While searching for something else, I found this account by Karl Rydgren who wrote it in 1975 and passed away in 2008. It was posted by Ken Jones on a website about pier fishing. I thought it was interesting enough to post here, set in a time and place we all love. “My brother Todd and I used to wake up at 4 am and hurry to the pier to get on a bait boat and haul bait. When we turned 14 or 15, in the summer, we could go out on fishing boats and help the crew with the customers. We could also fish and later sell our fish and the crews catch. After school at the John Adams Junior High School, we would haul fish for passengers from the pier landing to the parking lot by the La Monica Ballroom. We used a heavy hand truck and got 10 cents a sack. Fish were so plentiful you could catch a Black Sea Bass from the end of the Pier. Once in a while we would get picked up by the police for fishing without license. The police would put our fish on the back of their trucks and take us down to the station. There they would lecture us and finally let us go, but our box of fish would be empty. On Labor Day, a fishing boat called Amico capsized, and 16 people drowned. I was supposed to go our on that boat, but it was so full, a buddy and I went home and learned about the accident later. We raced down to the Pier, and I stood with a brick in each hand to stop the curiosity-seekers from blocking the ambulances. A big cop named Chris Christianson walked by and said, ‘Nice job kid.’ My brother gave all his clothes to survivors, but ended up in overalls. He also gave artificial respiration to a young lady, but she didnt make it. The boat Freedom rescued many survivors without lifejackets, but also became dangerously overloaded. Other boats from the pier raced to help other survivors. I washed dishes at the Fishnet Restaurant on the Pier, the fishing barges Minnie a Caine and Charlie Brown (owned by Olaf Olson) for a $1/day and all I could eat.”
Posted on: Sun, 06 Apr 2014 20:12:30 +0000
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