Mr. PIC. And our class structure, both.
Mr. JENNER. Would you elaborate on that? Your financial status went
down?
Mr. PIC. Right.
Mr. JENNER. And then you say lower in the class structure?
Mr. PIC. Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER. Tell me about that?
Mr. PIC. I would say we were in the middle classes while we lived on
Alvez.
Mr. JENNER. While your father was alive?
Mr. PIC. And, being we moved to Bartholomew, and being in orphan homes,
I think we went to the upper lower class, one class structure dropped,
two class structures dropped, something like that.
Mr. JENNER. Were you conscious of that even as a 10-year-old?
Mr. PIC. Well, I realized that we weren't living as good as we used to,
sir.
Mr. JENNER. Go ahead.
Mr. PIC. Well, once we were placed in an orphan home, and we were with
our own kind, so to speak. I had no feelings whatsoever. I mean, we
enjoyed that place. They were rather strict but we enjoyed it. We had
quite a bit of freedom even though they were strict. We would sneak out
of the place at night and do all kinds of childish things. But Robert
and I enjoyed it.
Mr. JENNER. I am thinking more of your relations with your mother. Was
her personality affected by the death of your stepfather?
Mr. PIC. Probably she confided and put to me most of her problems since
she didn't have a husband to do this with, always referring to me as
the oldest and things like this. When we were in Bethlehem we didn't
see that much of her.
Mr. JENNER. I see.
Mr. PIC. Maybe once every 2 weeks, that would be the most often. Maybe
once in a while she would drop around.
Mr. JENNER. While you were at Bethlehem did you visit the Murrets?
Mr. PIC. Yes, sir; several times, lots of times. You see the home once
or twice a year, would take us to the city park there in New Orleans.
We would get on the rides and naturally the Murrets were right there,
and so we would rent bikes for free. It was on the home and I would
ride over to their house and visit with them a while, so did Robert.
Whenever we had a chance we were more than glad to go there.
Mr. JENNER. While at least through the Bethlehem Orphanage period your
present recollection is you accommodated to circumstances and within
the limits of the circumstances your impression is that you lived a
reasonably happy life?
Mr. PIC. We enjoyed it.
Mr. JENNER. Like all children you accommodated yourself to the
circumstances?
Mr. PIC. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. Well, I think probably a good new start off point is Mr.
Ekdahl. Tell us your recollection of him, what led up, your present
recollection of the circumstances which brought him into your lives and
when you first were aware of his existence and what your circumstance
was at that time, what your mother's was?
Mr. PIC. Okay.
Mr. JENNER. Give times as best you can.
Mr. PIC. If you can date for me when I had my appendix out I can
practically date for you Mr. Ekdahl's----
Mr. JENNER. I am afraid I can't. Were you at Bethlehem Orphanage?
Mr. PIC. Yes; I was at Bethlehem so it would be either 1943 or 1944,
and I am sure she was at Pittsburgh at that time.
Mr. JENNER. Pittsburgh Plate?
Mr. PIC. Right. And it was right after I had my appendix out that he
appeared on the scene. And she visited us more often when she was
going with him.
Mr. JENNER. And she brought him with her, did she?
Mr. PIC. Yes; he had the car.
Mr. JENNER. By the way, did your mother have an automobile during this
period following your stepfather's death?
Mr. PIC. I don't think so, sir.
Mr. JENNER. But Mr. Ekdahl did have an automobile?
Mr. PIC. Yes, sir; he had a 1938 Buick.
Mr. JENNER. And your mother visited you more often?
Mr. PIC. Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER. All right.
Mr. PIC. And they on weekends took us to Covington. I remember once, it
may have been more.
Mr. JENNER. All right. I wanted to ask you about that. While your
stepfather was still alive, did you occasionally visit Covington?
Mr. PIC. Yes, sir; we did.
Mr. JENNER. Covington, as I understand it, Covington, La., is sort of a
summer resort area, is it not?
Mr. PIC. Yes, sir; it is on the--it is north of New Orleans on the
northern shore of Lake Pontchartrain, and the Murrets used to go
to Mandeville, which is about 30 miles closer to New Orleans than
Covington was, and we used to visit them back and forth during the
summer.
Mr. JENNER. Do you recall the names of any of those people that
you--whose homes you, the summer resort homes that you rented during
the summer period?
Mr. PIC. To the best of my recollection, sir, we were in cabins at
these tourist places. We were never at anybody's home. The Murrets
were, I believe, at somebody's home in Mandeville. They had a large
house there.
Mr. JENNER. Does Mrs. Benny C-o-m-m-a-n-c-e, is that name familiar to
you?
Mr. PIC. No, sir.
Mr. JENNER. At 600 West 24th Street, Covington, familiar to you?
Mr. PIC. No, sir.
Mr. JENNER. Does the address 311 Vermont stimulate your recollection
over in Covington?
Mr. PIC. No, sir; if it was this time period it doesn't. That may have
been the street we lived on when we went there in 1946, I don't know.
Mr. JENNER. All right. I ask you to relate the circumstances respecting
Mr. Ekdahl.