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| Minnich Family Home in Pasadena |
I feel so fortunate to have spent my early years in the area I did. I didn’t even know there was a depression. These are my early remembrances.
This is how our lineage began:
Two Minnich brothers left Munich Germany and came to Pennsylvania in the early 1700’s. John Minnich, a son of one of these brothers, was born in Pennsylvania; went to Amsterdam, Virginia to live. His son, Michael Minnich, had a son named Andrew Jackson Minnich. He died on June 3, 1862 in the Civil War’s Battle of Seven Pines near Richmond, Virginia. He was in the 28th Infantry. At the time of his death he had a 12 year old son, John Lewis Minnich, who eventually had four sons: Otto Lewis, born in 1878, Samuel Andrew, 1883, Lee R., 1887, and George W., 1903.
Until John Lewis was 18 years old, employment was hard to find. He earned ten cents a day which was paid in beans and bacon. In his search for more it is said that he borrowed five dollars from his grandfather Mills, his mother fixed him a basket of food and he set out with a friend named Mose Gaymon, walking and riding a boat down the Ohio River to Ohio. There he got $18 a month doing ranch work. From there he worked his way to Indiana and saved his money over a period of time. He returned on foot to Virginia and paid for his mother, Sister Fannie and brother Charles and himself to go back to Indiana by train.
He then leased, cleared and drained land north of Ladoga and built a log cabin for the family. This area was called Hog Haven because it was swampy land.Otto Minnich was born in this log cabin. John Lewis bought 80 acres and went into debt. He then bought 40 more acres and then on to sixty more acres. When he came to California his place sold at auction, the biggest auction held in that area. Otto was the oldest of John Lewis' four sons. He grew up on a farm which was gradually expanded by his parents. After completing twelve years of local school he attended North Manchester College for two years. His reputation as a “student rebel” terminated this portion of his education. One of his duties on the farm was to ride in a railroad stock car full of hogs to Chicago and return with the cash.
In 1907, Otto and his brother Sam shopped around southern California for ranch land. Otto purchased ten acres of apricots at the corner of Florida and Yale in Hemet. With Sam doing most of the carpentry a house and barn were built.
In 1907, Otto and his brother Sam shopped around southern California for ranch land. Otto purchased ten acres of apricots at the corner of Florida and Yale in Hemet. With Sam doing most of the carpentry a house and barn were built.
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| Catherine & Joel Gnagey, Della's parents |
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| Della Gnagy and a friend |
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| Della & Otto on the far right, standing |
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| Ralph and Raymond |
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| Ralph, Otto, Raymond, Della, Charles and Dwight |
After spending my first year in Ladoga, second year in Windber, Pennsylvania and my third year in Central City, I can vaguely remember the long trip to California. Poor Dad, he had to stop and repair the engine on the Maxwell several times.
Those big wood blocks are all that I can remember about the Barbara Greenwood Kindergarten. It didn’t take long to make a sizable structure. Years later they jacked up the Kindergarten and moved it across town to a new location. Next door was the Central School. It was very old and several stories high and a fire trap. I was in an upper room on a hot day and the teacher had a pan of water and went around splashing water on the floor. It wasn’t long till they tore the school down and they built a new school right near where we lived at 819 West Holt Avenue in Pomona. The new school was called Roosevelt and is still there to this day.
Being the baby of my family I had to look up to my three brothers and receive their hand-me-downs. My parents had a screened sleeping porch added on the back of the house. The four beds were on coasters for ease of movement. In those days earthquakes were very frequent and although they were usually not very strong our beds were not always in the same place the next morning. My bed was next to the house and I had a window next to to it. I could crawl through into the house if necessary.
It wasn’t long before I realized that I was living in a great playground. To the north was Ganesha Hills and Park where our only outdoor swimming pool was. A little further was Puddingstone Dam and reservoir. Above this was Mt. Baldy. To the south were the South Hills that just asked to be biked or hiked. Then there was Burnly Airport. A little further and you would be in Uncle Sam and Uncle Lee’s walnut groves in Chino. West of us was the rock quarry on the edge of town where we could shoot our guns and not bother anyone. To the east, it wasn’t too far to San Gorgonio Mountain on the north and San Juacinta Mountain on the south — the two highest mountains in Southern California. A little further and you are in Palm Springs on the right and Joshua Tree National Monument on the left. The great Mohave Dessert beckons. They took us out of school to the YMCA and taught us how to swim. The Ganesha Park pool was a must during hot weather. It cost 10 cents. The sad part was we couldn’t go on Friday because it was Mexican day.
When we went swimming at Puddingstone, it was always at the foot of the dam. There was a raft with a diving board that we could swim out to. I parked my car at the top of the dam and got my first ticket because I didn’t cross the length of the dam and come back on the other lane. I had to go to Los Angeles to take care of the ticket. Trying to find the place in all that traffic was a real problem. I have had a never ending dislike for that concrete jungle ever since.
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| The steamboat under way |
After fishing, swimming and hiking around Puddingstone we realized that we needed a boat. Near the dam we spotted what looked like the stern of a boat sticking out of the mud. It turned out to be a row boat. After checking with the dam caretaker we put it on our trailer and took it home. After cleaning, caulking and painting, we had a watertight rowboat. We put a sail on it, too. Still not quite satisfied I decided to build a kayak. In those days bicycle wheel rims were made of wood. I used the rims to make the ribs of the kayak. I wanted it to be unsinkable so I put two five gallon honey cans in the kayak. I even went so far as to solder valve stems on the cans so I could pump air in them. Ray came to my rescue and told me that was not necessary. So the day came for the try out. Charles and the neighbor boys, Jack and Elmer came along to witness the try out. To my dismay it was very tippy because of the round shape. This time Ralph came to my rescue and he brought home from the Pomona Pump Co., where he worked, a scrapped casting that I could straddle in the center of the kayak. That stabilized it so it wasn’t so tippy. One day I was out in the middle of Puddingstone and I noticed that I didn’t have my counter weight. I never used it again. Charles built his kayak with a nice “V” bottom. The neighbor boys built their kayaks, too. I was 12 years old when, on July 6, 1935, I was in my kayak at Puddingstone and noticed a kayak in the distance that no one was in. Somehow I knew something serious had happened. It was one ot the neighbors’ kayaks. It was the widest of all the kayaks and looked like a giant pumpkin seed. It had tipped over and my poor cousin J.B. who didn’t know how to swim had drowned. It was a very sad day. I felt so sorry for Uncle Lee and Aunt Hattie. They had lost their only boy.
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| Cop Navigating at Puddingstone Dam |
I recall another event that was quite scary for me. Ray and I were hunting rabbits in the hills by Puddingstone when we were separated temporarily. That is when I when I met this man who accused me of shooting his cows. He was going to turn me in and Ray shows up. Ray explained to the man that we were hunting rabbits, not cows. What a relief. Ray would make a good ambassador.
Ray had a map of how to get to a place near El Golfo, Mexico, at the northern end of the Gulf of California. This fishing area was noted for a large sea bass call Tortuavas. He and Dad had an eventful trip that Ray would tell about for the rest of his life. They were stopped on the way back by a couple of Mexican bandits, but somehow they got away without being hurt. I knew they were back when I saw large fish scales near our ice house.
Our father had an ice house put in the front yard next to the street. A big sign “Olives and Honey. OL Minnich” was put up by the ice house. Ice came in big blocks with notches in the sides so that you cold break off 25 pound pieces with an ice pick or 50 pounds by going the next notch. Most people had ice boxes and the 25 pound size was the usual request. We had a Servel gas refrigerator that worked with a small flame. It required defrosting. When a customer stopped for ice I would use ice tongs and place the ice on their bumper of their car. In those days cars had bumpers.
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| Ray and Otto Minnich on their Baja Adventure |
Our father had an ice house put in the front yard next to the street. A big sign “Olives and Honey. OL Minnich” was put up by the ice house. Ice came in big blocks with notches in the sides so that you cold break off 25 pound pieces with an ice pick or 50 pounds by going the next notch. Most people had ice boxes and the 25 pound size was the usual request. We had a Servel gas refrigerator that worked with a small flame. It required defrosting. When a customer stopped for ice I would use ice tongs and place the ice on their bumper of their car. In those days cars had bumpers.
We sold olives in different size cartons that would hold the olives with or without the brine. If we ran out of cartons we used cereal boxes. Dad cured olives in a special way. They were the only olives that tasted good to me. Dad had the olive shed in the back yard with two rows of barrels for the final curing and 4 concrete vats for the initial soaking in a lye solution to get the bitterness out. Dad loved to get an Easterner to bite on an olive right off the tree.
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| Otto (O.L.) Minnich watching brine overflow from his Olives |
If olives were’t enough work, Dad also had honey bees. He had at one time about 120 colonies of bees. They had to be moved according to what was blooming. I had a bunch of hives in the panel truck that had the bee entrances plugged. While driving I wore a bee veil. Somehow a bee got inside my bee veil. A big job was extracting the honey. Dad had a honey house in the backyard. The extractor spun the honey comb frames to expel the honey. Then the frames had to be flipped over to do the other side. First the combs had to be decapped by using electrically heated knives so the honey could be expelled.
I spent a lot of time on the front porch waiting for customers. Just watching the cars and trucks go by was interesting. When a truck went by you knew it by the way it shook the house. They were mostly Mack trucks. All had solid rubber tires. When a gasoline truck went by it left a tail of sparks from a chain that was dragged behind to remove static electricity. Gas trucks also had a chain driven rear wheels and they all had a pipe that dripped oil on the chain.
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| Ralph and Cop. Ralph has swollen bee-stung eyes |
I recall a lady driving a model T Ford coupe one day. She was traveling East in front of our house. A white dog got in front of her and she swerved to her left and crossed the street heading for the big palm tree in our front yard. She went up over the curb and rammed into it. The palm did not budge. It was about three feet in diameter. She got out of the car and grabbed some bottles of hooch and started breaking them in mom’s Dalia bed. The hooch was flowing down the furrows in the flower bed. Prohibition wasn’t working. Ray called the cops. They opened the turtle deck and found large containers of more hooch. The local newspaper “Progress Bulletin” had an article the next day about it. She was taking it to some encampment up in the mountains.
There weren’t many horse drawn vehicles around. But I recall this incident. A man riding a horse got hit by a car right in front of our house. It was in the late afternoon and the visibility was not to good and the horse did not have a tail light. The horse, which was bleeding from the rear end, was still standing. A cop looked the horse over and decided to put it out of its misery. He shot it in the head once and nothing happened. He shot it a second time and this did the trick. The horse eventually was dragged across the street into a vacant lot. Every morning I looked over there hoping it would be gone.
Another incident worth mentioning was when a motorcycle policeman fell off his bike right in front of our house. The bike came to a stop but the policeman didn’t. He slid forward about fifty feet making sparks all the way, probably from his gun. He was not badly injured.
Ever since playing with those wooden blocks in kindergarten I had the feeling that I had to make something. After watching the planes at the Burnly Airport, I couldn’t get airplanes out of my mind. Hunsakers Sporting goods store in Pomona sold model airplane kits and supplies. For ten cents you could buy a model airplane kit that had balsa wood, bamboo, paper, wheels propeller, glue and everything to make a flyable model airplane.
What fun! I even got my mother to build one. The “Curtis Robin” was a favorite. After reading the “Model Airplane News” magazine I bought the materials and designed my own models. In one issue there were plans for a fly powered model. It was very light for covering the wings required a very thin film. They didn’t have Saran Wrap in those days. The magazine told how to make a real thin film by taking model airplane dope and adding thinner to it and then pour it on a pan of water. This covered the elliptical wings and tail surfaces. The motor up front consisted of a fly stuck to the front end. I tried it out in the house. I was in the dining room and turned it loose. It flew across the entry room and into the living room and decided to call it quits by hanging onto a curtain. I had a thought that maybe it would go longer if it had two motors (flies).
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| The gas model plane that flew over Catalina Island |
I think that I was about seven years old when I built a model of an Army pursuit plane. It was a scale model, my first. It was not a flyer but it was a static model.
Boats and steam engines were the next in a series of adventures in which I endeavored. My dad took us deep sea fishing and that’s where my love of boats started. Using a piece of fence post became my first steamboat. I carved it to look like a freighter. A beer can became the boiler. A small pan of alcohol was the burner. A note from Raymond’s diary states that he was going with Dwight to Los Arenas (local country club) to try out his steamboat. The boat worked pretty good. One problem was that the burner didn’t keep flames from scorching the inside of the hull.
Our friends Jack and Elmer also had access to the tile storage building which was next door. There was enough room in it to play hockey on roller skates. We also played cop and robbers with rubber band guns.
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| Cop arresting the gophers |
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| Cop as a puppy, with Charles |
Ralph was responsible for building the big garage and a shop in the back of our lot. It had a loft where all kinds of goodies were stored. The best part was the work shop. It had a big workbench with a vise. There were lots of woodworking tools and Ralph had all sorts of electrical equipment. He got a welding machine that had been in a fire. He rewound all the wiring and put a Chevy engine on it to run it. He installed a gas pump with an underground tank. Ray said that they got gas put in the tank for eight cents a gallon. To put gas in your car you used a hand crank. The best that I can remember was getting two gallons for a quarter at a fueling station.
In the 1930s Ray, Ralph, Howard Neher, Archy Wolf and Edgar Holly got together and started looking for a place to build a cabin in the San Antonio Canyon on Mt. Baldy. They eventually ended building it near Manker flats at about five thousand feet elevation. It is still on the Lot #32. Sole owner now is Richard Minnich, Ray’s son.
I always wondered why Ralph and Ray kept going out to the desert. After going out there a few times, I found out why. Ray had a friend, Eugene Clay, that worked in the chemistry lab at Pomona College. He had just bought a 1935 Ford V8. Ray and Eugene planned a trip to Death Valley and Panamint City. I got to go with them this time. It was my first trip to Death Valley. I was thrilled with the austere beauty of the place. To get to Panamint City you had to go up a very rough road that wasn’t always open. There was a chain lock across the road at the bottom of the canyon. Ray went to a shack nearby and somehow had a key to let us through. After a very rough climb we leveled off at what was left of Panamint City. There were a lot of big mountain sheep laying in the road. Ray grabbed his camera and was off to get pictures of the retreating sheep. He had not more than left us when Eugene Clay and I were confronted by a woman and a Mexican. The woman turned out to be Shotgun Mary. She was not a very nice person and became irritated somehow. She asked how we got here and what we were doing. She kept us pinned down and we couldn’t move away. I wanted to look around the place so bad and we had to stay put listening to her complaining. Shotgun Mary is mentioned in books about mines in this area.
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| Flywheel, Panamint City |
There was this huge wheel from a big steam engine, visible from where we were pinned down. It must have been around ten feet in diameter. Later I learned how they got it up to the canyon. It was made in segments so that it could be brought up in pieces. Finally, Ray showed up and it was time that we left. Ray said he didn’t have much luck getting pictures. The mountain sheep can disappear in a hurry.
Ralph, Charles and I visited a very interesting mine in the next canyon from Panamint City. There was no one around to harass us. I had never seen so many stamp mills all in a row like we saw there. There was a big steam engine that had the head off and the piston was hanging out of the cylinder. In the firebox of the boiler was box of dynamite. So how did they get the ore down to these stamp mills? Like a huge spider web, cables were strung from the canyon walls where the mine shafts were. The stamp mill area was the center of the web. We stayed there overnight. It was very cold and windy. We found a shack that gave us some protection. The cracks between the boards didn’t keep much wind out. Ralph was very uncomfortable that night.
The canyon we were in was next door to the canyon that Panamint City was in. One canyon was named Surprise and the other was Pleasant. I think the canyon we slept in was Surprise Canyon.
Ray was starting his college career and he built a nice room next to the honey room. It had his bed and desk. His own private room. He was going to La Verne College. He was able to use the chemistry room whenever he wanted to at night. I went with him many times when he developed his pictures. The school also had an enlarger. We often went to the basketball games.
Ray turned over his rabbits to me. There were cages to clean, water and feed bowls to keep filled. There was a hay grinder that we used a lot. You had to turn a crank, which had a handle on a flywheel. When grinding hay I had the handle break off and the momentum caused my right index finger and thumb to go into the unprotected gears. The grinding came to a stop. I pulled my hand out and ran to my mother. She pulled the cotton glove off and saw that my fingers were still on. Apparently my index fingers first joint had stopped the gears. It never did heal straight.
Ray turned over his rabbits to me. There were cages to clean, water and feed bowls to keep filled. There was a hay grinder that we used a lot. You had to turn a crank, which had a handle on a flywheel. When grinding hay I had the handle break off and the momentum caused my right index finger and thumb to go into the unprotected gears. The grinding came to a stop. I pulled my hand out and ran to my mother. She pulled the cotton glove off and saw that my fingers were still on. Apparently my index fingers first joint had stopped the gears. It never did heal straight.
My mother showed me how to keep a record of my sales of dressed rabbits. So many pounds a thirty cents a pound and sold to who. I never did get used to chopping their heads off. I got pretty good at skinning and cleaning them. As soon as I opened them up I knew whether there was any diseased organs. I had to be careful removing the gall bladder. If it broke you would throw the liver out. Charles had the chore of taking care of the chickens. They were penned up under the big apricot tree in the back yard. The rabbit pens were under the tree, too. So that is why we had the biggest apricot tree around.
One day someone cut the wire on the chicken pen and stole some. The cops came and found a fresh shoe print where the chickens were missing. It was a woman’s shoe print.
I had been taking piano lessons and at a recital I had to play left hand only. I stayed overnight at Uncle Lee and Aunt Hattie’s many times. Their son J.B. was two years older than me. They lived on Ramona Avenue in Chino, next to Uncle Sam. They had walnut groves next to each other. J.B. was born cross-eyed. It was supposed to be beneficial for his eyes to watch movies. TVs were still in the future. Aunt Hattie would spruce us up, comb our hair and put stocking caps on our heads to keep our hair neat while she drove us to Pomona to go to the Fox Theater. They always showed cartoons before the regular show.
Henry Blocker donated his lawn mowing jobs to me. Never did like mowing lawns, but at twenty five cents an hour, I mowed a lot of lawns. I mowed the lawn for Mr. Canon, who was the manager of the Fox Theater. He had a very nice home in the South Hills. I rode my bike up to his home and even washed his car.
The rock quarry is about three miles west of us and was a great place to shoot. We were always looking for targets to shoot at. Dynamite caps that were put on fuses were the size of a pencil in diameter and a couple of inches long. When you hit one they made a loud bang. When you hit a stick of dynamite you started the big bang theory. It was wasteful and we found that if you cut it in pieces the bang was just about the same (more bang for your buck.)
At Emerson Junior High they had a class called Wood Shop. I learned how to run a wood lathe. I made a padded foot stool out of Philippine mahogany. The instructor Mr. Whitaker was very grouchy. At lunch time you could buy a frozen Snickers bar for ten cents.
When dad took us deep sea fishing, we would always go to Newport Beach. We went right by Knott’s Berry Farm on the way. It was just a couple of fruit stands by the road.
My favorite spot on the boat was the bow where I had 180 degrees to cast my lures. When reeling in my Japanese feather, I saw a barracuda chasing it. When I pulled the feather out of the water the barracuda came right out of the water and grabbed it in mid-air. I never had this happen before. Barracuda were good eating, but my favorite was the two rows of eggs that females had. Mom would fry them in a skillet. Dad hooked up with a big yellow tail that finally got tangled in a huge kelp bed. I thought he would never be able to get it out of there. He finally landed it.
Ralph and Ray both worked at the Pomona Pump Company as inspectors. One day Ralph came home in a brand new 1935 Ford V8. Model T milk trucks were being sold for fifteen dollars. When I inquired about them, they were all sold out.
I went down to Jake's Junk yard and bought a 1927 Model T Sedan for $17. Right away I found out why it was in the junk yard. The body was good but the engine was shot. After removing the body, I removed the engine. Jake sold me a Model A Ford engine and transmission for $9 and said he would replace any worn out parts. Hooking the transmission to the rear end was a problem, but combining a Chevy universal with a Ford universal solved it. With the body back on I had a 1927 Model T which was the last year the Model Ts were made, with a 1928 Model A engine, which was the first year Model As were made. I had a hybrid. I never had a top on it. One time I was up at the cabin at Baldy and the next day the car was full of snow. I had to dig out a spot to sit down.
I loved to watch the trains come through town. The tracks ran east and west, south of Holt Avenue. They all had steam engines. Up close you could smell the hot oil and steam leaking out in various places. Some trains were a mile long. Sometimes we would go up in the South hills and look down on the trains as they went through town. One time, while watching trains go through town the Pomona fire horn started blaring. The fire department had only one station at that time. It was south of the tracks. The fire engine was stopped by the passing train. Later another station was put in on the north side of the tracks. Sometimes there was an unusual engine pulling the train. It was called a “Mallie” and it had drive wheels and cylinders at both ends of the locomotive. The longer trains required two locomotives. What a shock! It seemed like overnight all the steam locomotives were gone forever. They were replaced with diesel electric locomotives.
Just North of Ganesha Park some tents started to appear. It was the start of the country’s biggest County Fair. The Los Angeles County Fair kept getting bigger and bigger. Soon there were huge exhibit buildings and a big grandstand and racetrack. Special barns were built for race horses. There were live stock buildings for all kinds of animals.
One of my favorite places was the side show area. Robert Wadelow was in one of these. He was the worlds tallest man at the time. I paid a quarter to go in and see him. He took off a finger ring and passed a quarter through it. He was really huge. Another side show featured a man that put a tube down his throat and they pumped air in him till he looked like a balloon. Afterwards it was one long burp expelling all that air. There was a sign in front of this tent advertising the lizard man. When viewing this man with the scaly skin, it was announced that for twenty five cents you could see a hermaphrodite in the curtained area of the tent. This I had to see. Inside this area a man was telling all about his physical condition. When the robe was opened, it was plainly obvious.
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| LA Fairgrounds: a building caught fire |
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| The Model Plane Club Made the News! |
Model airplanes really got interesting when for $12.50 you could buy a miniature 2 cycle gas engine kit. After soldering the gas tank together and screwing the engine parts together you had a motor that would power a plane with a 4 foot wing span. For fuel you used gasoline and motorcycle oil, using a mixture of 3 parts gas to 1 part 70 weight motor cycle oil. My first model was a kit. It was call the “Quaker Flash.” It turned out to be “Quaker Crash.” Soon Charles and the neighbors, Jack and Elmer, were building models and improved on my shortcomings. Eventually we formed the Pomona Valley Gas Model Association (PVGMA). We had contests and had an exhibit in one of the buildings at the fair. One year our exhibit got a fifty dollar prize. Dick Bartlet, a good friend and model builder, told his dad about it. His dad had a converted Rum Runner boat at Long Beach. He offered to take us to Catalina. The $50 would pay for gas and expenses. I took my best gas model along and flew it on the golf course. On the way back that evening the ocean was smooth as glass. About half way back one of the Gray marine engines broke down. We had to limp back with one engine. Just as we were about to dock a terrible wind came up. We had docked just in time. Driving home 40 miles to Pomona wasn’t easy with all the wind blowing.
I didn’t care much about contests but I enjoyed trying ideas. The fairgrounds had a huge parking lot which was perfect for flying. I put wing tip lights on my plane and had to tie the tires to the hubs because when it landed the tires sometimes peeled off and were hard to find at night.
One night my plane went up and you could follow its flight by those wing tip lights, but we couldn’t hear it land because it landed on a horse barn. I tried to control the engine by using the right amount of fuel. The plane, during a daylight flight, landed on a pair of electric light wires. The plane was supported on the wires by its wing with the body of the plane in between. How am I going to get it down, I thought. Finally the wind turned the plane and it dropped through the wires.
Charles built a nice plane similar to the one that I flew at Catalina. He filled the tank and launched it and followed it by car as it made its way down to Chino. We flew our planes down by the airport because there was a lot of open space. I had a yellow plane and it landed in a large mustard field that was in full bloom. Ward Woodbridge was a flier and went up in a Piper Cub and spotted it in the blossoms for me. I had one land in a walnut grove and could not find it. I went home and worried about it. The next morning I started looking for it again. There it was in a walnut tree in the guy’s backyard. What a relief it was.
In 1933, we had a real shaker of an earthquake. I was eleven years old and it really scared me. I was in the living room when the house started to shake. I ran out into the front yard and saw Holt Avenue moving like an ocean wave. The light poles were whipping back and forth. I didn’t realize how lucky we were till we heard about Long Beach. Our frame house held up very well. Losing some bricks off the fire place chimney was the only major loss. We did visit the destruction in Long Beach. Fortunately the quake happened around six in the evening when the schools were out. I have since wondered how the quake shook us that hard 40 miles away. We were closer to the San Andreas Fault than the Newport Englewood Fault. The one that did Long Beach in was the Newport Englewood Fault.
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| Climbing trees |
Our neighbors, the McWilliams, bought a new 1936 Ford V8. It was a black beauty. I was in the back seat when Jack McWilliams took us for a ride. We were in a residential area and while crossing a street we noticed a guy on a motorcycle coming towards us at a fast rate. We were going no more than twenty miles an hour. The guy couldn’t decide to go ahead of us or behind us. He was able to stop the motorcycle and spill, but he kept coming and hit his head on the right wind wing. The glass was completely shattered. He had no protective helmet, not that it would have made a difference. I shook as I saw him laying there motionless. I never heard if he survived or not.
I went with the neighbor boys to Long Beach for another visit. This time we decided to check out the harbor. We were walking on a dock where there was a Japanese freighter taking on a load of scrap iron. As we looked down the crew came out on deck and formed a circle and went through some kind of ceremony. We looked at each other and said (just like we used to say) “One day the Japanese will go to war against the U.S.”
1938 was the year of the flood. It rained for four days straight. I was hoping to see the sun again. Then it really began to pour. A note in Ray’s diary states this: "What about the cabin?
Charles and I found out. The road was washed out. So we hiked from the bottom of the canyon all the way to the cabin. We were cold and tired, looking forward to starting a fire in the fireplace and going to sleep. What a disappointment when we saw the cabin. The corner of the cabin was split open. You could see that the mud and rocks had piled up four feet before splitting it wide open. The mud and rocks had poured in through the windows on each side of the fireplace and smashed the beds flat. Mr. Herr’s cabin was completely gone. Then it hit me that I had stashed a box of dynamite by a tree between the two cabins. The whole area was washed out. It was getting late and it had taken all day to get here. We knew that we couldn’t hike back in the dark. Luckily, a man showed up and offered us a place to stay that night. Don’t know what we would have done if he didn’t help us. Camp Baldy was totaled. The swimming pool was cut in half. Parts of buildings hung out over the flooded area. A new road was put in the canyon and this time it was built on higher ground.
Charles and I found out. The road was washed out. So we hiked from the bottom of the canyon all the way to the cabin. We were cold and tired, looking forward to starting a fire in the fireplace and going to sleep. What a disappointment when we saw the cabin. The corner of the cabin was split open. You could see that the mud and rocks had piled up four feet before splitting it wide open. The mud and rocks had poured in through the windows on each side of the fireplace and smashed the beds flat. Mr. Herr’s cabin was completely gone. Then it hit me that I had stashed a box of dynamite by a tree between the two cabins. The whole area was washed out. It was getting late and it had taken all day to get here. We knew that we couldn’t hike back in the dark. Luckily, a man showed up and offered us a place to stay that night. Don’t know what we would have done if he didn’t help us. Camp Baldy was totaled. The swimming pool was cut in half. Parts of buildings hung out over the flooded area. A new road was put in the canyon and this time it was built on higher ground.
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| Shovelful by shovelful, the rocks were moved |
After every load we would put a rock in a bucket to keep count.
We hauled rocks out of there for many years and from subsequent floods. In the sixties I took a picture of Jim, Mark and Jamie Mugridge, my wife Harriet’s sister Phyllis’ family, with a loaded ore car with a cardboard sign noting the 500th load.
Ray's son Richard adds this information about the floods:
The first flood was March 2, 1938 (about 30" of rain in 4 days, including 20" on March 2.) Big Butch Wash runoff spread to the cabin and deposited sediment consisting of generally large rocks onto the structure at the kitchen and also pushed the wood shed about 3 feet. Rocks were taken off the roof, and hauled forward using the ore car that was brought down from a mine by the boys and by wheel barrow (welded together by Ralph) to build out the front yard. The process pretty much completed by 1940. The second flood occurred on December 2-6, 1966 and again produced about 30 inches of rain at the cabin. Big Butch again overflowed and brought a massive amount of fine sediment onto the cabin roof as shown in these photos. After that flood, Ray had Bobby Chapman built a levee above the cabin to divert Big Butch runoff toward the cliffs and down into the direction of the Manker Flat Campground. That levee was a godsend because there was a great flood soon after on January 18-26, 1969 which brought more than 50" of rain to the cabin, including 20" of rain on January 25. Needless to say, the levee worked, or the cabin would have been destroyed. This was followed by another round of rock hauling using the ore car and the wheel barrow for greater than a year. A photograph showing a sheet of paper that records both the ore car and wheel barrow counts is below. It shows the date of each trip and who helped.
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| Photo from the '66 flood, more rocks came down |
Ray's son Richard adds this information about the floods:
The first flood was March 2, 1938 (about 30" of rain in 4 days, including 20" on March 2.) Big Butch Wash runoff spread to the cabin and deposited sediment consisting of generally large rocks onto the structure at the kitchen and also pushed the wood shed about 3 feet. Rocks were taken off the roof, and hauled forward using the ore car that was brought down from a mine by the boys and by wheel barrow (welded together by Ralph) to build out the front yard. The process pretty much completed by 1940. The second flood occurred on December 2-6, 1966 and again produced about 30 inches of rain at the cabin. Big Butch again overflowed and brought a massive amount of fine sediment onto the cabin roof as shown in these photos. After that flood, Ray had Bobby Chapman built a levee above the cabin to divert Big Butch runoff toward the cliffs and down into the direction of the Manker Flat Campground. That levee was a godsend because there was a great flood soon after on January 18-26, 1969 which brought more than 50" of rain to the cabin, including 20" of rain on January 25. Needless to say, the levee worked, or the cabin would have been destroyed. This was followed by another round of rock hauling using the ore car and the wheel barrow for greater than a year. A photograph showing a sheet of paper that records both the ore car and wheel barrow counts is below. It shows the date of each trip and who helped.
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| A milestone load of rocks - the Minnichs keep track of things! |
The forestry department had all outdoor toilets sealed off. In the fifties Ray decided to add a bedroom with a flush toilet which required a septic tank. Delivering the tank was a tight squeeze going through the tunnel coming up the hill.
Ray, Charles and I had smudging jobs during the cold weather. One cold spell there was one half inch of ice on our fish pond. To keep the orange growers informed on the temperature, there was a radio weather man by the name of Floyd D. Young who would constantly announce the temperature in all the orange growing communities. When it got down to around 29 degrees the growers would alert their smudging crews. Most groves had smudge pots that had an oil reservoir at the bottom and a stack on top. We carried a lighter that looked like a big oil can. It had a long spout with a wick on the tip. To light a pot it required pouring some burning oil in the oil reservoir and when it started burning the stack would get red hot.
One grove that Charles and I smudged had cylinders instead of oil pots that we filled with coke. Coke was a residue from oil refineries. We had to drag big sacks of coke through the grove and fill these cylinders. Each had to have a few scraps of wood on top of the coke. To get it to burn we poured burning oil on the scraps of wood. It was harder work than smudging with oil. The coke, after it got to burning, did put out a lot of heat.
One cold night I was at a place where I had a wide open view of thousands of pots that were burning in all the groves spread out below the foothills. It was a beautiful sight. When returning home after smudging we had dark rings around our nostrils. After bathing there was a dark ring around the tub, and an oily film on the walls and ceiling.
Smog was a new word around this time. Pomona had a lot of fog. Now with all the auto smoke drifting in from L.A. and all this smudging, Pomona Valley became a smog bowl. The mountains were on one side, the hills on the south, and the Valley kept the smog. You could get out of it by going up into the mountains about 3,000 feet. Then you could look down on it. On smoggy days your eyes would burn. Towers with airplane engines and propellers on top started to replace smudgepots. The moving air was thought to prevent frost.
Ray got a job fumigating orange groves. A tent was pulled over each tree and poison gas was pumped in. They were ready to pump gas when they discovered a man sleeping under a tree. They got him out in time. In Ray’s diary he mentioned driving a Model T truck to Azusa to get a tank of fumigating gas. He said one of biggest jobs was sewing up rips in the canvas tents.
The orange groves, like the walnut groves, began to disappear. The land was more valuable for real estate. Uncle Sam and Uncle Lee had back-to-back walnut groves. Uncle Sam’s property was on the corner of Riverside Drive and Ramona Avenue. Ramona was the north and south street. The next section north of Sam’s on Ramona was Lee’s. Lee had a well and pump house. They had a water tank to hold the water supply for home and irrigating. Both the Uncles had built dryers for the walnuts. Dryers were needed to get rid of the outer husk.
Sam had shacks on his property to house migrant workers during harvest time. Long poles with an iron hook on the end were used to shake the branches of the trees for harvesting the walnuts. I still have one. I altered it for pruning my trees in Long Beach. I stopped at Sam’s one day and noticed Sammy Junior standing by a windlass, from which hung a a bucket of bricks. Down in the hole was Uncle Sam laying bricks in an upside cone shaped chamber. I think it was a new homemade septic tank. As I looked, one of the bricks fell off the top of the bucket, but not a word from down below. It had missed Sam but nothing else was said about it.
There was a rift between my Uncle Sam and Uncle Lee that I never could understand. When staying over one night at Lee’s, I asked how two brothers living next door to each other could not be on speaking terms. Tears almost came to Uncle Lee when he tried to explain. Ray thought the reason was because once Sam fell off the back of a truck that Lee was driving when they were crossing a rough road.
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| Raymond with Boeing P12 Parts we helped salvage |
We began taking the engine and propeller apart. The engine was a 9 cylinder radial. We carried out the propeller, crank case and cylinders. I found a parachute with a flare and a flare without a parachute. Later, Ray and I took the magnesium flare to a ridge above the ski lift at night. It was cold and windy. There were icicles sloping away from the guard cables. Ray had a hard time getting it lit. By using some magnesium powder he finally got the flare burning. Ralph was supposed to be watching from home. I have a picture showing the engine parts we brought home.
Two F6F Fighter planes didn’t quite make it near the top of Mt. Baldy one time. An engine off one of the planes came loose and rolled on up the slope for at least 100 yards, scattering parts all the way. We were not the only ones that got parts off these planes. I worked on getting the carburetor off the other plane. Someone else had been working on it and gave up. I finally got it off and it was quite a load. I had a sore back by the time I got it back to the car.
Archie Wolf, one of the cabin owners at that time, found a place in the town of Covina that we could go in the evening and cast aluminum. Archie had cast some grill work for the cabin fireplace. Ralph and Ray cast some weather proof boxes that had tablets in them for signing your name when you hiked that particular peak. One of them was placed on top of Mt. Baldy. I finally went with Ralph and Ray to the foundry one day. I had a wooden model airplane propeller that I used to make a mold. They helped me cast an aluminum propeller. Ray cast an aluminum frying pan. Ralph cast a three-bladed propeller that he put on a weather vane in his backyard.
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| LaVerne Church of the Brethren |
We attended the Church of the Brethren in Pomona. I have a framed Certificate certifying that I was promoted from Cradle Roll Department to the Beginners Department of the Brethren Sunday School, September 26, 1926. When the Grace Brethren split off, a new Church of the Brethren was built in LaVerne. To this day I don’t know why they split. I was told that Grace meant God’s Riches at Christ’s Expense. The new church was a well built concrete structure with stained glass windows. It has been well maintained to this day.
My Sunday school class collected enough money to pay for one of the stained glass windows. My favorite place was the balcony where you were close to the ceiling whick was all painted to look like the night sky with thousands of stars and a lot of moons. Behind the pulpit was a curtained baptistery that had a watertight glass front. I eventually got baptized in it. There was a building next to the church called the fellowship hall. Communions were held there. To celebrate the Lord’s Supper Dad presided over the service with his Bible. Washing off the feet was part of this celebration. Men on one side and women on the other washed each others’ feet. The church was youth oriented. Camp LaVerne was established near Jenk’s Lake in the San Bernadino Mountains. Different age groups had their scheduled time at the Camp. I enjoyed swimming and boating in the lake. A group of us went on a hike to Dollar Lake. On the way we crossed an area called Marshy Meadows. It felt like walking on a sponge. One of the leaders asked some of the older kids if they wanted to hike to the top of Mt. San Gorgonio. When they left I began to cry. I did not want to be left behind. Another leader felt sorry for me and said, “Let’s go!” We took short cuts and soon caught up with the other group. When on top, two of the older kids had gotten sick. Mt. San Gorgonio is the highest mountain in Southern California. The view was well worth the climb. To the South was Mt. San Juancinto, the second highest peak. Down below was the town of Redlands. To the north was Mt. San Antonio (Mt. Baldy), the third highest. I had a couple of oranges and found some clean snow and made orange snow balls. We slid down a long steep snow bank on the way down.
We had a big cabinet radio. No TVs yet. Dad loved to listen to Amos and Andy. Fred Allen and Jack Benny were popular comics. They were always jibing each other. One of their sayings was, “All you people out there in Anaheim, Azusa and Cucamonga.” Red Skelton was a one of a kind comic then.
Henry Blocker had a sister that Ralph began to court. All four of us were shy around girls. When Ralph went to visit Ruth, he liked to have me come along to help break the ice. Eventually, they married in Carson City, Nevada, near Lake Tahoe.
Free movies were shown at Pomona High school. I went to an early one that was called, “Bring them back alive, Frank Buck.” The hunting party was in Africa and suddenly they were attacked by an angry mob of natives. When they started hurling a swarm of spears, it was too much for me. I ran outside and went home.
Now, after graduating from Emerson Junior High, it was time to go to High School. Pomona High was located on Holt Avenue about two miles east of where we lived. I rode a bike at first. Some of the brave ones would hook a ride to school by hanging onto the back of a truck. The High School was a large brick building. It had a large auditorium and balcony. The stage in the auditorium had a huge curtain that could be rolled up. On the right hand edge of the curtain was the word ASBESTOS. During an assembly we would come up with various meanings of the letters, such as All Sailor Boys Eat Shark Tails or Squid. The curtain must have weighed tons. Years later when the High school burned down it would have survived. We looked forward to the assemblies. An interesting event was when two pistol experts put on a show on the stage. They had movable panels that protected against stray bullets. They shot cigarettes out of each others ears and mouths. Another event was when a man came on stage with a big jug of liquid nitrogen. He had various items that he would freeze in the jug and then throw them up against the balcony where they disintegrated.
Studies became more interesting. English was tough but Miss Jules was a good teacher. Years later, I met her at the Crystal Cafe, a popular eating place on Holt Avenue near the High school. I sure wished I could have asked her this question, “How do you write this sentence? There are three (to, two, and too)s without writing them all down.” The Machine Shop was a great class and the Instructor, Mr. Glen, was super. I learned how to run a metal lathe and turn threads. There was a milling machine, drill presses, grinders and various metal cutting saws. There was one project that was a hand-me-down from my brothers that they never finished. It was a six cylinder radial air engine. I started out with a partially completed crankcase. The machine work on the crankcase required a lot of help from the instructor. The six cylinders had to be turned and threaded where they screwed into the crankcase. Pistons had to be turned to match the cylinders. Radial engines have to have one master connecting rod that connects one piston to the crankshaft. All the remaining rods must connect to the master rod. A very interesting project. Working the valve action to let air in each cylinder at the right time required a lot of thought. I still have that engine. When you blow on the intake tube it still runs.
Mechanical Drawing was another great class taught by Mr. Pirdy. He always stressed how important it was to make neat arrow heads on the dimension lines.
Art class was a lot of fun. as soon as I was through drawing all the required assignments, such as silverware and vases, etc, I had fun drawing airplanes. I ended up drawing airplanes for the Cardinal, the school annual.
There was no swimming pool. Charles was the athlete of the family. He was a very good football player on the Pomona High Red Devils. In one game, the center, Bruce Twerle (300 pounds) fell on Charles and he had a badly sprained wrist for awhile.
I tried football and found that it was not my cup of tea. Tennis seemed like a sissy game until I started playing. Our high school tennis team got to play against neighboring towns and was a game I followed for over 60 years. I would still be playing except for a serious leg surgery.
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| Charles and Dwight, musicians |
The Spring Festival was always a big event. The Orchestra was a part of this event. The auditorium would be crowded. During one festival, the leader, Miss Garlock, announced that the violin player was going to play the next number entirely on his G string. I couldn’t help noticing a bit of a smile on her face. I had to play a trumpet duet. I had practiced and practiced, but while playing at this event I lost my place and fouled up. My partner played real good and carried the day while I went along making the motions with my sticky valves.
During a rainy day we had to use the indoor gymnasium. Our class were boxing. When I was boxing the bell rang so I turned to walk off the mat and was hit right on my ear. This was the first of several freakish ear injuries that were yet to come. The broken ear drum healed up okay as my mother put special ear drops in my ear. This put a stop to my trumpet playing. Later Miss Garlock married the trombone player.
The high school’s machine shop furnished the rough castings for a 2 cycle gas engine. Once again I received unfinished hand me down parts. With this head start, I was able to complete all the parts. After getting a good piston and cylinder fit, it was time to assemble the engine. A fuel tank was made out of a small can. I had to carve a large propeller and had to use a coil and condenser from a model airplane engine after installing wooden motor mounts so it could be clamped in that great vise in the shop. After a lot of cranking, it started to run. It was the only high school shop engine that ran during my time there.
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| A hand-me-down project from Dwight's older brothers |
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| Ward Woodbridge and Dwight Minnich |
Doing the unusual was the name of the game. There is a large cemetery north of Pomona. We visited it one night with our girlfriends. There were unusual trees that just asked to be climbed.
On another occasion we were up near the end of the Mt. Baldy road one night. It was a beautiful night and on the way down, Ward was driving and Nancy Bibey and I were riding up on the roof where we could watch the top of the trees and see the stars. There was no traffic and we stopped by a swimming pool near a village. I just had to climb the fence and jump off the diving board. There were no lights and no one around. We continued on down the road soaking wet.
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| Dwight at the beach |
The day finally came that I will never forget. Nancy Bibey became Nancy Bartlet. It took me several days to find out if the world still went around. Richard Bartlet was a good looking fun guy and great model builder. Can’t really blame Nancy.
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| Frances, my dance teacher |
It was fortunate to be going to high school at this time. I did not know of anyone that used dope. We had a real nice black man that was in our art class. He was the only one in high school and junior college. I enjoyed the art class immensely.
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| Pomona Junior College Aviation Shop |
There were various airplane engines just waiting to be worked on. There was a 900HP Packard engine Ward Woodbridge and I were assigned to grind the valves. It was a V-12 engine with four valves per cylinder. Each cylinder was mounted separately on the crankcase. Paul Mantz had an air force of his own. He furnished aircraft used in the movies. He also kept several planes at the Burbank airport. He hired several students in our shop class to work on his planes at the Burbank airport. We worked after school was let out.
The big day came when we were asked to work on a Stinson Tri Motor passenger plane at the Duck airport in Oakland by the bay. This required a week off from school. We drove up and went to work. The plane had an engine in the nose and one on each side of the inboard section of the wing. We removed the outer wings, which were fabric covered, and recovered them. After they tested the retractable landing gear it was ready for a test flight. Paul Mantz told us that if any one of us wanted to fly back with him there was plenty of room. As we waited by the edge of the runway Paul started what we thought was the start of the test flight. When he got up to where we were he stopped the plane and asked us to get on board. When we landed at the Burbank Airport, he asked us to start taking the seats out of the plane because the plane was going to be a camera plane for the movie “Dive Bomber.” I was homesick because I had never been away from home that long and also worried about making up lost school work. So I went home.
I would have started to work for Douglas Aircraft sooner if my parents hadn’t had difficulty getting my Birth Certificate sent to us from Ladoga, Indiana. I finally started to work on May 7, 1941. I also attended Pomona Junior College during the night till June 18, 1942 when I graduated with a two-year Associate of Arts degree. I went on to meet and marry my wife Harriet who was also working at Douglas.
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| Harriet Frederick in High School. She moved out to California from Minnesota when she was 17 years old. She came to work at Douglas where I met her. |
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| Harriet Minnich when we were first married. |
I wrote a memoir describing my years working at Douglas in my other book,
Douglas, The Early Years
which can be viewed at: http://dwightfosterminnich.blogspot.com
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| Dwight and his brother Raymond on Ray's 96th birthday |
