Hello, Our dad used to take us to “Tin Can Beach” starting in 1946-47 when we arrived in Long Beach. He always took a liking to surf fishing. He grew up in San Pedro/Terminal Island and went to the local shoreline/rocky outcroppings to fish. Sometimes, he ate his own catch and other times, he caught enough to bring home to add to the dinners for his family. But, when we were little, he wanted to take a road trip South along PCH toward Huntington Beach. His friends had told him that along the white sand beach that went on for miles, there were big fish easily caught from the shore. Bass, Corvina, Perch and one time a stray Barracuda. (No, not a Plymouth car, but, a slinky, fast, deadly predator. He was used to catching them when he was able to go out in the channel, near his house, on the way to Catalina on a friend’s boat. They ate the Barracuda as it was tasty and had a very salty flavor, fresh. Starting at Warner Avenue, the PCH roadway goes south for about 4 miles of empty sands along the shore and a huge inland fresh water pond with a weird "Duck Gun Club." For our family road trip, the Huntington Beach shoreline provided us with plenty of things to do, while our dad fished for the various fish in season. There was a huge concrete pipe that had either broken or washed ashore during the storms. That was his favorite fishing spot on this stretch of beach. (later when we were teenagers, we called it the Pipe and it had some good waves for this sandy shore break area.) The spot is about in the middle of the 4 mile stretch of what was labeled "Tin Can Beach." Jnaki I wrote a synopsis of this area as some were calling it Los Angeles beach area. It was about a 50 miles away mistake. It once held the railroad tracks that ran from Long Beach to Newport Beach and was a popular means of travel. But, as the beach and highway began to get popular. Folks just stopped and stayed all day to enjoy the ocean, shoreline and its mild weather. Some began to set up wind blocks with cardboard and stayed longer than others. Those little cardboard wind blocks turned into larger walls and roof shelters. Then as folks started having lunch, dinner and if they stayed overnight, breakfast, the “tin cans” began their naming of the beach for lack of a better alternative. For the 30s-40s-50s it was known as “Tin Can Beach.” No one patrolled the beach or structures. It was a lonely stretch of highway with no homes or people in the whole area. Our mom made us wear tennis shoes while we ran around the sand for our play time. Sharp edged tin can tops were a common place item sticking out of the sand or buried in the sand. An old story about the wrong identification of a photo and the empty highway in the late 40s. YRMV
The Jalopy Journal
