Celebrating George’s birthday

JERRY PERSON

I see that Washington’s Birthday has come and gone with little

fanfare, but that was not always the case here in Huntington Beach.

There is an old saying about you’re never too old to learn

something new. Since my days in elementary school I was taught that

George Washington’s birthday came after Lincoln’s birthday. I chanced

to read that his birthday was really on Feb. 11, a day before Lincoln’s birthday.

But how could that be?

At the time of Washington’s birth, England and her colonies were

still using the old style calendar started by Julius Caesar while the

rest of Europe was adopting the Gregorian calendar.

To make this calendar more accurate eleven days were dropped and

in back dating Washington’s birth date was moved to Feb. 22, 1732.

So what has all this got to do with this week’s column, nothing,

just like George’s birthday these days. It seems that they have

lumped his birthday together with several nondescript former

presidents under President’s Day. This week we are going to look at

how Huntington Beach in past years really celebrated Washington’s

birthday.

After the end of World War I Americans felt pride in their country

and what better way than to celebrate the birthday of the “Father of

our Country.”

Throughout the 1920s it was a major holiday for everyone and it

was in 1928 that the American Legion’s Auxiliary gave an impressive

gala for old George in the Legion Hall at the old civic center.

Part of this gala included a program that included Alma Schafer

giving a reading about Washington’s life followed by musical numbers

sung by Betty Jo Skeney and Marguerite Markas with the music supplied

by Bobby Olsen on the violin.

There was a dedication of a picture of George Washington to be

hung on a wall in the hall.

The Girl’s League from Huntington High in 1938 stood in hallways

selling cherry tarts to fellow students to help raise funds for a

George Washington dance to honor George on his birthday. These small

tarts cost the students all of five cents, a bargain even in those

days.

As Feb. 22 came, the girls gathered in the school gym to decorate

it with paper hatchets and pictures of our first president all around

the gym. There were red, white and blue colors throughout the gym and

the girls had cherry pies made with American flags stuck in the

centers as their refreshments.

For two hours that afternoon the students danced to the recorded

music of the big bands that were supplied on Vern Nelson’s

phonograph.

How many of you remember sitting in class and up on the wall hung

a portrait of our first American hero?

A patriotic tableau was the event held by the Joseph Rodman Post

of the American Legion also in 1938 inside Central Elementary

School’s auditorium. The program was divided into six parts or as

they called it, six spirits. The first part was the Spirit of ’76 and

began with a reading of the Preamble to the Declaration of

Independence by Loren Mitchell, Donald Goetch, A.C. Marion and Donald

Mitchell.

In Part Two, the Spirit of ’78 Florence Dale dressed as Betsy Ross

and sat on stage sewing the American flag. Next came the Spirit of

‘61 with John Overmyer reciting Lincoln’s Gettysburg address.

The fourth part or the Spirit of ’17 depicted Charlene Rimel as a

Salvation Army nurse and Kathryn Washburn as a Red Cross nurse with

Lyndon Wells as a soldier.

A group of Girl and Boy Scouts stood as the Spirit of the Future

and included Hildreth Clark, Shirley Rampton, LaRae Fullmer, Mary &

Barbara Chamness, Eddie Renfro, Buddy Swift and LeRoy Jauman.

A closing prayer concluded the final spirit of the program and

this was given by Alverda Arthur followed by thanks by school

principal Agnes Smith to Kathryn Allen, Frances Lyon and Anita

Washburn for bringing such a wonderful tableau on Washington’s

birthday.

George’s birthday was celebrated in style befitting this great man

in an occasion at our Methodist church.

In the Sunday school auditorium there were arranged baskets of

flowers and lamps all around the room to lend that special

atmosphere. A large American flag was placed on one of the walls as

befitted the occasion.

Ralph Turner wearing a light green satin suit, frill laces and a

powdered wig portrayed the “Father of our Country.”

One of the ladies in the program wore a gown that had been worn at

a reception at New York’s Mayor’s mansion honoring General Lafayette

in 1784.

Myrtle Barks dressed that evening as Betsy Ross and she welcomed

the guests to the party.

There was an impromptu skit of everyday life in colonial times on

Washington’s large plantation and this was followed by refreshments

of cherry pies served to the guests by May Overbury, Sadie Harris and

James Williams.

The program ended with everyone singing “Auld Lang Syne.”

It was in our nation’s capital of Washington DC that a young man

in military service met a young secretary and fell in love. On the

day after celebrating Washington’s Birthday in 1952 this couple,

Patrick Williams and Mary Thelen, were married in the sight of the

Washington Monument.

This couple would come to Huntington Beach and in 1967 Mary would

open a small cafe at 213 1/2 Main St. called the Sugar Shack which

today, like George Washington, is known around the world. The cafe

today is operated by Mary’s daughter Michele and her kids.

It’s such a pity that we don’t celebrate this great American

hero’s birthday more in school.

His “I cannot tell a lie,” his chopping down the symbolic cherry

tree, cherry pies and tarts and his heroic deeds on the battlefields,

which helped create these United States, should be a living symbol to

future generations.

But to past generations of Huntington Beach residents George

Washington’s birthday was celebrated with great pride.

* JERRY PERSON is a local historian and longtime Huntington Beach

resident. If you have ideas for future columns, write him at P.O. Box

7182, Huntington Beach, CA 92615.