Lester built a rock house for his wife Verna just before I was born, in Austin Texas. They had two boys [Sidney Arthur and Lester Charles] and I made three. My cousin Verna Warwick writes: Christie was an adorable, cuddly, Blonde-haired baby girl who was the "apple of her daddy's eye." By the time Christie was 3 and the family was leaving Texas, Christie was walking, talking, and stealing every one's heart away. In 1954 when grandfather Arlie died, Verna Warwick attended the funeral and said, Christie was a 12 year old going on 20-very active.I remember driving away in a big-round black 4-door car. I got to ride on the back window, as my brothers didn't want me in the same seat as they were in. We arrived downtown and rented an apartment there. It wasn't long until Lester got his feet in the door of construction and he began building again. We moved to lester street in a yellow painted house. Lester got a dog named Penny for the children. That dog followed me around everywhere. Mom would find the dog first and then me. Tucson was wide-open back then-dirt streets and a small city. Lester began building. He came across Sam Witt, who had assest and they became partners. The city began to explode with houses and shops. They built them in sections of 100's of houses. Each one had a name, so they could advertise the open house sales.
I remember one open house that was furnished. It was all the NEW styles. The kitchen had a stove that slid out towards you with the burners. The oven part-separated into two ovens just above the stove burners. The dining room had a wood table that could stay near the wall for two-four persons and then would unfold into a long, very long, table for dinner parties. The kitchen table was a tiny oblong top with two sides that folded out for a quiet couple to eat upon. When I bought an older home in 1988', it had that same stove type in it.
My dad was always saving money for the construction company. He would work nights to develop plans to make small changes in the homes they were building, to develop the neighborhoods with different looking houses outside and inside. He used hard plastic-see through templates. He showed me how he would turn them over or move them around the plan, to develop a different look for the home. He had the ability to see a two-story house on paper and see it in his head with one level over the top of the bottom level. He found many mistakes in other peoples plans with that gift. Besides the house design, there were plumbing, fireplaces, water, electric, gas, and other pages to complete the plan for one home. I used to look over his shoulder and watch him draw the plans. I had to be quiet though. No one made any noise when Dad worked. I wanted so MUCH to be an architect when I grew up, just like dad. I called him Pop. He started me rubbing his back when he'd come home and clean up after supper. I loved my Dad and admired him with all the things he knew how to do. I think I thought all dad's could do all these things.
My dad was a fisherman. He built a cabana in Cholla Bay, Mexico and we took week-end visits to be at the beach. He had a small cabin cruiser that he took out into the ocean and would usually catch 500 pounds of fish for a party he was going to throw at home later. Mom had a 25 foot freezer that would be loaded down after the trip. Mom would plan the food and I would help her make it. I got really good at making potato salad in 40 pound bowl-sections. Mom also used me to cook for other events and parties. Dad would have the native people clean the fish and put it in big ice chests for the trip back home. Lester would always bring them bikes, chairs, clothes or whatever they asked for him to bring on his next trip back. He became very well know and friendly with the people who lived there in Cholla Bay.
My dad was a hunter. He hunted game for the Arizona Desert Senora Museum. It is a huge and fantastic museum. He would catch them, put them in pens in our back yard and later he would donate them to the Museum. I can remember, 7 red fox, 2 racoons, a badger, a skunk, a porcopine, big cats, owls, homing pidgeons, even an elephant. His favorite was a Lynx Bob Cat. this cat was under the ramada in our back yard. It was quite large for a cat - more like a big dog size. when it would get out of the cage it would hunt down the neighbors doge and whack them around. Dad would just laugh. Dad's hands were so touch from lime and cement over the years that the cat rarely cut into his flesh wit its claws. It had been raised to hunt game with its master. However, one day the cat turned on its master and tore part of his arm off. Dad wasn't worried about that - he just kept him well fed with horse-meat. It was a pet for Lester. He had the University of Arizona come out and take pictures of the cat and they made our cat the Mascot for the teams. Lester would get into the cage and play rough with the cat. It make for great photos. The one thing that the cat, sylvester, liked to do, was to jump on the back of any woman who was wearing a dress. Not pants, only a dress. It would scare them frightless. That is what happend to one of my girlfriend Linda Campbell one day. I didn't know the cat was out of the cage and whap--it jump onto her back. She screamed, dad came over and got the cat off. It didn't claw her at all. It was only playing! I saw the cat jump from the ground to the high roof of our house in one swoop. I was amazed at the strength and dexterity of the animal. It of course, bite through my fore-arm one day when I had guests over. They thought it would be fun to let it out, without my permission. I picked it up to put it back in the cage and it didn't want to go there. I carefully said, "nice kitty-kitty" and slowly put it back on the ground, so it would take its teeth out of my arm. I went to the hospital and got a tetnus shoot. The hospital called it in to the pound and they proceeded to come out and take the cat. What a messy sight.
You guess the rest. Dad was angry they abused the cat.
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