Vintage Post Cards: Disneyland

I found these vintage postcards at a local thrift shop. The set above is Disneyland possibly in the 1960s or 1970s. I was captured by the top card because it reminded me of my first visit to Disneyland in the late 1980s when they still had the "Matterhorn Mountain" with the baskets flying through it.

San Pedro: Gaffey Street Pool

Photo from Flickr

Gaffey street pool in San Pedro is tucked away on the hillside along Gaffey near 34th street.  I started going to this pool with my older brothers back in the early to mid 90s. My brothers would go every day in the summer and come home baked from the sun rays. When I got a little older I started going with them. To get into the pool area you literally had to go up some broken wooden stairs on the side of the hill? Once past the deadly stairs a short walk though overgrown grass leaded you into the decaying pool facility. 
Gaffey Pool was also the place where I first learned to swim.  My brother started showing me in the shallow area and I caught on pretty quick. He also threw me in a few times which was not that funny to me! Gaffey pool was really blue and beautiful compared to the other local pools. The funny thing was that no matter how hot the day was there was always a cold breeze where the pool was located because of the ocean nearby. I remember it cost 50 cents to go in and the attendant gave you a netted bag and a pin to put your stuff away. 
 Unfortunately they shut down the pool in 1997 because it was in dire need of repairs. It was not the end of the pool anyhow, because years later vandals would start using the pool as a graffiti yard. It became a film location as well for tv shows such as, Cold Case. 
I loved Gaffey pool when I was a kid but I also appreciated it when it was abandoned. There has been no word on restoration, I called the department of recreation to find out but no response yet. It would actually be nice if it was restored to its original status. However, I am glad that my brothers and I enjoyed the last of the pool's history.

 Here is an article on the rich history of the pool. 

SP military historians, community plunge into effort to restore pool It seems like everyone wants to save the Gaffey Street Pool. Daily Breeze (Torrance, CA) - Monday, April 24, 2000 Author: Donna Littlejohn

Longtime San Pedro residents love to reminisce about the sun-drenched summers they spent splashing in the aqua, blue-tile pool with an ocean view. 
For local military historians, the pool in Angels Gate Park represents a priceless treasure from World War II. 
But despite the pool 's many fans, bringing it back as a Los Angeles city community pool won't be easy. 
Facing up to $1 million in repairs, supporters of a movement to restore the historic pool and reopen it to the public acknowledge it's an uphill climb. 
"With its potential for public use and its historic value, this could all be neatly wound into one very cool community project," said Steve Nelson, director of the Fort MacArthur Military Museum. "Everybody who comes and looks at it says what a great idea, but there's no `sugar daddy' yet." 
The pool , drained in 1997 when repairs were deemed too costly by the Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks, sits empty , beneath the cover of trees in the park. 
"The pool has historic significance and the community really misses using it," said Phil Orland, Harbor District supervisor for the Department of Recreation and Parks Pacific Region. "But it's very costly, and we've been waiting for some type of budget to rebuild the bathhouses. We've been waiting and waiting." 
Asbestos removal from the changing room bathhouses, and making the pool handicapped accessible complicate the prospects of rehabilitation. 
So for now, the pool remains unused -- except by vandals who chip away at its historic tiles and apparently warm themselves with bonfires at the bottom of the 10-foot deep section. 
Graffiti mars one end of the Olympic-size pool . 
An old stairway leading from Gaffey Street up to the pool recently was removed because it was unsafe. 
Toni O'Donnell, city pool manager at Banning Pool in Wilmington, began her aquatics career as a junior lifeguard at Gaffey Street Pool at 3351 S. Gaffey St. in the 1970s. 
"I've always thought that was the most beautiful pool the city has," O'Donnell said. "I love that pool . It's a pet project of mine." 
Nelson's interest in the pool is historical. While he acknowledges it could take years, he's launched a move to bring it back to its former glory. 
The former World War II Army base pool was opened on June 12, 1943, and is part of the military history of Fort MacArthur in San Pedro. 
In the 1950s, it was transferred to the city of Los Angeles, serving generations of residents as a community pool . 
"This was one of the premiere pools in Los Angeles," Nelson said. 
Slowly, he's piecing together the history of the pool that was built with funds raised from an Army road show -- "Hey, Rookie!" starring red-haired actor Sterling Holloway, who at the time was stationed at Fort MacArthur. 
Written as a morale-booster for the troops, "Hey, Rookie!" -- an army parody -- was featured in local performances at the Belasco Theater in Los Angeles and the Long Beach Municipal Auditorium (April 28 and 29, 1942). 
"We had all original music," said Ralph Fetherolf, 82, of Hesperia, who played clarinet with the show's band. "There was a lot of comedy and a lot of parody, but there was some serious music, too." 
The original cast billed itself as "The Yardbird Club" and began as a mobile entertainment troupe along the West Coast. 
"Troops were stationed all along there, from Huntington Beach to Malibu, and they were not allowed to wander around," Fetherolf said. "So we went around and played shows for them and that evolved into the show they called `Hey, Rookie!' " 
After an eight-month stint playing to packed houses at the Belasco Theater and other local spots, the entertainers traveled abroad for two years, putting the show on for troops in North Africa, India and Italy where some members of the cast came under enemy fire. 
"I think we entertained more troops than any other one group during World War II," Fetherolf said, noting that audiences in North Africa sometimes swelled to 11,000. 
The road show raised $250,000, which was used to build the Gaffey Street Pool and a second pool that still serves military personnel on Fort MacArthur's lower reservation -- named Hey, Rookie Pool No. 1 and No. 2, respectively. 
If the pool is restored, Nelson would like to see the changing rooms preserved as much as possible. 
Among his ideas is recreating the "Hey, Rookie!" production as a fund-raiser. 
Through contacts with former "Hey, Rookie" band members like Fetherolf and Andrew Ilnicki, 85, of Lawndale, Nelson has managed to collect the sheet music and several programs with photographs from the show. 
Holloway, who went on to play on "The Life of Riley" television show from 1953-58 and appeared in numerous other stage, film and television productions, died in 1992 at age 87. 
While he doesn't have a script or film of the show, Nelson does have the 78rpm record albums containing all the show's musical numbers with titles like "It's Great To Be in a Uniform" and "I Met a WAC From Hackensack." 
A 16mm color movie was made of one of the performances at the Belasco Theater, Fetherolf said, but he doesn't know where it is. He said Columbia studios bought the rights to the story and believes a motion picture was eventually made. 
The play was viewed by Gens. George Patton and Dwight Eisenhower, who gave it an award. 
"People who saw the show back then loved it," Nelson said. "Would it work today? I don't know. It was a simpler time and humor wasn't as sophisticated." 
Nelson, who still has the pool 's 1943 dedication plaque at the military museum in Angels Gate Park, hopes someday it will be preserved along with other remaining structures on the old army base as a historic site for future generations. 
"A hundred years from now, if this is all still intact, what an absolute gold mine," he said. Anyone with information or memorabilia of the "Hey, Rookie!" production or of the Gaffey Street Pool during World War II can call Steve Nelson at 310-548-2631.Caption: 1, The once popular Gaffey Street Pool at Angels Gate Park in San Pedro has been dry since 1997. Restoration of the pool would cost an estimated $1 million. Steve Nelson director of the Fort MacArthur Military Museum, hopes to restore the pool to its former glory. 

I was not able to locate any photos of the pool back in the days and for sure we never owned a camera. If anybody has any memories or photos I would appreciate seeing them. 

I think I wrote this because it is really hot today!

Peace,

DJ

Tales from 14th Street: Forgotten Oldies

"Tales from 14th Street" Is a look back at childhood days living in San Pedro California. I will share the fun and not so fun adventures of living in the hood during the 80's and early 90's. If anybody grew up in this area during that time please email or comment anytime and share your stories or thoughts.


I guess by now if you are a regular reader then you come to realize that I am very nostalgic and I have been since I was a kid. I love remembering the lost and forgotten, now don't get me wrong I am still up on game with the present and the future but why not love your own history? 


The year is around 1990 and the hood homies have been partying hard almost every weekend. If you read before, my window used to face the back of the apartments, so I was always awakened by all the noises. The funny thing is that nobody ever complained or hardly called the cops most likely because it was "todos los concidos"  which means all the people we knew. Everybody also seemed way older even though most of them where just teens. Now like before there is always those oldies that sick in your head from a certain time, even though an oldie has been an oldie forever some oldies stay stuck in time (make sense?) Dam aside weed what drugs where people doing back in 1990? lol something mellow I suppose if oldies are involved!


I think people where making-out or getting high when this song used to be on....but they always bumped it.

San Pedro: Peck Park Pool circa 1986

News-Pilot, April, 4th 1986......Now 25 years ago (click on photo to enlarge) 


Peck Park Pool in San Pedro is a childhood/teen landmark for those of us who grew up in the area. Generations of kids have visited the pool during summer break. I started going to Peck Park pool around 1996 before that I used to go to Gaffey pool but when I moved I started coming here.  My friends and I would "mob" up Summerland to get to the pool. During that time is was the awkward years for my friends and I.  The boys started to become interested in girls and the girls in the boys. However, the boys acted a bit more immature about it. My friends and I would wear T-shirts because if we dared go in our swimsuit it was boy drama. Most of the time our peers went to the pool to check out that certain boy or girl of interest. It was not surprising to find couple kissing in the canyons after the pool closed. During the years I was going I never seen graffiti in the pool. By that time there was a heavy duty steal fence and censored lighting. The photo above was from a 1986 News-Pilot article. During the mid-1980s graffiti was at its early stages in Los Angeles and in San Pedro. The pioneers of graffiti where themselves starting out experimenting with bombs and pieces. 


My memories of graffiti in San Pedro started during the late 1980s. I would see full blown pieces and characters in alleys around my neighborhood. Down the street from my house there was also a huge wall across from train tracks that graffiti artists would paint on.  I can not recall many of the names from back then, however, there were a few talented artists that came out of San Pedro as well as out of towner's coming to paint the tracks. 


The article was about the problem that was happening with the pool constantly being vandalized. The methods back then failed because it was such a new problem. They tired leaving the graffiti up instead of buffing it in order to prevent more, that equaled to failure. They thought about barbed wire fencing however, worried about liability issues if someone got hurt climbing the fence. Here is a good quote from the original article:

"Graffiti is a reality and if we cover it before someone sees it we're not doing ourselves a favor"

Back then it seemed like a losing battle, from what I can read some of the work is pretty legit for that time period. Some of the most legible is.
Smurf
Dream On
PWL= Park Western Lomas which was a local gang in the area
RSP 3rd= Rancho San Pedro Third Street, established local gang 




Peck Park Pool lives on for a new generation of kids, minus the graffiti. 












Peace,




DJ

In Loving Memory of Seferino Rosales: Nine year Anniversary 1981-2001

Today was a beautiful summer day in Los Angeles, it was not as hot as it been the last few weeks. I had made my way to San Pedro to run a few errands. I picked up my sister along the way after I finished my business we decided to go up to Green Hills Memorial Park as usual to visit " Pancho" who had passed away a couple of years ago. While going up to the cemetery I remembered about my homie " Bubba" He had passed away a while back and I had not gone to visit his grave since the funeral. I felt bad for not giving him one visit since then, but I decided to go ask now where his plot was at because I had forgotten. Me and my sister walked into the office and requested his information. The lady informed me where he was buried and gave me a map to find his plot. I had asked her how old was he when he died to my surprise he was 19 when he died a week before his 20th birthday. I had forgotten how young we all where when it happened. The trippy part is that the anniversary of his death is actually August 31, 2001 and he was buried September 5, 2001. I was kind of astonished that I happen to think of him right so close to his anniversary date. I think my instinct was right on point to remember my good old friend.

We made our way to his plot, after looking for ten minutes we finally found him! His gravestone was lonely with no flowers and dead grass growing around it. You could tell that nobody had gone to see him in a while. We sat by his grave and ate our lunch, and I just told my sister my memories of him. His flower pot hole was stuck in the ground and we had to dig for a bit to put it out, when we pulled it out the water was rotten and there was earth worms attached all along the pot.

My sister completely  washed it and filled it with fresh water, we then added some bright flowers we had found. I wrote him a note saying sorry for forgetting about him all these years. Now that i know where he is at I will definitely pay him my respects more often.

 After we cleaned it up.

Seferino was a dope homie. We knew him as "Bubba" and he wrote " Ham One." When I first met him  it was in high school  I was around 14, and he was 15. Everybody called him Bubba because he was always short and overweight. You would always catch him talking shit and clowning on something. He was always down with the cause, writing lyrics, rapping, and tagging on all the good landmarks in Pedro. He also was our stoner buddy always buying Garcia Vega's to roll a nice blunt. Bubba was actually the first one to say the words, " Doña Junta" out of his mouth lol. One day we where in Wilmington hanging out with some of our friends,  I remember we were in a parking lot across the street from Pecas house (another friend),and  Bubba had just finished rolling up a joint and was clowning as usual. He then  happened to look up at the apartment next to the parking lot and seen them nosy type of senora's peeking out the window trying to hide. He then said dam! fucken Doña Junta is looking out the window being all nosy hahahahha! I was like what the heck? but that made me laugh so hard just by the way he said it. Later on Mike adopted the name Doña Junta, but that's a whole different story, now I carry the name. I will never forget that moment.

When Bubba was around 16  he had gotten into some trouble and was sent to prison for a few years. Over that time I wrote to him and kept in touch. He still was the same old Bubba, but you could tell from his mail he had gotten a bit institutionalized. Being that he was so young going in I wasn't surprised he got like that. he still managed to keep his hip-hop roots and love for graffiti though.

When he came home in 2000 at 18 he looked completely different! he lost over 100 lbs and was actually skinny! He lost his baby face and looked older, but I guess prison does that to you. He was out for a little over a year enjoying life being the stoner that he was, he also had game and was catching girls,something he didn't do before. I was happy he was doing his thing, but unfortunately it was cut short. We will always remember you! Sorry for losing touch, but I will always be your friend. God Bless. Keep on clowning!

Here is the news article of the incident...

Shooting victim dies at hospital

Daily Breeze (Torrance, CA) - Saturday, September 1, 2001

Author: Larry Altman

Shooting victim dies at hospital

A young San Pedro man was shot to death and another man was critically injured in an attack early Friday near Point Fermin Park.

Ferino Rosales, 19, who was in a car with two friends headed to the beach, was driven to San Pedro Peninsula Hospital but died outside the hospital, police said.

The motive for the shooting was not immediately known, but the suspects were four men who pulled alongside the victims in a car and opened fire, Los Angeles police Detective James Perkins said.

Rosales and his two unidentified friends were driving at Gaffey and Shepard streets shortly after midnight. The other vehicle tailgated them, then pulled alongside them. Occupants asked, "Where you from?"

"When the victims said nowhere, they opened up on them," Perkins said.

Rosales, who was sitting in the right front seat, was hit along with a passenger behind him.

The driver, who was not wounded, is lucky to be alive, Perkins said.

Officers said the driver headed straight to the hospital.

Police were looking into the background of the victims, but said they were not engaged in gang activities when the shooting occurred. They apparently were headed to the beach.

Anyone with information was asked to call Harbor Division homicide investigators at 310-548-7621.

Peace and love,

Dona Junta

The Tour

"Tales from 14th Street" Is a look back at childhood days living in San Pedro California. I will share the fun and not so fun adventures of living in the hood during the 80s and early 90s. If anybody grew up in this area during that time please email or comment anytime and share your stories or thoughts.

 It has been almost 18 years since I moved away from 14th street. The the area is not some place I have forgotten, I pass by my old apartments on occasion to visit a friend who lives nearby. My fathers uncle, Tiodoro still lived in the vicinity up until a few years ago when his wife Dona Elena passed away. He then packed up his stuff and moved a few blocks over with my aunt. Since he was the last family member to move from the complex we always had access to the apartments all these years. Now that the past is long gone,  I am glad I was able to take photos before he moved away. The "Apartamentos" as we call them have varied in owners, and its facade changed so many colors over the years. When we lived there we paid $550 for a one bedroom apartment, but it had a big living room, dining room, okay size kitchen, small bathroom, and a laundry area that lead to the back cement area.

Our so called back yard made out of cement except we did not have the nice wooden doors. 

At night the back was dark! there were no security lighting back then it used to get pretty creepy. This area was were a lot of times the gangsters conjugated for late night parties. 

This was one of two " Subterraneo"  that is what my parents called these basements under the apartments. This one in particular was hardy open, and when it was it was dark and full of junk. 

I only seen this back door open a few times, we used to climb through here to hide up on the roof when we played Cops and Robbers!

Now this one was the cracken "subterraneo" this one was the one right under my apartment window. I guess it belonged to us at first my dad used to store mostly junk in there. Back in the 80s my uncles would have Banda practice down there when they had a group called " Los Sandoval's." The trippy part is directly across from this basement there is another door to another basement belonging to the house next to the apartments. I remember my neighbors older brother used to use it as a " kick it spot" to chill, drink, lift wights etc, it was basically for the homies. Now it is hard to distinguish because they put that board on top, but it is still there. 

This is the house that the other basement belonged to. Back then this space looked huge! now it looks all narrow and small.

To the right of this corridor was our apartment to the left was the single room apartments. We has many good times playing water fights with water balloons, newspaper bags filled with water, and Supersoakers.

This ally was my favorite, all the kids used to play in and around the ally. We basically used tear it up more then it already was by digging up cracked pieces of asphalt. That fence was not there at one time, and it was access to a cool tree house my neighbors used to have. The tree house consisted of old pieces of " Tablas" nailed onto the tree, so there was a platform; not the fanciest thing, but we had so much fun. I am not sure who actually built it though It was just always there. 

These corner apartments have too many stories I would not know were to start. First of all these apartments are single room apartments, and the people living there share a coed bathroom and shower. Back then most of the people living in those apartments were single, immigrant men. There was one family living there, but it was rare to see too many women in those apartments. If there was families or kids they never lasted long. As kids we were told to stay out of the apartments, but we constantly ran through the " Pasillo" (hallway) or used their bathrooms to fill up water balloons and other gadgets. We made friends with some of the regulars who used to hang out on the corner and drink. There was always somebody sitting on that corner stoop with a can of beer in a brown paper sack. The frutera lady would park in front of that corner every Tuesday, and sell fruits, veggies, and candy for us. 

The Crack Era

 It was 1991 and It had gotten really bad with drugs in the area.Nobody ever told us kids about drugs, but we somehow knew that it was a bad thing. I remember they used to slang dope from one of the windows of those single room apartments; I would see grown men go up to the window look around and quickly shove the rock in there mouth. The smell of weed always lingered in the air, subliminally I would burn my moms oregano leaves to simulate the same smell and concept without ever seeing what weed really looked liked. 

That Lady Screamed

One of the most vivid memories about those single apartments were when a white couple around their 40s moved in. They looked like they used to be homeless and glowed of drug use. One time we snuck up to their window since it was facing the trash area and peeked inside, their room was filled with trash, shopping carts, old food, and roaches. The worst part was at night they would fight and argue, and I would hear the lady scream when he would beat her. That alone used to scare me and wake me from my sleep.

They were so on drugs that nobody wanted to interfere. That couple did not last long eventually after a month they got kicked out. 

The man who murdered the Mexican Presidential Candidate

I learned this story years later after I moved away. Apparently one of those "hombres solos" as my mom called them, was responsible for killing Mexican Presidential Candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio in 1994. The man had lived in those apartments around the time we lived there! Crazy shit. My aunts and family actually remember him. I am sure I know who he was, but can't recall. I dug around and actually found evidence of this being true.

Mexican assassin convicted

    Daily Breeze (Torrance, CA) - Tuesday, November 1, 1994

    Author: Lawrence Kootnikoff

    MEXICO CITY -- The admitted assassin of Luis Donaldo Colosio, the ruling party's presidential candidate, was convicted Monday of premeditated murder and sentenced to 42 years in prison.


    The motive for the killing remains unclear.


    Judge Alejandro Sosa Ortiz imposed the sentence on Mario Aburto Martinez, a 23-year- old factory worker, at the high-security Almoloya prison west of Mexico City.


    The federal Attorney General's Office, which wanted the maximum 50-year term, said it would appeal the sentence. Mexico has no civilian death penalty.


    Aburto was seized moments after shooting Colosio during a campaign rally March 23 in Tijuana.


    Aburto, who once lived in San Pedro , almost immediately confessed but said he had only intended to wound Colosio to win news coverage for his views about social ills in Mexico. He claimed he acted alone.


    Investigators said Aburto, who called himself the "Eagle Knight," had suffered from paranoid delusions and was hostile toward authority figures.


    Prosecutors at first insisted he was a lone gunman, then accused seven alleged co-conspirators and finally again said he appeared to have acted alone.


    Three men linked to Colosio's security detail remain imprisoned on charges of involvement in the crime despite prosecutors' public retreat from conspiracy claims.


    Colosio's slaying, coming on the heels of a New Year's Day uprising by Indian rebels in southern Mexico, shocked a country that had not experienced a major assassination in decades.


    Polls showed many Mexicans believed Aburto was part of a larger conspiracy -- suspicions that gained strength after the Sept. 28 assassination of another politician, Jose Francisco Ruiz Massieu, was linked to a group of disgruntled politicians.

    Caption: Mario Aburto Martinez is 23 years old.

    Section: NEWS

    Page: A6

    Index Terms: NEWS; ASSASSINATION.

    Record Number: 0000540477

    Copyright (c) 1994, Daily Breeze, All Rights Reserved

El pasillo we used to run through (present time) of the single room apartments, today they actually look somewhat decent. 

 Infamous house were Don Tiodoro lived at this house forr over 40 yrs He not only my dads uncle, but grandfather to many of my cousins. There was about four families who all lived in the complex related to us. 

This scene of the men playing poker and drinking hard liquor was a common sight growing up.  They did it daily for YEARS. 

Don Tiodoro himself 97 years old. Currently ready to turn 99 years old.

At his 97 birthday party, cant forget the tequila!

This was a real Mexican birthday party they had carnitas on deck cooked in a big cazo, and stirred by a big wooden paddle.

This was the trash area, and still is, but today it is actually very well kept. Back then it was filled with trash cans that contained many gusanos! And before 1990 when the new city trash cans were implemented it was worse.

This apartments and houses were across the street from were we lived, but we hardly knew the people who lived in them. The white apartments were another ghetto version of ours, but not as slick!

 

We knew every single person on this side of the block, this complex was cracking most of the time. All the kids I played with mostly lived in these apartments. But as I mentioned on older posts it was also the scene of many crimes.

This fig tree was a precious memory. My mom used to cut figs off for me on the way to school in the morning aww so sweet. The tree unfortunately is gone now.

The property that this chimney was on was at the end of the ally from my apartment. I was totally obsessed with playing on this chimney it was hours and hours of fun. It was an old relic from another era and I never seen it be used let alone know what it was, but this was good times! Can someone please look up the history of these things? Thank you. 

That ends the tour for this " Tales from 14th Street" more stories to come as I remember them.

If you missed the older 14th street series please check out the archives below.

Tales from 14th St: Orange Bang

The Hood

Update on the hood

Tales from 14th St: Quick Flash Backs

The party just won's stop

All about the shoes

Tales From 14th Street: The Party Just Won't Stop

"Tales from 14th Street" Is a look back at childhood days living in San Pedro California. I will share the fun and not so fun adventures of living in the hood during the 80's and early 90's. If anybody grew up in this area during that time please email or comment anytime and share your stories or thoughts.

The cortinas (curtains) that hung in our living room were something out of the 1970's. The gold thick drapes dusty with age had a veil type layer in front of it which was a nice camouflage when looking out the window.That night my brothers and I were doing just that, looking out the window from behind the barracks at the craziness going on across the street.

Our window was the bottom window on left hand side

The police had come to the block because the party across the street got out of control.
There were about a dozen cops with loud speakers telling the partying gangsters to surrender, and come out of the apartment. The "Crowd" just shut the door, and barricaded themselves inside for what seemed like a long time. Finally after a while the cops tear gassed the place until everybody ran out. The scene was full of all kinds of drama, people running, and some getting arrested .It seemed scary at the time especially because we lived in the middle of were it all went down.
Earlier in the day it was on and cracking the gangsters where partying up a storm as usual. I mostly recall looking towards them wondering what they were doing. My bother remembers all kinds of fools on the street drinking, and even strapped.

The bottom apartment was were the party happened it is really small barely seen under the stairs

The next day all the kids including my self went across the street to look at the damage. I remember going inside the apartment, and being shocked at how many Budweiser beer cans there were everywhere! The place was completely thrashed it looked crazy to me. The interesting part was that the news media came, and actually did a story on the whole incident. They even interviewed a few people asking them questions on what had happened. It was a Spanish station either channel 34 or 52 (since those where the only ones at the time). Later that day we even sat in the living room, and waited until the story came out on T.V. I even seen myself in back ground toda metichi lol wearing black and pink polka dot short overalls lol.

It is a trip now that I think about it, on why the media would come for some neighborhood gang party. I would never imagine that happening now, but I guess back then things like this where a huge deal. I guess we are so used to news being about celebrities, and entertainment that maybe that was a real news story. During my search for old articles I surprisingly ran into the article on the party. It is a funny read now just knowing the details of what really went down. It puts a whole new perspective just knowing the year and date of the party. The party was just a few days after Christmas and according to the article it was about a crowd of 30 gang members. It seriously looked like a war zone to the eyes of a young child.

Man wasn't party to this disaster

Daily Breeze (Torrance, CA) - Thursday, December 27, 1990

Author: Rich Redding

About 30 gang members threw a wild party at Eduardo Tarango's home Wednesday, complete with food, loud music and plenty of beer.

The only thing missing was him.

Now, the 36-year-old San Pedro man is stuck with the cleanup bill, a pricetag that could reach into the thousands of dollars after his tiny apartment in the 200 block of West Fourteenth Street was overrun by the group of males and females, from 15 to 22 years old.

The strong stench of urine filled the home this morning as Tarango stared at drying vomit stains on the carpet. Shattered glass littered the living room and bedroom, where Los Angeles police officers had broken windows to spray mace at boistrous partygoers.

Dozens of empty beer cans cluttered every corner of the home.

"Look at this. It's terrible," Tarango said, shaking his head at the debris. "I don't know what happened. How could they do this?"

PARTY/A6PartyFROM PAGE A1Police said they believe a 30-year-old male visitor of Tarango's held the birthday party in honor of a young gang member while Tarango visited his grandmother in Carson for two days.

Tarango returned around 11 p.m. to find hordes of officers pinning down the youths, who apparently had been living it up for about seven hours.

"It took us about 30 minutes to empty the building," said Detective John Woodrum of the LAPD's Harbor Division. "We were there but the party just wouldn't break up."

Police were ready to bombard the apartment with tear gas, but several officers worked their way around back.

There, they broke several windows and sprayed mace at every moving target, sending teen-age girls scrambling for the shower and subduing the males, some of whom were taunting officers.

Sgt. Dennis Sebenick said the group is a San Pedro gang bucking for attention.

"They're a partying-type of gang ," Sebenick said. "But they're getting more challenging than ever. They have that `Come and get us' attitude. So we had to mace a few of them to get their attention."

Tarango's unidentified friend was arrested on misdemeanor warrants and probably will be charged with contributing to the delinquency of minors.

Thirteen others were arrested for delaying a police investigation, probation violation, threatening a police officer and assault with a deadly weapon on a police officer.

Tarango, who moved into the $460-a-month apartment two months ago, said he wants to know why the gang members picked his house.

"I don't know why anyone would do this to me. I'm a nice guy," he said. "I'm mad. I leave my home and come back to this. I don't believe it."

Section: NEWS
Page: A1
Index Terms: NEWS
Record Number: 0000320501
Copyright (c) 1990, Daily Breeze, All Rights Reserved

If you are a regular reader then you know that I am analyzing how it was growing up for me in the late 80's and early 90's.
These were the years when Los Angeles experienced some of the most violent times with gang activity. It is known that during those years most youth in the hood was influenced by the negativity of gangs, and drugs. Now for the reasons on why there are many here is some things that give a better idea of it all.


Some factors:

In 1990, there were 987 murder/manslaughter incidents in Los Angeles. That is an awful lot compared to what they are today. In 2008 the total amount of murders was 304. The crazy part is when I read the stats for the year 1980 I was surprised there were 1,022 murders in Los Angeles that year. I somehow thought the rate would have been much lower. The rate stayed high up until 1995 then it started to drop down. According to reports some reasons crime went down was reasons like:

• In 1994 the three strikes law was implemented
• Hiring of more police officers
• New ideas and strategy's to prevent kids from joining gangs or doing drugs
• The economy got stronger
  

I think about some of the reasons why things might of been this way. I first of all think it was
because people could get away with it more. There were no cell phones which meant heroes could not report a crime or a victim is not able to report a crime right away. There was no advanced D.N.A testing or high tech cameras capturing your every move. A weak,corrupt police force and lack of police presence. Sentencing laws were more lenient, technology was limited. People probably were not as involved in their community or even their children as much. There was probably not many after school programs or places kids were able to keep busy. Crack hit the streets during that time as well making parents neglect children, and crack babies being born. Civil War in El Salvador sent hoards of Salvadorian immigrants fleeing to the streets of Los Angeles. Mexican immigrants were also coming in huge numbers. Unfortunately as I said before sometimes the children of immigrant parents go the wrong path. The language barrier and the parents having to work a lot to survive make it harder for the children to get good influences.

Here are more numbers in order to see how crime has declined in comparison to those times.

1980

• Murder:1.011
• Rape: 2,813
• Robbery: 27,938

1990

• Murder: 987
• Rape: 2,014
• Robbery: 36.098
• The highest robbery rate in the past 20 years

2000

• Murder: 588
• Rape: 1,459
• Robbery: 15,527 2009

2009 to date

• Murders 150
• Rape:354
• Robbery: 5,717

You could see the dramatic decline in crime since 1980. Media also got in on it when they started portraying films about life on the streets of Los Angeles. Places like South Central and so called ghetto parts of LA were shown.
There is a cluster of films made during those years that show this. Even though most of these films became gangster classics do you think they played a role in influencing the youth of the time or did they deter the youth to stay away from gangs, and drugs?
Movies Released about LA Gang Culture.

1988

• Colors

1991

• Boys In The Hood

1992

• American Me
• South Central

1993

• Menace to Society
• Blood in Blood Out

1994

• Mi Vida Loca

Then we had Italian Mob movies that been around forever still making appearances like

• Good Fellas (1990)
• A Bronx Tale (1993)

The gangster rap era also came into play in the late 80's and early 90's. The raps described more about life in the hood dealing with gangs, drugs and enemies.
It started with the fellas of N.W.A and guys like Ice T talking shit on cops, and repping places like Compton to the fullest. A few years later Eazy E went solo, and started busting out some gangster lyrics. In the early 1990's Ice Cube came out doing solo work as well and was part of the film "Boyz n the Hood". In 1992 the "Death Row" record label came out created by Suge Knight and Dr Dre and introducing Snoop Dog to the scene. Of course most of that era was back and forth drama between rappers.



I would say the trippest gangster rap scenario was the short lived " Blood's and Crips" rap group created with actual Blood and Crips gang members who auditioned for the group. It was basically banging on each other with rap songs. At that time I kind of knew that those two gangs were dangerous, I wondered how they both ended up getting along for the rap group.
There was talk that the group collaborated because of a peace treaty in 1992 between the Bloods and the Crips following the whole Rodney King/riots incident.

Check out this video made by the " Bloods and Crip's"
If you observe the background you see that kids where seen in the video looking up to the older so called wiser gangsters. The people in this video where actual gang members.







A combo of combustible attitudes and lack of structure pushed some to lead down the wrong path. Society was moving on all around us, but in the hood the block was all some ever knew.

To Be Continued...

LA County Murders

Current Crime Stats

LAPD Blog

The Numbers Movie Releases

Uniform Crime Report and Index of Los Angeles

Rap History