Early Life

Early Life

I found this photo of  Long Beach of the 1930s of Belmont Shore and Alamitos Bay.  LB had glorious waves before the breakwater was constructed to keep the waves from wrecking ships going into the Los Angeles harbor.

There is no sand wall by the road either. When I was a kid, before the sand wall was put in, the winds would roar into the city off the sea, and cover the road and houses with tons of sand.  There were times the sand was so deep we couldn't drive on it.  The body of water above the houses is the Alamitos Bay. The Bay used to have sea lions sunning themselves there on a small island in the middle of the Bay, but when the bay was dredged out, to allow the larger boats access, the sea lions disappeared.

Sometimes progress isn't so wonderful.

I grew up here. I was born here. I learned to swim in the Naples Canals (above the Bay) where my aunt and uncle used to live.

My grandparents didn't live too far away from the Canals (1 small block). The tides would get so high they would escape over the canal walls and flood his garden. Grandpa didn't like that so he eventually bought a house on Belmont Heights (where I live now). It boasts being 500' above sea level.

Once when my mother was young, a sea lion ended up in her backyard after a high tide. They had to wait for high tide so the small sea lion could get back to the sea.

In the 1930s the Bay was filled with fish and clams.  Mom and grandpa would get in their boat and troll the Bay for Bay Clams, small clams that she told me were delicious when steamed in a pot cooking on the beach.  The clams have all disappeared due to the dredging, so I never got to try them.

This photo was taken in the 1890s. The Belmont Pier is now cement pilings, the wood pier collapsed and was repaired several times before the cement pier was built.  My grandparents moved to Long Beach in the 1930s.  Before that they lived in Seal Beach (1920-1933).

This photo was taken in 1920.  There aren't that many people going to the beach in 2012 because without the waves, the beach isn't as much fun. The breakwater was good for ships, but not for people.  The waves now rarely get beyond a foot and a half, except during severe winter storms.

This photo is 1905. My grandmother would have been 1 year old. My grandfather a grand old 8.  Grandmother lived in Houston, Texas until she married grandpa. Grandpa came from Bakersfield, California.