Spinsters kick in 75 cents for sailor’s bail
Editor’s note: John Boston’s Time Ranger usually appears on Sunday.
Well a warm and western howdy to all y’all housebounders. C’mon for crying out loud. You’re 12 yards buried under divan cushions and about to become One With The Sofa Lint and popcorn from 1987, which, if memory serves, is actually called “maize…”
We’ll sneak out the back and avoid the Orwellian neighborhood patrols. Hop aboard several thousand ponies I’ve got waiting.
We’re going to take a scenic ride into the back canyons of SCV yesteryear. Bonus?
Those agreeable can reach out for the occasional hug or hand-holding…
WAY BACK WHEN & THEN SOME
▪ Back in the days of unintentional social distancing — There weren’t too many folks around to celebrate — about 400 in the whole valley. But on April 23, 1906, the Bercaw General Store tested the retail waters with their grand opening in Saugus. The little community was called Surrey back then — coincidentally, the middle name of William S. Hart.
▪ Ben just lost our 6 votes! — On April 25, 1891, President Benjamin Harrison stopped at the Saugus Train Depot. Well. Actually, his train stopped. Ben didn’t get out to stretch. He was on a campaign swing and maybe he should have climbed out because he later lost the election. Funny thing too? We had a small band and crowd waiting for Little Ben (our smallest president at 5 feet, 6 inches). He was also the first president where spending surpassed $1 billion. OKy. A couple more? He was the only president to have a grandfather (William Henry Harrison) as president AND his real name is Benjamin Harrison VIII.
APRIL 19, 1920
▪ Hmmm. About as much as we’re using a month during the quarantine — The Automobile Club of Southern California estimated that the average motorist used about 5 gallons of gasoline a day. Back then, when most roads were dirt, the cars weren’t getting really great gas mileage.
▪ Mark my words: they’ll reopen this route in 10 years. — Road closures are nothing new on Highway 126. Back in 1920, it was just called the Saugus-Fillmore Road on many maps. It had been closed due to rain washouts. Folks having business in Fillmore had been taking the old Saugus-to-the-Sea route through Towsley Canyon into Chatsworth — a 50-mile detour. Interestingly, the state was going to connect Chatsworth and beyond to Malibu to the SCV via an extension of Mulholland Drive.
APRIL 19, 1930
▪ Early Cool Hand Lukes? — Agua Dulce Elementary had to let several boys go home early Friday afternoon. Seems the teacher held an Easter egg hunt and some of the more adept hunters ended up eating seven eggs each. Tummies swelled up and they got kinda sick ...
▪ Canada to Canyon Country — Folks were getting ready for the big rodeo at Baker Stadium (today, Saugus Speedway). One of the world’s top bronco busters was in town to compete. The cowboy was fresh off a victory in the 1929 Calgary Stampede. His name? Pete Knight. No relation to our future state senator …
APRIL 19, 1940
▪ That’s why we’re world-famous as a big-hearted community! — A landlocked sailor got depressed and did some serious drinking. The sea-faring man was arrested and fined 10 bucks for his conduct. Poor guy only had $9.25. Three local single ladies each kicked in a quarter to make his bail.
▪ Back in the saddle(s) again — The 1940 Newhall Rodeo was one of the biggest we ever put on and just about everybody’s attention was firmly placed toward that endeavor. Our local Sheriff’s Capt. Bob Marty had two custom silver saddles all polished up and ready to go for him and his wife riding in the rodeo parade. Problem was, Marty didn’t feel comfortable having the saddles lying around the sheriff’s office. So, he locked them up in a spare cell.
▪ Hope he’s still in the pokey — Duncan MacDonald was arrested for cruelty to animals when he ran over an aged terrier in the middle of Arcadia Street. A few days earlier, with his shotgun, MacDonald pelted a neighbor’s great Dane, seriously wounding the pet. Seems Mac picked the wrong man’s dog. The great Dane belonged to William S. Hart. Hart had done a little doorto-door detective work himself. The fact that MacDonald boasted to everyone in town he was “proud” to have shot the pup belonging to one of the most famous and popular men in America didn’t help his case.
▪ Wildwood River — Today Wildwood Canyon is one of the SCV’s toniest enclaves but 80 years ago it was a prime oil-producing canyon. On this date, a huge well erupted, sending 1,000 barrels of oil crashing through the sump wall and down the canyon. The old wooden derrick had to be torn down in an oil storm and replaced with a massive 132-foot steel tower. The well was nearly a mile deep. The oil company had a rather unusual name, too
— British American Edwina.
▪ Bad advertising karma — Maybe the farm should have changed its name. On this date, rustlers slaughtered a yearling heifer valued at $40. The cow called home the Self Help Dairy.
APRIL 19, 1950
▪ Try online deposits with a Sealy Posturpedic — Spinsters Bess Bradford and Margie Moore had their life savings stolen from their home at the Forrest Park Frontier Cafe. The ladies hid, and evidently not too well, fourteen $100 bills in their mattress.
▪ One of my all-time bittersweet stories — Steve Majarevich was living in a county home for the elderly and indigent up in Lake Elizabeth. Steve found the pace rather boring and walked out. He traveled for several miles downhill, reaching Castaic and the old Wayside Honor Rancho, then, a complete working dairy farm and ranch. Steve knocked on the front gate and asked the guard if he could come in to work. The guard said that this was a prison and you had to get arrested, first, to live there. Steve nodded and wandered around Castaic until he ended up at the ranch of Mrs. Hazel Kelly. Seeing lots of work around, Steve knocked on the door and asked if Mrs. K would consider hiring him to be a handyman. Mrs. Kelley, who lived alone, said she had no money and politely thanked Steve for the offer. Undaunted, and rather hungry, Mr. Majarevich just rolled up his sleeves and started doing a full day of chores. He knocked on the door. Surprised and grateful, but still kind of broke, Mrs. Kelly gave the elder worker a fine full meal. Mr. Majarevich asked again for a job, saying he’d be happy to work in exchange for food and a bed of hay in the barn. Mrs. Kelly, living alone, said no. Steve left, came back and settled down in the barn for the night. There was method to his madness. Mrs. Kelly called the local sheriffs and they arrested the aging handyman. He appeared before local judge Art Miller. Mr. Majarevich pleaded guilty and, to the surprise of the jurist, begged for a life sentence without the possibility of parole. “Send me to that beautiful rancho,” Steve pleaded. “I can work in the sun and the air and the big fields. I can be useful. I can be happy. Please, your honor, do this for me.” Judge Miller apologized, saying conscience dictated he couldn’t sentence anyone to life in prison for vagrancy and the top sentence by law was 180 days. Miller said, “How about we compromise. I’ll give you 180 days and at 90, I’ll call and you can tell me how you’re liking it.” Miller said if Steve wanted to stay, he could call the judge a small bad name and he’d find him guilty of contempt of court and give him another 90 days.
APRIL 19, 1960
▪ Thanks for seeing us through, Fred — Fred Trueblood Sr., one of the most influential people in the history of this valley and editor/publisher of The Mighty Signal, died peacefully in his sleep on April 28, 1960. His front-page column, The Signal Tower, ran in every issue from 1938 to 1960. Fred had started printing TMS on a hand-cranked massive 7-ton cast iron press “powered by a strong-backed man” that had come to the SCV via windjammer He had been in failing health a few months earlier and had sold this paper to his sons. He had served in both world wars, first for the Navy, then worked at Bermite full-time as an ordinance inspector.
APRIL 19, 1970
▪ A hate crime — Two hunters in Canyon Country were murdered by four members of a militant student group called the Chaka Organization for Liberation and had Black Panther and Maoist literature in their car when arrested. They later reported they were looking for white people to murder. Chaka comes from the Swahili word for “readiness.”
▪ A sick crime — Ronald Fouquet was convicted of murdering and mutilating his a 5-year-old stepson and dumping the body in Sand Canyon. Fouquet had been arrested before, for abandoning another of his children. The monster left a toddler clinging to a sign in the middle of a freeway.
▪ That couldn’t be 50 years ago — On a lighter note, my buddy and Grammy-winning bassist, Curtis Stone, got married on this date to another buddy, Ann Lorraine Bowers.
▪ Ahhh, the promises of our politicians — Republican congressman Barry Goldwater Jr. promised to look into the rising amount of federal income taxes on this date. You folks fill in your own punchline.
APRIL 19, 1980
▪ And, it’s still there! — Locals were kicking in money to help move the ancient Saugus Train Station from across the street of the Saugus Cafe all the way down to Hart Park. Three bucks moved the station a foot. Magic Mountain cut a check for $2,500, moving the depot 833 feet.
▪ Hillside Strangler in the SCV — Two Castaic women were attacked by someone authorities believed may have been the Hillside Strangler. In separate and unrelated instances, both had been choked by a strange man at night. Both escaped. It would later be verified that a third woman was nearly murdered by the L.A. strangler. The serial killer would eventually murder the grandparents of former Signal photographer Bryan Kneiding.
Wouldn’t you know. We’ve all made it back, safe and sound to the SCV, where there’s room to spare because you can’t stand next to anybody. See you in seven — from, ahem, a safe distance — with another exciting Time Ranger history adventure. Until then —¡Vayan con Dios, muchachos y muchacho-ettes!
John Boston has been writing about SCV history for more than 40 years. Got some down time? You can buy Boston’s “Melancholy Samurai,” “Naked Came the Sasquatch” and other books on Amazon.com.