March 4-15, 1968: We're putting the fam back together

The previous post covered our final days in Los Angeles and the flight back to Texas. Today's post will cover the time shortly after we got back to Texas. Mom and I stayed with Uncle Wayne and Aunt Linda for some period of time after we got back, I assume at least until Mom got the utilities turned back on at the house we were renting in Carrollton, if not until Dad got back from L. A. Here are some pictures taken at their house while we were there. We'll start with the new kid on the block, my cousin Steven, who was a few days shy of four months old. Here he is in his play pen.

The caption on this next one is: "David giving Steven his morning orange juice."

Here's one of me sitting on the floor with Steven. That's Uncle Mike and his girlfriend Ann on the couch behind us. Ann became Aunt Ann in November of that year.

Here's another one of me and Steven sitting on the floor. Mom's caption on this one is: "David adjusting Steven's head for this picture." It looks like we're both looking at a different camera.

Mom's caption on this next one is: "Wayne, the proud pappa, and Steven and David."

Finally, my favorite one of the bunch, which Mom captioned: "Two tired cousins after a hard morning of play."

It was almost two weeks before Dad returned to Texas, as Mom predicted in one of the last letters. Here is the relevant entry from his expense report for March of 1968: "Departed from Los Angeles by personal automobile at 8:00 AM on March 13, 1968, and arrived in Dallas at 3:00 PM on March 15, 1968. Request is made for reimbursement of airling [sic] fare of $84.00 in lieu of automobile mileage and per diem based on air travel in lieu of automobile travel time." If Dad's arrival time in Dallas was indeed 3:00 PM on March 15, then his door to door time, taking into account the two-hour time difference, was 53 hours. Our door to door time on the trip from Texas to L. A., which was just to Los Angeles itself and not to a specific location since we didn't have an apartment yet, was 52 hours and 30 minutes. So much for Dad making the return trip a lot more quickly by himself. Either that or he adjusted the time on his expense report to reflect nearly three 8-hour driving days. Remember how in the last two letters Mom was concerned about whether everything would fit in the car? Whenever Mom talked about Dad driving back to Texas she loved to mention the fact that he had to ride with the two pinatas (Santa Claus and Hazel the witch) in the front seat with him because the trunk and the back seat were so full. She said it looked hilarious when he pulled up to the house. So when did Mom drop that kid, oops, I mean have that baby? We'll cover that in the next post.