Friday, March 7, 2014

(Youth 7) Trip to Berkeley. Work in Emeryville.

My Model A and I headed for Berkeley (400 miles north). I stayed with Aunt Margery and looked for a job. I went to the State of California Employment Office. They sent me to the Doughnut Corporation in Emeryville. I became a card carrying member of the Warehouseman's Union.

The plant where I worked made barrels and large sacks of bakery mixes, largely doughnut mix for the military and large doughnut shops.

I learned how to sew up gunny sacks and install wooden barrel lids into large wooden barrels. I helped to unload train cars of flour, sugar, dried eggs, and barrels. Every morning I filled bins that went from the mixing floor to the second story. A man on the mixing floor filled large mixing machines with material. One machine mixed pie crust mix. It was a job to clean. I had to climb inside the machine to clean it of shortening. Lucky no one started the machine while I was in it.

I took a trip to Portland, Oregon. I had heard of big wages in the shipyards. I tried for several days but could not get a job. I returned to the Bay Area and a job at the doughnut mix plant. I stayed for a while at a rooming house a half a bloc from Lake Merritt in Oakland. It was and is a beautiful little lake. There were large houses in the neighborhood. My rooming house was in one of them. I remember a bed in a large room full of beds. We ate meals at tables in a large room and were served our meals. It was a nice place. I remember a cowboy bar in downtown Oakland. I just had lunch, to young to buy beer.

When I returned to Pomona some months later I drove down old highway 99. I remember the highway lined with oleander bushes in the Modesto area. Years later my son lived in Modesto. The oleander bushes were still there sixty years later. I can remember stopping near Fresno and laying on the ground next to my car to sleep. That is a cheap motel! I do not think motels had been invented yet.

The timing gear failed in my Model A. I did not enough money to get it fixed so I sold it to a car shop in Fresno for $10. I had bought the car for $35 (paid cash, no payments) some time earlier. I used it a lot. I got $25 worth of use out of it. I hitch hiked to Pomona.

4 comments:

  1. We just found your blog and plan to check it daily. Looks interesting, and love the stories of life in the past years.

    Thanks!!

    Bigfoot and Littlefoot in TX

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  2. Sadly, the Lake Merritt area has become crime-ridden, and many of the properties are not well kept. It's not even safe to walk around the lake today.

    My father bought a Model A in the late 1940's. He was discharged from the Army somewhere near Seattle in 1946 and bought it after returning to the Bay Area. My folks drove it until they traded it in for a 1953 Chevrolet. That was around the time I showed up!

    Love your stories - keep them coming!

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    Replies
    1. I am sorry to hear about Lake Merritt. It was such a nice looking place. Thanks for the kind words.

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