by Mary (Lockwood) Branin
Photo: Mary in Desert 1950
San Diego was a big city to the Lockwoods who came there in 1944 from Escondido, a small town about 30 miles to the North. At summer church camps my sister, Florence, and I had met some of the young people who attended Asbury Methodist Church. Therefore, we decided to make that our church home even though it was further east than our neighborhood. I soon made friends and especially remember Vivian Pray, Barbara Clark and Mason Williams.
We two sisters got a city map and began finding our way round the city by bus and streetcar. Florence quickly got a clerical job in the County mailroom at the Civic Center. I enrolled for my senior year at San Diego High School where the dress code forbade dresses. We had to wear skirts and blouses. Sweaters were only allowed over blouses.
I soon became acquainted with Vera Doan, a sophomore who lived a few blocks from our home. She had recently moved to San Diego from the Chicago area so also knew none of the other students. In gym class I met Lorraine Thomson, who became one of my best friends. Her home was in Ocean Beach.
Since I only needed a few credits to graduate I worked one period in the business office and one period as study hall monitor. When mother took a job as a seasonal worker in the assessor’s office I got excused from school early to go home and do housework and fix the evening meal. I learned very little about cooking as Mother did all the planning and left notes with specific instructions for times to turn on oven, etc.
For high school graduation my parents gave me an Underwood typewriter but we had to wait nearly a year for delivery till post-war production caught up with demand.
In June of 1945 I was maid-of-honor when Florence married a sailor, Thomas William Allen. Dad strongly opposed the marriage but after talking to the minister agreed to ‘give the bride away’. I now had a bedroom to my self and no longer had my sister for a social crutch. I was forced to come out of my shell. When Tom got out of the Navy they moved to his hometown, Ladysmith, Wisconsin.
I tried to get a summer job but couldn’t find anyone willing to hire a timid 16-year-old with no skills or experience. Rather than waste my time I enrolled in Vocational School in the downtown Spreckels Building. I took a bus and transferred to a streetcar to reach the school. I took office classes including business machines, shorthand and bookkeeping and found I had a real aptitude for office work. My bookkeeping teacher couldn’t believe I hadn’t studied bookkeeping before when I caught on so quickly.
The school would have helped me find a job but I was so sure I wanted to be a teacher that I entered San Diego State College in September. Since I was to use the ’29 Ford to get to college it was time to get a driver’s license. While still on my temporary permit I got my one and only traffic ticket. On my way to school one morning I drove through an intersection with a pedestrian at the center island waiting to cross. Dad had to go with me to court where I was given a warning about being more careful but received no fine. To this date I have never gotten another ticket.
The college work was more of a challenge and I found I could no longer coast through and expect any A’s. After one semester I went back to Vocational School and the classes I really liked. I was asked to substitute as the school secretary when the regular gal wanted time off while her husband was home on leave.
During Easter week of 1946 a group of us girls went to Pine Valley to spend a few days in a rented cabin. The group included Lorraine Thomson, Vivian Pray, Marilyn Cesmat and myself. Marilyn was another friend I had met at church. I remember when we wanted to fix Kraft macaroni and cheese for supper we couldn’t find a saucepan large enough. In desperation we used the aluminum dishpan. I was able to use the ’29 Ford as my personal car by then since Dad had added a ’46 Ford to the fleet of family cars. Access to a car helped get me included in lots of adventures with my friends. We managed to meet boys at church, the beach and the amusement center at Mission Beach.
By May of 1946 I passed civil service exams and was hired as Junior Stenographer in the Department of Public Welfare. I worked several weeks before it dawned on management that I needed a work permit. Employees under 18 were seldom hired. I was assigned to clerk in Area B of Old Age Assistance. I did the typing for six social workers and their supervisor, Miss Loring. I met another clerk, Joy Clark, who often went to lunch with me. I was horrified to learn that she was 35, twice my age. Marilyn Davis was the senior clerk who trained me. Although she was quite obese she had a beautiful complexion. She never went outside without wearing a full-length coat and wide brimmed hat.
In September of 1946 Florence gave birth to Dennis Michael Allen in Ladysmith. She sent pictures but we didn’t get to know him until the young family moved back to San Diego in 1948. I have regretted that I didn’t visit Wisconsin while they lived there. It is one of the few states that I have never visited.
It was in February of 1948 that my friend, Lorraine, and I took a bus trip to New Orleans for Mardi Gras. We stayed at the home of a former San Diego High classmate, Dolly Hardin, now Mrs. Dennis Naquin. Dolly knew several young men so we soon had escorts to visit nightclubs and watch parades. I had my first alcoholic beverage, rum and coke. As I sipped my drink I waited for some effect but was a little disappointed when I didn’t even feel a bit light-headed.
Social workers came and went during the months in the office and in 1948 we acquired a new worker, Herman Branin. Little did I know that this man would become so important in my future! Since I was a teenager anyone seven years older seemed pretty ancient. The passing years narrowed this gap.
Mother learned that the Canadian Australia Steamship Company was resuming passenger service from Vancouver, Canada to Sydney, Australia, which had been stopped during World War II. Mother and I started making plans to make the trip. Flo had been saving for just such a trip since her days of baby- sitting. Now with a husband and two-year old son it seemed impossible. However, her husband, Tom felt that she should go since she had wanted the trip for so many years. Of course, Denny would go, too.
Details were worked out including getting passports. I remember the sign in the photographer’s waiting room that read, “It takes at least 7 days at sea to look like your passport photo.” I purchased a footlocker at a surplus store. Mother still had the steamer trunk from her trip to California. We took a Greyhound bus from San Diego to Vancouver. The bus was full of a very nice bunch of Navy boys just out of boot camp on their first leave. We had shipped our big trunks ahead but had to claim them at the Canadian border for custom inspection. In Vancouver we boarded the H. M. S. Aorangi on November 18, 1948 and were assigned a cabin for four in the cheapest section of the ship. It held two sets of bunk beds and was two flights below the open deck. The bathroom was down the hall with salt water for bathing. One day I decided to splurge and had my hair washed and set in the beauty salon. Alas, as soon as I stepped out on deck the coif blew apart.
By November 25, Thanksgiving Day, we were docked in Honolulu. Shops were closed for the holiday but a group of us rented a car and drove into the country with me at the wheel. We saw lovely lush scenery before returning to the city where the day ended with wind and rain. Mother’s heel slipped sideways and she gracefully sat down. One knee went through a stocking and she had a bruise or two.
By the time we got to Suva in the Fiji Islands I was keeping company with Neil Handley a quartermaster on the ship. He looked so smashing in his white dress uniform. His job was steering the ship so when we were docked he was free to spend the day with me. By the time the ship got to Sydney we were talking marriage.
We were docked for three days in Auckland for the unloading and loading of cargo. We grabbed the opportunity to eat all our meals except breakfasts on shore and enjoyed the change of diet.
In Sydney on Friday, December 10, Aunt Mai and Uncle Hal met us. Since weather had caused us to arrive a day late and train seats were booked on to Adelaide we only had a few hours to spend in Sydney. Mother went off with Hal and Mai while Flo, Denny and I went driving with Neil. We met at the train and left for Melbourne at 7:30 PM. Next day we had a few hours between trains in Melbourne and so visited with cousin, Peg. We had a second night on a train and arrived at Adelaide Station by 10 AM and found a welcoming committee of 8 or 10. We were driven to a suburb, Eden Hills, which will be our headquarters for the five months we are in Australia. The train station was just a few steps downhill where we could catch a train into the city. We had a chance to meet many aunts, uncles and cousins and finally get them sorted out in our minds.
My favorite cousin was Mary Irene Lyne who had just finished her teacher training. While we were in Australia she got her first teaching assignment near Bordertown.
In February we took a train across the Nullabor (treeless plain) to Perth in Western Australia and met more relatives. We were able to renew our acquaintance with Uncle Les who had lived in Los Angeles from 1921 to 1939. In the West I had a chance for my first plane ride when we went out to Rottnest Island. We also visited some of the beaches where Dad had spent sunny days as a boy.
Back in South Australia Flo and I found our way to the home of Dad’s younger brother, Bob. When we dropped in we found his wife, Iris, home but Bob was out. We arranged to meet later and were able to get acquainted. Bob and Iris had two children, Dawn and Kenny. Uncle Bob was only ten years older than Flo.
When we got back to Eden Hills cousin Mary Irene arranged many beach outings, lamb chop picnics, country dances and visits with relatives and friends. In April I was invited to participate in the Junior Red Cross Debutante Ball. This meant shopping for a white formal, gloves and shoes and ordering flowers. A friend loaned me her boyfriend for my escort.
When friends offered to drive us back to Sydney and wanted me to help share the driving, I applied for a driver’s license. On the trip to Sydney it was not unusual for our friend to approach a farmhouse with her billy can. She would ask for a can of hot water to make tea for our picnic lunch. We had a few days in Sydney this time and Hal and Mai had arranged for a beach house for Denny, Flo and me. Mother was able to stay with them in their apartment. Neil was available and showed us around the city and beaches. I still thought I would marry him but by the time we got back to Vancouver the shipboard romance had paled. I wasn’t keen on moving to Australia and Neil couldn’t see emigrating to the US. I then looked forward to getting back to San Diego and looking up my friends. Top of the list was George Clayton, a sailor I had met through Flo’s husband, Tom.
To make the trip to Australia Flo and I had applied for leaves of absence from our jobs. Flo’s application was accepted but I had to quit my job. However, when I returned clerks were shuffled around so I could return to my former desk and the group of social workers I knew.
In June that elderly gentleman in the office, Herman Branin, invited me on a picnic. We would be taking his friends, Frank and Meche’ Alverson, along to inspect a trout farm in Alpine. I can’t imagine what I contributed to the picnic, as I had no cooking skills. First we dropped off their young son, Franklin, at Meche’s mother’s home.
This date was followed with trips to Starlight Opera, plays at the Old Globe Theater and drives around the county. After a few months of dating I grew bored with Herman and began dating Jim Mattingly. Jim was a friend of Bob Piersall, who was dating my sister. Flo had obtained a divorce shortly after our return from Australia.
Jim asked me to marry him and we talked of a wedding around Christmas time. We were trying to find a house to buy but anything in our price range was not fit to live in. It was just as well because after a couple of months I began getting bored with Jim and was again interested in Herman.
As New Year’s approached I was afraid I would be without a date so I contacted George Clayton and arranged to go to his sister, Rachel’s, in Pomona over the New Year’s weekend. In the meantime Herman and I were again dating and I found I could have gone to a party with him but I was already committed to my date with George. A week later Terry Elliott, a cute redhead in the office, was teasing my about Herman’s antics at the party. I was rude enough to cut her off by saying, “You’re no threat!”
One of the social workers, Beverly Jones, and I decided we wanted to have a weekend at Big Bear to try skiing. We talked Herman into driving us up there with the expenses being split three ways. By the time the weekend arrived Beverly had to back out as she had a family emergency. Herman and I went ahead with the plan that caused some broad grins among the other workers in our office. We spent Friday night in Hemet visiting Herm’s mother. She later said she could tell by the gleam in my eye that I was in love with Herm. I sure did not know it at that point. My memory is hazy but I think we later made another trip to Big Bear with Beverly going along.
Herm and I had a lot of common interests but also had a lot of differences. I remember Herm invited me to a minor league baseball game between the San Diego Padres and the Sacramento Solons. My brother, John, realized I must be serious about Herm since I had never shown any interest in sports. To top off the day it was a double header on a very hot day and we stayed to the bitter end. That ended my pretense at interests in sports.
Never before had I resumed dating a fellow after once breaking up with him. With Herm I found we could drive for miles without the need of a continual conversation. Just being together was comfortable. We are amazed at pictures of us visiting Borrego Springs with Herm in a suit and tie. What were we doing in such formal attire?
For the President’s holiday in February of 1950 Flo and I took Dennis to Los Angeles. When we got home I called Herm and he came over to spend the evening. That evening I realized he was the one for me. I think he had a lot of the same qualities that I admired in my father. They were both steady, smart, reliable and completely honest. Herm would make a great father for my children.
Since I was not entitled to vacation time until I had completed a year of work, we planned a June wedding. To perform the ceremony we picked Reverend William Jones, a fellow social worker and retired clergyman. Flo and John would be our witnesses. The noon wedding took place in my parents’ living room. Herm’s mother, Aunt Pearl, Uncle Charles and sister-in-law Donna came for the event. Mother had a black woman, Dolly, help serve the ham dinner following the ceremony. Dolly stood in the doorway watching the proceedings and crying. She told us she had never seen a white folk wedding before.
We loaded my suitcase into the car but I forgot the clothes I had hanging in my closet. The first night of our honeymoon was spent at a motel in Ventura. The second day we had to stop in Fresno to buy me some more clothes. I think Herm suspected it was a plot. We had reservations for a tent cabin at Yosemite. We ate in the cafeteria and spent our days hiking some of the trails. I especially enjoyed Happy Isles with water tumbling over rocks.
When we left Yosemite we went to Carmel with a stop in Walnut Creek to visit Marion Blum. She had worked with us in San Diego before moving to Walnut Creek.
Our first home was a small one-bedroom house on Mississippi Street in San Diego. Herm was great at teaching me how to cook. He had been doing his own cooking in an apartment and had learned how to make the different components of a meal ready to eat at the same moment. I could follow a recipe but was intimidated when standing at a meat counter. I could fix a pot of tea but had never brewed coffee. We did survive and I gradually learned the art of cooking a meal. I had already learned how to make pies and enjoyed baking them nearly every week.
By October I was pregnant but I continued working until March of 1951. I then had free time to sew maternity clothes. We had decided that we wanted to raise our kids in a small town so found a house to buy in Escondido. This was really still a small town in those days. The house needed lots of repair so we lived with my parents to save money for the house payments. This enabled me to stick with the San Diego obstetrician until after the baby came. Lynette Marie was born on July 18 and we moved to Escondido a few weeks later. This ended my years living in San Diego.