Wedding License Oops!

Reported in the December 3, 1921 Riverside Daily Press:

Elva Patton and Roy Kock applied for a marriage licence at the  Riverside County Clerk's office. No problem was encountered and they left with license in hand. However, when they presented the licence in Pomona they discovered that a marriage licence can only be used in the county in which it is taken out. They proceeded to round up a minister and two witnesses and headed out to the nearest point in Riverside County they could reach. There, at a place near Winville, they were married on the highway. Problem solved!

What the heck is a hectograph?

According to the local paper, the school board of the West Riverside School purchased and installed a Ditto machine at the school on December 7th. It was taking the place of a hectograph. I know what a ditto machine is, or was, but I had never heard of a hectograph. 

I found information on the hectograph on www.officemuseum.com. That website said that in the hectograph process, introduced around 1876, a master was written or typed with a special ink. The master was then placed face down on a tray containing a layer of gelatin and pressed gently onto the gelatin for a minute or two. This allowed most of the ink to transfer to the gelatin. In order to make a copy, a piece of blank paper was placed on to the gelatin and a roller used to press the paper onto the gelatin, making each copy a bit lighter than the one before. Supposedly up to fifty copies could be made from one master.

 

The spirit duplicator, or Ditto machine, was introduced in 1923. It used a solvent to wet the ink to allow for transfer of ink from the master to blank paper. Thus the addictive smell those of us of a certain age remember from the dittos our teachers handed out to us in our youth. 

A 1919 Wedding

I recently found this description of a wedding that occurred in July 1919 in West Riverside. This description was found in the Riverside Daily Press.

Wedding Bells in West Riverside

Beautifully appointed and witnessed by about 40 intimate friends of the contracting parties, the wedding of Miss Elizabeth Ludy and Mr. William Grebler took place at the home of the bride’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. Fred Ludy of West Riverside recently.

The marriage ceremony, which took place under a bower of feathery pepper branches studded with Shasta daisies and white carnations, was read by Rev. Achenbach of the German Lutheran church.

The bride was daintily gowned in white marquisette over white silk and carried a bouquet of sweet peas. The young couple was unattended.

Following the ceremony a dainty collation was served in the dining room. The center of the dining table was adorned with a huge wedding cake, a marvel of snowy white.

Later Mr. and Mrs. Grebler escaped in a waiting automobile and went to Los Angeles for a few days, from which they are planning to go to San Diego and enjoy the pleasures of the exposition for two weeks.  

Mission Boulevard Decorations

Back in the 1960s the Chamber of Commerce or the Rubidoux business owners put up Christmas decorations in the Mission Boulevard median near the intersection of Rubidoux Boulevard. I remember a giant snowman and a little wooden train.

The snowman was quite tall, at least to my childish eyes. It was made out of wire covered in white tinsel and had a black top hat. The thing I remember most about this snowman is how it would dance and sway when the Santa Ana winds blew, as they always do in December.

The train had an engine and several cars. It was brightly painted and if I remember correctly someone in the community built it. It too had to suffer the winds and would sometimes blow over on its side at the same time the snowman danced.

Does anyone else remember these Christmas decorations? Does anyone have any photos of them?

Was it Amnesia?

On February 14, 1930 the Los Angeles Times reported on the strange case of Harry Stone. Stone, proprietor of the Rubidoux auto camp, located just west of the Rubidoux bridge, turned up in Yuma, Arizona suffering from amnesia. Meanwhile, his wife claimed that he had left town with a considerable amount of money and the couple's automobile.

Stone claimed that the last thing he remembered was entering a Riverside bank with $250 dollars he planned to deposit. Four days later he wandered into Yuma with only $10 on him. It was not known what happened to the rest of the money. Yuma police identified Stone based on papers he had on his person because Stone could give them no useful information. It was this lack of information that made authorities conclude he had amnesia.

Stone was held in the Yuma jail while the Riverside County Sheriff decided whether or not to bring him back to face charges in the theft as claimed by his wife. Stone was said to be calling incessently for "Ann," which was thought to be the name of his wife.