THE NEIGHBORHOOD
At 5 years old, I could hardly wait to start school.  As well, I could hardly wait to get out of school.  When I started writing this more complete document of my life I considered that section about "school days" was a pretty good chunk of my life.  Briefly, I considered dividing Elementary and Secondary school hoever this document will cover them both.  I have a more detailed section about actually going to school you can see by clicking here.  ACTUALLY GOING TO SCHOOL  This section just covers my life during the period of time that I went to public school, before attending the University of Maryland.

Living on the "dead end" of Krueger Street, in Culver City was fun. We could play all manner of games, such as baseball, in the street without much concern of getting killed.  When I started making go-karts and mini-bikes, testing motorcycles and other such stuff, a dead end street provided me the perfect test track.  I am sure that the neighbors at the time still have memories of that kid running all sorts of contraptions up and down Krueger Street.  I even got my first ticked testing my mini-bike on the street.  I didn't have a driver's license at the time but I got a ticket anyway and had to appear in court with my Dad.

From the age of 5, there were only a few kids on the block with which to play.  It was before starting kindergarten school that I had become great friends with Ken Baker.  Ken lived at the end of the street and was two years older than me. At this age it didn't seem to make much difference.   Even after starting school, we could remain good friends.  I suspect that had we gone to the same school, this might have presented more of a problem.

To the best of my memory, Culver City had seven elementary schools plus a Junior and a Senior High School.  Ken went to Washington School, which was the school my sisters went to when we lived on Helms and I went to Culver Elementary School.  I always guessed that there was a division somewhere half way down our block that marked the boundary for one school or the other.

Parallel to my street were several other streets that had similar dead end boundaries. Carson, Hubbard and Lindblade. All these streets were two blocks long and joined together in the center by Higuera. I was always interested that the streets in my neighborhood seemed to be named after early California banditos.  Over the years, I made a few other friends that lived on these adjacient streets, but that was mostly not until I reached the 5th grade.  Afterall, a 6 year old was not allowed to wonder blocks away from home to find a playmate.

Both my sisters attended Culver Elementary school.  Culver was only about 6 blocks away.  In those days, parents let their kids walk to school.  Every kid I knew, walked to school and the did so alone.  Today, I live a few blocks from an elmentary school.  I never see a single kid walking to school alone.  Those that are walking, are usually escorted by a parent.

I also do not remember that there were many cars pulling up to school unloading kids.  It seemed to me that those that had a ride in, did so because they were late.  By the time I was ready to go to school, my sisters took me.  Even to kindergarten.

WALKING TO SCHOOL WAS AN ADVENTURE
I remember that walking to school was fun. I would invent fifty different ways to get 1/3 of the way to school. There were no options for the 2/3 remainder of the distance. Most of the time was spent walking around Desilu.

A typical path might take me by the "little store", on Higuera for some candy if I had an extra nickel. I usually had a nickel, but I would rarely give it up and not have milk for lunch.

Then down the alley looking in the trash cans for the Ford dealer and the other auto parts stores that were on Washington Blvd.

Then I would cut back to the "Pure Ice Company" where they had huge machines that made tons of ice daily. Each day they would clean out the ice delivery trucks and the freezers. They would dump huge piles of ice on the ground at the dock. There was always a clean piece to cool you down on a hot day.

Then the Chevron station. I always thought that Chevron and Chevrolet had something to do with each other. But mainly the Chevron Station, only recently (1994 or so) torn down, was the source for inner-tubes, compressed air and soda pop. They had one of those pop machines that you could open a long glass door and actually touch the cold bottles. What a temptation for a kid. How could they have those pop bottles so close yet so unobtainable. I was always trying to figure out a way to get those bottles out. Not that I ever had a clue how it might be actually done. Success was such a distant thought that the idea that I would be steeling never entered my mind. The Chevron Station was on the corner of Ince and Washington.

I now had to make the long trip down Washington. This busy street had a bunch of liquor stores and bars on the opposite side that I walked on. Washington Blvd. was such a difficult street to cross, that I hardly ever went on the other side. This side was good enough. It looked the same 30 years ago as it does now. The big white building that was part of Desilu, now Culver Studios, was a great mystery. We could sneak in from time to time and see some stuff, I don't remember seeing much now, but it was magic then.

The rest of the way went by a Barber shop where I was to get my hair cut for the next 12 years, a TV store and finally the most exciting thing of all.

There was a subway tunnel at the corner of Elinda and Washington. This pedestrian subway was originally used to allow you to walk to the small block in the middle of the crossing of Culver Blvd. and Washington Blvd. As long as I knew of it, it was closed. Covered over with heavy steel plates. There were pipe rails around the old entrance and on one of them on each side, was a loose fitting "T" that used to be where the hand rail was attached. You could slide that "T" back and forth on the 6 foot section of 2" pipe and get up some real speed. When you let it go, it would make a loud clanging noise. This turned out to be a ritual that was practiced for all the 7 years I walked to elementary school.

After making a left at Elinda from Washington, "ringing the rail", and another 1 block walk, I was at school.

My parents let me walk with my sisters to school from my first day of Kindergarten. I was always old for my age. Then again, I am sure my sisters were told to "keep an eye on Greg".

THE BACK YARD

My back yard antics were something for all the other kids to get involved with. I was always building something. Mostly a car of some kind. I built at least 5 different coaster carts that I can remember. I even remember building what would now have been called a motorhome.  I even remember sleeping in it one night.
 

This picture was taken in 1967, but it is a typical look
at my backyard.  My minibike and some other project on table
in the foreground.
 

By the time I got into 3rd and 4th grade, I had a few other neighborhood friends. Stan Thomas, Ken Merritt, Ken's brother Macky and another kid on the block, James Scott. James went to Catholic School so we lost track of him soon into our school years.

One day the family went to Sears Roebuck down on Crenshaw Blvd. in Los Angeles. Down in the basement there was a big above ground pool. I remember hearing some little kid say to me.

"This is our pool, my daddy is going to buy it for me."

I used to try everything I could to be able to spend more time underwater. I built breathing pumps, tied weights around my waist and everything I could think of. It took me almost 30 years to finally learn how to properly scuba dive. I never knew anyone that was a real scuba diver, but I always wanted to be one myself. It was not until I was about 30 years old that I finally learned to dive. You can read about my diving in my SCUBA section.
 

Stan lived down on Higuera. I bet Stan still lives in the area, but I have no way to find out. Ken Merritt, I had two friends named Ken, later became my best friend. When Ken Baker went to Junior High School, it was no longer as easy to hang around with him. We still stayed in touch, but I don't think it was so cool for a guy in Junior High to be hang'n with a kid in elementary school.

I remember the day that I learned that Ken Merritt lived on Carson. Carson was the street next to mine. We walked home together one day. Much to our delight, he lived directly behind me. I could literally climb over the fence and I would be in my yard. WHAT A BREAK !!!

Ken and I were attached at the hip from then on until High School. We did everything together. Sleep overs, building stuff in the back yard, learning about girls, surfing, everything.

THE WESTERN FRONT

I cannot go much further without writing a little here about the "western front".  For the first few years of its life, the "western front" was indeed just that.  The front of a western building.
 

Sometime in 1959, dad decided to tear down the covered patio attached to the back of the house.  The whole family took part.  Soon there would be 4 new rooms added on to the house.  The old lumber was used to build my clubhouse, The Western Front.	Here is the earliest picture of the Western Front.  Early versions often had the back "tented in" with whatever cloth mom would let me have and the lantern was a customary decoration.  That's me in the center.

My friend Stan Thomas' brother was a real surfer. He had several surf boards and was known by the rest of the kids around as the king of surf. One day, I heard that he had an old surf board that he would sell. Sure enough, Stan made the introduction and I made the deal. I think it was $10.00.

I used to drag that two ton surf board to the beach on the back of my bike weekend after weekend. That is where I lived in 7th and 8th grade.

My favorite place to go was what we used to call "THE JETTY". This was the beach right next to where the La Bollona Creek would dump into the ocean. In those days, it was not so dirty, or so we thought. Also, there was no Marina del Rey. The breakwater that is currently at the end of the creek jetty and marina entrance was not there. Long swells would roll in the creek and were easy for little kids to ride with those big boards. Of course, when we wanted to ride breaking waves, we could just move south of the jetty and we had nice 3 foot waves to ride.

I lost interest in surfing because I was never real good at it. I did like to go to the beach though, and still do whenever possible.
 

My First Surf Board 9'6" Weber
 
 

Ken Merritt and Me Getting Ready to Go Surfing

Did you know that they actually DUG Marina del Rey? I saw them do it. Weekends, my father would take me down to Playa del Rey to watch them dredge out what is now the Marina.

The left picture, the actual dredge. Center, me and my Grandpa McMurry. The pipe pumping out the sand/water mixture. We were told, 15% sand, 85% water.
 
 

We Used To Go Down and Watch Them Dig Marina del Rey

Typical Back Yard Scene Notice My Mini Bike?  Notice the Honda 150 behind the BBQ to the right?

MY MINI BIKE

Boy, how I wanted a mini bike. I was in 7th grade. Since I always wanted to build a go-kart or something that was motor powered, building a mini-bike became my goal. In 7th grade metal shop, we had, it seemed, everything I needed. I enrolled in metal shop specifically for the purpose of making a mini-bike. I had already purchased a motor. It was a 3 hp Briggs and Statton 4 stroke "power house". I think I paid $5.00 for it.

I had no other parts except a $12.00 centrifugal clutch I ordered from Sears from the catalogue. I think I had a few bucks left over from my paper route to pay for these items.

I bought two pieces of ¾ inch conduit, EMT, and began to cut out the frame. Ken Merritt gave me the front fork off of a 20 inch bike that had been thrown away. I needed the steering bearing, handle-bar and fork. I also cut off the metal brackets that held the back wheel. All these were to be used on the new creation.

My biggest problem was going to be wheels. Wheels were expensive and I really didn't have anything to use at all. I did have a hard rubber tire I could use on the front, but after I got the whole thing welded together, the engine mounted, a seat fabricated, a throttle working, using an old bike brake handle, I was stopped in my tracks. I remember sitting in the back yard, running my motor, sitting on the mini-bike, dreaming of it running and me racing around the oil fields.

I remember my father watching the process. We had no access to any wheels with a chain sprocket. I do remember he said: "if your Uncle Junior was here, he would know what to do".

Well, sure enough, I got the chance. We were to leave on the family vacation to Kansas to stay a few weeks with my Grandparents and my Aunt and Uncle. Uncle Junior was a great guy. He knew how to build everything. As we were packing up the car to get ready to leave, I remember my father looking in the trunk of the car.

"What is this?" He said.

He was referring to the fact that I had disassembled my mini-bike and carefully packed it in the trunk, taking up as little room as I could manage. I knew that if it took up too much room, he would never let me take it.

"You said Uncle Junior would help me get a wheel for my mini-bike!",I said.

He knew he had and it was undeniable.

So off to Kansas we went with the mini-bike.

Dad was right. Uncle Junior knew exactly what to do. We went down to the lawn mower shop in South Hutchinson and bought a couple of wheels off the front of a broken down riding mower. These were the real thing. Air tires. They also had a sprocket that Uncle Junior was going to figure out how to mount on one of the wheels.

Next we went over to one of the neighbors farms and literally welded the sprocket on the wheel. It was even a little out of round, and I remember the sound of the chain running in and out of the sprocket.

A short time later, it was running. It worked great.

FINALLY - I HAD MY MINI BIKE !!!
 
 

My Mini Bike was Born

I had the mini-bike for years. It worked really well. I even remember me being so big that It could hardly hold me any longer. I finally gave it away, in trade for something.
 
 

Finding this next picture, I must have talked Dad into letting me take my mini bike back to Kansas a couple of years later. I definitely look a little older here.

Me and Grandpa Williams (My Mother's Father)

THE GANG

Left To Right at My Bike Party 13 Years Old

Stan Thomas, Me, Ken Baker, Ken Merritt, Paul Stone, Dennis Thornton

This photo is a pretty good index to my childhood friends.

Stan Thomas

Stan had two older brothers. He lived down Higuera from me about a block and half away. He loved football and to play the drums. I bought my first surf board from Stan's brother. I also remember that his father worked at a bank. I particularly remember one time I was in his bedroom. Stan had a new set of drum sticks and a practice pad. "All I need now are the drums", he said.

Stan and I also used to enjoy our slot cars. We used to go two different places to race. CLASSIC SPEEDWAY which is way down Washington Blvd, almost in Venice. Now, some 30 years later, Classic Speedway is a Laundromat. The name?, Classic Speedwash ! The other place we raced our slot cars was LaManns. This place is now a florest shop and is located next to the north bound I-405 onramp on Sepulveda between Venice and Washington Blvd's.

One time, Stan and I found two slot car kits in the trash at a warehouse in the area which used to be Hal Roach Studios. We thought it was strange, but to two 13 year old kids, this was the find of the century. We now had the hottest new slot cars on the market. The car was called an ASP. We put them together and head down to Classic Speedway. Much to our surprise, the guys there took them away from us. They told us that these cars had not been released yet and that they were stolen property. Stan and I were pretty pissed.  Now I realize we were lucky that we were not accused of steelint them ourselves.

Ken Baker

When I lived on Krueger Street as a kid, there was this other guy on the block. As a matter of fact, Ken was the only other kid on the block. Ken Baker was two years older than I was. Even though he went to a different elementary school, we were inseparable.

Ken and I did all the things kids did. We made club houses, rode our bikes, made skate boxes and all sorts of stuff. By the way, do you know what a Skate Box is? Take an old steel wheel roller skate, bust it in half and nail the two halves to a 3 foot long two by four. Now you have what we called in those days, A Skate Board. This early skate board was impossible to ride. If you hit the tiniest little pebble, the thing would stop, and down you would go. The cool thing to do was to nail a crate to the front of the 2X4. Then you could carry stuff around in your skate box. The crate would be nailed upright so the bottom was the front of the vehicle. I installed all sorts of stuff on mine. Lights, a horn and everything else I could think of.

The other thing I remember about Ken's house was their radio. In the kitchen, Ken's family had a big world short wave receiver. We could tune in all sorts of stuff on this radio. There seemed to be an endless number of stations available.

Ken's father was a rock collector. Inside their garage, they had all kinds of rock cutting and polishing stuff. This was really cool, because he would let us go with him sometimes to collect rocks, then we could cut them up, a concept that was really interesting to me, polish them and make a piece of jewelry. I was really fascinated by the concept that you could cut a rock with what appeared to be a metal saw blade with no teeth.

I lost track of Ken in Junior High School, but we became friends again in High School. Ken was in the High School Band. My dad taught him, originally, how to play the trombone. Ken kept it up in Elementary, Junior High and High School. This was great, but I only knew him in my Freshman year. Being two years older, he graduated when I became a Junior.

Ken writes to me from time to time. It is the fall of 1996, and I have not heard from him for a while.

Ken Merritt

One day in 4th grade, I met this other Ken in my life. We got to talking and realized that he lived directly in back of my house on Krueger Street. Ken's house was the last of three bungalows in a row on Carson Street. The back of his garage was the back of my back yard.

Ken lived with his mother, younger brother and older sister. His brother was called Mack, and his sister Charlotte.

When Ken Baker went to Junior high, I was in the fifth grade. It was not cool for Ken Baker to be hanging around with a kid in elementary school, so we began to drift apart. This was perfect timing for me to develop a new friendship with Ken Merritt.

Ken was one of the most popular kids in school. This got me in with the cool crowd. We didn't always have the same teachers in elementary school, but we stayed close.

Ken and I discovered surfing. We spent the long hot summers barefoot and shirtless. We also thought that it was we that invented the "soft wheeled" skateboard.
 
 

Ken Merritt and I getting ready to go surfing.

That's ken standing near the back of the car.
 
 

 JUNIOR HIGH

In Junior High School
 
 
 

I always loved to work with stuff. I always loved to build stuff. My favorite courses in school were shop courses. I was luck at Culver City Junior High that they had load of shop classes. I was great at this stuff.

We had print shop, electronics, drafting, metal and wood shop. I took them all and enjoyed them. To this day, I think the most important class I took was drafting. I had worked with metals, wood and electronics stuff and throughout my life I gained more experience in those areas. Drafting was not that way. All I ever knew I learned from the Junior High School Drafting Teacher. Later I met a real draftsman, James Goodnight. Jim knew all about drafting and taught me to read and work with real engineering documents. To this day, all I know about technical drawing, I either made up, learned in Junior High Drafting or got from Jim.
 
 

HIGH SCHOOL

(the first two years)

In High School, I partidularly remember the most important thing to me was finding out what was going on in band.
 

My Buddy Joe Gill on the Honda 150 Dream

Joe and I Spent the Summer Hang'n 'Round the Pool

Notice the Terry trailer in the Background
The New Generation
Music
Doughboy Pool
Western Front
Pets
Going to the Farm
Joe Gill
Pooch Hound
Surfing
The Back Yard
Mini Bike
Fedco
High School Band
Moving to Maryland
The New Generation
My First Truck
Paper Route
Other Friends
Church