Family Tradition

December is a month for all kinds of memories.  In early December we reflected upon the attack on Pearl Harbor.  That event was tragic, yet it had a profound positive effect upon my family and the home building tradition that I carry on.

In 1941, my Grandmother, Kelly, had a home building business, called “Home of the Month”.  She had just finished a new home in Burbank, CA. and on that fateful Sunday in December 1941 she was holding a open house.  She met a great prospect; a family relocating from the Midwest. The father had taken a job with a small Burbank airplane manufacturer, Lockheed.  The one issue was that the man needed to borrow the down payment; he lacked cash, not unusual then or now. From the payphone Grandmother got a hold of Grandpa to ask his opinion. Grandpa, a Professor of Economics, explained that Pearl Harbor had just been attacked and we would soon be at war. No one was going to be interested in buying homes, so she better get the prospect in contract before she got stuck with the house.

As they prepared for the sacrifices to come, they took a moment to celebrate with champagne their good luck in getting the sale.  Through the years as they shared this story they would laugh at their huge mistake.   Lockheed hired thousands of workers from around the country to build aircraft for the war, and area housing became in short supply. The small profit from that quick sale could have been many times greater if they had only waited a few months. Instead, they helped the war effort by getting a valuable worker and his family settled in a new home. 

For three generations, it has been much more than just a business for my family.  It is about helping people and neighbors create a new place to call home.