Salsberry Family Is Very Wondrous Thing

    There's a twist to the Salsberry story.

    Gerald, the husband, is a 39-year-old construction worker, and right now he's unemployed.  He hasn't had a day's work in a month.

    He and his wife have nine children to support.  To feed. To clothe.

    But they're happy.

    They consider themselves one of the luckiest couples alive.

    And after hearing their story, I'm inclined to agree with them.

    Fifteen years ago, they married.  They had hoped to have a large family, but it didn't work out that way.

    So after a few years, Mrs. Salsberry decided to fill some of the empty space in their home in El Cajon by taking in foster children through the San Diego County child welfare program.

The Field Poll has bad news for Vice President Richard Nixon.

     Larry, now 10, was next.  He came into the Salsberry home when he was 11 days old.  Another family had intended to adopt him but the last minute, the other family decided that the baby, of half-Italian parentage, was "too dark."

    So today, the handsome young man is Gerald Salsberry's oldest male heir.

    After Larry came Terry, now age 9.  He, too, came through private adoption channels.  Following Terry was Shirley, now 7, and Gary, now 5.

    Both came to the Salsberrys as infants.  One, through the county's probation department; the other, through a church.

    A couple of years later, Ronald and Steve joined the household.  They were 4 and 2, respectively.  Today, they're 7 and 5.

    Rounding out the family are Mark, 9 months, and Denny, 7 months.  Mark was directed to them through a friend and Denny found them after another family turned him down.

    Ina  period of 10 years, the Salsberrys went from no children to nine.  It sounds impossible, and in view of their present circumstances, even reckless.

    As for the impossibility, the couple had the usual difficulties in adopting their first two children — but after that, it was almost as if the kids adopted them.

    The reason that Mr. and Mrs. Salsberry were such sought-after parents is because they didn't demand character references or pedigree papers of their prospective children.

    Ronnie and Steve, for example, were Korean war orphans, fathered by American GIs.  Two of the others also are of mixed parentage, and the rest were "difficult placement problems" because of a variety of factors.

    But today, together, they make up a handsome, well-adjusted family.

    I said above, in view of Salsberry's present unemployment, building an adopted family of nine might seem reckless.  That was my impression before meeting him and his wife.

    But I was wrong.

    "It's true I haven't worked for a month," Salsberry explained to me.  "But in the construction trade — I'm a  lather — you expect it every rainy season.  And you plan for it.  That's all.

    "We're still eating well.  The kids are still taking their music lessons.  They've still got good clothes to wear to church."

    There are no crises with the Salsberrys.  They live in a four-bedroom house with, at present, only one bathroom — line up, first come, first served.