My grandfather Ralph Moses Phillips (1905-1981) was a tall, stout fellow; strict, yet generous and fair-minded. After graduating from Los Gatos High School, he married my grandmother in 1925. As a young husband and father in the late 1920s, he worked a variety of jobs. He was a bus driver for a while, and later a truck driver for Bailey Lumber Company (across from the grammar school, now Old Town).
Granddad Phillips recounted one occasion when he was hauling lumber through the Santa Cruz Mountains and there was a problem with the brakes. He added that it wasn’t too bad though, as the old trucks were very slow and he was able to maintain control through down-shifting. My grandmother happened to be with him at the time, and he didn’t let on that there was any problem at all!
During the Depression year of 1932, Granddad Phillips had the good fortune to land a job with the Los Gatos Police Department. In 1943, he became Chief of the small department, a position that he held until his retirement in 1970. In 1967, my father decided that he wanted to leave the field of electronics to join the San Jose Police Department. When he told my Granddad Phillips (his father-in-law), Granddad recalled the Depression days with his response, “Well, it’s steady work.”
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