Verdugo Views: Kids’ dimes helped pay for the war effort
Carl Moseley was 12 years old when the World War II started in 1941. He had a steady job mowing lawns in those days. “I made a lot of money when I was a kid,” the Hoover High Class of ’48 grad told me recently. “I did a lot of neighbors’ yards.”
One day, Moseley took some of his money, went downtown, and “bought a bond,” a war bond, to help build a war ship. The bonds, for the USS Glendale, were sold from a trailer parked in front of Webb’s Department Store on Brand Boulevard.
MORE: Read previous columns about Glendale’s past >>
Moseley, who attended Columbus Elementary and Toll Junior High, was just one of many young people who helped fund the warship. When the USS Glendale was christened on May 28, 1943, Mayor Lawrence E. Olson thanked all the school children who “donated pennies, nickels and dimes for the building of the ship,” according to the May 23, 1990, edition of the Glendale News-Press.
Sam Nicholson also remembers purchasing war bonds — during his Woodrow Wilson Elementary school days in North Arlington, N.J., and his junior high days here at Toll.
“We would purchase small stamps at 10 cents each and glue them into some kind of a booklet until we had a total of $18.75,” he wrote in a recent email.
Students turned the books in at a bank or at the post office and received a government certificate stating that, after 10 years, they could redeem the certificate for $25.
Nicholson, who graduated from Hoover in 1947, also recalled another war-related effort: gas rationing. Based upon the person’s job and its importance to the war effort, drivers received monthly stamps, along with a display sticker for the car’s front window. “A” stamps were for those needing a minimal amount of gas, “B” stamps for more, and “C” for the maximum, he wrote.
As a Toll junior high student, Nicholson worked at the Texaco gas station at the corner of Pacific and Glenwood avenues. “I put the gas nozzle in each tank and issued a specific amount of gas based upon their stamps. It was also my responsibility to glue the stamps into the government booklet. The station owner would receive gas on each delivery period based upon the number of stamps in the booklet,” Nicholson recalled.
Early in 1943, city and chamber of commerce officials petitioned the Navy to have a warship named for Glendale. With the help of student bonds, their efforts bore fruit. Confirmation came in a message to the mayor only a couple of weeks before the ship’s launch from Consolidated Steel’s Wilmington shipyard.
The blue-gray frigate was the 29th ship built in the Wilmington shipyard (a Pacific Coast record) and was to be used as a convoy escort and also as an anti-submarine and anti-aircraft vessel.
Shirley Schlichtman, student body president at Glendale Junior College, christened the ship with a bottle of sparkling California champagne, according to News-Press writer Ellen Perry on May 23, 1990.
Gov. Earl Warren, Glendale postmaster Max L. Green, and Glendale College Director Elmer T. Worthy were among those on the platform.
City officials presented the ship’s crew with a library of 114 books ranging from dictionaries, scientific works and technical volumes to poetry and fiction. Each had a custom-designed bookplate bearing the city’s emblem, the peacock.
More on the USS Glendale’s active duty in the Pacific at a later date.
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Readers Write:
Earlier this year, Barbara Martell emailed regarding the July 16, 2015, column about the history and closing of Billy’s Deli and Cafe. “My family and I have been eating there since the early to mid ‘50s, with fond memories of the people and food,” she wrote. “I am wondering if their recipes for matzo ball soup and navy bean soup are available anywhere? Most wanting the matzo ball, my favorite. I would appreciate any help you could give me. Many thanks.’’
So, readers, if anyone can supply Martell with the recipe for Billy’s matzo ball soup and/or navy bean soup, let me know.
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John Miller of Glendale emailed, “I very much enjoyed your informative and inspirational reminiscence, ‘Churchgoers played a part in Glendale history,’ printed in the Glendale News-Press on April 7, 2016. It helped brighten my day.”
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KATHERINE YAMADA can be reached at katherineyamada@gmail.com or by mail at Verdugo Views, c/o News-Press, 202 W. First St., Los Angeles, CA 90012. Please include your name, address and phone number.
