Arthur Allen MOORE Jr.

Dad spent most of his young years growing up in Muskogee and Checotah, Oklahoma. He always spoke with pride about our family's Creek* Indian history. He did not talk much about his mother and father. I am not sure why. He spent two years (April 1938 to March1940) in the Civilian Conservation Corp near Grand Junction, Colorado (Company 2894, SCS 12C). His last day in the CCC's was March 30 1940. He went back to Oklahoma to visit has mother and family before moving to Bakersfield, California . He arrived in Bakersfield on April 25, 1940. Dad worked for his father in his father's butcher shops (Green Frog Market, 3711 Columbus Avenue // Mitchell's Market, 610 Union Avenue) in Bakersfield until September 1941 when he took a job at Stony Brook Retreat (TB Hospital) in Keene, California. Within a few months he became a patient there with tuberculosis and it was here he met Constance BRYANT (his wife) who was also a patient.

Dad recieved his draft notice from the U.S. Army on April 13, 1943, just 10 days before his wedding and was told to report for service in Fresno on April 22. He was working on a govermant job at the Emergency Rubber Project in Arvin, California, at this time. Dad and mom were married in the Taft, California, Church of the Nazarene on April 18, 1943, by Rev. D. C. McKisson. Just one week later he left for the United States Army. His time in the United States Army was brief (April 23, 1943 to August 20, 1943). He was Honorably Discharged after finding that his eye site was too poor to continue.

Dad had retinitis pigmentosa and was declared legally blind in 1959. Because of his eye condition, he never drove a car. He started work at Richfield Oil Corporation (now Atlantic-Richfield - - ARCO) on Monday, October 25, 1943, with his first assignment being at Elks Hills near Taft. He worked there and at Cole's Levee for a short time and then was moved to the Bakersfield office as head clerk and worked there until he was diagnosed with tuberculosis, again, in 1959.

Dad went back to Stony Brook Retreat in Keene, California, for one year until it was cleared up. This is the same hospital where Arthur Allen Moore (Sr) was hospitalized with tuberculosis and where he died. Dad returned home in 1960 and never went back to work due to his eyesight. I remember him having a wonderful gift for math and memory.

Back in the 1970's I was removing mom and dad's expired washing machine and taking it to the dump. As I loaded it on the truck dad casually mentioned, "I got 2657 washes out of that machine over the past 10 years." He had actually calculated in his mind the cost per wash by recalling how much he had paid for it years before! Not bad for a blind man! Dad kept a daily diary from age 14 until just a few years before his death. We have 100's and 100's of his hand written and later type written pages of the daily events of our family.

We all remember the sound of him pounding on his manual typewriter each evening as he recorded the days events. Like all things, this diary will someday loose its value and someone will cast it all aside. Perhaps dad's interest in genealogy and some of those records will live on here in this attempt to post the family tree for all to use and enjoy. On December 13, 1994, I received a phone call from my sister, Norma Unfried, while I was working (Century 21 Town & Country Real Estate in Kennewick, WA). Norma's voice was quick and direct, "Mercy Hospital called and they told me dad is dying.

I am on my way to the hospital." I phoned Mercy Hospital in Bakersfield as soon as I hung the phone up with Norma. They transferred the call up to the Critical Care unit where dad had been for two days with lung congestion. The nurse answered and as I was identifying myself I heard another nurse in the background say, 'Mr. Moore has expired.'" I still miss him.