Readers Remember

It was the summer of 1943 and I was delivering the Herald Express. There was a strange, eye-smarting haze that afternoon in Highland Park.

I had seen this before but only in the winter after a cold snap, when they [would] light the smudge pots to save the oranges.

This was different. They said it was because of all the new factories due to the war effort and [that it] would soon go away. It never did. Little did I know I had witnessed the birth of smog in Los Angeles. It started all of a sudden one hot summer afternoon, not at all gradually as one would suspect.

LAWRENCE I. IVEY

Malibu

We absolutely loved Roy Rogers and Dale Evans--my cousin and I. We had gone to all their movies, all of Roy Rogers’ rodeos at the Coliseum, and when Roy and Trigger left their footprints at Grauman’s Chinese we were there. So, when Roy and Dale were to be at Bullock’s in Los Angeles at 7th and Broadway we would have died to be there--so my mother took us on two buses from Pico Rivera to get there early. It was 1949 and we were 11 and 12. Roy and Dale were signing autographs or books purchased that day, and we went through the line five times and were there all day. Our third time through the line Roy recognized us and laughed and was very nice.

My poor mother looked for us in vain and couldn’t find us until 5 p.m. We were in heaven.

CAROLE ALVAREZ

Whittier

In 200 words or less, send us your memories, comments or eyewitness accounts of the 20th century. Write to Century, Los Angeles Times, Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles, CA 90053, or e-mail century@latimes.com.