I remember walking out on a large water runoff pipe that was elevated about four feet above the sand and emptied out right at the edge of the surf at the end of Seaward Ave. I would stand on the pipe and watch the waves rush in right underneath. The motion of the water made it seem as if I was moving forward very quickly and was quite a rush for a little boy.
There was also a large tank a little further up the coast but in the same general area. The tank had a concrete skirt around it and one could walk all around as the water came up all around the tank.
My grandparents lived on Pierpont Blvd near Cornwall Lane. In back of their house was a wooden gate that led down a small incline to the grounds of the Ventura Airpark (
Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields: California - Ventura area)
I used to go out to the taxiway and play on the wind tee which was a rotating metal device that resembled a small plane.
Further down the coast, about where the Ventura Marina is now located was a dump where I could explore and come back with all sorts of treasures.
Next to the dump, was a quarter midget race track. In those days, Pierpont Blvd was considered the other side of the tracks and city lots were sold for $500.
To get to my grandparents house from the San Fernando Valley, we took the old 101 past the empty Conejo Valley with just open fields, oak trees, and small creeks visible. It was always fun to see the Jungleland sign with the cartoonish Elephant along the road then look down the hill and see the facility. A few miles further east, we took a windy drive down the Conejo Grade on to the flat land of the Oxnard Plain. Coming through Camarillo, we would pass through the eucalyptus trees just past Camarillo High School and watch the blinking light show as we alternated between bright sun and the shade of those trees on both sides of highway 101.
On the west side of Camarillo, south of the highway we would sometimes see military jets come in for a landing at the Oxnard Air Force Base and slow down by deploying a colorful parachute.
After continuing through the crop lands of Oxnard, the highway became Main St. in Ventura. Passing Loop's restaurant was a cue that we were getting close to the upcoming turn at Seaward Ave. On the corner of Seaward and Main St was a huge Coca-Cola bottle on top of a building with a rounded glass front that displayed the bottling machinery where hundreds of bottles of Coke whizzed by as we made our turn. (The last time I checked, that building with the rounded front is now used to sell futons.)
Continuing down Seaward Ave, we had to zig-zag down the hill and turn at Pierpont Blvd, where a statue of a harbor seal, the symbol of the local gas station, greeted us with a smile. We then drove past the several "lanes" ending at my grandparent's house where we parked in the dirt divider that used to divide Pierpont Blvd.
I would go to the beach quite often when I came to Ventura. I would just cross Pierpont Blvd and walk down one of the aforementioned "lanes." The lanes were narrow paved roads lined with little cottages on either side. In between the lanes, at the rear of each home, was a sidewalk that contained street lights and could be used to walk down to the beach. Even in those days, the sidewalks were slowly being usurped by the homeowners as they started to remodel their homes. Today, there is virtually no sign of those sidewalks between the lanes off of Pierpont Blvd.
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Thankfully that place is still around.
Ventura in the late 50's
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