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Lumbermen

). Ziese, Sr.

The Senior Fred J. Ziese of Gamerston & Green Lumber Co., did not receive a very hospitable reception the first time he came to California in 1927. His job was with the Albion T umber Co.., and to use his words he "quit after twelve days as a result of a piece of one inch lumber being bounced off his cranium, with no harm done to the board'" It was not all hard luck, however, for it was her€ that he met Bernice M. Yenne of Madera, whom he married in New York in 1929. But Fred's one sniff of California was too much for him and he returned with his bride in the following year.

They have three boys, Frederick, Jr., who is twenty-one, and also working for Gamerston & Green, Walter James, twenty, and Harry Lu, eight years old. Just to show his loyalty to the firm the younger son was named after Harry B. Gamerston and Lu Green.

Fred J. Ziese was born in New York in March of 1901 and received his early education in Dumont, N. J. and also New York, graduating from high school. In California he was at one time employed by the Reynier Lumber Company which went out of business in 1932. In August of that year the firm of Gamerston & Green Lumber Company was formed, and Fred was retained on a part time basis. He was never officially removed from that status, but he supposes that twenty years and a position as auditor and vice president has given him a more permanent tenure.

Like all men who get the most out of life, at least most possible for them, Fred likes to play as well as work. His friends, and he has plenty of them, will tell you Fred is a good golfer, but they can't decide whether he is better at that or poker. His other vice is blowing a horn. He began in his younger days with the French horn and trombone. Now he blows a bugle for the Shrine band, and if one looks closely the next time they have a parade, you might see Fred with his cheeks extended and happy.

When Fred came back to California he probably had references, but no such array as follows. It took some years and a lot of activity to accumulate them. Here they are: Pacific Lodge 155, I.O.O.F.; Oakland Hoo-Hoo Club 39; San Francisco Hoo-Hoo Club S9 (Past President); International Concatenated Order of Hoo-Hoo; Dubs, Ltd. (Secretary) ; Harding Park Golf Club; Mt. Davidson Lodge #48I, F. & A. M.; California Consistory, A. & A. S. R'; and Islam Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S.

Bulk ol'12 New Housing Selling For Under $15,000

Washington-Three of every four homes built in the first nine months of this year carried a price tag of less than $15,000, a nation wide survey indicated.

Reports from state and local affiliates of the National Association of Home Builders, whose 25,000 member's account for 80 per cent of all housing erected in metropolitan areas of the United States, disclosed that the overwhelming majority of the 818,800 homes started in the January-September period were purchased by lower and middle income families.

Housing priced in the so-called "luxury" brackets above $20,000 averaged barely 7 per cent of the nine-month construction among builders replying to the NAHB questionnaire.

The survey also showed wide variations from city to city in the market for 4 per cent GI home loans. Builders in Norman, Oklahoma, for example, reported that 85 per cent of their new housing in the first nine months of 1952 were financed by home loans guaranteed by the Veterans Administration.

VA mortgages financed 8O per cent of the construction in Buffalo, N. Y., 70 per cent N.Y., and 60 per cent each in Minneapolis, the Texas Panhandle area.

new housing in Rochester, St. Paul and

In contrast, builders in Providence, R. f., Youngstown, O., South Rend and Indianapolis, Ind., and Louisville, Ky., reported little or no activity in GI housing, due to a lack of mortgage money available at 4 per cent.

The NAHB survey disclosed these housing price trends in various cities : Minneapolis, 7O per cent priced under $13,000 and 80 per cent under $15,000; Contra Costa County, Calif., 75 per cent under $13,000 and 88 per cent under $15,000; Buffalo, 73 per cent under $13,000 and 83 per cent under $15,000; Texas Panhandle, 85 per cent under $13,(nO and 90 per cent under $15,000; Corning, N. Y., B0 per cent under $13,000 and97 per cent under $15,000; Jackson, Miss., 85 per cent under $13,000 and 90 per cent under $15,000; Anderson, Ind., 95 per cent under $13,000 and 98 per cent under $15,000; Norman, Okla., 80 per cent under $13,000 and 95 per cent under $15,000; Louisville, 65 per cent under $13,000 and 85 per cent under $15,000; Indianapolis, 50 per cent under $13,000 and 80 per cent under $15,000; Muncie, Ind., 55 percent under $13,000 and 6O per cent under $15,000; Kansas City, Mo., 48 per cent under $13,000 and 78 per cent under $15,000; Birmingham, Ala., 50 per cent under $13,000 and 75 per cent under $15,000, and Washington, D. C, 40 per cent under $13,000 and 77 per cent under $15,000.