Thanks for the Firestone Memories
I enjoyed your historic look at the Firestone sheriff’s station (“A Farewell to Firestone,” Dec. 19)--it brought back some unusual memories.
I was a reporter for the Los Angeles Mirror starting in 1957. My beat was the Firestone sheriff’s station. It was the first time that a reporter had been assigned there, and in fact, about the first time a reporter ever even stopped in there to look at the press board.
It took a few weeks for them (Ralph Wyatt and Sid Jolivette were there then) to get accustomed to having a reporter just hang around.
As you may know, the relationship between the media and the cops was different 35 to 40 years ago. If a robbery came down, chances are I’d be sitting at some vacant desk in the detective bureau and would run out with the assigned detectives to the scene. They really liked to see their “pix” in the paper, and that helped pave the way for a working relationship.
Anyway, thanks for the chance to relive a little of that past life.
DICK FRIEND
Los Angeles
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