Take Two On Race Relations

 

CALIFORNIA THROUGH HIGH SCHOOL

From Detroit, we went to a childhood friend of my mother’s, who lived in Glendale, CA. My parents found a house within the same school district, but in the county, an area called asthma flats. It was high, dry, and unpolluted.

Glendale and La Crescenta were part of an old Mexican land grant. The stipulation in the deeds as the land grant was broken up, was all blacks had to be off the property by sundown. We would see them lined up to take the bus downtown Los Angeles to be out on time. Supposedly the deed restrictions  were outlawed in 1948, but even in the early 60’s, Glendale was the largest all white city in the United States.

Obviously, I had little contact with black Americans. All other races were allowed. One of my classmates was native Hawaiian, very dark. She was always introduced as such to make sure no one thought she was black. One of our star football players was Tony Yim, a Korean. Everything was fine until he started dating one of our blond song leaders. The song leaders were the cute girls in the short skirts, the cheer leaders were male and female in long pants that led the cheers as opposed to the fight songs. That did cause a bit of an uproar. Almost as much as a year of two earlier when one of the song leaders was the centerfold of Playboy magazine or when $10,000 worth of heroin was found in the shop. (We had wood and metal shop classes) That is in dollars of the time when gas was 25₵ per gallon.

Another question was about Sammy Mendola. He was a protégé of Sammy Davis Jr. He looked like he could be part black. Was he?  He is better known as Vic Dana. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vic_Dana He had a brother named Nick Thomas. Nick was a back up ice skater in either the Ice Capades or Ice Follies and wrote the script for one of our dance recital performances. I can’t find any information on him. He was lighter skinned adding to the rumors. They claimed to be Italian and probably were.

I graduated in 1957, so the 1954 Brown v Board of Education decision caused some changes. La Caῆada schools were part of the Pasadena school system and Pasadena had a large black population. Pasadena itself had been segregated. After Jackie Robinson bought property on the outskirts, the city grew including his property and became integrated. The two Pasadena high schools were different. One was integrated and the other all white. Rather than send their children to integrated schools, the residents of La Caῆada first pulled their kids out of Pasadena schools and sent them to Glendale.  Later they formed their own school system. We knew there was an influx of students from La Caῆada and why.

My pastor was the speaker at our Baccalaureate service. He was known for creating his daughter’s science project in 8th grade and berating a reporter for not covering his son enough in Little League. Not the best representative of Christian behavior. His speech about how Glendale should integrate was needed, but the message was discounted due to the messenger.

My father worked as the office manager/partner at a Chrysler Plymouth Agency in El Monte. Although California was a Union State during the Civil War, El Monte sent the Monte boys to fight for the South. The dealership had a black man, Sammy, that cleaned the cars on the lot and ran errands. There was an opening for the lube man. At the time, cars needed to have parts of the undercarriage lubricated on a regular schedule. Now things are sealed, and it’s not required. It was next step up. They decided to let him try the job, but told him that if the customers complained they would have to demote him. If the customers left, the business would die, and he would lose his job. He did such a good job that the customers loved him. His wife called the dealership occasionally and would ask Sam Spicer, , followed by a very proud, “He’s in lube now.”

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