California’s Golden Era

Having lived in Southern California for all of my 69 years, I know that Column One (Dec. 5) is wrong about when our “golden way of life” ended. The beginning of the end of our golden way of life came when the first defense factories were built before Pearl Harbor.

Until then, we Californians had the best infrastructure (including school system), the highest standard of living and the lowest cost of living in the country; we were a leader in generous and innovative social programs; we had a very low crime rate; we had plenty of room for people and wildlife; our lifestyle was relaxed and easy-paced. We also had an affection for our dual cultural heritage from the Yankees and from the Mission/Rancho days of Old California. We had a really golden way of life, even during the Great Depression.

After the first defense factories fired up, we began to get smog. As people poured in to work in the factories, and, as ex-servicemen immigrated after the war, land became scarce and the cost of living went up, while the advent of smaller lots and, eventually, piled-up tenements made the quality of living go down. The pace of life became hectic. I have said that the only good thing to come out of all that development was enough people to support Disneyland!

I usually say that in a tongue-in-cheek mode but, seriously, Disneyland does bring in tourists and that is good because tourism was one of the industries that we had when we were in our golden days. The other industries were movies, oil, fishing along the coast, timber up north and, our biggest industry, agriculture. It was a marvelous culture.

How I miss “those olden days, those golden days of yore.” But this culture, which I loved, is just another culture that has been drowned under the tide of history.

JUANITA MATASSA

Santa Ana