CA CA - Bob Harrod, 81, Orange County, 27 July 2009 - #17

[zwiebel]

http://www.google.com/imgres?biw=10...31&start=16&ndsp=19&ved=1t:429,r:17,s:0,i:137





7963452446_ff20192eb7.jpg
flickriver.com

500 × 375 - Flickriver: Photoset 'Front Entry Stoop & Sidewalk Renovation' by ...


Porch and concrete stoop.

hth

I love that porch. I want one by my front door. I'll have to get someone to move the highway first though.

 

[Cubby]

I love that porch. I want one by my front door. I'll have to get someone to move the highway first though.

You can always build one on the back of your house. I've seen porches added onto the back of a home and a deck leading out from the porch. I love older homes and think wrap around porches are beautiful.

Funny OT stoop story. Years ago I was sitting with a friend/roommate on my stoop with my bare feet hanging off a small step in front of the stoop. It was a hot summer night about 10:30pm and suddenly I felt something very soft walk under my feet. I thought how the he77 did the cat get outside? I look down to my right and instead of seeing a cat, I see a skunk close enough to reach over and pet it!

Thankfully my roommate who had been sitting to my left and saw the skunk approaching reminded me to not scream and not move..... I ended up slamming in my hand over my mouth to keep quiet, drooling all over my hand out of fear and fortunately did not get sprayed. The skunk had dug under my stoop and made a home there. That's since been repaired so there is no longer access via digging. (old ceramic tiles work well as barriers).

You'd all be amazed at how soft skunks are.

Now back to Bob. Today's a good day for him to come home.
Praying he is home soon.

 

[zwiebel]

Sadly, I can't build anything out back until I'm sure that bit of the house won't fall off. I met someone who bought a castle recently, and they were slapping themselves on the forehead very hard the whole time they were telling me, so I guess there are others more foolish than me.

Your wildlife sounds a lot less elusive than mine - perhaps it's having a noisy dog that does it.

Does anyone know if the Aerojet plant in Azusa would have been the one where Bob worked? It was found to have contamination in 1980 and was sold in 2001, but I'm not sure exactly when the plant itself would have closed.

 

[sreshowtime]

I am not positive, but I believe Mr. H last worked at this location for Aerojet? Didn't he work at the Azusa location?

AEROJET - GENERAL CORP
1100 W HOLLYVALE ST
AZUSA, CA 91702

There is/was an 800+ acre plant facility in Chino Hills off Woodview Rd....it did 'close' in 1995- amidst much environmental concerns, still lingering
33.9504, -117.7435

 

[zwiebel]

Well, Bob was supposed to have worked for a Pasadena employer from 1952-1985, when the company was bought out and he was laid off.

From 1985 to his retirement in 1995, (while Bob was still living in Monrovia (1953-2000?)and before he moved to Placentia) he was supposed to have worked for the same type of company, somewhere else.

Aerojet was formed in Azusa in 1942, and if it wasn't closed until 2001, I suppose that could have been where Bob worked for his last ten years before retirement, but that's not the same 'type' of company - it's the same company.

There is an Aerojet in Pasadena though, as it is advertising for staff:
http://jobsearch.monster.com/california+pasadena+aerojet-sacramento_126

So I don't know, really. I've confused myself.

Did we know it's been firmly stated somewhere that Bob did not own a ride on lawnmower, did have a gardener, and the only professional help he ever hired was housekeeping and....plumbing and carpet cleaning? ( and son in law was pointed out as not being a professional and doing vast amounts of work for Bob for free, so I don't think he was classed as one of the aorementioned professionals).

I did mention previously that I thought it was odd son in law was carrying out plumbing work on Bob's house, when both he and Bob had hired professionals to do their plumbing jobs before.

 

[zwiebel]

I'd love to know what day of the week Bob's gardener usually called. Does a lawn need mowing weekly, in SoCal?

 

[zwiebel]

Ummm. I just read 38 pages of this, and they have a timeline starting pg 26, but it's pretty shoddy (imo). And then there's lists of present day aerospace contractors, and there's loads of them; San Diego, OC, LA etc.

http://laedc.org/reports/AerospaceinSoCal_0812.pdf

 

[zwiebel]

I am not positive, but I believe Mr. H last worked at this location for Aerojet? Didn't he work at the Azusa location?

AEROJET - GENERAL CORP
1100 W HOLLYVALE ST
AZUSA, CA 91702

There is/was an 800+ acre plant facility in Chino Hills off Woodview Rd....it did 'close' in 1995- amidst much environmental concerns, still lingering
33.9504, -117.7435

Oh, oh. I know the site you mean now. It's called a 'clandestine' one at a link I found.

 

[zwiebel]

Here it says the Rancho Cordova plant near Pasadena, Sacremento discovered contamination problems in the 80s and was designated a Superfund site in 83 - that would kind of line up with even long term employees like Bob being laid off in 85.

http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/aerojet-general-corp-history/

 

[zwiebel]

Noooh. Bob wouldn't have made a 6 hour plus journey there AND back to work each day, but that's how long it would have taken! But he was supposed to be living in Monrovia then, wasn't he? Or did he just move there in 85, after he was laid off?

I am trying to work out dates and maps here. Dreadful, dreadful combination for me.

 

[zwiebel]

Ah, Bob and the first Mrs Harrod owned this house in Pasadena until 2000. So I guess they lived here if Bob worked at Rancho Cordova, then just rented it out when Bob was laid off in 1985, and moved to Monrovia and didn't sell the Pasadena house until 2000, when they moved to Placentia?

http://losangeles.blockshopper.com/property/5732007032/889_n_mar_vista

 

[sreshowtime]

i thought i read some where off ws, they had lived 3 different places in Monrovia, until the move to Placentia- don't quote me

 

[sreshowtime]

nice link zwie, didn't realize you can click on names

so, did Mr H have rental properties too?

 

[zwiebel]

Almost certainly, I would say.

Just going back to 2009 for a moment, on this website here, there are some maps and info that might be a bit useful. If you start at the August 27 entry for the Morris fire here, you'll see a map of fires burning up Azusa way, that had already been burning for four of five days. Then if you keep going through the August entries, you'll see other maps and info about where fires are starting/burning, and which areas are/have been evacuated/closed.

It might provide a bit of enlightenment for anyone good with maps and working out routes etc, and I like the way it's all been written as things were happening.

Sadly (but happily) Michael Jackson died and Jaycee Lee Dugard was found just when Bob disappeared, so his disappearance didn't get a mention here.

http://www.insidesocal.com/sgvcrime/2009/08/page/3/

ETA I don't know why I said start at August 27 entries. I'm getting my months mixed up. Bob disappeared in July. There is nothing useful in the July entries though. Useful info starts in the August entries.

 

[zwiebel]

O/T a bit though Bob served during the Korean war, so it has some connection;

I just heard a program on the radio about South Korea and Spam, and how 'Army stew' is still incredibly popular, and people will travel 40 km to eat it at Mrs Ho's (sp?) restaurant, the lady who claims to have invented it. She started making it professionally in 1954, for people who craved the mix of Spam (given by US soldiers) and spicy Korean stew that had kept a lot of people from starving during the worst times.

And talking of army food - I learnt about C rations recently, and how sausage patties in gravy and corned beef hash and a certain kind of cookie stayed fondly in the memory of old soldiers, long after they were free to eat whatever they wanted. It made me think of Bob and his old style Banquet dinners, in a way.

I was shown an original canned mix of English tea, sugar and condensed milk that had been kept by an old English soldier from WW11 once. It helped explain a propensity I'd noticed for some older people's penchant for drinking that ultra sweet concoction.

 

[zwiebel]

I wonder what the C in C Rations is short for?

 

[sreshowtime]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C-ration
all you need to know & then some

 

[zwiebel]

Whoops. Wrong thread.

 

[zwiebel]

Besides falling face first in a cold river today and getting a bruised shin, I've also been shouted at by an angry Russian. He wanted to know why I wanted him to set out a chess game with such foolish moves. When I explained the real-life events and actions I was trying to get the game to represent, my Russian said something that I think equates to "Bah, humbug," took two rooks, a bishop and two pawns, and threw them out the window. And told me there was my answer.

It doesn't answer how I'm going to explain to MR Z how his chess pieces ended up lost in the garden though.

 

[zwiebel]

In defence of my dog who may seem to have been getting us in a fair bit of trouble recently (broken legs, dousing in rivers and bruised shins) - it's not his fault for leading; it's our fault for following.