<Begin Segment 12>

TI: So that helped you pass the time, because then after two more years, you had to move again.

MH: That's, we moved to Long Beach. And here, the parents rented a, which was a very nice house in the suburbs, which had a garden with a, with an ornamental pool, not a swimming pool, and various grounds around it. I know we set up a badminton court in one area. And also a garage with, with quarters over it for servants. So we had a chauffeur there and a cook, I think, who lived there with us. And that was, that was a nice place.

TI: And in Long Beach, what was your father's command in Long Beach?

MH: I think I have that in the record, and I don't...

TI: The, I think I have you down, oh, as the USS Pennsylvania?

MH: Staff officer in that, yes, War Plans, I think. Did I say that?

TI: Right.

MH: Yes.

TI: And it mentioned that during this time, that -- oh, this is the connection to Sonoma during this period.

MH: Yes, that's when my mother came up here to visit the widow of Jack London.

TI: So explain how your mother got to know the widow of Jack London.

MH: She, this was when she was a social reporter out in Honolulu. And Jack and Charmian London came through on his... I don't know what you would call it, vessel. It wasn't quite a yacht, that he was traveling, going to travel the South Seas. And he, he became ill there, was in the hospital, and as a social noter or whatever it was, went to visit him and met them both at that time.

TI: And then she struck up a friendship with them?

MH: And then it continued the friendship. And after Jack died, Charmian would come to visit us, actually. She stayed with us in Virginia, and she stayed with us in Long Beach.

TI: And so, so the widow of Jack London introduced you, or introduced your mother to this, this property in Sonoma?

MH: No, Mother came to visit her, and Mother, I guess, had the idea in her mind of possibly getting a property, and started looking around here. I think it's just incidental that that started.

TI: Well, so what's the story, how did this property come into the family hands? Is that later?

MH: That was, that was when I think this property was up for sale, or was one of the properties around here for sale. And so my mother talked my father into coming up to see it, he agreed, we all came up. And I remember very clearly that visit.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.