San Pedro, California, shortly after WWII
Lucia Davis was still a little girl when her mother and dad brought her to Southern California in 1943. Born in 1939, she is originally from Detroit. It’s interesting that her family chose to leave a booming city right at the height of economic prosperity and recovery, as Detroit Michigan was a Mecca for employment and opportunity during WWII. Those who suffered from years of economic depredations thoughout the Eastern and Southern United States flocked into the War industries and good wages that Detroit offered. It was a terminus of the Great Migration, one of the few locations where men and women, regardless of color could find much needed jobs after more than ten years of suffering. Another was Los Angeles…
Lucia’s mother was Jewish, her father was Welsh. Lucia Hughes (her maiden name), her parents, and older brother settled in San Pedro, located south of Los Angeles and sandwiched in between Long Beach and Rancho Palos Verdes. Moving might have been prompted by a desire for closer proximity to family, as Lucia’s paternal grandfather was a wealthy man, and lived in the nearby city of Bell. Aside from family already in the area, likely economic opportunity sparked the move, as jobs were very plentiful in the shipyards, factories, and canneries that L.A. had to offer. However, Lucia speculates it might have been a fear on her Mother’s part, about being a Jew in New York City. The Jewish community here in America knew and acknowledged early on what Nazi Germany was doing, and what could happen should the Eastern Seaboard be invaded by Hitler. Whatever the reason, Lucia and her folks located to one of the country’s most vibrant and economically blossoming ports in Wartime America. Her mom went to work building Liberty ships, and her dad joined the Merchant Marine, ostensibly to avoid the draft. Lucia didn’t see her dad much, and when she did, he was far from sober. When he wasn’t at sea, he was either in a bar, or at his dad’s house drinking as spending what wages he’d earned on everything but his wife, son and…daughter.
San Pedro already had worker housing in place before the War. The Depression had sprouted these communities for an important local fishing industry that was rebounding towards the tail-end of a worldwide economic conflagration. Places like Banning Homes was life-blood for many American working families pitching in and coming out of the Depression and into America’s burgeoning wartime economy. Simple, government built bungalows, made from the cheapest material government contracts could provide, dark on the inside and according to Lucia, it was government paint, a shade of forest service green. They might not have been mansions, but for those who in many cases had lost their home and had none, it was a blessing.
Lucia’s first at memories of San Pedro during the World War II was having to keep the curtains closed at night and not being able to turn the porch light on after dark given the threat of an enemy air raid. It already happened once in early 1942, and given California’s importance to out-manufacturing the enemy and winning the War, precaution was paramount. She also remembers hoards of service personnel in and around the city and the environs of Los Angeles. Being a cute little girl, Lucia’s mother encouraged her to essentially beg for coins and money off the soldiers and sailors with money to spend in and around the movie theaters. While Mom and Dad had well paying wartime jobs, Lucia still can’t understand why the few coins she procured had to be used to supplement the family’s income. Perhaps it was Dad’s penchant for spending on liquor…and other things.
One of the most interesting aspects she talked about from her wartime childhood was how people of different races lived together, worked together, and got along together in Southern California. Her next door neighbors were a Black family, the Johnsons. the kids, Ben and Hobie Johnson were Lucia and her brother’s best playmates, and Lucia does not remember any racial animosity, or hatred peddled by anyone in the community. Two doors down was a Japanese-American woman and her kids. Despite Executive Order 9066, there were exceptions to forced removal. If a Japanese-American woman was married to a White man, she generally would be allowed to stay. Lucia recalls her being a seamstress, and she made extra money by fixing and repairing the clothes of the Banning Homes residents.
Next Up - Part 2: The End of War and a New Beginning