Created by June Morrall
it’s time to dump that lady in the tv commercial who’s a chocoholic on a diet, who’s now wearing a size 2–and badly needs a voice coach to teach her how to laugh like a real person. Her imitation of a ha ha is the worst I’ve ever heard.
Please, please, Nutrisystem, it’s long overdue……..time for the hook….
I found this 20-year-old letter of recommendation in an old file…and reading it made me feel warm…I hope Arnold Drapkin is well.
“June worked as a photo researcher and reporter in the San Francisco Bureau of TIME Magazine for two years. During that time, I found her to be a first-rate professional. Her intelligence and perserverance have paid off in getting TIME pictures we may not otherwise have obtained.
Her journalistic instincts and devotion to her duties were greatly appreciated not only by me, but also by the entire TIME photo staff.
…Sincerely,
Arnold H. Drapkin
Picture Editor
TIME Magazine
(Photo: The Half Moon Bay Airport where the drag races took place).
My Fatherâs Role in the HMB Drag Strip by Don Walrod
I thoroughly enjoyed your story about the Half Moon Bay Drag Strip. A bit of further history on the strip for you: Jim McLennon was an acquaintance of my father, and yes, Jim did rent the air strip and turned it into the Half Moon Bay Drag Strip.
But it was used for drag racing even before that. There were two car clubsâthe âLightning Rodsâ? from San Bruno and the âPiston Pushersâ? (?) from S. San Francisco.
My father, Dick Walrod, was on the San Bruno Police force and was the âadult advisorâ? of the âLightning Rodsâ? (something that was required back then) and when the clubs told Dad they wanted to have a place to race legally, he told them to find a place and he would do whatever paperwork was necessary to make it legal.
They found the airstrip in Half Moon Bay but someone of legal age had to sign papers with the City, and since all the boys were under 21, my Dad ended up signing all those papers. The two clubs raced there for about two years but more and more clubs wanted to join in and the City demanded that improvements be made to the strip and insurance be taken out for safety purposes.
Since none of the car clubs had the funds to do what the City wanted they had to give it up. The City put it up for rent, in stepped Jim McLennon, and the rest is history.
—————————————————————
Note: Dick Walrod passed away on Thanksgiving, 2006.
(Photo: Don Prudhomme with Half Moon Bay Drag Strip “Theme Girl” Tammy Thomas)
Link to earlier Half Moon Bay Drag Strip posts:http://www.halfmoonbaymemories.com/category/half-moon-bay-drag-strip/
(Photo: Jim Wickett, John’s son–posing on the Skyline property, about 1980).
John Wickett’s son, Jim, wasn’t kidding when he told his dad it was time for a change on the Skyline property. “Things have gone too far here,” he said.
It was time for a fresh start. John told me that “The “Flower Children” era was wilting. Jim organized a non-profit corporation called ‘Starr Hill Academy for Anything’. He converted a sawmill into his private residence.”
John proudly added that his son’s Starr Hill Academy “started to do some real good–there was less of the hippie element around and Jim had schoolchildren going up there. Students could see the remains of a sawmill and what the outdoor life was like.”
In the meantime, Jim, who was studying for a law degree–which his father believed would be useful when dealing with the county district attorney–was elected president of the Skyline Improvement Association. The deputy sheriff’s badly which he now carried “gave him a little more control over the outsiders,” explained John.
Jim became active with the Kings Mountain Fire District. A fire truck was parked on the property in return for maintaining it.
In his effort to clean up the property once and for all, Jim Wickett removed the structures that were eyesores. And as the buildings disappeared, so did the people. Jim plowed the land and planted new grass seed. “He got more into the ecology deal,” John said, “returning things to their natural state.”
When he looked back on the 1960s, John Wickett confessed: “We had so many people around for so long that my son gradually tired of the responsibility…I got so ‘relaxed’ I used to tell anybody, ‘Sure, go up there, have your company picnics, make yourselves at home….”
Eventually most of the land was sold off–and by 1979 the Wicketts owned about 500 of the original 4,400 acres.
I have added a “HISTORY MYSTERY” page to my site–it’s over there, on the right. You can email me with your “history mystery” and contact info and I will post it there.
Right now we’re looking for a Pacifica “Madam”, photos of La Honda and stagecoach owner Reuben Morris.
But the turning point had not yet come.
“The motorcyclists started coming,” John Wickett told me, laughing, “because we had all this land. On some days we had 2,000 motorcylcists running around the property.”
When the Pacific Coast Trial Championships took place there one year, a couple of thousand spectators turned up. “Cars were parked, oh, everywhere,” Wickett said. And they left deep marks, “eroding the land, making gullies and trenches. The meadows were criss-crossed with ruts and the grass wasn’t growing properly.”
Wickett told me that “in an attempt to be funny, I nailed up a sign that read: ‘No Trespassing. Gun Patrol. Survivors Will Be Prosecuted At Full Extent Of The Law’.”
…To Be Continued…
As the “illegal” handmade houses on John Wickett’s land attracted the attention of the local press, reporters made the difficult trek to the 4,400-acre Skyline property. Besides Kendall Whiting’s famous five-story- tall treehouse, reached by a rustic “outdoor elevator”, the men and women carrying reporter’s notebooks jotted down other activities they observed–silkscreening, glass blowing and pottery-making.
“There were lots of babies and children and cats. Lots of construction,” John Wickett told me. He said that the creative builders “ripped up parts of the old sawmill and used the wood to make little houses inside of bigger houses.”
Of course all building codes had been ignored. “Nothing had been done with building codes,” Wickett noted. This only caused the district attorney’s office to redouble their efforts to get the young free spirits off the property.
But time was still on John Wickett’s side.
While searching for a solution, John invited his son, Jim–then a student at Menlo College–to spend a summer on the Skyline land. He told Jim, “You can be helpful and get things a little bit organized. We’ve got all these materials that people are building their houses with…Maybe you could supervise a bit.”
Young Jim Wickett was so successful at his task that he stayed on after the school summer break was over. He still had much to straighten out as publicity about the place had reached far and wide. Strangers continued to arrive in caravans of day-glo painted school buses. Others camped out on the property and what was once pristine was now being threatened.
“It started becoming too much,” John Wickett said.
…To Be Continued…
