Goleta's Great Day

In the
twilight of Monday, Feb. 23, 1942, a Japanese submarine a mile offshore
fired 25 shells from its 5-in. deck guns at the Elwood oil field inGoleta, a few miles north of Santa Barbara.

The
attack, which lasted 20 minutes, was reported in an atmosphere of
hysteria. There was wild, panicky talk that the firing was the prelude
to an invasion attempt.

A coast alert was sounded and the air-raid sirens didn't give the all clear until 12:20 a.m. Tuesday.

At
the time, it must be remembered, the Japanese had overrun the Pacific
islands. It was only a little more than two months after the holocaust
at Pearl Harbor.

HOWEVER, THE SHELLS did little damage.
Only one oil derrick was struck, causing about $500 damage. A refinery
was missed and most of the shells merely dug up sand or fell into the
sea. One whistled three miles inland and exploded harmlessly on theTecolete ranch. Another gouged a 5-foot. crater on the Staniff ranch. Some were duds.

Several
persons saw the submarine through binoculars. An oil-field worker said
it looked so big he thought it was a destroyer or cruiser.

That was 17 years ago but when I visited Joe Cavaletto, a family relative, in Goleta
a few days ago and strolled through his lush avocado and citrus groves,
the conversation naturally turned to the historic event.

One of
Joe's neighbors saw the Japanese sailors on the deck of the sub and to
this day swears he could have picked them off with a rifle. But hardly
anyone realized what was happening until they started shooting.

Joe
and his husky son, Mike, grow avocados and grapefruit as big as
cantaloupes on a farm that has been in the family for 150 years and
goes back to mission and land grant days.

On his property there
is an old adobe barn that would make antiquarians drool. And like all
farmers he is concerned about rising taxes and encroaching subdivisions.

But Goleta
is submerged in the expanse of Santa Barbara. Not much happens and the
submarine incident of 17 years ago is cherished as if it had happened
17 months ago. It was the only timeGoleta ever got into the headlines importantly.

::

NOT LONG AGO it was mentioned here that writer Charlotte Armstrong started a novel while down with the flu. D. McAllister of KRCA-TV
apparently was subconsciously impressed. On his bedside writing pad
after a six-day siege with the bug he found the following:

"I am the Loch Ness monster, you think I don't exist. I don't think you do either, isn't that a twist?"

"Had Genghis Khan gone on and on, the end result is clear. He would have marched around the world and pounced upon his rear."

"In Xanadu did Kubla
Khan a stately Disneyland decree. They built to scale in great detail,
a lovely sight to see. And when in place were all the things, the
ducks, the mice, the crickets, there came, alas, a great impasse, no
one could print the tickets."

Concludes Mac: "Guess I had the wrong kind of flu."

::

WHILE WE'RE in the nonsense league, this "Open letter to taxpayers" is circulating among city employees:

 "Occasionally
a friend asks what I do all day at City Hall. I reply that my work
frequently takes me to poorer sections. One day I rang the bell at an
old shack. A woman's voice answered and I told her the reason for my
call. 'Wait a minute,' she said, 'I want to slip on something cool.'
There was a loud crash. 'What happened?' I cried. 'I just slipped on
something cool, she said, 'an ice cube.' When she came to the door I
said, "This is certainly a tough neighborhood." I nodded toward the
pack of vicious dogs, cats and children waiting for me to come out into
the open. 'You said it,' she said, 'even our assessments are
delinquent.'"

::

LOOSE ENDS — That poisonous cliche, "But darling, I did it for you!" was on TV again the other night for the 372nd time …The Italian grocery store at Sepulveda Blvd. and Lassen has a sign, "If you can't smell it we haven't got it."