did not start a nomadic life style until she was 18 and married me. I had already lived in 7 different towns, attending 4 different schools while she lived in Belmont and kept the many of the same classmates thru school.

Uncle Oscar was a memorable nomad. He mostly stayed in the same 4 states, but after leaving Lockheed in the mid 40s he moved his family around following his dreams. He ran a garage, used car lot, a bread route, a grocery store, did a few years of upholstery until he bought a garage and junk yard.

 

This time when we visited Uncle Oscar I knew he had finally made it. Now it was fun to visit Uncle Oscar. Dad, and Oscar would talk as they sat around a 50 gallon drum converted to burn used motor oil. I don’t remember Oscar doing any work while we were there, but boy did I have a time. I drove every junk car in the yard.  I raced some of them, I day-dreamed of driving thru the mountains and dodging bears. I imagined folks in the junk cars around me. We were on highways, dirt roads and high bridges.

Many times on visits unless there were cousins there, I was ready to go in a short time, but not at the junk yard.

The junk yard, playing in cars, was a boy’s dream. 

I was told Oscar, ‘was never the boss.’ No one around knew he owned any business. When he had his own car lot, people would dicker. I was told he would say, “Let me call the boss about that price, I’ll be right back.”  He would fake a phone call, return to say something like, “He can’t do that, but he will come to this figure.”

(I located a desert hiker here on the internet. I was attracted by some great photography of the desert. BUT I hate to say it, the JUNK cars he discovered in the desert hooked me. the silent beauty of 1920's trucks at times stuck. Spre parts & Pics caught my eye)
https://sparepartsandpics.blogspot.com/2020/04/clarks-pass-hike-back.html )

There were several other nomads in our extended family. Daddy was early in his life. Of my siblings, Kat married a preacher and they traveled over the world. Their last years were RVng with us; driving out west and to Alaska.

Most everyone travels some; any special places or unforgettable people?

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