James Laird - "Lark Ellen Home for Boys 1930s History and Descriptions for Boys" - Page 3

About half the block on the Mississippi Ave. end was not used. I was enclosed by a chain link fence. An old barn sat next to this area on the small kid's side. It was used by a WWI veteran as living quarters who did a bit of the garden work and raised rabbits we used for Sunday dinners once in a while. He had lost part of one leg and moved around pretty well on his peg leg. Some of the little kids were afraid of him and teased him about his leg which upset him and he would give chase with no hope of catching them. I got to know him pretty well after I had been there a couple of years and helped him with the rabbits.

We went to regular public schools. The grade school was a few blocks away on Sawtelle Blvd. University High school was just a little further away, and was probably one of the nicest school campuses in the nation. Emerson Jr. high was a new school still under construction and was a bit further away in Westwood. It backed up to an old movie prop of a small town with fake building fronts. It faced the streets and looked more like billboards from the back. Across the street from the home on Corinth Ave. was a Japanese school which held classes at night and when our regular schools were closed. There were several Japanese stores along Sawtelle Blvd. near Mississippi Ave. that we used to buy goodies from.