Some years ago, I had the opportunity to take two local VIP ladies on a ride around Culver City. My purpose was to see the city through their eyes, and add valued information to our city tours.
This was a form of oral history that regularly broadened our scope of understanding. One of the women was the daughter of a respected mayor who served Culver City in the 1920s.
The other was a greatly loved and respected retired CCUSD principal, who arrived in Culver City as a young teacher in 1927. One sat next to me in the front passenger seat, and the other rode in the back.
I was able to tape them (technology at the time) as we rode through a city that had clearly provided them with many wonderful memories.
Since one had moved many years before, there was a heightened excitement as the ladies shared stories of their work and activities in Culver City.
They were credible sources, and both of their families made significant contributions to the quality of life we have come to enjoy. As we passed the areas where they lived, worked and played, they were bursting with insights into those early times.
And then we got to “The Dairy.”
As we drove along city streets, heading east, one pointed to a location and asked the other, “Do you remember the dairy over here?” The other quickly responded, “Yes, but it was over there.”
The disputed location became a heated argument, and I could only be glad that one was in the front seat and one was in the back. That little exercise became a constant reminder to double and triple check information whenever possible
Accuracy is the “A” word for which we all strive, but it is not always easy, since recollections can often be impaired over time, spelling is often less than accurate and a host of other factors.
I must correct a recent error in the name of the person who reportedly named our Robert Frost Auditorium. The exercise to name the auditorium stipulated that it was to be a person who had a tie to California.
There were, from what I learned, at least three choices to be made on the ballot. One was Earl Warren, who served as California Governor and Chief Justice of our Supreme Court, one was Robert Frost, who was born in California, but moved east as a youth, and we need help, please, with any other names that can be remembered from this contest.
Of course to compound this error, which should have been reported as Jeanette Carl, I felt even worse when I saw a photo of the award plaque on which her first name was misspelled.
Sincere apologies to the Carl family, who have given much over generations to our city and our school district.
Photo Caption: The naming of Robert Frost Auditorium, was incorrectly reported recently. Jeanette Carl, not Esther Tarn, suggested the winning name. These construction photos of the auditorium by Tom Sparks, a 1960s yearbook photographer, are part of the Culver City Historical Society collection.