James Sutton Jr. - My Remembrances of the Lark Ellen Home for Boys - 1933-1940 - Page 2

Many people came to the home to help the boys in various ways. I remember Harry Hale especially. He was the Playground Director of the West Los Angeles Playground and was from Boston. He was also my first Scoutmaster. The Lark Ellen Home had a Chevy Stake truck that was used to transport the boys to different activities. Harry Hale would drive this truck for them at times as well as using it to take the scout troop to activities. The boys were loaded in the bed of the truck like cattle; nothing you could get away with these days. My father would also drive the truck full of boys to their different activities. My brother, Ted, seems to remember that the Lions Club purchased the truck new and donated it to the Home. It was probably in the early 1930's. Another helper that would visit was Cal Clemens, a well known USC football player. He would get free tickets to some of the USC football games at the Los Angeles Coliseum. I remember going to one of them. Another place we went was to the old Wrigley Field where the Los Angeles Angels of the Pacific Coast League used to play their games. I remember seeing the Angeles play the Seattle Ranier's.

In those days the Los Angeles Police had an outstanding pistol team and they would also go around giving exhibitions. James E. Davis, the Chief of Police brought the team to the Home one time and I was able to attend the session. They entertained us by shooting cigarettes out of each other's mouths. Scary!

One summer my father, brother and I spent about a month with the boys at Lakeside Park, just west of the Chatsworth reservoir. The smaller boys stayed in a large house and the larger ones in tents. We stayed in a tent we owned. Our father drove the truck. We did a lot of hiking in the hills to the west, now inundated with buildings and homes. We also had a swimming pool and did some horseback riding. Another thing I remember about that stay at Lakeside Park was the softball diamond. It was completely overgrown with weeds and we cleaned it all off so we could use it. Then we played our first game and there were several people in the stands. We had one bat and one ball. One of the batters hit a foul ball into the stands and a little kid caught it. He refused to give it back and we were about to quit the game because it was the only ball we had. Finally the kid's father told him to give the ball back and we were able to continue. I think they must have been attenders of professional ball games where they were allowed to keep balls they caught. Speaking of ball games, the Lark Ellen Home had a ball diamond behind it. It wasn't a regulation diamond, it had to be modified to the space available. I played on the team several times and we had a pretty good team. One of the opposing teams arranged for us to play on the regulation baseball diamond at the WLA Playground. We just couldn't adapt to the real diamond and really got creamed. Never could adjust to an honest to goodness regulation ball diamond.

One summer we went to Camp Seeley in the San Bernardino mountains. I don't remember much about it except that there was an old retired British Army Officer staying there. He spent most of his career in India and in the evenings would talk to us about his adventures. It was very exciting to hear but I don't remember any of his stories, but do remember him telling us that the moon was a lot bigger in India that it is here. I couldn't figure that one out. I remember going to the home of Madam Yaw (what we called the homes benefactor, Lark Ellen Yaw) for a concert. My dad drove the truck and it was a beautiful drive through the orange groves in Covina. She was quite elderly by that time.

Perhaps someone could take these comments and expand on them or they might bring out some other stories of these times.

Contact: James C. Sutton, Jr. at: cdrsutton@ca.rr.com