Family history living in South Pasadena
At various times in the 1930s and '40s my father's family lived in South Pas; my aunt Jessie Hartzell Cooper (deceased) went to SPHS when the girl's daily uniform was a middie blouse and navy skirt. My parents, Kenneth A. Hartzell and Elizabeth L. Hartzell (both deceased) lived first at 410 El Centro, with my older sister Susan and brother Jon. My father remodeled the house on the corner of El Centro and Indiana streets and we moved to 425 El Centro in 1946 when I was one year old. (Dad moved the front door from El Centro to Indiana Avenue, and sometime over the past X years the address changed to 1003 Indiana.)
During World War II my mother, Betty, drove a school bus. In the 1950s and early 60s she was a cub scout den mother, active in PTA, sang for a while with the Oneonta Glee Club, and was a staunch member of the Christian Science church on Fremont. As Sunday school superintendent, she was a key player in the building of the church extension to house Sunday school classes. Both buildings were acquired by the Holy Family Catholic church at some point after we had all moved away. I never told my mother about this....
My father, Ken Hartzell, was active in the late 1940s - early 1950s in South Pas civic activities. He designed SP's Rose Parade float one year. He was a member of the school board, and was president of the board when they closed the Las Flores elementary school owing to earthquake hazards. (An unpopular move, this got him voted off the board.) He was, particularly, an active scout master in the 1950s and until we moved away in 1962. His scouts became Explorer Post 369. Those scout day dinners in the basement of St. James Episcopal church stay in my memory -- the tuna noodle casseroles with crushed cornflake topping! The cottage cheese -lime gelatine salad!! The Rice Krispy bars!!! (We never had any of these at home.) The annual Scout Day parade and events in Garfield Park; is this still going on?
My sister Susan, brother Jon, and I all went to Lincoln Elementary School (now renamed, sigh), and on through the Jr. High and Sr. High. (We moved to the East coast between my own junior and senior years at SPHS.) Jon and I went to Mrs. Harlan's nursery school in South Pas. Susan was an A student, musical (studied organ at SPHS with Mr. Adams), and artistic. While we were still living in South Pasadena, she went through Principia College in 3 years (1956-1959) and on to Europe to become an interpreter. On return visits home, she introduced us to espresso, croissants, little open-face sandwiches, and wonderful slides of where she'd traveled.
During his time in South Pas schools my brother Jon (he took the h out of his first name in the fifth grade) was an A student, a science buff (including science fiction), and a devotee of jazz (an ongoing interest). In our dad's scout post he achieve Eagle scout level, and I remember him going to Boy's State one year. At the time we moved, he was a sophomore at Principia College. My father, promoted by his company, E. R. Squibb & Sons, started work in New Jersey in early 1962, while my mother worked at extracting us from the house we'd lived in almost 17 years. After a hugh, protracted front lawn and garage sale (I still look in antique stores for some of the things we had to give up!), she, Jon, and I drove across country (first up to Seattle, then east) to our shared experience of small-apartment living.
In South Pas I was a reasonably good student, faced every year with another teacher's high expectations based on Susan's and Jon's performance. ("Oh, you're [fill in name]'s sister, are you?" I did some time in Brownies and Girl Scouts. A favorite place (for all of us) was the South Pas library, which I think was more beautiful before the extensive modifications made since the 1960s. "Downtown" (along Fair Oaks), I went to Saturday morning free kids' shows at the Rialto (the Ritz theater is a dim memory), stood on the X-ray device at Unruh's shoe store, inspected the offerings at the Bookworm shop and lending library, went with friends to Hank's Fish and Chips, accompanied my mother when she bought groceries at the Market Basket, and my dad at the corner drug store. Among the teachers who really engaged my interest with lasting effect were Miss Johnson, who brought Mexico alive for us in 2nd grade, and Miss Warren, whose world history class at SPHS was a revelation for me.
