Era California1960... Long Beach City Harbor location... A White Chevy Impala and a hot rod 53-54 Chevy sedan with what looks like cheater slicks, popular at the time. Hello, Pierpoint Landing in the Long Beach City Harbor during the early 59-60 era. This sport fishing outlet was one of the most popular places in the harbor. The location providedthe general public to taste the shoreline life, including fresh fish breakfasts, lunches and dinners, as well as touring shops geared to the ocean activities. Not only for fishermen fishing off of the rock jetties, but it was the major outlet for commercial sport fishing boats. Our dad took us there plenty of times very early in the morning to go to Catalina Island for an all day fishing excursion or two. 1954 East End Catalina Island My brother wearing his old Flash Gordon space shirt... My dad made the custom rod and reel (far left) for me as I needed a smaller rig. It is still around, stored in the attic of our current house. It is a custom hand turned/wrapped pole with a gold cap on the top of the cork handle and pole. Growing up in Terminal Island and San Pedro, our dad was an avid fisherman. He would spent countless hours fishing off of the piers and rock jetties to see what he could catch before lugging a sack full of fish home for dinner. He liked the jetties on Terminal Island, but had to swim across the main San Pedro channel, if he did not have money for the ferry, both ways. But, one of his favorite places when we were a little older was the Pierpoint Landing complex in Long Beach Harbor. It was just a few miles from our houses. This is where we were usually going, if we were “deep sea fishing” for the day. The darkened early hours led to a 26 mile crossing to Catalina and the surrounding the island fishing expedition adventure all day. How important was fishing in his life’s activities? He took us all along the coast for surf fishing, camping and up into the mountains for fresh fish, too. Besides deep sea fishing, he had his collection of reels, a ton of custom made fishing rods of all kinds. Including a fat, sturdy “Big Tuna” reel and pole set up. That was for his own deeper, deep sea excursions that kept him away for a day or two, from the Pierpoint Landing charter groups. We were the recipients of the big reel/pole combo, after our dad hurt his back and could not go on those two day fishing trips. We used the big pole and big reel for our monofilament kite string during our involvement in the local kite flying contests along the coastal locations during our surfing era. The top of Dana Point was the tallest hill in the area with a 360 degree view of the inland areas, coastal areas and everything in between. No homes or roads back then. We had to park our sedan delivery and Impala to walk uphill to get to the launching area, now, the location of a high school in Dana Point. It was like deep sea fishing with a big time reel/pole outfit, when cranking in the long line of our huge, custom made kite that almost went to the freeway. Jnaki The odd thing was, our mom did not like deep sea fishing, but liked Pierpoint Landing. Why? Well, a once a week dinner at Pierpoint Landing Restaurants was one less prepping time and a relaxing evening for all of us. No fish scaling, prepping the filets and barbequing was necessary when our dad came home with a huge tuna or albacore catch of the day. She would spend hours doing all of the prep work and then divide it into various groups for giving them to the neighbors and nearby relatives, too. As well as our own delicious dinner... But, the road trip delivery service to our "close by" relatives and family friends was usually the 1940 Ford Sedan Delivery, since my brother would not allow the "fishy smell" to permeate his pristine 1958 Impala. Ha! Afterall, it was a Sedan DELIVERY filling out its original purpose... delivering the goods!!! But, at Pierpoint Landing, she could order a barbequed Albacore, Blue Fin Tuna, or Halibut filet and not have to spend hours in the family kitchen. Ha! She had it all planned. Good for her!!! And the two hungry, brothers, also.
The Jalopy Journal
