My 50 Years in Palms

My 50 Years in Palms
by David I. Worsfold

This is eighth in a series of articles on the history of Palms by Mr. Worsfold, a recognized historian and civic leader who was a Palms resident for over 50 years.

In 1925 I attended the new Harding High School in Sawtelle, now University High in West Los Angeles.

Scoutmaster Meeson asked me to be assistant scoutmaster for the Boy Scout Troop that met at Palms School. The troop once camped at Topanga Ranch and the boys hiked over the ridge from Topanga to La Tuna Canyon. Everything went well until the Brown boy panicked and I went back to help him down a steep bank to the road. He let go and kicked, and then we were both sliding toward a cliff so I grabbed the only bush and saved a fall. Wouldn't you know it? It was poison oak. This was about or during the time that the earthquake hit Santa Barbara.

In July, Mr. Jennings of the School District said they wanted our house for an addition to the school. In August they gave us $6,000 for our house and in September I started work at Baake Edington Nursery on Sawtelle Boulevard. (It is now smack in the middle of the big Freeway Interchange.) We looked at the houses at the end of the Washington car line. A house at $6,000 was a good buy and we could save much money with lower carfare to downtown. I will always be glad my folks decided to stay in Palms. My life would be different if we had moved. In Palms I grew up with the town and helped to get important improvements.

I started 1926 with my first traffic ticket for no tail lights and it cost me $5 to enrich Culver City. At the end of January we were in our new home at 3619 Motor Ave. and I was busy landscaping the lot.

Sister Iva was guardian of a troop of Camp Fire Girls and she became a newspaperwoman when she started at the Evening Express. She stayed until the paper was sold and merged with the Herald. Dick quit the studio and started as a cameraman on a local newsreel. I tried the Auto Club and several map makers but didn't find a job. I took a Civil Service examination for topographical draftsman and passed but was 18th on the list and figured I wouldn't get a job so I went to Atascadero and worked at my aunt's place. I got a job at the creamery in San Luis Obispo at $90 a month. After a few days I got a call from my folks to come home as I had been certified for a Civil Service job and I started working on May 10, 1926, for $125 a month for the Department of Water and Power.

My birthday came on July 18 and I took my sister and Mable Haven to the beach. Coming home we were hit by a dreaming motorist. The Ford was turned over and the girls were thrown out and scratched and bruised but I emerged from the wreck without a scratch.

In early 1927, I bought my second hand Ford, a coupe, for $245 and soon left on my first paid two-week vacation. Harold Wood and I toured the Redwood, so called, highway to Oregon Caves, north to Portland, and we visited some friends I had known 13 years before at Corvallis.

I remember the barn dance at the La Lomita Rancho. The jolly community affairs. Today, the old Bain's La Lomita home is part of the Notre Dame School on Overland Avenue opposite Palms Park. I joined the Palms Chamber of Commerce in 1927 not thinking that 37 years later I would still be an active member. Soon I was also a member of the West Los Angeles Improvement Association.

I saw the home on Motor Avenue that was wrecked by an explosion of an illegal whisky still. In 1928, the Saint Francis Dam broke, causing death and destruction. On the weekend I walked miles in the canyon to see what had happened.

I had never gone to sea except for my trips to Catalina and so I booked passage on the Emma Alexander to San Francisco, Victoria and Seattle. The stop at Victoria in 1929 was my first trip into Canada. I have spent several vacations and many a weekend relaxing on Catalina Island. The gang often called me the "Catalina Kid."

I bought a lot of my own on Motor Avenue for $2100 and later Dick and I built a house that is still my home today.

In 1929, I was elected as secretary of the Improvement Association and served in this capacity for five years. In 1930 I was active on the Palms Zoning Committee and the city zoned the area just about the way the committee recommended. The Palms Chamber of Commerce honored me by electing me vice-president.

To condense many years into a few paragraphs, I campaigned for the Colorado River Water Project, for reduction of telephone rates, better transportation and adequate city planning. In 1939 I joined the Historical Society of Southern California and started gathering facts for a history of the Ballona Valley which I am still working on.

Part 9