Feb. 22, 1958

There has been quite a literary lament lately to the effect that youngsters today don’t have as much fun as kids used to.

Of course, the lament comes from those who have reached the dangerous age of reminiscence.

The fellows on the copy desk were discussing the subject, and Mike Molony recalled one of the pleasures of his boyhood.

On
occasion, especially on bright spring days, he and a few friends at
Colton High School would suddenly get the feeling that they had
absorbed about all the education they could handle and would take off
for the hills in his topless Model T Ford phaeton.

THEIR FAVORITE ITINERARY was chugging up Cajon Pass, turning off into Horsethief Canyon and steaming up the grade until the flat desert wasteland unfolded limitlessly before them.

There was no real road, only two deep ruts in firmly baked sand and clay, made by wagons of a prior era.

The
boys would set the gas lever at 20 mph, sprawl luxuriously in the back
seat, inhale the fresh desert air and let the Model T run itself.

Now
and then the old bus would jump out of the ruts and head crazily off at
an angle. The boys would leap for the wheel and get it back in the
ruts. These detours merely added a sporting touch to the gay
irresponsibility of the ride.

The ultimate ecstasy was bringing
to this sybaritic orgy a cheap pumpkin pie and devouring it as the car
careened driverless across the lonely desert.

Match that, Elvis.

SPEAKING OF education,
this unfinished composition, written on notebook paper in what looks
like junior high school penmanship, was found on the street by Eunice
M.: "What I like best. I like spelling best. Other people like spelling
because some times people do not."

Los Angeles Examiner Negatives Collection in the the Regional History Collection
of USC Libraries

The wedding of Mickey Hargitay and Jayne Mansfield, Jan. 13, 1958, from "Mobsters, Molls, and Mayhem: A Year in the Life of Los Angeles" at the Doheny Library.

SNAKE, the caddie at Bel-Air Country Club, has reported in with a tale which might be titled, "The Cooling Off of a Hot-Shot."

It has to do with a familiar type–the blowhard from out of state who finds fault with everything.

He
hit a terrific tee shot on the fourth hole, turned to his caddie, who
he’d been giving a bad time, and asked, "What do they generally use
here to get to the green."

"Well," said the caddie, "Sam Snead used the five iron here."

The
fellow grabbed a five iron out of the bag and hit the ball with full
power. It went hard and true but landed about 40 yards short of the
green. He threw a disgusted look at the caddie and snarled, "I didn’t
even get close."

"Neither did Sam Snead," said the caddie innocently.

A YOUNG MAN recently
mustered out of the Navy after two years and uanble to find a job has
returned to college to learn a trade. As he puts it, "So when I
graduate I’ll know what kind of work I’m out of."

AROUND TOWN–Several
high school boys made a killing during Wednesday’s flood in Centinela
Valley. The water was a foot deep on one side of a railroad track hump
at 147th and Grevillea,
five feet deep on the other. When cars stalled they offered a push with
their jalopy for $5. But one dirty guy got his push and drove off
without paying.

The elephant lifter on "People Are Funny" was
Jack Walsh, not Mark Evans, as reported here. Jack, 5-9 and 185 pounds,
holds the world’s lift record–4,235 pounds.

The conflict
between science and religion–subject of many Sunday sermons–has been
quietly resolved on this paper. Versatile Omar Garrison is both science
and religion editor.

Celebration of the 50th founding of the
film industry last Dec. 12 was in error, insists Sam Stark of Laguna.
In his upcoming "Theater: A to Z" encyclopedia, Stark says "The Count of Monte Cristo" was made in 1907 in Ocean Park and the first picture made in L.A. was the Selig Co.’s "The Sultan’s Power," starring Hobart Bosworth in 1909.