I was born in 1939 in San Pedro of second-generation parents. My father was of Croatian descent and my mother of Italian. As a lifetime resident of San Pedro, I have vivid memories of my childhood in the 1940s and ’50s.

Both of my parents worked. My father was a commercial fisherman and my mother was a bookkeeper. Both parents could speak in their ethnic tongues as well as English. I attended grammar school at Cabrillo Elementary before transferring to Mary Star of the Sea Elementary in the second grade.

Although I was considered an average student, I learned many of the values I have today from the Immaculate Heart nuns who taught at Mary Star. Since my father was gone out to sea much of the time and my mother worked, I spent time with my maternal grandparents until my mother came home from work.

I used to walk to their home from school together with my sister, Marilyn. They lived between Gaffey Street and Grand Avenue on 15th Street. Back in those days it was safe to walk anywhere at any time in San Pedro. My grandparents had seven children and also took in borders to make ends meet.

They had a two-story home with a basement and a back home off the alley. They owned a lot across the street from their home where they grew their vegetables and raised chickens and rabbits for food. My grandfather made wine, and my grandmother made her tomato sauce together with other bottled food items for storage in their cellar.

Ice box and clothes lines

There were no supermarkets then, only local mom-and-pop stores. There were no refrigerators, freezers or clothes dryers back then. My grandmother had an ice box to store perishables and a wringer to squeeze out the water from clothes she washed before hanging them out to dry on her clothes lines.

San Pedro’s main industry was the commercial fishing industry. Many of the Croatian and Italian immigrants were fishermen in their homeland and brought their skills to San Pedro. Terminal Island had canneries for canning the fishermen’s catch. French Sardine Co. (Star-Kist Foods) was among the leaders and employed many San Pedro residents. There were days I can recall the smell of cooking fish in the air; it was all over town. The cannery workers went to their jobs on the Islander Ferry, the only link before the Vincent Thomas Bridge was built.

After taking the ferry home from work, they shopped in San Pedro, usually on Sixth and Seventh streets and Pacific Avenue, which was the hub of the business sections. Some would catch one of the buses to their homes that used to run back then. I personally rode on the Gaffey Street bus, the Barton Hill bus and the 13th Street bus, to name a few.

San Pedro had at least four car dealerships that I can remember: Ford, Chevrolet, Cadillac and Buick. They were on Pacific Avenue. There were gas stations all over the place.

San Pedro had three main theaters, with kids shows on Saturday at the Warner Bros., which would show cartoons and serials. You could get in free by bringing Di Carlo bread foot wrappers, but I don’t remember how many were required.

Neighborhood sports

Back then there were no Little Leagues, Pop Warner football, etc. We had two places to play sports besides school: The Boys Club on 11th Street and Cabrillo Avenue and Daniel’s Field directly across the street from the Boys Club.

Somehow all of us kids were able to survive without any organized sports other than those mentioned above. During my high school years, I was able to get a job during summer vacation on the fishing boats as a deckhand with the help of my father. So while most of my friends were at the beach checking out the pretty girls, I was in the middle of the ocean looking for fish.

I had planned to continue fishing for my occupation until my mother persuaded me to go to school, where I followed in her footsteps, finally becoming a CPA. San Pedro hosted the Fisherman’s Fiesta for many years, with so many fishing boats back then. The fiesta was the event of the year for the town, and shown on local TV.

Back then everyone was patriotic. You believed the politicians, and the police were the good guys who were catching crooks and helping people. There were no homeless living on the streets, no welfare like there is today. Everyone worked or tried to get a job. You knew your neighbor and we helped each other if it was needed. The whole country had a different attitude back then, not like today. I miss those days, but I will remember them always.

Kenneth M. Bezich is a lifetime resident of San Pedro. He has been married to his wife, Joan, for 54 years and has three children and eight grandchildren. He is a semi-retired CPA who had his own public accounting firm in San Pedro for 25 years before it moved to Long Beach.