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Oral H1storv Comm1ttee Mill Valley Public L1brary
I•IJ.ll V.:d lev Hi!;;torlc:al Soc:ie1:y Mill Valley. Cal1fornia
CHARLES C. CRAWFORD
An Interv1ew Conducted By
T i m Amyl:
-c 1995 by the M1ll Vallev Publ1c Library •
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INDEX FOR CHUCK CRAWFORD ORAL lllSTORY
Page Alexander, Bob 8 Allison, Harold 5 Benefield, Glidden 5 ' . Birth 1 Brown's Furniture Store 12 Canteen, The 8, 9 Chourre, Jules 6 Esposti's 8, 9 Ethel Ave. #33 2 Father 3 Field & Track 6, 7 George, John 5, 6 Goheen Tract 10 Golden Gate Bridge 2,3 Gomez Lane 8 Gustafson, George 5 Hambys (restaurant) 11 Highway 101 10 Huber (grandfather) 2 \ Luisa (grandmother) k~.~-9fAt:<- 611 ~ f)!lS~ber, 1 o. r 1 MID Valley Parks &Recreation Dept. 13 Momingsun Ave. #15 7 Mother 4 O'Neill, Mike 4 Prather, Bob 5 Purity Store 11 Richardson Bay Bridge 9 Roth, Ullian 6 School buses 6, 7 Sycamore Ave. #156 1 Tamalpais High School 1, 4, 5, 6, 11, 12 Teen hangouts 8 Varney Brothers 3 Varney's Hardware 3, 12 Wasserman, Lou 5 Wood, Ernest E. 5, 6, 12 - World Warn 4, 5, 7 . "
lhe date todav 1s. as you can see on the monitor, you can't see 1t l'lr. Cra~Jford. but it's on the sc,~een, 1t 1s Apr1l 2, 1993. We are s1tting at ••• What's the address here?
LCG:
[: We're at 15 Morningsun 1n Mtll Valley and I'm Tim Amvx and I ' m qoing to 1ntroduce Mr. Charles Crawford. We will have some questions so you can see and hear who he was and what his r elat1onsh1p to Mill Valley has been. So, we are rolling here. I have a few questions which I talked to you about before and those w1ll be the primary ones that we wtll try to get started ~1th. F1rst of all. go ahead and let us know exactly what your +ull name 1s and when you were born.
CCG: Well , 1t"s Charles C. Crawford, I go by Chuck. and I was born June the si x teenth. 1928. at the Presidio 1n San Franc1sco.
I: You grew up in San Franc1sco until you were about how old? 12?
CCG: L~ actually. Then my parents decided to move to M1ll Valley so they bought a little house down on Sycamore Avenue 1n February of 1942 and I started at Tam High as a High Freshman at that p o 1 n t . I \·J as 13 •
I: When you were growing up in the city, I guess those would be the depression years.
CCG: E;:actly , y·es.
1: l•Jhat l·Jere yoUJ·- impressions, youc~ vie~<~~s, of lvlill Valley and 1-l.:u-in County ? Did it seem like the other side of the l·Jorld, was 1t the country, or wa s it something you didn't even think about?
CCG: It was the country . It was much more rural. I was kind of raise d out in the outer Mission which was kind of a hectic place, busy . blue collar, streetcars and Jitneys, lots of action. Mill Vall ~ v wa~ a s leep y place c ompared to that. I think there was somewhen;: bet~. I: Growing up, I gues s y ou were 13. so 1t might be hard to vi s ualize what a 7 ,8,9, or 10 yea r old boy would th1nk, but did vou ever come here w1th the family or by yourself for any act1vit1es •.. h1king, bile r1d1ng, .•• CCG : My g randmother l1ved 1n M1ll Valley pract1cally from the t 1me I wa s born. We used to come over a lot on the ferry and~ to Saus alito, and then we"d ta~e the train into Mill Valley and we~d spend, a lot of times on Sunday we "d come and have a family get t oge ther. My mother ' s brother would come also. Those were good t1 mes. I knew M1ll Valley really when I was qu1te young. 1 • 1: Who was vou~ mothe~? What name did she go by and how long was she in M1ll Valley? CCG: My mother or mv grandmother? I: Was thts your mother or your grandmother? CCG: That was my grandmother who lived at 33 Ethel Street. My grandfather was the manager of a hotel in San Francisco and it was necessary for him to live at the hotel. It was not one of the plush ones, it was south of Market, and so he stayed there durtng the week and then he would come home to Mill Valley on the week-ends. So my grandmother lived there full time and we would come on the week-ends~ also. Not every week-end but lots of them and I recall because she lived on Ethel~ it was right near the begtnning of Throckmorton, and the people would get off the trajns and start htktng up Throckmorton toward the Dtpsea Trail and some of the other trails 1n ~heir Lederhosen and their outfits. 1: What was her name? CCG: Her name was Huber. Lutsa Huber. A very great old German lady. I: That would be on your mother ' s stde? CCG: l'lv mothet~' s mothet~. I: Did your mother grow up tn Mtll Valley as well then? CCG: No~ she was ratsed in New York and came to California, I'm not sure what year. She was probably in her teens when she came out here. I: Well. besides visiting your grandmother when you came to Mill Valley, what other activities do you recall? What did you do on the week-end when you came over on the tra1n? CCG: l•lell, thet~e ~·Jas a large creel':. there 1 s a l at~ge creek that r uns rtght behtnd those houses on Ethel Avenue~ and so I spent many hours down there play1ng in the creek~ that was part of it. Down around the corner, when they let me wander~ sometimes when I got a l1ttle bit older, there was a bicycle rental operation which is now one of the savings and loans, r1ght across from La Ginestra, so I was"able to go down and rent a bike as I got up - there 10. 11. and 12 years old. f: Do you have any specific memories or recollections of when the bridge was being built? CCG: Not r e ally. I recall my par ents talked about 1t and I remember driving across it the ftrst time because that was a big deal. I assume that was sometime in 1937 or whenever it opened. 2 • I: Dtd you go to the open1ng day? CCb: No. they may have~ but I don~t recall it. I kind of doubt ·tha·t thev d1 d. I : Dtd 1t seem when it was be1ng built or shortly after did you e v er 1mag1ne it would become the bridge that people all over the world would identify San Francisco with? CCG: I ~·Jas too young to be tfn nk i ng 1 n those terms at that time. And I loved the ferryboat ride so. in a way I imagine I kind of missed the old tc~lp that \I'Jas ·fun, ancl the fen~ies ~·Jel~e a lot of f LUl. I : When your family moved to Mill Valley, that would be 1941 did y r.lu say? CCG: 1942. I: .Just after the war st3rted. There must have been a lot of :rtc·t 1 v1 t y on the far West Coast at that time. CCG: Yes, Marinsh1p was just starting and some people ..• I: D1d that play 1n the decision to move for any reason? CCG: No~, actually t·Jhere ~-liE lived ].n the outer t'lission l·Jas quite a long drive. My dad worked at the Presidio, which is why I was born there, and so he had to drive clear across San Francisco to go to l'IJOd::. Then ~-Je had developed kind of a love o·f f'lill Valley because of the connection with my grandmother. It was obvious once the bridge was built that my dad could get to work just as fast buzzing across the bridge to the Presidio as he could driving across town and so ... I: It t·Jas the b1~ i dge as much as .:tny·thi ng. CCG: Yes, and then, they always said getting me out of the city~ but I don't know. maybe there was a little bit of that which at the timG wasn't very popular with me. I remember crying. I didn't want to leave my friends. Here I was firmly entrenched and just starting Balboa High School and thought this rural hick s:chool in t•lill Valley ~·Jas, didn't havl? much to o-f-fer~ but it didn't tal~e me 1 ong to cha.ntJe my mind. 1" Where did your family move to? Did they move into a new house? C:CG: No. they boLtght the house at 156 Sycamore from the Val-ney brothers who ran the hardware store up town. That was 1nteresting because about two years later I went to work for the Varney brothers and spent about a year delivering ice and coal and going out with Tony Varney~ one of the brothers~ doing plumbing work and things like that. They purchased it for $4500. 1n 1942. I: How d1d that compare w1th the rest of the Bay Area, with San Fe·-C\nCl!;co') l•Jas that cheap'? Avet~age? Ci:G: I ~'lloul dn ~ t h:novJ. I hEid no kno~d edge of that at that time. 1 suspect it was about average. M1ll Valley was not the place to itve at that po1nt so I don•t th1nk 1t was high. 1: Loo~tng bac~ across the !ears. when do you think Mill Valley d1d become the place to live? CCG: My recollection of when things really started to climb was 1n the '70's. Starting in the early 70's. Prices started to just escalate rapidly and people started moving in. As businesses moved to San Francisco and people needed a "good" place to live close to the city and good schools they discovered Mill Valley. I thtnk it was the early '70's when things really started to go big. I: You say your father was always a commuter. You grew up ltving here while he was a commuter. Did your mother work out side of the house? CCC: A little bit during the War. She worked for Hills Brothers Coffee Company in San Francisco. I : So she became a commuter as well. Do you know how she got to CCC: On the bus. My mother never drove. All hee~ l1fe. I: Haw long after you came here ... dld you start Tam right away? Ur did vou q c to elementa r y school 3nywhere else 1n Mill Valley ·f J e·-st ~' CCC: No~ I went to Tam as a high freshman so I didn't go to any of the elementary schools here. I: That would be "41 through CCC : February of '42 through June of '45. I: You really covered the War years. CCC: Wh1ch 1s interesting because we're go1ng to have the 50th ~eunion next month, of the War years. Actually it will only be my 48th year out of Tam~ but it will be all of the War years lumped together for reunion purposes and it will be the 50th reunion next mont h s o I"m looking forward to that. I: Well~ growing up at Tam during the War years, what was the a ·tmosphee~e? l!Jas i·t pretty much "Pull behind Amee~ica, l-Je got to beat the Germans" 01~ l 4 CCC: SLu~e ther e ~"as a b1g push beh1nd 1.:he t.Jar and every \'\leek t.l1ey· ~·JDL\ltj ~;el 1. st. amps at. ·the hJ. gh scho·oi so you \•Jere constant 1 y aware of the drive to raise money. Just about everybody In school would buy War stamps and keep them In l1ttle books and the·n tun1 them in for bonds 1 ater on. Thel~e was a_ constant awareness that the War was on and publicity and young men start1ng to go off. High school age young men g oing off to war and everv now and then the word would come back that one of them was killed so most of us were qu1te aware that t he War was on. 1 : Thinking of the TamalpaiS High years who were some of your f a vorite or memorable teachers? CCC: Well there was one who made a real impact on me. His name was Lou Wasserman and he had just c ome to Tam about the same ttme l did and taught geography. history~ and government and e'/entuaJ.ly e\ten public speaktng ~.oJhich was a high school graduation requirement. I liked him so much I took just about every class he ever taught and made a special effort to get into it. The man was brtlliant and was working on a doctorate at that t1me. Soon afterwards he went off to teach at Cal for awhile and then ended up at San Francisco State as a professor in those areas. He was great. The other one of c ourse was a man who spent most of his life there, John George, who was a very highly regarded, respected man~ and I was lucky enough to have English and was an the newspaper staff when he was advisor for that. Then he went on to be vice principal for several years. He was just a great teacher~ laved ~ i ds. I: You were involved in sports quite a bit. Who were your coaches over the years? CCC: In bas~etball. Harold Allison was the first coach I had; he actually ended up as the principal at Drake High School. In tracl~, Mr. Benefield, Glidden Benef1eld coached the track team assisted by Bob Pra ther who later on became the principal at Tam. In basketball, George Gustafson~ who they now have named the gymnasium for, was 8 basketball coach and then varsity coach. Those are the two main sports. basketball and track. I: You mentioned two people who had buildings named after them, Mr. Gustafson and Coach Benefield. How about the other people who had buildings named after them ... Miss Keyser or Mr. Wood? Qid you have classes with them or what are your memories of those t.eachet-s'·.• CCC: I didn't have Miss Keyser and I don't know how that l1appened, but I didn't, and of course Mr. Wood was the principal bt.tt ~'Jhen I came to TC\m in Febr·ual~y o·f '42 he em-oiled me. That was a small enough school at that point that you sat down with the princ1pal and he asked you some questions about your goals in life and vou filled out all the forms and so that was my first contact w1th Mr. Wood. Then in between my junior and senior year 5 he retired and I was a little bit d1sappo1nted at that. I was hoping that I"d go all the way through with Mr. Wood and maybe we'd ret1re together. but he got out a year earlv. I: What were your impressions when you f1rst met him? an inti•idating m~n ? a gentle man? a welcoming man? CCC: Ma y be a li t tle bit of all of those. He had a great stature and gorgeous white hair. Marvelous facial structure so he could look very stern. He was an old Scotsman and carried himself with a lot of dignity but he was a soft~ gentle person as well, and very h1gh moral standards. He was very interested in the 1ndiv1dual. I th1nk that was the key that made him as good a man a s he was. that each student was an 1ndividual and he treated you t ha·t ~-.~ay . I: He was always well respected and well liked? CCC: Very much so. yes. 1: How about the book vou were showing me. Did you ever have classes with Vera Stump? CCC: No, she taught Spanish, and I, because of my background l·Jiii ch v~e· ve tall;ed aboLtt ~ I opted fat~ Get~ man and had classes from a woman by the name of L1ll1an Roth who was also a very excellent teacher, a very goad one. I: How about Ruby Scott? CCC: She was Latin and I had to s~ip that also. I: You, y ears later, came back as a teacher yourself. l.Jhat teachers were st1ll there? CCC: W~ll, there were several. I don ~ t know that I could recall oi.i ll of t h em. but I n?member ·the phy sics t!~acher I had (f"h~. Ai tkPn) and John Georqe was still there as vice principal when I came bac~ · . And. 1•11 ss Hath. Lou l•Jasserman had moved on. Jules Chourre~ the printing teacher. I could go on and on with a long list. Quite a fe~·J vJere still around. It L·Jas only nine years later that I came back as a teacher, so in the terms of a person's career thal ~ s not a long stretch of time. 1 : i ou ment1oned you played bas~ . etball and track. How was Tam ~ack 1n those day s and who were thelr ... what was the competition~ who were the powerhouses in the League? CCC: Well. of course. when I f1rst went to Tam there were only b"llo high schools in l"lat~i n Countv. Tam and San Haf ael. It had only been a vear before that the students would come to high s c h o ol on the tra1ns and hop of~ the train and run up the stairs. But by the time I had arrived they had purchased a series of large busses that took the kids all the way to Fairfax in the north. and Ross, San Anselmo. Corte Madera~ Larl ~ spur, Sausalito~ ; 0 and over the hill to the beaches. A couple of times I had the o pportunity to go home and stay with friends in Ross and San Ansel mo a nd I ~ d qet on the bus and that was really ... they had a great time. I k i ncl o+ env1 ed them riding home on that bus. In one w ~v i t was a s chedule t hat vou had to meet. You only had so Hk\n ·' m:t nutes t o qe·t: o n the bus .:·\"1-tec- school. so ·tl1ei.t vJas t ·imi t inq, bLc t the s ono s and the jokes and the ~·Jhole ~-Jor·ks, ~·Jhy those buc drivers had to be saints to .•• I: Did thev take kids home after practice. too? CCC : Y es~ they had other busses that would take them home. Hardly a nybody h a d a car during the War because gasoline was rat1oned. Gasoline was very hard to come by. In fact when we would go t o a basketball game or track meet the coach would say, "(.oJhD can get a gas stamp this ~·Jeek so ~Je can go?" Di ffec~ent people would try to come up with the gas stamp. I: What schools did you compete aga1nst? CCC: Va lleJo. They only had one high school at that time and thev were very s trong. And. Santa Rosa only had one high school so they were k1nd of the powerhouses in f ootball and basketball. Tam alway s had a very strong track team, as they have had t~ ec e ntl v too, a nd have l•mn a lot a·f the track championships. I: You had quite a lang way to go to those games. CCC: Yes. and we would play Napa and Analy High School 1n Sebastc>pol. I: To change the subJeCt to where you live now. We're up an l'tocT•lngsun up above the high school. How long have you lived in this house and when was not only this house built~ but when was this side of Marin Terrace developed? CCC: I've lived in this house ••• we bought the lot in 1958 and moved in November of "59. I: You ~re the Driginal owners. CCC: Yes, there were quite a few empty lots up here at that po1nt. It kind of developed slowly. There was no mass exodus to develop this area. Although~ as I said~ in the seventies as people reallv started flocking to Mill Valley the lots started to qet picked off pretty fast. but steep hillside lots don't get ~e v eloped as rapidly as the flat areas . . I : When you moved here in '58~ did Morningsun go all the way thi~DLI~Jh to Tam Vc:d ley the ~...,ay it does nm·J? CCC: No, I don ~ t bel1eve so. I: So. between here and Tam Valley there were quite a few lots waiting to be filled. 7 CCC: Yes. In fact, Gomez Lane was not paved at that point. People would go up and down Gomez~ as steep as 1t 1s~ and it got r a ther h a iry when 1t was wet and a little bit slick. Some people would try it. My fir s t JOb at Tam was teaching driver tra1n1ng • nd the k ids would trv to qet me to let them drive down Gomez 1n the drtver training car. I " m a risk taker but not that much : we nev er tried t hat. 1: How about where I grew up, o ver in Tam V3lley? Do vou remember when you mo ved i n In the 5 u s •.. ~as Tam Valley much deve lope d Ot'· Iv a=, 1t <::• bout thc: s .:1mE· ... c:t l1ttle s i OI- '~ , ,J L.,; H l1 t t J~ s1 ow. We looked at a house and almost moved Into I =u, V"d.l t=.- ·. · t · j grd: u+f the ba·t, but tl,en 1·t dtdn't work out. It ver·v spat- sel y popul ~'<. ted at t ha:t point . . . CCC : Eob .li ··.' t:::u t·igh·t ne::·t door het·e. Tha:t ~ s when vJe firs·t go·t t o b e ~ ~l en d s. Wh en I mov ed in, h~ was living next door. In i a c t we nad a k1nd of d1spute about the property ltne when the contra c t or sta rted to build the house and things didn't get off ·to a. '.'et-y good s·tat~t . It t ool:: a L.oJhi 1 e to warm up, bL\t ow- kids were a ll the s a me age and playing back and forth and so ~ventu~ l l v we became very close friends. Then when his daughter Tracy was born, that house was way too small so they started look1ng around and found a house down at the corner of, well at 75 Morningsun. That was an old house. In fact, I was the one that mentioned it to Bob. There was a young man I had in class by the name o f Alan Stewart and his family owned that house. H1s da d had a little business wor k1ng out of the upstairs garage which had been converted to a business area. Alan told me they w ~ r e going to mov e and so I mentioned it to Bob and one th1ng led to another and they eventually bought the house. It was an old h ouse that had been added on to many times. 1: Back during the " 40 ~ s when you were in high school where did the k1ds h a ng out? What was the hangout for the Tam k ids? CCC: Well, one of the hangouts during the school day and right a fter s chool was a place called The Canteen. It was down where St a dium k1nd of r uns into Homestead Boulevard~ right at the bot tom of the hill there. On the other side, the back side of the school. It was kind of a road house because, if you see pictures o-f the c.ounpus 1 i l ~ e the one I sho~oJed you eat~ 1 i er you would noti ce that the highway ran right through the center of the school then. It didn"t go around the outside of the gym. It .came right beti 8 , ~·El.S J. n the n ? s o ri, a. ny times. That ~·las a place to hang out. (Edi t or"s note: It was called Esposti~s.> I: Canteen or Cantina? CCC: Just Canteen. I: Was it also a place for people who passed by going to the city or was it just for the high school? CCC: Pretty much high school. It wasn~t a nice enough spot for people to drop in otherwise. I: What is there now, apartments? CCC: I: What year did they tear that down? What happened? D1d they just go out of business? CCC: I don•t remember the exact year~ but fire developed in it one time and just burned it to the ground. There was the suspicion of arson, but I don•t know that that was ever proved. But, it did burn to the ground and that was the end of The Canteen .. I: Thtnking about the road that used to go through. basically through the m1ddle of the high school, since the gymnasium was on the other side. as the traffic increased~ naturally it became closed, but toward the end of the time was there a lot of tal~ About it being too dangerous? CCC: For awhile it wasn't a big problem because there just weren't that many people living in Mill Valley so the traffic ••• I: But anyone living in San Rafael had to go right by the high school didn"t they? CCC: No, there was the highway out where it is now from San Ra.fael. I: Well, we have to go back a step further. When was the bridge, the original bridge built to go over Richardson Bay so that people wouldn't have to go through Mill Valley? CCC: The Ri chdrdson bridge was there as long as I can remember. It •Js ..::d "b:l be an old 1-ed~"ood bridge. but the br-idge· 1 tsel·f was there. I don•t know the exact year it was built, but that•s been ~here for a long, long time. That was a different highway. This was just the Mill Valley people would come through the high s chool and on to the city. But they did have to eventually put up a stop light right at the bottom of the lawn on the Tam campus so that k i ds could cross safely to the gym and back. The cars would come up a nd stop and a big prank at lunch time would be to 1. i nd c.1·C '· i .:: ~ · the fender o·f a cal- i i: some \'\loman di-ove LIP and fai 1 9 do wn otr f: he i,;Jr"O Lmd as 1f vou~d b£~en h1t and then ·the pool~ lady would get out ~ run back~ end get all excited. I can recall that be1ng one of the favor1te pranks. Not me~ of course. I: What yeAr did thev actually close that road down and send it .=u-ouncl the otht:t- s 1 de of the high school? CCC: I don't remember that, Tim, I don~t remember what year that t·.Ja.s. I: Do vou remember the freeway being built? It was always the h1ghwav. Was it a two lane highway? What were the changes over the vears that y ou saw on what is now 101? CCC: I have a recollection of it being two lanes, but that goes wa·v bc.tck. !•lost of t he time. I thinl ~ in l~orld Wat~ II I'Je't~e ta.ll~1nq a.boLtt a +oLtr lane h1gh"Jay~ I believe~ tt-.Jo lanes each ~·.ray. And, then, when did they start to develop that. In the early '50's I believe is when they did the Greenbrae intersection and widened •.. the bridges, of course, limited the number of lanes you could have, ~o 1n o r der to 1ncrease that and change the I ntersec tion at Greeenbrae they had to do a whole serzes ot bt~ i dges and th i ng 5 and I bel i t::-ve that ~·Jas e :u- 1·;.' "50's t I: O v~r the years you ' ve seen hundreds o+ changes, geographica l ~ but what are s ~rna ct the more obv1ous ones that stand cut in your m1nd ••• luj•- Well" the tlrst b1q change soon after I moved to Mill /~ t ll l::.' :l Wd S ...Jh<:.il· lh!:::y ..:.ctl.led the LJoheC?n 'l'e·-.:;,ic·t t•Jhic:h i.s that ar·ea~ 1 don '' t. knm·J ~·w,at. they call 1 t not·L, bu.t Just east of on Sycamore •· •V f:·: t:u<::! hcadinq ·towat~d Camino r:11to. that ar·ea ~·Ja s <=•.ll open and a. cont ractor bv the name of George Goheen went in and b~ilt a ll dut•ln Lht? C•th r~ tr e n d of s .,.,ca.Hrore l. n t he -9.1'"e~l that s i l ke ,.;~ \ :: ~ ~) . 3 P! ) ~ •i·' ·'' • numi:~Pt •.;; urr :., ycamore .. · u:., : ::... L:l ri:l;.- •.J + J. L had t·o bL~ \J.l l~ ~~ in:, ye.:d-•. And t.hat ~1as s·tart.ed i.;·, ct llc..u t. 1. '7'" t·2 .:::.. nd f o 1r <.•.b•.:i\..•.t ti•IO otr three yeatrs, probably. they , ~ 1 ... ~ .. rr;, • - c o+ that area and even ovetr 1\lel son :• Ryan. and all •...;·• •:t''"-.': ""·' ·c;:-... fha.t was all just open 1 and r. L" Growing up o n ~ v camore wha t was the main shopping center or ·h.Jod stot~e? !•Jh e t-e did peep l e do thel r shopping? • CCC: Well. where I lived we had a l1ttle shopping area in the Locust Area and there was a good large market and another one over where the new health Foods store 1s now. That was a market 1n the late 40"s, they called 1t the quonset because of the construction of the bu1ld1nq, 1t was like an old quonset hut. l'here was a store there and an electric store at Locust~ another 10 soda fountain, and a barber shop. That's kind of interesting because more and more people now are saying how. especially downtown M1ll Valley has changed~ and how the shops now reflect 1·1ncl ·-:~+ i:l hu:lh tech pl1i.losophy t·nth a lot o-f- bout:iqLtes anr.l fancv ~ tares and 1 t us~d to be stores that serviced the communitv. So 1 guess I am sound1ng old now because as much as I still th1nk the dm·mtm•Jn area 1n 1•1i 11. Valley is a very del iqht-ful area. I ~nsh there were more stores where people who lived here could go down to the hardware store (there is one, there used to be a couple) or qo to a grocery store~ or a bakery. 1 : D1d y our family go shopp1ng at Mill Valley Market? CCC: Ve•·- :-1 sel dam. We l1ved down at the other end of town sa we shDJ.!p!~d al: Loc: us 1:. I: What year was the Safeway built? And what was there before Sa.-fe~>.~ay'? CCC: The Puritv store I bel1eve which was another of the chain markets was 111 a building on that site. 1: I remember PLu~ity. It ~·Jas actLtally where Cantina i s . Did it used to be where the Safeway 1s? CCC: It"s my recollection the Pur1ty store was bas1callv on the same p1ece of property that Safeway was and so we shopped there s ome. \Ed1tor ~ s note: No. Pur1ty was where Cant1na is on Camino Glto. Safeway is the only place of business tha t has been at the corner across from the high school.) I'm not s u re of the e x act year that Safeway came in. My memory for spec1 f ic dates is not all that great. 1: You mentioned Gomez. hight down at the bott om of Gomez t i,E:t-e ;· s I believe ,;,.. b ~ nk o•·· a n?al esta.te. I can •-emembel- in the seventies that place was at least three different restaurants or busi nessE·s. Can you remembe•·- ~·Jhat places used ·t o be ·thel-e? CCC ; Thet-e "''as one that they called Hamby's. The gentleman that started that was a great basketball player by the name of Mike O'Neill who JUst passed away about two weeks ago. He was the owner and operator of Hamby's for a couple of years. His son was ~ good athlete at Tam. And I recall a used car dealership operating there for a few years. In fact, I bought a car there once. An old DeSoto~ ~·Jhich is coming b.:Kk to my memory. You'r·e right, there were a couple of different, Iike fast food oper~tions. but Hamby's is the one I remember the most. ~= In l1ght of the publ1c school bash1ngs these days how do you • t h in k Ta m has h t.:-ld up to tha·t cl~iticism ? CCC: Tarn has been blessed because ot the nature of the communitv. We've always had an excellent student body. bright l:::id s , p•-etty \oJe] 1 motivated. An e :-~cellent staff -h-om the time thc:tt I ~-Jent tlv-"n? Sis a student un·t1l today. I tl1ink they're able 1 1 .. to attract good teachers because of l1v1ng cond1tions and salar1es. pretty good In this area. and so Tam really has never h a d the lt ind o t education and cultural problems that the inner c1tv has h ad . and especiall y In the old days, 1t was considered to be one o f t he +1ner publi ~ s chools a round. It had a very good r e putation. In the 8 a y Area, even state w1de. Mr. Wood d evelo~ed a strong college prep program. Then he was smart enough t o r e alize that not everyone was going to go to college a nd so he, ••• they used to have a marvelous vocational tech program. They could probabl y use that a gain. Some things come full c ircle. There are an awful lot of people, even that went on to college, that are making their living, and a good living with the 1r hands. carpente rs and plumbers and all of that. In those dav s you could learn all of that at Tam. They had a great machine shop. great print shop. I: Did the ~ talk a bout tha t in y our last vears as a teacher? Th,:;. t th.o: l: m1 ght be com1 no back? CCC: There was some talk of it, but they"re very expensive. I don' ·t l::not.-J. The main thrust is to go coil ege prep in this commun1ty and I think 1t will always be that way . I don't know that there•s enough Influence to develop a technical program. It"s more likely to be done at the county level where the students would be able to go some place and learn those skills, but I don,t see i t happening at Tam. There are some down there. Th• . ,~ e ' s an r!-'.Lt t o Shop and st i 11 a l\lood Shop. I bel1 eve. but the rest o f it"s gone. I: I think that covers it. CCC: Llkay . I: Do y ou have any other thoughts which I forgot to ment1on? CCC: Well~ when I filled out that questionnaire you gave me there was a question about jobs and that brought back a lot of memories. The first job I qot. when I was still a freshman~ was worl ~ 1ng for Solomon Brown who had Brown~s Furniture Store. It's now a big complex in Mill Valley, but it was Brown's Furniture at that poi.nt, and so he delivet~ed fw~nitut··e, and as people were moving into these tract areas that I mentioned. wh v there was a lot of ~--.~ot~l c loading trucks and tal::ing furnitLu~ e arot.tnd to people as they moved into their houses. Then the job at Varnev " s was kind o+ int e l~ esting because .::1 lot of it entalled dellver·ing ice .to people. Before most people had refrigerators they had :i. cebo::es and JrJe ~"oul d have to go to San Ra-fael ::md 1 oad these .. l a rge 300 pound bloc~s of 1ce onto a truck, bri ng them bacl( , put · them onto a pic~ up and then drive them around town with our • l1ttle 1ce p1c~ and ch1p off usually around 25 pounds and sometimes -f 1ft y and lug it In t·n th ••• I: There were still people in the fort1es who d1dn"t have electric refr1gerator s ? 12 .. CCC: Le ts of them didn"t have refrigerators. This was early ' 4u·s. I worled there 1n 1944. We delivered a lot of coal in those davs. Wood wasn•t quite as popular and a lot of people b u r ned coal. Then later on I had a chance to work with the recreat1on department~ when I was still 1n college. They had a verv min1mal summer progra m and I was the recreation director for dbout threo ~ears and enjoy ed that very much out at Boyle Park. I ~- I: On Sunnyside? CCC: Right at the corner of Sunnyside~ yeah. So I had a few jobs in town and enjoyed a ll of them. You get to meet a lot of great people. I have good memories of that. 1: Are there a lot of folks that you met over the years that are s t i l 1 i n t Ol·m '? CCC: Oh yes. sure. That~s what~s nice about having been here thiS long. !t•s a hard place to leave. 1: WelJ. l e t• s end it on that note then. CCC: , 13