1920-1930 Rydgren

Karl Rydgren [1914-2010] I Remember, Unpublished Ms., 1975 [Reprinted 2005], 1933, 1929, 1924, 1920s, 1919, 1914,

     "[My parents, Erick Arthur and Clara Ericka Rydgren, my brother, Torsten, and I] moved into our first home in 1919 at 1507 17th Street in Santa Monica, and lived there until 1933. [There were two more brothers to follow, Clarence and Erick.] (It's now Culligan Water Softener Co.) This home was the start of my formative years and caused me to remember how the Pacific Electric Streetcars traveled back and forth to Los Angeles along Santa Monica Boulevard. Broadway was paved up to 14th Street, Colorado Boulevard was paved up to Lincoln Boulevard. Colorado had ditches on the south side. They placed wooden ramps over the ditches for traffic.

     "Ditches were dug along Broadway for gas, water and sewer lines by Latino laborers with pick and shovel. As kids, we used to talk to them while they ate a lunch of tortillas and beans. They impressed my friends and I a lot-we were so young.

     "The J.D. Kneen Paving Company graded the streets with mule-drawn Fresno scrapers. The asphalt was poured and leveled with big hand rakes. A huge steam roller followed to finish the job.

     "My brother Todd got up at 4 am to deliver milk for Sweets Dairy, located below Colorado at Centinella Avenue. I used to substitute for him from time to time. We both went to McKinley School at 20th Street and Arizona Avenue. My brother and I used to get up early before dawn and pick snails at the big nursery where St. John's Hospital now stands. (Some of the tall palm trees are still there.) Also, at that time there were many semi-tropical plants and bushes that served as a backdrop for motion pictures. We were paid 25 cents a gallon for snails, which we killed with salt.

     "A new school was built at 24th Street about this time. One day, I was sent to the supply office for my teacher. As I went out of the door on the second floor, I could see all the way to the Ocean. At that very moment eleven (11) huge water spouts shot up from the ocean. I called the teacher and she told me they were mini tornadoes at sea.

     "Haines Grain and Feed Company occupied the entire block from 17th Street to 19th Street on the south side of Colorado. The grain building was built of wood. But the hay building consisted of brick, and still stands today on 17th Street. My family used to shop for the entire week at Johnson's Market in the 1400 block of 4th Street. Later the Pioneer Market was opened up on Third Street. On several occasions they would hang an entire buffalo up in front of the market. They would cut it up for sale. On the sidewalk they had a painting of a covered wagon scene in color.

     "We used to go down under the livery building at the southeast corner of Third Street and Broadway. There were numerous old and fancy horse carriages and empty horse stalls from an earlier era. The upper floor was a Studebaker Agency with a repair garage in the rear.

     "My dad bought two Saxon Six automobiles from one of the mechanics who worked there. These cars never got us past Beverly Hills in our attempt to visit our uncle in Los Angeles. Dad spent more time under those cars than in them.

     "Dad was a house painter by day, but used to paint dramatic oil paintings at night as a hobby. He also made his own frames of wood, and gilded them with gold leaf. I still have some of his sea and land paintings. He painted in great detail, like the Masters.

     "We went on picnics from the church, and also helped cut hay on Ocean Avenue. There was a long row of eucalyptus trees on the north side and clover fields on the south side. We took photos of the Douglas Around-the-World airplanes. There were U.S. World War I Army soldiers everywhere with their legs wrapped in leggings. They shouldered rifles.

     "Often after school (I) went to the Douglas factory on the other side of Wilshire. There was a W.W. I Jenny airplane parked by the factory. West of the factory was a very deep ditch that drained the north side of Santa Monica. Together with George Lipscomb (later S.M.P.D.), we would hunt rabbits there from a Model T Ford at night. George's father was a Santa Monica Policeman and very well respected. Charlie Dice (later Police Chief) drove his son and me to the Race Track in Beverly Hills on his motorcycle. Charlie later switched to the Sheriff's Department, and later was loaned to the SMPD as Chief of Police."

     " . . .

     "During Prohibition, Tommy Carn, a detective (known as the man with a thousand faces because of the disguises he wore on raids), would lead police raids on peoples' houses if he heard they had beer or other alcohol. He just broke in and arrested the people and took the evidence. A Japanese friend's, Masii Akishi Yoshi, Mom make homebrew in her basement, but the beer was too green, and exploded in the bottles (one at a time.) By the time the police raided, all the beer bottles had already broken, and the beer had soaked through the dirt floor. However, the Mom had good Sake hidden in a chicken coop out back that the police never found."

     " . . .

     "I have never seen storms like the ones in the 1920s. Nearly all the boats moored in the Santa Monica Bay were torn off their moorings and smashed against the shore. Some were re-floated. Capt. T.J. Morris, Abe Gregory, and Paul Brooks were drowned when they were lowered in a skiff from the Pier, and it turned over. T.J. Morris was found on the bottom of the skiff. He had each drowned man in each of his arms. The boat they had gone after was later re-floated.

     "Jack Duggan, an employee of Morris', tried to get through the surf but was flipped over backwards. He was smashed up against the beach with only two corks left in his life jacket.

     " . . .

     "The Depression was preceded by lots of easy money and bootleg whiskey. Scotch and London Dry gin was popular at $5 a quart. Good home made wine cost $1 per gallon.

    "Huge covered trucks came down the Coast Road from Malibu Ranch early in the morning. They were suspected of hauling booze from rum runners who landed up the coast."

(Back to Sources)

 Kelyn Roberts 2017