DRAG STRIP MOMMAS FROM HELL!!

August 21, 1960 -- Police stop a Corvair on El Cajon Blvd. The women were part of a group protesting the closure of Hourglass Field, near Miramar after an August 8th accident that injured four people.

Tonight I opened the newsletter for March 2004 and to my shock there was a picture of my husband on the front page. He is the police officer on the left — Michael Tyler. He was also known to Crawford and Hoover kids as the “Shadow”. He was an officer for 32 plus years and really enjoyed working with the kids on his beats. In our personal life he also worked with teenage boys. We owned our own business in Alpine and hired the boys in our town to work for us -- Judy Boyle Tyler '62

Click HERE to read Richard Crawford's "The Way We Were"
article about the riot in the July 12, 2008 Union-Tribune

Police filled a van near Menlo Bakery with people arrested during the El Cajon Boulevard Riot in 1960. More than 100 were hauled away after a protest turned into illegal street racing between 35th and 40th streets, drawing police with tear gas and batons. (San Diego Historical Society Photographs)
Victor Perez '71 contributed this photo, which begs the question: Which was the better root beer -- Hires, A&W, or Dad's Old Fashioned?


1320: A WEST COAST STORY

I watched the DVD and it was enjoyable to wax nostalgic since I could relate to much of the video. Out of high school I did a lot of car building and drag racing, so many of the names and places in the video were very familiar to me. I would say the video would not be so enjoyable to those without the history of participating in that era of racing. Among the various San Diego locations include the 1/8 mile drags at Qualcomm and the 1/4 mile drags at Carlsbad Raceway which were covered very well. A fairly long segment was about drag racing on El Cajon Blvd and it included the huge bust by the SDPD when hundreds of cars and spectators went out one night (around 50th St) to race and protest the lack of a local drag strip. The video noted that the flyers were passed out by the waitresses at Oscars Drive-in and included the well known "police brutality" charges that resulted from that bust. Also some of our local politicians were interviewed (Casey Gwinn, George Stevens, and more, most not shown it too favorable of light). Some original big names in drag racing were featured and include Wally Parks who started NHRA. So, definitely San Diego was a good portion of the setting -- Bob Lawrence ’64

ON THE WAITING LIST

Earl Asbury ’64
Terry Hill ’60
Dave Folck '67
Rich Ambler '63
Terry Appleby '74

Oscar's Sign

Oscar's 1965 Menu

Oscar's 1952 Menu

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