Person:Ralph Johnson (13)

[Samuel Randall - Descendants.FTW]

From a 2005 e-mail that Ginny sent to me:

My dad wrote a very brief (13 page) autobiography in 1995. Here's what he wrote about your dad:

   "My cousin, Ralph Johnson, lived with his mother about two miles west [Dad and Etta were living with Inez in a duplex three miles north of Echo Park, circa 1923] on another steep loose-shale lot. Neither of us having siblings, we became like brothers, two years apart. We were together all weekends and both summers, Ralph being very adept at hitching rides along Hollywood Blvd. from his area to mine. To be brief, our escapades included "earning" most of our spending money by pillaging long, white pampas grass fronds from Echo Park Lake. Nearby homemakers asked no questions, but bought them readily. Sometimes we dipped them in purple dye. Park maintenance men often chased us, as they did also whenever we fished for goldfish with a line, hook, and bread. Nearby ladies bought them readily, also for their fish bowls.    

   "For exercise, we used the park's long row of suspended rings, swinging like apes from one "tree" to another...... 

   "There were two or three sun eclipses while I was about eight [is this possible?] and Ralph and I smoked broken pieces of flat glass, selling them where people gathered in open spaces to see the eclipse of the sun. I at eight and Ralph at ten, we "hawked" the smoked glass pieces, proclaiming eye medical hazards to those without them, which of course was true. We always sold all our merchandise.   

   "One summer my grandmother rented a lakeside cabin at Lake Arrowhead where she and our mothers let Ralph and me have freedom each day. Ralph was an accomplished bargainer, and we rented a canoe for the week at half the asking price. We paddled together, sometimes singly, almost every hour of the week. " (Photo)

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} South Carolina Historical Society. South Carolina historical magazine. (Charleston [South Carolina]: South Carolina Historical Society)
   1945.
2. ↑ Los Angeles Co., California, Recorder's Office, death record, certified copy.
   #55450.

   Death Record #55450 for Ralph L. Johnson, December 13, 1984, in Torrance, CA. Cause of death: Suicide. Ralph's ashes were scattered at sea from a small airplane over Santa Monica Bay, Los Angeles. (Los Angeles Co., California, County Records Center, probate case # SWP12499, p 27, last will and testament for Ralph Johnson).

   Los Angeles Co., California, Recorder's Office, death record for Ralph Johnson, certified copy. Death Record #55450 for Ralph L. Johnson, December 13, 1984, in Torrance, CA.