Verdugo Views: Emails share so many memories
One of the rewards of writing this column is receiving correspondence from readers. Here are several recent emails.
May 19, from Chris Blakey: “Thank you for your interesting column today. [Verdugo Views, June 16, 2018] Mention of Babe Herman caught my eye. I went to elementary school (Monte Vista) with Babe Herman’s granddaughter, Linda Herman (though haven’t seen her since elementary school). I still remember one day when Babe Herman came to our class and talked about his playing days. I was a developing Dodger fan, even then. It was probably third grade, so I was around 9 years old. I was in awe. It was so cool.”
This was around 1965. His father went to Glendale High around 1940.
“It was fun to think about events that paved the way for his time there,” Blakey wrote.
June 2, from Jack Daly: “Such a nice article you wrote about the Adams Hill teenagers. [Verdugo Views, April 7, 2018] Mary Baldwin and I have talked many times about your stories over the years. When I was with the Junior Chamber of Commerce, I was the one that drove Ronald Reagan in the Days of Verdugo Parade before he was governor … Met him behind Webb’s Department Store, I believe, and same for Annette Funicello and others… Those were the days! I don’t know if you know who Dave Greenbaum is (Glendale Class of 1955); we are good buds and talk about Glendale all the time. Thank you again for the time and research you perform to make me and others like me recall the past.’’
June 30, from Dennis van Bremen: “Being an almost local boy, who enjoys learning about our history, I always read your column with great interest. Some time ago, you wrote about Alfred Priest. [Verdugo Views, July 31, 2009] His daughter, Ruth Priest, died several months ago just 10 days shy of her 100th birthday. Ruth was vice principal at Crescenta Valley High when I was a student there. I saw her regularly through the years when I taught at Glendale High and Crescenta Valley High, until she retired and moved to Santa Barbara.
“I ended up in La Crescenta in 1958 when my family immigrated from the Netherlands. I was 11. I met my wife in the summer of 1968 while I was working at Webb’s Department Store. She was the new elevator operator. We got married in 1973 and live in La Crescenta. We are one of a number of couples that met at Webb’s and got married. You haven’t written about Webb’s for a number of years. Maybe you might, again?”
May 24, From Melinda Grubb Gillman: “I was in the first class of the new kindergarten at Verdugo Woodlands School in 1947. Seventy years ago, Fathers Follies for the Verdugo Woodlands School was more like a talent show. My father Dr. Roland Grubb and Lefty Hudson [Verdugo Views, May 19, 2018] were in the Glendale Kiwanis Chorus. My dad and Lefty sang ‘Anything You Can Do’ from ‘Annie Get Your Gun.’”
The Hudson house was on the corner of Capistrano, with the front of the house on Blanchard and the back on Bonita. The Hudsons had a very large yard with a barn. We were allowed to use the barn for Brownie meetings. The Brownies all went on to be Girl Scouts until the end of sixth grade. What I remember about Girl Scouts was making leis out of crepe paper and learning the hula to ‘Lovely Hula Hands.’ I still have my Girl Scout sash with the badges my mother sewed on it. Of course, we all went to Verdugo Woodlands School and met after school.
“On school mornings, she and her friends could look through the fence and see the kids at Woodland Hall, the Christian Science children boarding school, saying goodbye to ‘aunties’ before walking around and coming to school. [The fence separated Verdugo Woodlands and Woodland Hall.] I think there was one girl in my first-grade class that lived there. I don’t know why the kids were there. I think we thought they were orphans. We thought they were lucky to have so many friends.”
KATHERINE YAMADA can be reached at katherineyamada@gmail.com. or by mail at Verdugo Views, c/o Glendale News-Press, 202 W. First St., Second Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90012. Please include your name, address and phone number.
KATHERINE YAMADA can be reached at katherineyamada@gmail.com. or by mail at Verdugo Views, c/o Glendale News-Press, 202 W. First St., Second Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90012. Please include your name, address and phone number.
