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                            Autobiography:  Harold Hammond

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Harold was born in Marion Springs, Michigan Dec 29 1934. He was the 10th child in a family of 11. There were 7 girls and 4 boys.  <>

1.  Wava Hammond                      b. 11 Dec 1919

2.  Bernard Lee Hammond           b. 30 Aug 1921 d.

3.  Viola Esther Hammond           b. 10 Sep 1923

4.  Leonard Hammond                  b. 13 Nov 1926 d.

5.  Eleen Hammond                      b. 10 Dec 1927 d.       1980

6.  Maxine Hammond (twin)        b.  2 Jan 1929 d.

7.  Max Carl Hammond  (twin)    b.  2 Jan 1929 d.

8.  Betty Lou Hammond               b. 18 May 1931

9.  Shirley Mae Hammond*          b. 26 Sep 1933

10. Harold Dean Hammond*        b. 29 Dec 1934 d. 21 Feb 2009

<>11. Ruth Hammond*                     b.  8 Nov 1936

                             

 Lester Hammond, my grandfather left Michigan abruptly in 1937. My mother Wava Hammond Boyd and my dad were supposed to go over for dinner one Sunday in 1937. When they got there the house was empty. Even the furniture was gone. Mom never knew what happened to them for several years. This is Uncle Harold Hammond’s account of the trip and some of his early life.   Richard G. Boyd

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  <>“We left Michigan in 1937 and went to Arkansas. In Arkansas we got some homestead land. We tried to grow corn but rocks came up! We grew sorghum to be made into molasses syrup. We would take the sorghum to the mill where it would be made into syrup. The mill would keep half and we kept the other half to sell. The country was suntil in the depression so there was no money. People would trade things. We then moved to Oklahoma. In Oklahoma my father went to work for the WPA. This was a government program to get people back to work. They would work for the government building roads, dams and whatever else they had going at the time. My brother Bernard went to work for the CCC. This was a government job working for the Department of Forestry. They would plant trees and clear trails. This job was for young men. Most of their salary was sent home to their families.

  <>When we left Michigan there were 12 of us, my mother, my father and 10 kids. My sister Wava Boyd stayed in Michigan with her husband Mancell Boyd and son. We left with a truck and trailer. I don’t remember much about Arkansas. I remember sitting on my father's lap in front of the fire place. He was smoking a pipe he let me smoke his pipe. I got sick and threw up I ran to my mother and told her that I was sick. In Oklahoma I use to go down to a pond and catch turtles. I use to drag them home and cut their head's off with a saw. My father told me that if I would leave them alone he would get me a dog so I left them alone. One day we were going to town we saw a black man with a dog and my father bought him for me. My father paid twenty five cents for him. In those days a quarter was called two bits so we name him "Two Bits". One day Two Bits got rabies. He chased my brother Lenard around the house and then he ran off into the woods.

  <>In Oklahoma my brother Max and I went fishing one day. We caught some fish and put them on a stringer and put the stringer and fish into the water. When we got ready to go home we pulled our stringer out the water and all we had was fish heads, the turtles had eaten them. One day I was walking home and this funny looking bird was following me. It was a road runner. I was only 4 or 5 years old and this bird scared me. I started running and it ran after me. When I stop the bird would stop so I chased it then it would run away from me.

  <>In Oklahoma my father sent my mother back to Michigan, he had taken up with a woman named Vallie. She had five girls and one girl was living with her father in Minnesota. Her name was Violet. The other girls lived with her. Their names were Thelma, Vallie, Mary Ann, and Myrtle that made 14 kids and 2 adults. Our neighbors had a dairy and one day I was over there when they were milking. We were in the hay loft throwing hay down to the cows. They told me not to look down, I did and I woke up at home with a big knot on my head.

  <>My father quit his Job with the MPA and got my brother Bernard out of the CCC . He then he decided to move west. We left Oklahoma and started west. There were 14 kids and 2 adults and one pet pig in a truck and a trailer. It was like the movie The Grapes of Wrath. We were in the mountains of New Mexico when the motor blew up. I remember sitting in the cab of the truck and watching my two brothers, Lenard and Bernard, working the window wipers. It was snowing and we were coasting down hill into Roswell, New Mexico. In Roswell Vallie and us kids went to work picking vegetables in the fields. My father traded our pet pig for a motor for the truck. My father installed the motor in the truck while we worked and made money. It doesn't take 14 kids very long to make money.

  <>My father decided to move on so we moved on west. Our next stop was Phoenix, Arizona. We lived in a government run camp where us kids had to go to school. That was my first time in school and I was 5 years old; this was 1940. My father got in a fight over Vallie and he bit a man's ear off. We had to leave fast to keep him from going to jail. We headed west and went to California. When we got to California we went to work for a Mr. Rumble he let us live in a old barn. We cleaned out the old barn and lived in it until we had enough money to rent a place to live. It didn't take 14 kids and 2 adults picking fruit very long to make money. We moved to Salida and we had to rent two cabins to hold us all. Then my father bought a house at 4561 Mason Street in Salida. This house had been part of the train station in Salida. It had moved down from the rail road tracks. This was 1941 and I was 6 years old. I lived in that house until Jan, 1954 when I join the U. S. Air Force. 

  I went to Salida Elementary School from first through the eighth grade. My first teacher was Mrs. Perkins. Mrs. Perkins put me in this boys seat because she thought we looked a lot alike from behind. She had me set in his desk with my head down. When he came into the class room and saw me in his seat he got angry and after that we were enemies until I left Salida in 1954. Salida was a small town of about 2100 people when I left. Every one knew every one else in town. When we were at someone's house we better behave because if that parent had to punish us we would be punished again when we got home. Nowadays you can not spank your own children.

  <>I grew up like most American kids, I went to school, played ball, went fishing, worked in the fields picking fruit, cutting grapes and picking up walnuts. My father and Vallie split up and her and her girls left.

  <>My brother Bernard had been drafted into the army and was in World War II. My father had a wrecking yard. We recycled car parts and sold scrap metal for the war effort. My father had a auto wrecking yard in Marion Springs in Michigan before 1934. I was born across the street from it. The house were I was born is now gone and in its place is a baseball field. After the war  my brother Bernard came home. He married Vallie's oldest daughter Violet. When Max and Lenard moved out I had to work in the wrecking yard for my father. After Vallie left my father moved in Addie Mae Richards and they were married in 1949. Addie Mae had one child and his name was John Edward Davis. John spent most of his adult life in prison. He had gotten a disease in his intestine and died at home in Salida. Addie Mae's sister had died and my father said there was always room for one more so they went to Mississippi and brought the kids home to live with us. Their names were Betty Arrol James and Bonnie Jean James.

  <>I joined the U.S. Air Force in January 1954 when I was 19 years old. I was sent to San Antonio, Texas for boot camp. I was there from Jan 1954 to April 1954. From Texas I went to Chanute Air Force Base in Illinois to go to school. Then I went to Air craft Electrical school. I finished in November in 1954. I was then sent to Edwards Air Base in California. Edwards Air Force was the Air Flight Test Center where all the new airplanes where tested before the Air Force bought them. I worked on lot of airplanes that the Air Force never bought. It was at Edwards when Chuck Yaeger broke the sound barrier in Bell, CA.

   <>I met Harlene L. Johnson in November 1954 while on leave. I was stationed at Edwards until August of 1956. I was then sent Harmon A.F.B. in Newfoundland. While on leave I married Harlene Johnson September 8 1956. I was in Newfoundland when my first son was Allan was born. I got an early out in November of 1957 and went home to my family. Harlene was living with her father in Hayward, California. We left Hayward and went to Los Angles, California looking for work. I got a job working for Woolworth washing dishes but l couldn’t feed my family on this.

  <>I re-enlisted in the Air Force on Dec 15, 1957. They sent me to George Air Force Base at Victoryville, California. Harlene got pregnant with my son Daniel “Danny” Lee. I wasn't at George long . George was in the Mojave desert and it was hard to find a place to rent, I had to live in Redland . Redland Was 50 miles from George A.F.B. base and I had to drive 100 miles a day. I traded with another person and went to Hamilton A.F.B. in San Rafael, Calif. I arrived there April 1958. I stayed there until Dec 13, 1963. Harlene and I got a divorce and it was final in November of 1963. Harlene Married Keith Marsh two days later.

<>    I had custody of my two sons Alan and Danny. I was honorably discharged from the U.S. Air Force on Dec. 1963. I went home to Salida, California to be with my two sons who were living with my parents,  I worked at several jobs until I got a job with the Tracy Defense Depot. I worked there ununtil Oct 1965 when transferred to Travis A.F.B. I started Working at Travis on Oct 16, 1965. While living in Salida I got a lady pregnant her name was Margie May Keeling. My son David Wayne Costa was born Oct. 30, 1965. David has given me six grand children, five grandsons and one grand daughter. Two are twin boys.

   I retired from Travis on Oct 16 1987 with 22 years to the day I started, I received about 63 percent of my pay, I had a medical retirement. I was 53 years old. In 1970 I met Sharon Louise Lambert. She was from Manteca, California. We were married in my house at 331 Berryassa Drive, Vacaville, California. Her parents and her brothers, Terry and Larry and Larry's wife Becky was there. Becky and Larry were best man and maid of honor. This was on 18 Aug 1970 at my home at 331 Berryessa Dr., Vacaville, California. Sharon was 22 years old and I was 35. In 1972 we had our first daughter and we named her Reginna Betty Mae. She was named after Sharon's friend Grace Campbell and both Grandmothers. In 1975 on Pearl Harbor Day our daughter Terra Louise was born. She was named after Sharon's brother Terry Dale Lambert and after Sharon's middle name. I have 12 grandchildren, 9 boys and 3 girls. Alan gave us one granddaughter; her name is Ashley, she was born Feb 28, 1988. David gave me my first grandson. His name is Randy and he was born June 10, 1988. His mother was Dezra Helen Rupe. He had 5 children with Gladys Cassidy they were: Darion Marie Hammond born 2 April 1995, Dustin Wayne Hammond born 20 March 1997 and Andrew Lee Hammond born 30 March 2000, and twins James Davis and Jesse Dale Hammond. They were born 7 September 2001. My Son Daniel Lee had 2 sons: Daniel Lee Hammond Jr. born 3 0ctober 1988 and Richard Otto Hammond born May 2, 1997. My daughter Terra had 2 children: one girl and 1 boy; Shanny Deana Fertner born Feb 18 and Kent Ray Klatt was born June 28 1997. My daughter Reginna has 1 son his name is John Earl McQueen the second born Feb 19, 2002.

Written by <>Harold Hammond

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