Youthful Excursions

 

In the summer there were all day activities we liked involving bicycles, fishing in Lake Merritt for the ever present smelt. The catch of fish was taken to a market in Oakland’s Chinatown where it could be sold for a few cents, or traded for bait. Then we pedaled all the way to the end of the seventh street auto ferry pier. Here was the end of the transcontinental railroad and it’s connection with the San Francisco Golden Gate Ferries. We did not come to see the trains or ferries. Our goal was the access holes for pier maintenance, where we crawled down the ladders to platforms we used as our fishing spots. Here we managed to drop our hooks and try to catch larger fish. We did manage to catch gray sand sharks, sting rays, and occasionally other fish all of which we would take back to the Chinese market to sell. The money received almost always paid for the bait we had used.

 

The landfill for the future roadway to the San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge created a new place to explore. A small island to the north west of the bridge approach, gave us another beach for fishing. Unfortunately it was too muddy for water sports.

 

Another bicycle ride took us to the northwest tip of the Alameda Island. This place was the former landing place of the Alameda to San Francisco auto ferry. The tip of land was secured by large granite boulders that captured bay sand and formed a nice small beach. Here was an unbeatable view of the bay and San Francisco beyond only partially blocked by the new bridge structures. Looking southeast we could see where the Pan American Clippers from Hawaii and the Far East landed in the Bay off the Alameda shore. In foggy weather the planes had to detour to Clear Lake for a safe place to land.

 

In the not too distant future all of this entire area would become the Alameda Naval Air Station.

 

Leaving the Alameda tube, on the right, we passed by the Alameda Airdrome, a flying field for small planes. After it had been shut down, we tried using the hard as concrete field for touch football games. We quickly found it much to hard for our games.

 

The road from the tube, Webster Street, led directly to Neptune Beach. This was a wonderful recreation place. It had a roller coaster, two giant swimming pools, a sand beach on the bay, a very large picnic area, and a big expanse of concession stands. A fun place to spend a day, if you had money to spend. It and Idora Park on Telegraph Avenue, near Berkeley were the two most used places for family fun. Both were eliminated by progress in the housing and business markets before World War 2.

 

The Oakland Produce Market had an attraction for us especially during melon season. Waiting around watching the men unload the railroad cars usually paid off with broken melons to eat. Melons were taken from the rail cars by a line of men, tossing the fruit from one to another. You could usually count on a melon being dropped accidentally or on purpose. One time a small melon was tossed at me when my back was turned. Thank goodness this projectile was smaller than the usual watermelon. Even so it tasted good to us after I got up off the pavement. The workers thought it very funny.

 

Fifth Avenue was a part of what used to be known as the Brooklyn Township. At is end it connected to the Embarcadero road that paralleled the Estuary on the Oakland side. A left turn at the junction brought you to the Brooklyn Basin a good swimming place for us kids. It also contained a string of sand barges and a brickyard. Continuing on, you would arrive at the Ninth Avenue Pier and loading and unloading place for ocean going ships. Only when the pier was not being used could boys and girls race out on the acres of smooth concrete with our bikes and roller skates.

 

Not far from the pier, the road brought us to “Pipe City” a depression development that grew out of an abandoned collection of new large concrete sewer pipes. The pipes were stored in rows not far from the Southern Pacific railroad tracks. This presented places to set up housekeeping for wanderers from the trains. Living in four foot diameter concrete pipes in that time was a step up from having no shelter. Pipe City received helpful publicity from the local papers. With publicity came donations to make this mode of living more palatable. Believe it or not some of the tenants almost lived in comfort, without electricity, running water or flush toilets. For the city this all became a burden to furnish the necessary’s. Pipe city had a brief existence.

 

A half-mile farther down the Embarcadero road we would come to Twenty Third Avenue and a very large brick structure that housed the processing facility of the California Mill. Many years later after the mill had been closed a friend reminded me the workers used to call the place the “Portuguese College” and to all of us twenty third avenue had always known as “Two Tree Avenue.”

 

End