Saginaw, 1931

There they were, desolate, broke, and nowhere left to turn, living with relatives in Erlanger, Kentucky. Living with relatives who really could not afford to feed them and probably didn't want them there. Lillian's aunt gave her a name, a cousin who she had heard of, but never met, no one had met around there. His name was Bob Wilcox, and he was a moonshiner up in a town called Saginaw, Michigan.

Lillian and Ransom had no choices left. They loaded the car one more time and Al got in with them and they headed north, looking for Saginaw and the cousin no one knew. No one had contacted him. No one knew if he could or would be able to help Lillian and Ransom. but when you're flat out, anything is better than nothing at all, and that is all that was left at this point. The trip back across country from California had virtually destroyed them. They could not go on much further. If Mr. Wilcox didn't offer them any assistance, they were done.

When they arrived in Saginaw in 1931, the town was, like the rest of the nation, in the midst of the Depression. It was a city of about 50,000 and growing, with a strong auto industry presence, but who was buying. Lots of people were out of work here, just like everywhere.

They started asking around. Surprisingly, everyone knew their cousin. Bob Wilcox was very well known. They connected with him very quickly. Lillian introduced herself as his cousin, explaining her relationship and why they had come to town looking for him. She figured it made no sense to beat around the bush. He would either help them or tell them to go away. Might as well get it over with.

When she finished, Wilcox told her he would be happy to help. After all, they were kin. He took them to a house on the West Side of town, near Arthur Hill High School, which he owned and told them they could live there as long as they needed. He also set Ransom up in a small retail shop so he could sell and service office machines and another shop was found for Lillian so she could operate a dress shop business.

It seems Wilcox was the major bootlegger in that part of the state. He had business men and politicians in debt to him and was extremely wealthy. While he never made any attempt to involve his relatives in his more "improper" activities, he had no problems helping them when they came to him during those troubled times.

Al was again enrolled in school. Due to Lillian's practice of year-round schooling through the years, Al was actually now ahead of his proper grade level. So much so that that he would graduate in 1933 at the age of 16. Following graduation, he was fortunate to find work in Saginaw. He began his labors on an assembly line the Lufkin Rule Co., a manufacturer of folding rulers, earning $ .37 an hour, a sum which, in those days, was considered fairly decent. Life was good.