CAR SHOW: SANTA ANITA PARK

 

Santa Anita Racetrack, 1930s

Santa Anita, 1935.  

1939, ^ - View of the Santa Anita Racetrack paddock (foreground) and a packed parking lot (background). Large crowds of people can be seen walking across the pathways surrounding the paddock, as well as sitting on benches along the main entrance. The paddock area is where horses are 'assembled', saddled, and mounted before a race.

1934, ^#^^ – View of a filled-to-capacity parking lot on Opening Day at Santa Anita Racetrack, December 25, 1934.

2006, *^ - View showing the Art Deco entrance to Santa Anita's grandstands.  Photo by Ellen Levy Finch.  

1953, race track traffic at Huntington Drive and Baldwin in Arcadia at the southwest corner of the Santa Anita Mall.  I thought I should add this one precisely because it is such an iconic scene of the area and of those days for anyone heading to the track.  

Bass Lake, 1962

This popular recreation area is nestled in pines at 3,400 feet in elevation above Oakhurst, CA.  Bass Lake is a 1 1/2 hour drive north of Fresno on Hwy 41 and Road 222.  Bass Lake provides camping, boating, fishing, hiking, day use and group areas.

During one of our summer pilgrimages to Bass Lake, California, suffice it to say that Chuck's athletic ability afforded him a rescue of a family member.  As an aside, Bass Lake forms one of the earliest memories of my life.  I was five and was walking along a paved and winding utility road of a campground with my left hand clutched in my Dad's right hand.  

Pictured below was the campsite we claimed in 1962.  Funny to see nobody in this picture except for our gear and Dad's station wagon.  Black and white and stark.  No color from the Coleman stove.  No color from the towels and clothing drying on the line.  The trees are colorless.  And still I treasure these images because these were the tools of pioneers.  No one can tell the baby blue colors of the the Ford Station Wagon. 

On Saturday, July 11, 2026, Tom wrote,

I remembered, "Bass Lake." I had the best time ever at any camp spot we ever went to because the people there that had a good size boat who would take most of us one time around the whole lake which had many hidden fishing holes that just seemed like out of a Tarzan movie.  I remember we were having lunch at the picnic table that the park provided and a big gopher snake crawled right under the table, like he'd done it a million times, and nobody bothered it.  It must of been over 5 feet long.  Chuck had the most fun because he knew how to do all the fishing.  It was the greatest, Bass Lake.

The mysteries of life made everything so meaningful, so powerful, and beautiful.

 

I stopped inside Immaculate Conception in Monrovia yesterday.  Hadn't been here in 3 1/2 years.  I want to cry every time I step foot in here.  So many memories, like biding my time as a kid, playing in and around the pews and on the cool marbled floor while Mom prayed the Stations of the Cross.  And Dad taking confession here and praying for his mom, dad, and Josephine after lighting a votive candle and kneeling in front of the image of the Sacred Heart. The mysteries of life made everything so meaningful, so powerful, and beautiful.  Dad would pray the Rosary on the short drive from Duarte to Ralph's Grocery on Live Oak Avenue in Arcadia.  Sally, with the help of her brother, Tom, coronated the statue of the Virgin Mary in an elegant, spartan pageantry. Charlen & John declared their vows here. We were all part of a family then. The love and beauty lost from those days is often too much. https://duarterock.wordpress.com/2018/02/25/immaculate-conception-monrovia/

Big Bear Lake