Friday bonus: "Gals on the road"
Grandma's bicycle trip from Los Angeles to San Diego in 1940 with her lifelong friend Mina makes the local newspaper.
My grandmother met Mina when both were orphans being raised in a Masonic Home in Southern California, and they stayed friends for the rest of their lives.
In June of 1940, when both women were in their 20s and working for the “motor vehicle department” in Los Angeles, they rode their bicycles together from Los Angeles to San Diego in about a day and a half.
Their adventure was remarkable enough for a columnist working for a local newspaper to write about it: Under the headline “Gals on the road,” he describes the young women as leaving LA at 5:30 a.m. on June 2, 1940, and arriving in San Diego at 3 p.m. the next day.
“They never had so much fun, they told us,” the reporter notes. “Dreariest part was walking their bikes up Torrey Pines Grade... (and) they had trouble convincing autoists they didn’t want a lift, especially gents with mischief in their eyes. Highway hornblowing impressed them. Truck drivers unanimously gave a friendly double toot, (while) most autoists blasted a disparaging ‘Get out of the way' at them.”