World War II made it to the playgrounds of Berkeley 75 years ago, in August, 1942. The annual “Playground Carnival” was sponsored by the Junior Chamber of Commerce. The 1942 carnival would have a Victory Queen, selected from amongst 10 girls representing city and school playgrounds.

Votes were purchased by buying defense stamps. The winner proved to be Lorraine Evans, “Emerson playground’s ‘glamour’ girl” and a Willard Junior High student.

The carnival was held at the Berkeley High School athletic field with a “Circus Show of local playground talent” and an “aquacade” in the swimming pool.

Dark driving

The wartime requirement that Berkeley drivers maneuver at night with only parking lights went into effect Aug. 20, 1942. The city told people they shouldn’t turn off their headlights until that date, but it didn’t deter some drivers. One man driving with headlights off knocked down two pedestrians while turning from Shattuck Avenue into Bancroft Way on Aug. 17.

Motorists were relieved by an Army statement that drivers on the Eastshore Highway could use their headlights.

War pay

On Aug. 13, the Gazette noted a big change between Depression era and wartime employment. Alameda County needed election workers and couldn’t find enough. 150 additional workers had to be hired in Berkeley at $8 to $9 a day. Eight dollars “used to be considered big money in pre-defense times,” the Gazette noted. It was also equivalent to about $119 a day, in today’s dollars, or about $600 for a 40-hour work week.

On Aug. 14, the Gazette reported that East Bay cities weren’t using mechanized street sweepers because “cities can’t get men to drive the sweepers for the wages offered.” So hand sweepers were back on the streets.

In Albany, a 70-year-old man who had retired when the city bought a street sweeping truck was “called back to the job because no candidates appeared to take the $150 month job of chauffeuring the sweeper. Shipyard wages were too attractive.”

Flora and fauna

On Aug. 15, 1942, the Gazette reported that the California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park had announced the first successful rearing of seahorses in an aquarium tank.

The University of California’s Botanical Garden, meanwhile, reported a gift from H. E. Metcalfe of 2,700 orchids, representing some 1,400 “different varieties and species”.

Air raid

“Berkeley and the Bay Area experienced the 23rd air raid ‘yellow’ or preliminary air raid alert of the war this morning,” the Gazette reported on Aug. 13, 1942. “It lasted 16 minutes, beginning at 8:13 am.”

Blimp mystery

On Aug. 16, 1942 a damaged United States Navy blimp crash landed in Daly City, south of San Francisco. It was front page news in the Gazette, particularly because the two man crew was missing. The blimp had taken off from Treasure Island and was patrolling off the coast, looking for Japanese submarines.

It was a mystery then and, after a bit of online searching, I found that the fate of the crewmen is still unknown. It is speculated they may have gone outside the gondola to make some repair, and fallen into the ocean. They would be declared dead in 1943.

War news

The Axis powers claimed a big victory in the Mediterranean in early August 1942, saying the majority of the Allied fleet had suffered considerable damage in a three-day battle around a convoy.