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Traffic Circle
April 6, 2003
Long Beach Traffic Circle
We drove around the famous Long Beach, California Traffic Circle on the
road to Santa Barbara for the fiftieth anniversary reunion of four Long
Beach State College art majors: Howard Warner, Bob Gronendyke, Frank De
Santo and myself.
Howard, Bob G. and Frank
The first traffic circle built in America was in Pennsauken, New
Jersey in 1925. A total of 67 were built in the garden state in the
1920’s and 1930’s.
The Long Beach Traffic Circle was designed by Werner Ruchti and built in
about 1930. It was located at the intersections of Pacific Coast Highway,
Lakewood Boulevard and the Los Coyotos Diagonal. Prior to 1953, Historic
Highway Route 6 ended there after a start at Provincetown on Cape Cod,
Massachusetts and is now the second longest U.S. Route in the country of
some 3,227 miles. Route 6 was called The Grand Army of the Republic
Highway and before that the Roosevelt Highway and before that the
Midland Trail. Writer/Historian George Stewart some time wrote: “Route 6
runs uncertainly from nowhere to nowhere, scarcely to be followed from
one end to the other, except by some devoted eccentric.”
Highway 6 outside of Bishop, California
1948
Clock Drive-In
Long Beach Traffic Circle
Don Smith, Dan Funderburk and myself were having a cup of coffee trying
to sober-up after an evening of drinking Moscow Mules and visiting
several ball rooms in Los Angeles.. Dan was in the driver’s seat. A
young Latino male walked by and Dan said, “Hi champ!”
The “champ” walked over to our vehicle and through the open window
smacked Dan in the jaw. Dan claims I jumped-out of the car to defend his
honor. As I recall, I jumped-out to negotiate a peaceful settlement and
thank goodness for the three of us, the brief conflict ended.
Traffic circle in 1948
April, 1949
Long Beach Traffic Circle
The Engineers, a club of “geeks with slide rules” at Long Beach City
College, associated with the American Society of Engineers, had many
years earlier installed on a hill overlooking the traffic circle, large
letters S.A.E. made with large rocks painted white. On the hill behind
the rock letters were about six oil well pumps that went up and down 24
hours a day, providing fuel for our cars that eventually ended-up in
Cuba. You remember - the ones with the necker knobs on the huge steering
wheels, spot-lites, skirts covering the real wheels, leaded-in hoods,
lowered rear ends, loud but mellow exhaust mufflers and possibly
diagonal white stripes painted on the driver’s door, one if you were
single, two if you were going steady and three if you were married.
Something like my 1947 Kaiser.
George Air Force Base, 1948
One night that April, three or four anonymous members of The Order of
Tong, "a group of men seeking to act as a service organization by
promoting athletics and social activities within the college" (it was
like a fraternity), decided to launch an attack on that hill above the
traffic circle and re-arrange the rocks. Upon approaching the targeted
site on hands and knees, we observed what looked like geeks in waiting,
their slide rules in leather scabbards attached to their belts like Colt
45’s, their heads bobbing up and down preparing to launch a
counter-attack on the Tong forces. We retreated in fear and trepidation
to our parked Fords, Chevrolets and one Kaiser, driving around the
traffic circle a number of times to confuse possible pursuers.
The bobbing up and down engineers were the bobbing up and down oil
wells.
Oh well.
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