Howard Herron Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield

Howard Herron 49
gear. There would be fish that would come in there that would be three
feet long and they'd hit them over the head with a club. Big salmon and
they would roll them over. When they got the catch, they got the nets
all reeled in, then we pulled up along side a canning factory for fish.
A big ship, and these men sold this catch to the canning factory and they
would give them a check for it. They begged us to come and go with them
the next day again because they said that we brought them good luck.
They are very superstitious. But no, we didn't want to go any more.
They wanted me to stay there and they said, "If you'll stay here, I'll
furnish you all the trucks and everything else." There they didn't burn
coal, they burned wood. All I would do was to supply wood for the winters
and so my wife said, "No way, too far from home." But before we got
there we went through Yellowstone Park and we watched Old Faithful blow.
Then Tom wanted to go to the toilet and I took him over to the place and
there was a building there, a big building. There was a bear coming from
the south and one coming from the west going east and they were going to
meet. I was a little ways from them and I started growling and I'd go,
11
R-r-,
I I
r-r-r. And I said to Tommy, "Watch those bears." Just as soon
as they met they just started running. And then we went over to the
restaurant there, a place in the park and I ran into a fellow, a friend
of mine from Divernon. He started a southern route up through California
and Arizona and around that way and I was going up the northern way, and
anyway that was before we got around in Washington. I should have told
you about that sooner, but anyway we went back down to San Francisco and
I had a friend there. And we rented an apartment right next to him and
we stayed there a week. We went from there on to Hollywood and we didn't
know we was in Hollywood and we got us an apartment for twenty-five
dollars a month.
Q: Did you see any movie stars while you were there?
A: Oh yes, a friend of mine, a school mate, he was selling Fords there
and we--I can't think of his name--he was a notorious actor and some
wealthy woman married him. We delivered a new car to him on Christmas
Day. We stayed there all that winter and I got a job selling the
automobiles and of course the depression had hit then. 1 got a letter
from my brother-in-law and he said all the banks here went broke and I
had a job selling cars to Harms Chevrolet Company. I was the leading
salesman and I sold one new car and one used one. But those fellows who
owned the business there, they gave us all a turkey for Christmas. That
was Wilmington, California, just halfway between Long Beach and San
Pedro, California. So then at Wilmington there was a girl that used to
be neighbors. She was married to a fellow from here, Casey Jones we
called him. He was an engineer at the mine and he and his wife, they
moved to California and they had the filling station there. I'd loaf
over there and my wife would be there visiting with her of an evening.
So in 1933 we left there and I'm most certain it was 1933.
End of Tape Two, Side Two
Q: Howard, we're talking about your trip to California and you were just
explaining to me about an earthquake.