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SRL: It does, and the feeling of security, which I didn't realize
then was security, but looking back on it... Boo and I
have talked about this. We both have just a wonderful
remembrance of ... of Dad, of course.
200 Going back, the ranch ran with the siren, which was
turned off only maybe twenty years ago, because the police
decided it was causing too much trouble. The whole valley
would go, Piru and everything, would go by the sound of
this. It started at 7:00, at noon, at l:00, and at 5:00 and
it would go WOOOOO all over the place. Of course there
wasn't much traffic, but what was there would stop, and look
around (laughing).
But then the siren would blow at noon and Dad would
come down from the ranch headquarters there, and Boo·and I
would run up the long porch, and Dad would come down and he
would grab both of us and hold both of us, carry both of us,
-· ··· ·· one·· on each arm, -down the porch and down--into the dining
room, and this we did almost every day .. It was just the
most wonderful feeling.

SL: Was he a big man?

SRL: Yes, _well, he was 6', but he was strong, and we were little
when he did that. (Laughing) But it was wonderful.

SL: I gather the outdoor· life agreed.with him .

SRL: Very much so; very much so. He appreciated the outdoors, he
appreciated ....

SL: He looks very studious in his photographs; he looks very
serious. Was he?

SRL: He had a wonderful sense of humor, the biggest grin. He was
always concocting little surprises, particularly for Mother.
Just funny little things that he would do, and bring her.
Books were a big deal; we always had lots of books, and
she loved murder mysteries, so he would pop in with a new
murder mystery, or whatever.

SL: I'm getting? better sense of her, because in the book [by
Smith] she was just this ... came across as the spoiled teen-
age bride sort of thing.

SRL: She was so busy having children (laughs).

SL: At sixteen, did she have a chance to get more schooling?
Had she been privately schooled?

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