Leisure Time

When I lived in San Pedro, the Palos Verdes hills behind it were completely undeveloped. During the war they were simply open grassland and I don’t think they were used for anything. Before the war they had been used by the Japanese for dry land vegetable farming, but that of course ceased when the Japanese were interned. Since then the hills have been covered with residential developments. The road along the coast leaving San Pedro, rounding Point Fermin and ending up in Palos Verdes Estates, now passes such places as the Wayfarer’s Chapel, Marineland, and of course many houses.

During the first months I lived in San Pedro, the five-day week was still in effect and many a time on a weekend afternoon I would walk out to Cabrillo Beach near to Point Fermin. Growing up in the land-locked Midwest as I had, I was entranced by the beach and the ocean. I still am for that matter.

Another Saturday activity was to attend the double feature movie at a small theater not too distant from where I was rooming. Here it was that I became acquainted and enjoyed the Boston Blackie movies (which were the second half of the double bill). Other movies that I saw there that have stuck in my mind are “Laura” with Clifton Webb and Gene Tierney and “White Christmas” with Bing Crosby. The latter was certainly a producer of nostalgia in me for a clime far different from the southern California scene.

I remember a few other spots that were familiar to me at the time such as the Thrifty drug store which had a lunch and dinner counter. Here it was that Dwight Johnston and I had numerous dinners together on the way home from work. Oddly enough it kept operating all during the war when getting meat was difficult but ceased operation shortly after the war stopped.

I have been back to San Pedro a few times since I left in the fall of 1946. Once was after I was married and Jean and I had at least the older two of our daughters — I remember we took them to Marineland for the show with dolphins etc.

Another restaurant that I remember well was just outside the gate to the Wilmington refinery. Many times as an analyst or pilot plant operator on the graveyard shift I would stop there for breakfast. There were several pinball machines in the restaurant and these would be quite often used by the office staff from the Richfield refinery just across the road from Shell while I would be having breakfast. These characters were real addicts and had the technique of bumping the machine to direct the pinball without having the machine register a tilt down to a T. Although legally the machines could only pay off in free games, I think the restaurant paid these players off in cash. I tried the machines a few times but I was not nearly as successful as the Richfield personnel.