California Historic Route 66 Association

Keepsake vol Two

LIFE AS A BOY IN LENWOOD

LIFE AS A BOY IN LENWOOD, CALIFORNIA
As Remembered by: JACK GAFNEY

I was born in Buffalo, New York on Oct. 16, 1918, first child of
Harold and Gladys Ullenbruch.  I was named Jack Paul Ullenbruch.
In 1920 at the age of 2, I and my parents and grandparents on my
father's side came to California, where we lived in Eagle Rock
across from Occidental College.  In those days that was about 3
blocks of open field to the College.  In 1922 we moved to La
Crescenta, California.  We lived in what we called the "Rock"
house, it was built out of big stones and mortar making the
outside walls. Thome was on the N.W. corner of Michigan Blvd. and
Pennsylvania Ave.  My grandfather built a new home about a mile
up the road in 1923 and we all moved there.  My parents and I
moved in 1924 to Mayfield Ave. in La Crescenta and lived in a
little house converted from a shed while my father who had had
become a contractor and builder of Ready/Cut homes built a new
home. It was one of the nicest hemes in that area. In 1926 a baby
brother was born named Richard, he died on New Ycar's Day 1927 at
the age of 10 months from double pneumonia. My father, who was a
very hard worker contracted pulmonary tuberculosis and had to
give up his job. October 23 1927 my brother Robert was born and
we had to sellour nice home and we moved to Lenwood, California.

We rented a house in Lenwood, it was owned by an older man "Dad"
Fletcher. It was the last hause on the north side of 66 as you
went to Barstow. I attended the one room schoolhouse in Hodge, 5
miles west of Lenwood. I used to get a ride to the school with
one of the men who worked west of there and I would ride back to
Lenwood with the teacher who lived in Barstow. I would wait for
her under a mulberry tree in front of a house near the corner of
66 and possibly the old Hinkley Rd. One day the lady who lived
there came out and asked me if I liked mulberries, l told her
that I had never tried them. She said to go ahead and climb up
and help myself. Well there I was up in the tree eating away when
my ride home came. I had a big handful of berries, plus a big
mouthful; so I stuffed them in my shirt pocket. Needless to say
when I got home and took off my jacket, my white shirt was
covered with purple stains, and after my mother saw this, my rear
end was almost a matching color. Somehow to this day I don't have
a craving for mulberries.

As I only saw the other children during school and only played
with them during recess and lunch, I find their names hard to
recall. The school being one room had the same teacher for the 8
grades. There was a row for each grade, and the one teacher
taught them all. There were wide steps coming up the front and
outside toilets. The school set at an angle to the highway, on
the south side of 66. To the best of my knowledge it eventually
was converted into a home and is still standing. While in school
I can still hear some of the smaller children of the railroad
hands reading; "See the cheeps in the fields, the cheeps give
wool. See the flowards, the flowards are jellow." That was the
1927-1928 school year, and I was in the 5th grade. The name Ester
Sparkman rings a bell somewhere, I don't recall if she was a
teacher or not.

Lenwood was a small place, I recall 2 auto Courts and service
stations. The main place was the Radio Camp located on the south
side of 66, the last place on your right as you headed toward the
city of Barstow 5 miles away. The radio Camp was run by the
Sickners, "Dad", Jay his son and Jo, Jay's wife. There was a
restaurant, grocery, and auto court (we call them motels now).
Also a big garage and sirvice station. The service was run by a
Swede Johnny Ozimek. He was kept busy fixing burned out bearings
on autos. I used to watch him as he would re-babbit the bearing
and then shave off the excess to fit properly. The travelers
would stay at the auto court until their cars were repaired. One
day while having a hard time removing a part from one of the
cars, I was helping him hold the vise handle and the nut on the
part he was pulling on came loose and he fell over backwards,
getting up he spat out a big chunk of snuff and exclaimed "Boy
dat was sure a piss-cutter". He loved his snoose, as he called
it.

On Dec. 28 1928 my father passed away at age 28, I was 10 and Bob
1. My mother went to work as a waitress at the Radio Camp
restaurant, and I started 6th grade at the 2nd st. school in
Barstow. I used to ride the school bus, which started around
Helendale picking up kids along the way to Barstow. The bus would
drop us off at the high school and we would walk down to the
grammar school. There were buildings for each of the grades. If I
remember correctly the 7th and 8th grades were in a two story
building, with classes upstairs and downstairs. My after school
time and summer vacations were mainly spent taking care of my
brother. The Sickners had a stripped down model T Ford, no body
on it, just two bucket seats. It had a Ruxel gear shift and they
taught me how to drive it. I used to tie my brother in the seat
and we would drive it on the main highway. They also put
overshoes on the car (this was one larger tire over the other to
make it easier to dlive in the sand, and not get stuck. While in
school former President and Chief Justice William Howard Taft
died in 1930. Also the viaduct over the Santa Fe tracks was being
built and you could hear jack hammers and the clanging of steel
in the classroom. The viaduct was a godsend for those crossing
the many tracks to the Santa Fe railway station and the Harvey
House. In the course of the year many hours were spent waiting to
cross while the trains were switching.

As children we played a lot at Radio Camp area. There was a
family named Schoebel with children named Lucille, Agnes, Annie,
Tom, Paul, and Alfred. if memory serves me right; also a family
in the airport area Mose and Celia Tuft and children Jimmy,
Helen, and Mary. We used to play the usual kid games, marbles
with aggies, doughbabes, and steelies. The aggies were real
pretty glass, the doughbabes were real dull, made of a hard clay,
and the steelies were old ball bearings. We also had tops ball
point and butcher peg, we would put them in a ring and spin our
top down on them and if you knocked any out of the ring and your
top was still spinning you got to keep them. One of the Schoebels
showed us how to find a little bug they called a Catapoya, you
would find a real smooth sandy spot, place the bug in the middle
and it would start to dig and the sand would make a cone shape
identation as the bug went down. They were fun to watch, seeing
whose made the biggest cone.

At the Radio Camp they had a phonograph that played large bronze
disc like records. The records were perforated with different
size holes in rectangular shapes. The music was kind
of tinny but we loved it.

One summer while I was working for a lady wo lived in the last
house on the north side of 66 as you went toward Hodge, I had a
memorable experience. I used to water and weed her garden, and
this day her dog a very large sort of German Sheperd type came
around the corner of the house snarling; she said don't be upset
he won't hurt you, just pet hirn. When I reached out to pet him
he bit me under the right arm, and boy did it ever burn. My
mother took me to the docter and he patched me up. As it was one
of the hottest days we had ever had and the fact that the dog was
sort of foaming at the mouth, they asked to have the dog killed
and the head sent to the lab to see if he was rabid. The owners
said no, the dog was too valuable and they didn't think he had
rabies. So they had rabies serum flown down from Berkley,
California and for 14 weeks I would go with my mother to Barstow
stopping at Platt's Drug Store to pick up the serum and then to
the doctor's office in the Santa Fe railway station to get my
shots with a long curved needle. Oh yes both the dog and I came
out okay, he did not have rabies and I did not get them.

When my father was alive I had gone back of our house to dump
some trash in the wash alongside the railroad tracks. The trash
was mostly food scraps and tin cans, the coyotes, buzzards, and
other birds and animals along with the rust took care of most of
the debris. I was on my way back to the house skipping along,
whistling when I heard this rattle-rattle-rattle. There on the
ground in front of me was the biggest sidewinder rattlesnake I
ever had seen. Believe me I set a worlds record for the combined
high jump and long jump. Somehow with the help of God I cleared
him as he struck. Without slowing down I burst into the house
screaming at the top of my lungs. Mom grabbed the Stevens 22
rifle, helped my dad from the bed to a chair opened the back
door, between them they aimed the gun and my dad shot the head
off the snake. You better believe, from that time on I was a more
alert little boy. We went bare footed so much of the time, the
soles of our feet were like shoe leather, but Mr. Snake could
have gotten through that.

We used to hunt rabbits with the 22 and do a lot of target
shooting. We also built chipmunk traps, they had a trap door
about halfway up the box, we would bait the trap with cheese or
bacon rind and Mr. Chipmunk would walk in to get the food and the
weight of him would make the trap door drop him down in the cage
and a spring would close the door. We would bury the box halfway
into the ground, so the entry was at ground level.

I used to take the cardboard that came in the shredded wheat
boxes to keep the biscuits seperated; and then make airplanes by
cutting out a fuselage, inserting the wings through slots, also
the tail section, and putting propellers on with straight pins.
With crayons you could color your plane and put your names on it.
I also made tractors with an old spool from sewing machine
thread. You would notch the spool, put a piece of soap on one
side, with a piece of match and run a rubber band through the
spool over another longer stick, wind it up and it would run
along the floor, even climb over things.

There was a 9 hole golf course built behind Radio Camp and I
would caddie for some of the golfers who came out from Barstow.
The clubs then all had wooden shafts and playing on rough
fairways and rougher roughs with rocks, many clubs were broken. I
would ask for the clubs that were unrepairable and take them over
to the garage where I would shorten the shaft and put the head on
it. I had a pretty good set of short clubs just my size. Once in
awhile when no one was around I would play a few holes. The
greens were pure sand and old oil. When anyone was ready to putt
we would pull a drag across the green to smooth the path of the
ball, of course as soon as one putted there would be a new groove
to smooth over. I made a small 9 hole course (a forerunner of
miniature golf) where I had holes about 30 to 60 feet apart.
Pretending I was Bobby Jones or Gene Sarazen pro stars of that
tirne.

On the north side of 66 in the middle of the town was the other
Auto Court and Garage/Service Station, it was run by Mace
Hickman.

If you took the last road south just as you left town toward
Hodge there was an airport at the end of the road. At one time
there were at least 3 buildings; a restaurant, ticket office and
lounge and a hanger. I used to go out in the old model T and
watch the tri-motor Ford aircraft come and go. As a small boy I
was thrilled by the then huge planes. Looking back in an old
autograph book I found this "Dear Jack, Keep on going and you
will be and aviator, by heck, by gee" signed Jack Melcher TAT-
MADDUX Airlines. I don't remember if he was a pilot or if he
worked on the planes. Another man who worked at the airport was
Joe Kasulartes also of TAT-MADDUX. (Ironically I served 4 years
in the Army Air Corps as a B-17 Bomber Crew/Chief 1942-1945). The
planes only carried about 12 to 14 passengers, who sat in wicker
seats. This was truly a no frills flight. Sometimes the flight
would go on to Glendale and sometimed on the San Francisco area,
with stops along the way.

The Radio Camp was the most popular place. On Sept. 8 1929 there
was a big wedding, all of the bridal party wore the traditional
dress of Czchoslovakia. The ladies with big bows in their hair
and beautiful hand embroidered dresses and the men boots and hand
embroidered vests. The bridegroom Adolph Gallas was I believe a
nephew of the Sickners and the bride was Mary Kuchar. The
ceremony was conducted by Judge Henderson of Barstow. After the
nuptials were over there was a huge wedding banquet served under
the harbor with somewhere around 80 people in attendance. After
the dinner the bridal party and guests were entertained by a
pretty young lady dancer, who suprised everyone when she finished
her dance by proceeding to remove a wig and lo and behold there
stood me. I had practiced hard to do this and the applause was
worth it. Ironically again in my teens I became a professional
dancer with the Meglin Kiddies, and Franchon and Marco.

Can you imagine gas for around 10 cents a gallon; ice cream cones
(big ones) 5 cents, a club breakfast 40 cents, a full dinner 50
cents. For entertainment we went to the movies in Barstow. There
was nothing but desert between Lenwood and Barstow, the road had
lots of dips in it and when you went up and down them so did your
stomach, we used to call them whoopee bumps. The first thing you
saw coming into Barstow was the brick yard on the left hillside.

As you went down the hill into town the Mudgts dairy was on the
right and the big Ford garage. Across the street the theater and
Platt's Drug Store. The first turn left took you down to the
railroad tracks and the Santa Fe Station. One day the school bus
took us boys out to the brickyard area where a train had pulled
over on the siding. To our surprise the University of St. Mary's
football team who were on their way to New York to play FORDHAM
were out in their workout uniforms practicing and loosening up.
The players talked to all of us. Their kicker came and discussed
punting and drop kicking with me, as I was the kicker for our
touch football team.

Also living in Lenwood at that time were Mr. & Mrs. Theodore O.
Mynche or Myncke, and a Mr. & Mrs. W. E. Storey. Around 1932 the
Sickners built a new restaurant called "THE GREEN LANTERN" across
the road from the Radio Camp. It had a lunch counter and also
tables for group seating. Also down the road to the east, a bar
was opened up called HONOLU1LU JUMS.

The illness of my father and the funeral costs took most of my
mother's savings, so we moved to a small added on room in the
rear of a larger place. It had a kitchen, bath basin and pitcher
for water and a combined bedroom/living room. While working at
the Radio Camp Restaurant my mother met a man who drove a
gasoline tanker for St. Helens petroleum company out of Colton,
California. After I graduated from 8th grade at Barstow Grammer
School we moved in 1931 to San Benardino, California and my
mother married the gentleman who drove the gas truck. Thus my
family grew as my step-father had 2 boys and 1 girl. This made me
the eldest and Bob the youngest. My mother was now Mrs. Gladys E.
Gaffney, married to George A. Gaffney and Bob and I had two new
brothers, George Jr. and Vincent, and a new sister Yvonne. On
August 6th 1932 Bob and I were legally adopted by our stepfather
and my name changed to Jack Paul Gaffney. We blended together as
if we were all Gaffney's from the beginning and I couldn't have
asked for a better father. In 1935 we had a new brother James
born so there were 6 of us. All are still alive except George Jr.
who was lost at sea in WW II in a submarine off the northern
coast of Japan. My father George Gaffney died in San Bernardino
Dec. 10, 1977 at the age of 77. My mother died Feb. 22, 1982 at
the age of 80, also in San Bernardino.

---

 

[Back to Top]