The Verdict -- Robert Gardner

At one time in my youth, I lived in that part of Los Angeles County

known as East L.A. Never “East Los Angeles,” but always “East L.A.” As

the child of a father who was a nomadic railway worker, I had lived in

tough towns, but never in a town as tough as East L.A.

I had been living with my parents in Green River, Wyo., where my

father worked for the Union Pacific Railway as a laborer on what was

called the rip track, where railway cars were repaired. There was a

strike, which my father opposed. His opposition aroused such bitter

feelings that my parents were persuaded to send me to live with my sister

Jessie on Balboa Peninsula. After the grubby little railroad towns I had

been living in, the peninsula was heaven right here on earth. However,

heaven didn’t last very long.

After the strike, my parents couldn’t remain in Green River, so they

moved to Bell Gardens. Why Bell Gardens? Because my father, who never

learned to drive, could walk to work at the Union Pacific yards from

there. Well, Bell Gardens was quite a place, especially after the

peninsula. Tough, tough.

At that time, the current headline murder case was that of Madelyn

Obenshine, who had killed her lover. Anyway, the first day I was in Bell

Gardens, the local kids decided to reenact the Madelyn Obenshine case.

They also decided that, as the new kid on the block, I should play the

part of Obenshine’s victim. Rather naively, I agreed.

Well, they did a very realistic job of it, beating me until they tired

of the sport, and as they were young and strong, the beating was, to put

it mildly, prolonged and brutal. That was my introduction to Bell

Gardens.

I went sniffling home and told my mother that I didn’t want to live in

Bell Gardens. My mother agreed and sent me back to live with my sister on

the peninsula. I have a feeling that move probably prolonged my life

considerably.

To this day when I am driving down the Hollywood Freeway to Los

Angeles and we come to the sign that indicates the next turnoff is

Indiana Street, which means Bell Gardens, I turn my head so as not to

read the sign.

That wasn’t the end of my East L.A. experiences. A little later, my

parents moved to Maywood, and I went to join them there. While still a

big change from the peninsula and still a tough place, it was nothing

like Bell Gardens, and I managed to stick it out.

Years later, I met Aaron Rosenberg, the former USC football star who

was a major executive in the entertainment industry. Somehow, I knew he

had grown up in East L.A., so as to make conversation I mentioned that I

too had lived in that area. He looked at me, shook his head and said:

“You’re pretty skinny. How did you survive?”

I told him I was a pretty fast runner. He nodded and said, “You’d have

to be.”

* ROBERT GARDNER is a Corona del Mar resident and a former judge. His

column runs Tuesdays.