Ron Ulrich's Story
(updated 12 May 1997)
Birth
Ron was born in the Maternity Cottages in Los Angeles, California on October
2nd, 1937. The event happened at 1:48 p.m. on a Saturday afternoon. He
weighed in at 9 pounds 6 ounces and moved in to a rental house at 5878
Mira Monte Boulevard in Los Angeles. His father was a mechanic at the California
Fire Proof Company and his mother was a housewife. The family moved to
Denker Avenue a few years later and then to 10500 Pinehurst Avenue in South
Gate, California. Ron lived there until he got married and moved into his
own family apartment in West Los Angeles, California. But we'll get back
to that later. In 1940 on May 8th, his brother Barry (Richard Barry Ulrich)
was born. He too was born in Los Angeles, California and moved in 1941
with the family to South Gate.
South Gate
The boys were other taken to South Gate park, which was down Pinehurst
(about a mile). They would play on the swings and just enjoy the out doors.
Mom also took lots of movies and photographs. Pictures of Ronnie and Barry
in sailor suits or bathing suits or birthday suits. Lots of pictures. There
were lots of parties, Mom came from a family that entertained a lot and
we had birthday parties at various family homes. Nana (Josephine Best Smith
Ron's mother's mom) lived on Flower Street (a few homes on that street
over the years) during the war years and her husband Larry (Clarence L.
Smith) who was a block air raid warden during black outs that happened
during World War II. Larry also worked for the Los Angeles Examiner as
a linotype operator. Ron's other grandmother (Alice Turner Ulrich) lived
in Bell, California with her daughter (Katherine Ulrich Stringer). Ron's
grandma had an aviary in the back yard at 6309 Prospect Avenue (Bell) that
housed mostly canaries. She also liked to drink beer and visit with her
friends. She took Ron with her to downtown Los Angeles (near Angel's Flight
Railroad and next to the Grand-Central Market) to the beer joints she frequented
to "show him off". Ron was always tall for his age and grandma took advantage
of her friends by betting them they couldn't guess his age. She won lots
of free drinks. There were family gatherings galore both at Nana's and
Grandma's. Lots of smoking and drinking during those parties. Ron's Uncle
Ed (John Edward Ulrich) and Aunt Grace (Grace Mason Ulrich) also entertained
a lot. At these gatherings they typically sang and played games (croquette,
cards usually pitch, poker, canasta and other games). Again lots of smoking,
drinking and eating at these parties too.
The Fourth of July
I remember many events that occurred on the Fourth of July. We seemed
to live for this holiday. My Aunt Katie and my Grandfather were people
we could play tricks on with fireworks. Well not actually fireworks, but
devices that made the autos seem to be "blowing up". There was a thing
that you put on the tire to make and explosion that sounded like the tire
blew out. And another that when connected to the spark plugs caused a screeching
sound and then lots of smoke. One time when we visited my Grandfather and
his sister was there, we hooked up the device to the spark plugs of his
car and when he was going to take his sister home it worked. His sister
was a little deaf and didn't hear the device go off. He bolted from the
car and ran across the street where he shouted to his sister to get out
of the car. She didn't hear him, but finally noticed the smoke and left
the car. He was the butt of jokes for time to come. My Aunt always reacted
to both devices and was always relieved when she found out it was a joke.
She was fun to play this tricks on. She also reacted to bugs and almost
any other abnormal situation.
We always had lots of fireworks and on one Fourth, we got some "flitter
fountains". These were small cups (about 1 inch in diameter and about 3/4
of an inch tall with a fuse of about 1 inch) that were supposed to be placed
upon the ground and ignited. We chose to put on gloves and hold them and
then light them and toss them into the air. They took off like rockets
and made a neat noise as they flew off into the sky. Well, one of them
took of down the street and veered off toward a house where it landed in
the ivy between the house and a fence. It caught the ivy on fire. This
created a panic and we rushed over to the scene and put it out, but it
showed us the problem with fire.
We also liked to put "piccolo petes" on the ground after taking them
off their stands and ignite them in this way. If we stomped on the end
it would cause them to explode at the end of their action. When lighted
in this manner, they would fly around on the ground and on occasion leap
into the air taking flight and often chasing after people in the area.
The end of the flight would be climaxed by a big bang. This was great fun.
Most of the other fireworks were "normal", that is they were sparklers,
fountains, snakes, caps, pin-wheels, cones and other non exploding devices.
They caused neat sprays of multi-colored sparks with smoke. We usually
shot off these fireworks on the night of the Fourth. We would watch the
fireworks display at the local park from our front yard and then shoot
them off in some form of order with the neighbors. This would often take
a half hour to an hour to burn up the rest of the fireworks.
On one Fourth a friend was going to get fireworks and borrowed my bicycle.
It was a brand new bike and he rode it over to the firework stand. He left
it at the curb and was choosing his fireworks when a lady drove up and
ran over my bicycle. We waited for him to return to show us his fireworks
and he didn't come back for a long time. When he did he wasn't riding the
bicycle, he was pushing it. We thought that was strange and ran to greet
him. He was crying and we found out that the Fourth wasn't always a happy
time. Another unhappy time was when I thought I got lock-jaw. We had "built"
a device to pop caps. The device was nothing more than two bolts put together
with a nut holding them together. One bolt would be removed and a cap would
be inserted and then the bolt would be put back into the device and tossed
in the air. When it hit the street the cap would be exploded. Well I was
putting the bolt back into the device it exploded and drove some of the
thread into my hand. I thought that I would now get lock-jaw. I lived in
fear for a week or so, but I didn't get lock-jaw. It was scary.
Elementary School
In 1942, Ron's first school was Bryson Elementary School. It was a long
walk, about 2 miles, but he only went there during the 1st semester of
Kindergarten. The second semester was spent at Tweedy Elementary which
was only a little about a mile away. The Tweedy family was the founders
of the area of South Gate where we lived and some of their family lived
next door. My primary school education was spent at Tweedy where Ron can
remember participating in a minstrel show and also in carnivals or fairs.
Mom usually prepared chili beans for these events. She soaked the beans
for days and slowly cooked them over a low flame for a day or two. They
were always a hit. There were school assemblies and Monty Montana a cowboy
movie hero came to the school with his horse and did lasso tricks. Ron
remembers almost choking on Baby Ruth candy bar and not wanting to eat
them again after that. He also recalls that Mrs. Thompson, his third grade
teacher was strict and mean. She would hit your hand with a ruler if you
did something she didn't like. She did get husband to come in and perform
magic tricks. He was good (at least as recalled by the third grader). His
favorite teacher was Mrs. Kennedy in the 6th grade. She was pretty and
very nice. Ron and his friend Keith White got all A's during the 6th grade
and Ron's mom took movies of the boys with their report cards. Keith lived
on Walnut at Tenaya about 3 blocks away and they played together frequently.
During rainy weather on school days, we would sit in class for lunch (there
were coat closets and places for lunch boxes/bags in the closet) and recesses
and eat our lunch and read comic books. During the war there were also
paper drives, tin can drives and grease/fat drives (people would save the
grease from cooking). Ron remembers going on a paper drive truck picking
up papers and reading the comics that were picked up. They wouldn't let
him take any home ("the war needs all the pulp") but he could read them
on the truck. Lots of old comics from the late 1930's and 1940's were converted
to pulp. Today they would be worth lots of money. Ron remembers Lorna Haas
who was the Tweedy School principal. She was also considered to be mean.
She had a whip (actually a cat and nine tales) that she would slam on the
counter to terrorize children who were sent to the office for disciplinary
action. It was rumored that she used it on the kids, but Ron can't attest
first hand if she did. Ron skipped a half a grade in grammar school. This
forever made him younger than the other kids in his classes. Which didn't
matter much academically, but physically it did. he was not only younger,
but also matured later which had effects on his strength and competitive
capability and confidence.
Marbles was a game played during grammar school. It was fun and often
consisted of circle drawn in the dirt in a vacant lot across from the school.
We would lag to determine who would go first. Then shooting at the marbles
in circle would begin. We would shoot from a kneeling position and often
would elevate our shot by resting our shooting hand on the other hand.
There were rules that stated when you won a marble. I can remember one
that was if the shot at marble went out of the circle it was pocketed.
You would shoot until you missed or until your marble went out of the circle.
Another game we played was bottle tops. There was a dairy down the street
from my house (at the corner of Tweedy and Atlantic - Royal Farms Dairy).
We could often get bottle tops from them. When we walked home we would
stop in and watch them making cottage cheese or pasteurizing the milk.
They would let us come in to the plant and escort us around. It was fun.
Today, I suppose it wouldn't be allowed due to the law suit potential.
Anyway, we would watch the bottling machine and ask if we couldn't get
some of the tops. They were also found out by the dumpsters. We would usually
get a pretty good supply. Then the games would begin. It started by lagging
out one or more tops and then you would try to toss your bottle top onto
the ones that had been lagged. If you covered part of one of ones that
were on the ground, you would win it and all the ones it touched. It was
fun and it was always a game to get many different types of bottle tops.
Not only in variety - butter milk, whole milk, and others, but in companies
- Royal Farms, Adohr, and others. There were lots of interesting types.
We also collected butterflies. This was usually done during the summer,
but it was also an activity after school. We had nets that helped, but
we also often just used our hands. It was hectic to chase after a butterfly
that flitted from flower to flower and field to field. The little one -
skippers - would light on the bushes and often fold their wings together
and not fly off when you approached. You could then grab them by the folded
wings and put them into your capture bottle. We attempted to mount them
to card board and to preserve them so that we could show them off to our
friends and family. We studied the books at the library and found many
interesting varieties that were in other parts of the country. Locally
we had swallow-tails, monarchs, gulf fritillaries, cabbage, owl, sulfur,
and others that I don't recall. We caught many in the fields as we chased
around hunting for them. They would light on tumble weeds and usually take
off when we approached. We found a bush that was a particular delight to
butterflies. It was attached to a chimney of a house on the way to the
fields. The fields were at the corner of Abbott Road and Wright Road toward
Imperial. It was between Wright Road and the Los Angeles River bed. Which
at that time wasn't cemented in. The river was sand bottomed and we often
went wading into it and even swam in it. More of that later. There was
a dump in this area for many years. We would often go there to dig for
buried treasures. Anyway this field was very large and it was lush with
wild vegetation and also lots of bugs and crawling creatures. Butterflies
were abundant as were spiders and other bugs. We caught lots of butterflies
here. There were rabbits too and our dogs enjoyed chasing around after
them. We rode our bikes on the road that was the extension of Wright Road
(it is now the off ramp of the Long Beach Freeway (710). There was a bridge
that crossed over the river on Imperial. Lots of exciting wrecks happened
there.
The Neighborhood
Around the neighborhood, during those years - 1943 through 1948, there
were lots of kids on the block between Tenaya and Abbott Road. The Roys
boys (Ronnie the oldest, Richard about Ron's age and Jimmy who was younger
than my brother Barry) lived at the end of the block at Tenaya. Next door,
toward Abbott Rd., for a short time was Gary Kushner. Next to him was Beverly
Eldridge and her brother Ross. A kid moved into the house next door to
the Eldrige's toward the end of the 1940's, but he was young and didn't
participate much in the neighborhood activities. The next house was that
of the Romeo's (Donald and Johnny). Don was a bit older than Ron, but they
still played together a lot. The Romeo home was built on one of the few
vacant lots in the neighborhood. The next house was that of Mrs. Chick.
Allie Chick was a store private detective (she worked for Bullock's or
Broadway) and had grown kids and we always met her at the bus stop (Atlantic
and Tenaya) and walked her home every night after her day in the stores
of Downtown Los Angeles. She would tell us of her daily activities - nabbing
a shop lifter or someone who stole a purse or other exciting things. She
told me later (when I was in college) that once TV came in the late 1940's
or early 1950's she was the loneliest person because we stopped coming
to bus to meet her each night in lieu of watching TV shows. She was a wonderful
lady that all the children enjoyed. The next house was that of the Tweedy's
(Ann and Bertie). They were both much older than the neighborhood gang
and didn't participate in any of the play activities. However, Bertie did
teach Ron to knit. Down the street about 3 doors were a couple of younger
kids and then the next house had Marie who was also a little older and
not part of our gang. Next door to her was Buddy who was a strange and
often mean kid. I remember one day when we were play a war game that he
had a German Luger Pistol (made of cast aluminum). He was pretending to
shoot at a kid who was chasing him and he said, "Oh, I've run out of bullets."
When he threw the gun at his pursuer and split his forehead open. Next
door to him was a younger girl and her brother. They were on the fringe
and occasionally participated in activities. Directly across the street
from Ron's house was Skipper Espeseth and his twin siblings-Dennis and
Linda. Next door to them, toward Tenaya, was Carol Carruth and next to
her was Joyce (younger) and then down the street (across from Beverly)
was Carolyn Hill. The kids often played hopscotch on her large driveway.
The street was used for football games and baseball (many games of over
the line and hit the bat). It was also used for bicycling and other sporting
activities. There were vacant lots where fox holes were dug and hide and
go seek was played behind the tall weeds and grass. There were lots of
lizards (horned toads). They would burn the grass on the lots to clear
the weeds at which time most of the crawling creatures would run to escape
the fires. It was then easy to catch the horned toads (which looked like
triceratops). In our backyard we had an incinerator where we burned our
trash. That stopped during the late 1940's (pollution). Ron and Barry had
lots of animals. There was almost always had a dog (Gootch was the favorite
and survived most of the boys youth). Gootch could climb up the slide (which
Ron's father had built) and do lots of other tricks. She was a good dog
and had lots of puppies. Ron can recall having to take them to the market
and sit outside and sell them. Often having to give them away at the end
of the day. They had alligators and rabbits, pigeons, parakeets and finches
and canaries. And also had chickens (both regular and banty). I recall
that we had barbecues where we cooked squabs (pigeons) for guests. Aunt
Lorraine, Ron's mom's sister, wanted to buy a horse for Ron, but his mother
wouldn't let her. He also caught a baby pig at the river one day, but his
mother made him return it to the pig farm the same night. There was a dump
nearby (now covered with Apartments) and beyond that was the Los Angeles
River. During the 1940's it was not the cement river it is today, but one
could walk in it and pretend to be explorers. Often feigning getting trapped
in quicksand or swimming naked. The train crossed the river near the pig
farm close to Firestone Boulevard. It was often crossed and sometimes the
train came while you were attempting to cross and you had to jump onto
the pillars to get out of the way. The pillars really shook, it was scary.
I don't know if we were ever in danger, but I do remember that at one time
there was a guard who would watch and not let you go across the bridge.
Ron also collected butterflies during this period. He had quite a collection,
but didn't know how to properly prepare them and so they eventually fell
apart. It was fun trying to get different kinds and to chase after them
across the fields or to get them off neighbors flower bushes was always
an adventure. They smelled good and were pretty. Ron's mother would often
take the neighborhood kids up to the mountains (San Gabriel) for the day.
It was great fun and she would do things that were crazy and the kids always
like to go. She also didn't mind us singing (what we considered to be)
off colored songs and was very quick to join in. She would stop anytime
we needed to relieve ourselves and let us just go off the side of the mountain.
There was always a contest to see who could squirt out the farthest. It
was great fun and we lunched in the mountains and swam in the San Gabriel
river. On one journey, after the fishing season was over, we were in the
stream and noticed some large trout. When we waded in the fish vanished.
We stepped out and they reappeared. It seemed that they swam back into
the rocks. I waded in an put my hand into the crevice and felt a fish.
I felt the gill and slid my finger in and felt the fish attempt to get
away. I pulled out my hand and had the fish "hooked". I threw it up on
the shore and went after more. So did the rest of the group. We caught
about 6 or 8 fish. The largest was over 14 inches and the smallest was
about 10. When we came back to where my Mom was she was impressed, but
said that it was out of season and that there was a fine for catching them
(and that it was also probably illegal to catch them with our hands). I
asked if she wanted us to throw them away even though they were dead. She
said no and we packed them into the trunk of the car and headed home. She
was nervous all the way home and was goaded into running a red light at
a three way intersection when I challenged here to beat the car along side
us. I watched the light as it changed from green to yellow to red and told
her to go. She did, but since it was a three way light, the traffic across
the street started to turn into her and she screamed and got out of the
way prior to any accident and without any ticket. She did enjoy the fish
very much. Mom also played games with us. We played cards, but also board
games and she played along with us. The kids didn't seem to mind and neither
did we. Sometimes she won and sometimes she didn't but it didn't matter.
These trips continued on even into high school, she would take us to the
parks, mountains, beach, desert or on other interesting places and there
were always neighbor kids.
South Gate Junior High School
Lots of interesting things happened here. I had 6 or 7 different teachers
each day. It started off with what was called Home Room. Each day was the
same with home room being the kick off with news items for the day. Sort
of a briefing session. We then went to our first "real" class of the day.
Art, English, PysEd, Social Studies, Science, Math and maybe a shop class.
In shop we would do things like arts and crafts, metal shop or wood shop.
There were classes in language when you were in the 9th grade, but as 12
year old 7th graders you took the basic classes I specified above. I remember
writing a poem in Junior High School that was good enough to make it to
the Junior High School publication (as I recall it was the Forge or something
like that). I do remember a big deal being made about my authorship of
the poem. They wanted to ensure that I hadn't plagiarized it. It must have
been good or something, but I was never sure. I think it was written on
a subject like death so maybe it was controversial (?) Who knows certainly
not I. I also remember that in the football which was played after school,
I was afraid of a guy who was obese. He was my assignment as a blocker
and I can remember that he would fall on me or rough me up. It wasn't any
fun. I liked basketball very much and rode my bicycle to school early to
play before classes. I also played at lunch time. It was fun. I was in
a YMCA league and we did reasonably well, but I just remember playing.
My favorite classes were mathematics and science. I built a telescope in
one of these classes. Shellacked a 4 inch linoleum tube, polished a 4 inch
mirror and put in the lenses and mirror for my telescope. My dad helped
me build a tripod and we spent many nights looking at the moon and marveling
at Saturn or Jupiter. I was also a very frequent visitor at the Griffith
Park Observatory. I would ride the bus and then the street cars and make
all the needed transfers to get there and then home. But I went up there
often. I also spent many hours at the Museums of Exposition Park. This
is the home of the Los Angeles Coliseum. I went to the Coliseum with my
Aunt Lorraine to see the UCLA Bruins play football. She also took me out
to UCLA in Westwood to watch the Bruins play basketball in the UCLA gymnasium.
It was always fun to go with her as she would figure out a way to get in
for nothing. We were also frequently sitting next to the Bruin Band...it
was very noisy in that gym. Other things remembered were getting picked
on by bullies. I was very tall for my age and I guess very docile. This
was just the thing that bullies seemed to sense and I can remember them
pushing me back and forth until I cried. I can recall that I would go to
the steps outside the library and sit to talk with other kids that probably
were doing the same thing. One of my teachers in math class was really
neat, but she would also wander off the subject. She had been to Peru and
would easily be led off to talk about the Peruvian people or the animals
or the crops. Once the kids found this out the helped her off to Peru when
ever they could. She taught me the rule of squaring numbers that end in
5. I a number ends in 5, its square will end in 25 and the rule states
that you take the 1st digit of the number (for example: to square 75) and
add one to it and multiply the first digit times the number plus one and
then put the 25 after the multiplication. Hence, 75 square is 5625. It
works and I will always remember the "trick". There were other things that
she did that I also enjoyed and I must admit that I enjoyed here stories
too. Besides the pushing incident, I remember that in the craft class that
a kid (I suppose another kind of bully) brought a knife to school and poked
it into my ribs. He threatened to use it on me if I told the teacher. It
was one of the long hunting knives and I remember sticking close to the
teacher and trying to keep the teacher between the kid and me. I think
that the kid left school, but I am not sure. He never did knife me for
which I am very glad. There was a store across the street from the shops
at Otis and Firestone Boulevard that sold apple juice "shaved ice" cones.
This was sort of the precursor to the snow cones of later years. They were
good and the after school crowd was always very large. I can recall that
yo-yos were a craze during this time and that Roger Dell and I were in
a contest to attempt to win a "diamond" encrusted yo-yo. I think that Roger
won, but I am not certain. I was pretty good, but not spectacular. I could
do some neat tricks - around the world, rock the baby in the cradle, and
"ouch" dog bights me. There was also walking the dog and over the falls
and climbing the rope. Most of the tricks were spelled out in the Duncan
yo-yo book. Junior High was 1949 to 1952 and this was the time of old time
radio. To me at that time it was just radio, but I listened to Captain
Midnight and other shows after school and prior to bed would listen to
Jack Benny, Inner Sanctum, The Green Hornet, I Love A Mystery, Bulldog
Drummond, The Shadow, The Whistler, Luigi Basco, The Cisco Kid, The Lone
Ranger and lots more. It was fun and some of the shows were quite scary.
More than once, I pulled the covers over my head to keep out the terror.
We also took field trips in Junior High School. The one trip that stands
out the most was the one to Pasadena to the Henry E. Huntington Art Gallery
and Library. It was truly a memory that lasts to this day. I have often
gone back to revisit all the joy of this lovely place. The grounds were
spectacular and the art was wonderful. I fell in love with John Constable
and English landscape artist. Landscape art is still a favorite of mine.
The "Taj Mahal" that Mr. Huntington built to house his wife's body is impressive
and the Chinese garden and gong was always fun. The buildings were massive
and impressive and maybe the thought that someone lived in this place prior
to it being a museum was also magical. In any case, it is one of the more
significant events of my junior high school memory. I also learned to swim
in junior high. We walked to the South Gate Park from the junior high and
then the attempted to teach us to swim. I can remember being scared of
drowning. But eventually I learned. I do remember hating to go. Once I
learned, I was always in the water. There was the South Gate Park Pool
and the Huntington Park Indoor Pool. We had to ride the bus and street
car to get there, but it was worth it. I was the first one in the South
Gate Pool one year. I waited in line from 6 or 7 a.m. and got my picture
in the paper along with the first girl. I was proud to make the paper and
feel like a celebrity. There were also the South Gate City Olympics which
was bicycle racing and other activities. I was a good bike racer, but didn't
have the stamina to race five races and ended up finishing 2nd overall
to a older boy. It was probably impressive, but it was very disappointing.
South Gate High School
Finally made it to high school in 1952, February. The layout was different
than junior high school. They had a lot more buildings and a track with
a football field. I became interested in track and field and even in cross
country. I was also president of the chemistry club. I took mechanical
drawing and photography. Photography was a lot of fun. We worked in the
dark room and developed both rolls of film as well as making prints from
film. I remember that in the darkroom there was always a red light burning.
It seems that red light doesn't expose the film. I became a member of the
various service clubs in high school - the squires and the knights. Our
school was know as the South Gate Rams and hence we had cheer leaders known
as the "Rambleretts". It was much more fun than junior high and I went
out for track. I threw the shot put. We didn't have the discus in our league,
but I did do reasonably well in the shot put. I also competed on the cross
country team and even though I weighed about 200 pounds and was over 6
feet at the time I did O.K. It was hard work and running two miles was
hard work. I didn't excel in either cross country or the shot put, but
did have lots of fun. I also remember that I was rather timid at that time
and wanted to go out for football, but reluctantly. I was told by the coach
that if I worked out all summer, I would be given a uniform and would be
able to compete for a spot on the team. Well, I did work out all summer
with a few of my friends who also wanted to be on the team. That fall,
when school opened, I went out for the team. I went to get my uniform and
was told that I needed $20 for insurance before I could get my uniform.
I didn't have the money and so took the bus home to get the money. When
I got back to the window to get my uniform, I was told that all the uniforms
had been given out, but that I could get out on the field and hit heads
with the rest of the players and when someone quit, I would be given a
uniform. I never did go back (I felt like I was a coward but was justified
since I hadn't been given the uniform I was promised). That was when I
went out for cross country. In high school, I took an academic schedule
with the intention of going to college. I made the California Scholarship
Federation (CSF) most of the time and ended up graduating in 7th place
based upon grades. I got the Rotary Service Above Self Award during my
senior year. I also took the Naval Reserve Officer Training Course (NROTC)
examination and got a scholarship to the college of my choice. I chose
UCLA.
UCLA
I entered UCLA in September of 1955. I had worked after graduating from
high school in construction. I was a laborer and a carpenter. I worked
on a church and on an apartment building during that time. I also remember
getting injured while working on the church. I hit a nail and it either
shattered of bounced back. Anyway a sharp piece of it stuck into my eyeball.
It didn't hurt my eye, but the lid felt it and I was in pain. They took
me to a nearby hospital where and eye doctor removed it with some form
of tweezers. I was afraid the fluid would all rush out, but the doctor
assured me that all would be ok. He gave me some medicine and I placed
it in my eye for about 10 days. I also wore a patch for a few days and
I think I was much more attentive to nails after that. I went to
UCLA to be a chemist. I had always loved chemistry and felt that that was
my chosen field and I wanted to be a bio-chemist. I remember that when
I went to my first chemistry lecture the professor said "look at the person
on your right and then look at the person on your left. One of you three
won't be in school next year." I made up my mind that I would be! NROTC
was very hard for me. Not the drill field exercise, but the reading and
history part of the class. It was a 5 unit class and took lots of time
and I found it to be very difficult. By the end of the second semester,
I had decided that I was going to quit my NROTC Scholarship. The UCLA Navy
Department gave me lots of grief, but I did quit. I also got a scholarship
in track and field to replace the NROTC one. When I went to UCLA, I knew
I wanted to be on the track team. I told Craig Dixon that I threw the shot
put, but he told me that they already had a shot putter (Duane Milliman)
and asked if I did any other events. I told him that I threw the javelin
and he said that I could be their javelin thrower. That was the start of
my track and field career. When I went to UCLA, the javelin record had
been set in 1937. I vowed to break that record as that was my year of birth.
In my freshman year, I threw about 180 feet and won most of the track meets.
My sophomore year was when I asked for the scholarship and was given one.
I threw about 200 feet that year and again won most of my meets. My junior
year was another year of improvement and I hit about 224. My senior year
(the first one) was one that I spent watching the team. During the last
semester of my junior year, I had gotten an 'F' in a math class and with
that 'F' I only had 24 units of passing grades...you needed 26 passing
units to compete. So UCLA petitioned the league to get me a wavier. Stanford
turned my petition down and so I didn't compete. I did keep my scholarship
even though I didn't compete. At the time I was bothered, but in retrospect,
it was a blessing. I was able to get stronger and also was able to concentrate
on my classes. I got a 3.75 on a 4 point system and brought my grade point
average up where there wasn't any worry about graduation. During my second
senior year, I was elected co-captain of the track team (along with Bob
Holland
who was a miler). We had a good year and I broke the school javelin
record. Rafer Johnson had set the record the previous year and I broke
it near the end of the senior year. My record stood for about 7 years before
it was broken. As part of my scholarship, I had to work a certain number
of hours each week. During my senior years, I got the job of being a hasher
for the football and basketball teams. The job meant that I had to dish
out the servings of ice cream to the ball players during dinner. The football
team would come to the "coop" after practice and would pick up a large
soup bowl of fruit cocktail. They would then get a scoop of ice cream in
the fruit cocktail (ritualistic act, they could have had it in a separate
bowl if they had wanted it, but most if not all chose it in the fruit cocktail).
I was originally on the rolls (I would give each player one roll as he
passed down the food line), but a golfer (he was about 5' 6" and 130 pounds)
who was on the ice cream was giving out 2 scoops to every player and the
coach was worried about their weight and so asked me to take over the ice
cream. It seems that the ball players were intimidating the golfer and
tried the same thing on me, but it didn't work. I did give one player two
scoops, the center Ivory Jones (he liked ice cream as much as I did and
his weight wasn't a concern to the coach). I also remember the 'maitre
d', Dillard Doles, would watch me eat my supper. After the ball players
had gotten their food, the hashers could get theirs. The food was: milk,
fruit cocktail, ice cream, rolls, butter, 2 vegetables, potatoes, and a
meat (New York steak on Monday, Prime Rib on Tuesday, Lamb chops on Wednesday,
Ground Sirloin on Thursday and New York steak again on Friday). We got
as much as we wanted. I would take my food into the back room and eat alone.
I would often notice that Dillard would be watching me. When I asked him
about it he said, "don't mind me 'sport', I like to watch you eat. You
eat good!". He would sometimes bring in a friend to "watch sport eat, he
eats good". Dillard was a neat man who was a deacon in his church. I gave
him a pair of cuff links for Christmas one year. They were a pair of mine
that he had admired. After the Christmas holiday break, Dillard came in
looking sad and I asked him why. He told me that he had been burglarized
over the holidays and that someone had stolen his "Sunday go-to-meeting
suit and the cuff buttons" you gave me. He said, "if I see anyone wearing
those cuff buttons, he will be grinning from ear to ear!" I remember another
incident with Dillard that I will share here. On a Saturday during basketball
season, I was hashing for the basketball team and got there a little early.
They had a 2 p.m. game and would eat about 10:30 or so. When they didn't
show up at 11:30, I told the chef that I was very hungry. I told him that
I could eat all 14 of the steaks that he had prepared for the ball team.
He said that that wasn't possible. They were 12 ounce steaks and no one
could eat fourteen 12 ounce steaks. I said I could because I was hungry.
We argued for a while and I said that I would pay for them all if I couldn't
eat them all, but that if I could he would have to pay for them. I think
that he was curious to see if I could do it. Any way after I had consumed
12 of them, he called off the bed and said that he had to have the other
2 to show to the head chef when he came in. And muttered that he wouldn't
believe it anyway. Dillard who had been watching the whole thing had gotten
two pies out of the pastry pantry and said to me. "Sport, you done good.
You showed him, here take these two pies and enjoy some dessert." Dillard
was something else. I don't know if I have ever eaten as well since that
time, but I do know that during that time I certainly had some wonderful
meals. Another incident that I recall also happened in the "coop"
(actually the co-op but called the "coop") after one of my evening jobs
in Kirchoff Hall. I did various cleaning chores for my scholarship - vacuum,
sweeping, waxing, etc. After that I found that in the "coop" you could
get ice cream from the bins by lifting the lock bars and slipping the round
handle underneath. Then you could scoop out as much as you wanted, replace
the lids and no one would be the wiser. Well, one night while I was
engaged in this activity, the lights came on and I was scared when I saw
the Campus Police coming in toward me. I froze but melted when one of them
said "ah ha I see you too have found out how to get the ice cream." Thank
goodness nothing happened for I certainly felt like a thief (which I was).
I was much more cautious after that, but still took my share of the ice
cream.
Fraternity
When I went to UCLA, my high school friend Bob Wilson and I were looking
for a place to live. We looked into boarding houses and finally ended up
living in a fraternity (Phi Kappa Tau) as boarders. Boarders got to eat
their meals and have a bunk in the house, but couldn't participate in fraternity
activities (unless invited). Bob and I were usually invited to attend functions
since the membership was not very large and they wanted to put on a show
of size. I eventually joined, but Bob didn't. In fact, Bob ended up being
one of the three who dropped out of UCLA. In my freshman year, I joined
the Phi Kappa Tau fraternity. It was a good thing for me as I was not socially
active during my high school years. I remember that during my first "date",
I told the girl I was with that I didn't know how to dance. She said, that
neither did most of the guys who were moving on the dance floor. She took
me to the floor and told me just to move my feet to the music and to not
step on her toes. I did as she ordered and managed to get through college
doing the same thing after that. I also remember one of my pledge brothers,
Eric Holtzmark, taught me to play bridge on a ride over to sorority row.
He said that he though that we could meet lots of sorority girls by going
over to the houses on sorority row and getting the girls to play bridge.
We did that and ended up working our way down sorority row playing bridge
nightly. It was fun and I did learn how to play bridge and met many really
nice ladies. Another thing that happened during my pledge semester was
that each pledge had to perform some sort of activity that was to show
his strength as a weakness. I was a good bowler and was told that I had
to go to Linkletter Lanes in Hollywood and bowl a ZERO game, but that it
had to look like I was trying to bowl. Gutter balls were allowed, but I
couldn't just drop the ball in the gutter each time, I had to go up and
make it look real. My day came and we went to the Lanes. A lady who was
bowling next to me kept giving me advice on how to bowl. I would follow
her advice to the letter. She would say "reach after the ball" and so I
would loft the ball. She finally gave up when she decided that I was a
klutz. At the end, I was getting cute and was snapping the ball off just
before the pins but one of the balls didn't snap off but it clipped 3 pins.
OH, OH, I had failed my initiation stunt. I was worried. The lady who had
been helping me had gotten a 6-7-10 split and I asked her if that was hard
to make. She said it was almost impossible. I said could I try it? She
said that she would probably miss it anyway so sure. I took dead aim and
went a little to the right of the 7 pin sending it in front of the 6 pin
and missing it behind on the rebound off the alley wall. So, I only got
2 of the pins, but she wondered why I had missed so many pins in the game
I had bowled. I said I was just unlucky then.
Marriage(s)
I have been married twice. My first marriage was to Patricia Anne Thomas
whom I met at UCLA. We were married on 15 July 1961 in Los Angeles and
had a daughter, Catherine Elizabeth. We were divorced in 1967 after living
apart for a few years. We owned a house in Manhattan Beach, California
where Cathy grew up during her primary years. Cathy attended grammar school
in Manhattan Beach.
My current marriage to Faith Carol Bos was performed in Malibu Beach,
California on the 30th of April 1968. We met at Douglas Aircraft Company
where we were both employed. We played bridge and found that we had many
things in common and decided that we were compatible. We have three children
- Carl Frederick, Michael Hanson, and Laurel Roxanne. Over the years we
have lived in and apartment in Santa Monica and in homes in Westminster,
Florida, Cerritos, and Manhattan Beach. We currently live in an apartment
in Reston. We have also owned a duplex in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania which
we sold to our son, Carl.
Work
My working career began at Douglas Aircraft Company in Santa Monica. On
June 13, 1960. I had graduated from UCLA on the 10th of June and started
at Douglas the next Monday. I remember that I had taken a class in "programming"
during my senior year and found the concepts very difficult to master.
Flow charting was a mystery as was the languages used to program. The machine
in use at that time in the Math Department at UCLA was the SWAC. I can
only recall that it had four registers - alpha, beta, gamma and delta.
And that's about the extent of my memory (I probably erased most of it
over the years to cover up the 'C' grade I got in the course). But at Douglas
my first assignment was to take a 30 day class in programming. It
was taught by a really nice man name Gil Gilbert. The class was as comprehensive
as any I took in college and indeed it was just as tough. The atmosphere
was competitive too. All the new hires were striving to learn the new materials
so they could become programmers. All who passed the class would start
to program. As I say it was tough and I remember that some of the concepts
(at that time) were really hard to grasp. Index loops and incrementing
registers and a few other programming concepts that now see rather simple
but were causing me a great deal of anxiety. During the class I had to
go up to Stanford for the Olympic Trials. I had qualified to be in the
Trials, but ended up doing very poorly. I also had to study while I was
there for when I returned to work I had a programming test. I eventually
passed the test and became a rather skilled programmer. Learning lots of
tricks of the trade and also learning to program every computer that they
had at the Santa Monica Douglas facility. I worked at Douglas for about
5 years when I went to a company (whose computer we had purchased) called
Scientific Data Systems (SDS). They were an exciting company and ended
up making many of their employees millionaires (a 1960 Microsoft). It was
really fun for me to work at SDS. I was in software Marketing support
which meant that I was the expert in the software products of SDS and would
assist the Salesmen to sell the products. The SDS computers were really
fast for that day and age and were oriented toward scientific calculations.
They didn't sell much in the business community but were really competitive
in the scientific arena. One of the super salesmen got as much in
his refund from the IRS as did many of the programming staff. He
drove a Lincoln Continental and had a "radio telephone" in his car.
He was also very flamboyant in dress too. I was very good in the support
role and really knew the product as I had used it at Douglas and was intimate
with its capabilities.
Hobbies
My first hobby was stamp collecting, I wish it had been coin collecting.
Stamps were fun and easy to collect. They were also very inexpensive and
allowed you to spend lots of time soaking stamps off envelops and measuring
and sorting for mounting in albums or just putting them in boxes. I collected
stamps as a child and continued to collect as an adult. The hobby became
more of an investment as an adult, but the interest was still there. Coins
were collected as a youth, but the coins I collected were the ones found
in circulation. And nobody told me how to do it. So I collected pennies
and nickels. Dimes, quarters and halves were spending money. I didn't think
about the intrinsic value of the silver coins and just knew that they spent
rather easily. Later on I began collecting as an investor, I'll get into
that later. Another hobby at times was to collect cigar boxes but they
broke rather easily and also required lots of storage space so I never
kept it up for long. Comic books were for reading and not for collecting.
I had lots of comic books, but they eventually got lost, thrown out or
were taken by other kids. We had a fad of collecting milk bottle tops.
These were used in a competition to see who was good at aiming from a standing
position and if you got your top on top of another you won both of them.
In fact if you were on more than one you won all you were on top of. This
lasted a few years, but then fell out of favor. Much like yo-yos, which
was also a collection process. Getting pretty yo-yos by competing with
others, but the evaluation of who was the best was biased and hence turned
out to be done only for the fun of the individuals. Marbles was another
hobby. The idea here was to get the best marbles. The "best" was the prettiest
or the biggest or the most novel. The game was played in a circle and you
won marbles by shooting them out of the circle. There were lots of rules
(many known and some created during the play) but the most skilled usually
won. The skill was to shoot straight and with force. Your thumb was the
catapult and the manner of the hold was very significant in the results.
I got into coin collecting as an adult when I was at TRW (1975 or so).
I became president of the coin club and was really into the hobby. I purchased
lots of coins, but truly specialized in Mercury dimes and Walking Liberty
half dollars. Of secondary interest was Morgan silver dollars. From a collector
standpoint (rather than an investment standpoint) I found "So Called Dollars"
to be great fun and not too expensive. The other area that wasn't too expensive
was that of Bust Half Dollars. These coins were minted in the period of
1807/8 through 1839 and I have a relatively large collection of various
types. They are fun because the same year comes in many different varieties.
This makes it possible to get a "rare" coin at a regular price. The same
is true of the "So Called Dollars". There are lots of different types,
but nobody had much interest in them and hence other than for the fun of
collecting them they remain of little value. Many of the silver coins are
of great interest and even the common coins are sought after if the coins
are "perfect" or nearly so. The Mercury Dime is a fine example. During
the early years of my collecting, I noticed that two dimes of (what I perceived
to be) different quality sold for the same price. The most noticeable place
on the Mercury Dime is on the reverse side. The fasces has a center band
that is supposed to be split in the middle. On pristine coins I would find
this to be the case, but again the dealers didn't differentiate one from
the other. I collected all that were in this state and socked them away.
The Jefferson Nickel was never a major collector item like silver coins
were, but here too there were places to look for the quality features.
The steps of the reverse when properly formed were clean of marks and complete
all the way across. These too had little premium when I first began collecting,
but eventually others caught on and the prices moved steadily higher. In
the area of Walking Liberty Halves (Walkers) the thumb was a point of quality.
If you could find a Walker with the thumb truly well defined and the rest
of the coin was with little or few marks it was an excellent buy. The too
eventually became noticed and the prices steadily rose. In the early 1980's
the Hunt brothers tried to control silver and an drove all silver coins
sky high. When silver reached about $50 per ounce, silver coins were going
for between 25 and 30 times face value. Millions of these coins were melted
during this silver rush, as were silver knives, forks and spoons and any
other item made of silver. People were attempting to sell anything that
was silver. I remember one man who brought in the "kitchen sink".
Yes, the kitchen sink had a drain that was marked "sterling". The man thought
it was sterling silver and was quite disappointed when he found that it
was manufactured by the Sterling Company. I collected some rare pieces
of silver during this time, but now the value is back around $5 per ounce
and coins are about 3 to 4 times face value. During this period not only
bullion (silver and gold non numismatic) coins went through the sky too.
Common silver dollars that were uncirculated went for $35 to $70 dollars
and these were priced about $10 to $20 dollars in previous times. Really
rare pieces went for $100's of dollars. I bought a Standing Liberty Quarter
(that was very well defined...full thumb and ear) for $500 and was offered
about $2500 for the same coin a couple of year later. This was very common
during that period. Now most of these coins have fallen back to previous
values, but there are few sellers. And the coins are stuck away in storage
boxes. It is a fun hobby and one that will always have my interest.
Reverend Ron
When I worked at Douglas Aircraft Company during the early 1960's, someone
came to the office one day and said, "Why don't we become reverends?" He
then said that there was a Church in Modesto, California that had been
formed by a Reverend Hensley to allow the "common man" to get the same
property tax and income tax breaks as any other church. He said that it
only cost a small donation to become "titled". I found that there were
many titles and he became a Bishop. I asked for the title "Pope", but they
said that that one was not one they offered. So I chose Reverend. Then
I started to investigate what one had to do to qualify for the tax exemption
and the list was long. You had to advertise that you held regular services
at some regular hour and you had to form a board of directors. This body
would be the one to specify that the Reverend and his family could get
payment for housing, food, automobile, gasoline and other miscellaneous
items. You needed to have at least three other adults on the board and
it just seemed too hard. So I never founded a church. But many people knew
that I had the title of Reverend and someone asked me to perform a wedding
for them. When the first couple asked me, I was uncertain about the legality
of performing the ceremony plus I didn't know the "ritual". So they got
married by someone else. Later on another couple asked and I consented.
The wedding of Carol Niersbach and Gary Saxton was held at Barnabey's Pen
and Quill Restaurant and Motel. The ceremony was based upon the specification
that Carol and Gary outlined. I gave them a book with various ceremonies
listed and they cut and pasted together what they felt was appropriate
for them. During the investigation of weddings and ceremonies I found that
there is no ceremony listed in the Bible and that throughout the centuries,
many different people have been allowed to perform the ceremony (legally).
It was often performed by the elder of a village or by a senior official
of the area, but nowhere does it require clergy. In modern times it is
customary to have a clergy or justice of the peace perform, but I don't
think it is mandatory. I think that all that is needed is that the papers
be legally filed with the registrar of the State. In Virginia there is
a fee that is charged of the clergy and proof must be shown of church affiliation.
The Universal Life Church is apparently a legal entity. The first wedding
I performed was held for about 200 people and went very well. I filed all
the necessary papers and the marriage was legal. Since that first wedding,
I have performed 7 others and all of my marriages are still intact. I doubt
if many clergy can make that claim. I have also officiated at two funerals
and at one baptism. The funerals are definitely the hardest. I have known
the parents of the infant whom I buried and also the children of a very
young 52 year old man who passed away very unexpectedly. This man appeared
to be in excellent health and had been competing in many long distance
races. It was a very sad time (as are most times surrounding unexpected
deaths). I doubt that I will ever open a church, but I will continue to
minister as requested.
Other Miscellaneous Activities
To Be Continued
Since May 8, 2007
DISCLAIMER: The author makes no guarantee as to the accuracy of any
information provided in this document and is not responsible for any consequences
of its use. Most of the material is based upon factual information, but
some of the material related to individuals may be the author's opinions.