Sharing Memories of the L.A. River

Your Nov. 14 segment “Que Serra Serra Along Friar Crespi’s Porciuncula” (1st Street Viaduct, Los Angeles, to Glendale Boulevard Bridge, Atwater Glen) reached the area where I fished, swam and played from 1917 to 1920.

The fish in the river were carp, I believe. We also caught goldfish in East Lake. Ducks nested and raised families upstream above the Broadway bridge.

Before the swimming pool was constructed, we swam “nekkid” in the river between the Spring and Broadway bridges. The older boys would let us young ones swim, but first we had to add 10 rocks to the dam that made our pool.

(At the) Tropico and the Los Feliz crossing of the Los Angeles River, friends of mine sold watercress for a nickel a bunch around 1923.

JOE McGUIGAN

Laguna Niguel