Karl Rydgren [1914- ] I Remember, Unpublished Ms., 1975 [Reprinted 2005]
"[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 stand. (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 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.
"My brother Todd and I used to wake up at 4 am and hurry to the pier to get on a bait boat and haul bait. When we turned 14 or 15, in the summer, we could go out on fishing boats and help the crew with the customers. We could also fish and later sell our fish and the crew's catch. After school at the John Adams Junior High School, we would haul fish for passengers from the pier landing to the parking lot by the La Monica Ballroom. We used a heavy hand truck and got 10 cents a sack.
"Fish were so plentiful you could catch a black Sea Bass from the end of the Pier. Once in a while we would get picked up by the police for fishing without license. The police would put our fish on the back of their trucks and take us down to the station. There they would lecture us and finally let us go, but our box of fish would be empty.
"On Labor Day, a fishing boat called Amico capsized, and 16 people drowned. I was supposed to go our on that boat, but it was so full, a buddy and I went home and learned about the accident later. We raced down to the Pier, and I stood with a brick in each hand to stop the curiosity-seekers from blocking the ambulances. A big cop named Chris Christianson walked by and said, "Nice job kid." My brother gave all his clothes to survivors, but ended up in overalls. He also gave artificial respiration to a young lady, but she didn't make it. The boat Freedom rescued many survivors without lifejackets, but also became dangerously overloaded. Other boats from the pier raced to help other surviviors.
"I washed dishes at the Fishnet Restaurant on the Pier, the fishing barges Minnie a Caine and Charlie Brown (owned by Olaf Olson) for a $1/day and all I could eat. I was selling Daily News newspapers (on Sundays) at 4th and Santa Monica Boulevard, when the Ocean Park Pier Fire started. I put a cigar box on the newspapers and ran down to the fire. The fire trucks were pumping ocean sea water, because they ran out of water from the pipes.
"A friend of mine lived at the Sunset Inn on Ocean Avenue and Colorado about 1930. His father was a waiter and they had an apartment and were caretakers for the Anheuser Busch Brewing Company. The main floor was on the second floor, but downstairs was a big bar and dance floor from the pre-Prohibition days. I found a beer glass holder under a building at Third and Pacific with the logo of the Sunset Inn.
"Some of the fishermen would go to sea on big ships in winter, when things were slow. Once I knew a fisherman who got hooked on morphine. In those days if you ever asked what it was like to take drugs, thy would knock your block off. No adult I knew who took dope or smoked pot would ever think of offering it to kids. What happened between then and now? It looks as if the dollar means more than life.
"I ran a popcorn and peanut stand for Mr. Henry Dehne on the Santa Monica Pier at the entrance. The movie star Johnnie Weismuller often came to swim with their lifeguards, like Pete Peterson. My first swim was at the old Venice Plunge. It cost 10 cents for a suit and towel. I jumped in with the rest of the kids from McKinley School. Unfortunately, I couldn't swim and had to be pulled out by George Watkins, later head life guard. Boy was he mad, because he got his white duck pants wet. I learned to swim that very day in the shallow water.
"Mr. O.J. Bennett opened a fish market on the Pier and added a restaurant. He was always chasing the kids for selling fish under the pier. Ben Carrillo and Ela Brown used to sit in the Police Packard and warn us when Bennett was coming to get us. We gave them fresh fish, which they earned. Barracuda was sold for about 15 cents to 25 cents.
"Bennett introduced (and some say "invented") the Pay Toilet Lock, which he sold to Mr. Volk. Mr. Volk had the bait and tackle stand now owned by Vershel Shuler.
"In the 1920's Crystal Beach was the place where the movie stars hung out. This was before Malibu was built.
"O.J. Bennett owned a red Buick convertible coupe. One night he drove it through the pipe fence and landed on the beach. The car landed upside down on its top, but Bennett walked away from the accident.
"Venice Pier had two speedboats, which were hoisted up under the pier. On weekends you could ride to the Santa Monica Pier for 50 cents.
"Mr. Langworthy owned several 20 foot boats, which he stored under the Venice Pier behind the breakwater. They had a Model T Ford engine, and were used for commercial fishing.
"My Dad painted a boat that wasn't in the water, or even on land. It was the old Ship Café on the Venice Pier.
"In 1908, my Dad worked for Mr. Erikson of the Frisco Bakery (on Pier Avenue) delivering bread. My Dad took photos of the great White Fleet when it passed by. I have a photo from back then of Dad with a horse drawn cart at 4th Street and Marine. Mr. Erikson died when the floorboards of his carriage broke and he fell through. The horse's hooves kicked him in the stomach, and he died. Mrs. Erikson had a cafeteria at the corner of Pier Avenue and the Speedway in the early 1930s. Mrs. Erikson's brother, Carl Johnson, owned a restaurant at the 3rd Street alley and Wilshire in the early 1930s. He later opened another restaurant in the old Santa Monica Evening Outlook building on 4th Street north of Arizona Avenue. Mr. Johnson was quite a pastry chef and member of the Elks Lodge #906 for many years.
"When I worked for Mr. Dehne, he had 250 cases of near beer in a storage room in 1932-33. Prohibition was ended, but some people wouldn't drink the 3.2% beer. So I sold every bottle he had, for 25 cents each. People came from as far away as Pasadena.
"Santa Monica City Planners should take note that the high hill entrance at Colorado keeps many people from visiting the Santa Monica Pier. It's too steep.
"Mr. Emile Pourroy arrived in California during the San Francisco earthquake. He ran the Blue Streak Roller Coaster and later the Merry-Go-Round. Later he worked for the City of Santa Monica as a grounds keeper at Santa Monica High School. He used a hand mower. He also planted all the trees at the McGinley Estate, now Jocelyn Park, and was chief caretaker there until his passing in 1942.
"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.
"John MacPherson was a terrific swimmer who helped build the Santa Monica breakwater. He was the only person to die during construction. He fell onto the breakwater as the boat from Catalina was off-loading heavy rocks and was crushed.
"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.
"Santa Monica High School played Venice High in football regularly each year. Every game there were fist fights, but no knives or guns. The last game was played at UCLA with the usual fights.
"The statue of movie star Myrna Loy in front of Venice High was often painted by kids, as was the Seal in front of Santa Monica High.
"Santa Monica High played Santa Ana for the C.I.F. title. Jack Noonan caught the only pass for the only score. Santa Ana had a huge team.
"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.
"In 1936 the movie producer, Daryl Zanuck, moved our home to 2323 Fifth Street, Santa Monica from its original ocean front location near The Beach Club on the PCH.
"My beautiful wife Alice Rydgren [ -2000], formerly Alice Pourroy, was born in a home on 7th Street and Pacific. It was torn down in 1989. Alice never lived anywhere but Santa Monica except for a year in Iowa as a little girl.
"The Depression years were quite rough. Jobs were as scarce as hen's teeth. Alice and I must have had a lot of guts to marry in 1934. My first job was driving a bus for Bay Cities Transit Company. My next job was the most interesting and gratifying-working for the Santa Monica Police Department. I worked as a Detective for the greater portion of my career with the P.D. I had a lot of fun, made a lot of friends, and put a lot of criminals away.
"After retiring, Alice and I have done quite a bit of traveling. We've seen a lot of interesting countries and people. But Santa Monica will always be our home."
[Karl and Alice Rydgren raised a family of five, Alice, Clara, Converse, John A. and Dennis M., and have many grandchildren. Karl and Alice went to Santa Monica High, and their daughter, Alice, went to St. Clements. In a conversation in 2005, he spoke of his wife's interest in collecting dolls and hand-painted plates, some of which had been painted by Mrs. McGinly herself. He also recalled that Mr. McGinley had worked for Mrs. "Lucky" Baldwin as her secretary but that he had had some sort of concession on either the Venice Pier or the Ocean Park Pier and had known a lot of circus people, many of whom came to visit his estate in Ocean Park. Other visitors included Alaskan Governor John Strong and Jack Dempsey. Rumor had it that McGinley had lost $25,000 dollars betting on one of Dempsey's fights. Mr. Rydgren also mentioned St. Catherine's Hospital, on 4th and Bicknell, which later became a Rest Home before it was closed down and apartments built.]
[Karl Bertil Rydgren's parents were: Eric Arthur Rydgren and Clara Eureka (Carlson) Rydgren. Clara and Eric had 5 children: Clara who died in 1919 just after arriving in Santa Monica of diphtheria. Torsten (nicknamed Todd), Karl, Eric and Clarence.
Karl and Alice Rydgren both graduated from Santa Monica High School and had 3 children: Alice, Jon and Dennis. (Alice and her brothers went to Saint Monica's Catholic School).
Just a note, St. Clements is the church that my Great Grandparents: Emile and Dalila Pourroy, my Grandparents Karl and Alice Rydgren and my Parents: Ron and Alice Converse were all married and I was baptized there-of course so were all of my mother's relatives before me. I guess since 1914 (when my great-grandparents got married) that church saw a lot of Pourroys and Rydgrens through the years!-A Note for Corrections to be incorporated from Alyssa Navapanitch, 2005]