1974: Flooding, Gas Prices, and a Spendthrift Postmaster General

A look back at Lemon Grove, 38 years ago this week.

Water, Water, Everywhere: 1974 opened in Lemon Grove with eight days of continuous rain. By Jan. 8 more than four inches had fallen. The curb divider construction project on Broadway was flooded, especially in front of Crocker Bank (today, Berry's Sporting Goods) causing motorists to slide into the excavation. At least two were towed out.

The rain worsened flooding near San Altos School, where a three-way effort was underway to build a 1,330-foot flood control channel on school grounds. Of the $43,000 cost, the Lemon Grove School District paid $10,000, the county's Flood Control District paid $25,000 and the remaining $8,000 was paid by the developer—but only after protracted discussion. Madera Terrace drainage flowed downhill onto school property and the developer needed an easement from the district before home building could begin. The existing muddy ditch was clogged with water and debris and “smells awful,” noted school superintendent Percy Sutton. Compounding the mess was drainage from an existing development.

Once completed the cement-lined flood channel was maintained by the county. Starting in 1977 the channel has been maintained by the City of Lemon Grove.

Rain and the energy crisis delayed the start of freeway revisions connecting state Route 94 to the new state Route 125 interchange and an off ramp to Spring Street. Budgeted at $9,150,000, the project was through its second round of bids as the first bids came in too high.  

Said Oliver Tweeten of the State Department of Transportation, “Gas costs are too high due to the shortage and that drove up the bids. But the project looks awfully good and it’s fully financed.”

Vehicle Fires Everywhere: As 1974 dawned, the energy crisis was in full swing. California drivers tried to beat the gasoline shortage by strapping full gas cans to the outside of their vehicles, especially campers and motorcycles, or carrying them in the trunk.  The result was sometimes deadly, as evidenced by a dreadful accident that occurred on Campo Road near Lemon Grove when a car laden with three gas cans rolled over and burst into flames. Two passengers scrambled to safety, but the driver was ejected through the windshield and died despite the efforts of two CHP officers to save him. 

Some 38,000 California truck drivers were cited and/or arrested for speeding in over-loaded big rigs that included full gas cans.

The cause of this self-inflicted mayhem? Worldwide oil production had peaked about 1970. The 1973 OPEC oil embargo created a crisis since the U.S. imported 36 percent of its oil from Arab nations. Lines at the pump lengthened and family budgets shrank as gas prices escalated to $5-plus per gallon. Interest rates on loans began their merciless ascent toward 22 percent. The term “stagflation” was coined to describe the lethal combination of recession and inflation.

Some Good News: Donald Kleinhen, Pacific Street, a Helix High honor student who had attended Lemon Grove Junior High, attained the rank of Eagle Scout. At the ceremony, Dusty Rhoades, assistant to Congressman Lionel Van Deerlin, praised Kleinhen for his service to Troop 108 sponsored by the Lemon Grove First Congregational Church, the Order of the Arrow, Ashie Lodge 498, and the Yacum Clan Service Society.  

Sporting 21 badges and a brace of service awards, Kleinhen was in the top two percent of scouts to attain Eagle rank. He was active with the Helix marching and concert bands and a champion handball player. He is active today with the San Diego-Imperial Council of the Boy Scouts of America.

Living High at the P.O.  Congress fumed as the U.S. Postal Service proposed to raise a first-class stamp from eight cents to 10 cents. This, in the face of Postmaster General Elmer Klassen's free-spending ways dropping $182,000 to outfit his office, board room, conference room and reception area, and nearly $13,000 on travel! Klassen blew $11,666 on carpeting (at $31 a yard), $5,999 on brocade draperies, $3,719 on a chandelier, $2,664 for a pair of credenzas and $5,748 on “seven fancy chairs for special guests.” Workers were relegated to $1,990 worth of “moderate seating.” And the list went on.

“His secretary sits at a $1,576 desk,” huffed Congressman Van Deerlin.  

Klassen even had a pantry and full kitchen. These led to spending $7,507 on 13 dining tables, $11,044 on 52 dining chairs and $4,240 for a couple of side boards.

Max Goodwin, editor of the Lemon Grove Review, criticized the PMG's “profligate tendencies,” noting that postage had led the cost-of-living index with a 33 percent increase just two years earlier.  

“Let him eat beans!” snarled Goodwin.

Stars at the Ace:  The Ace Drive-In on Grove Street featured the hit movies, MASH and Catch-22 through Jan. 15 at “$2 per legal carload.”

The 1970 Oscar winner, MASH, directed by Robert Altman with a script by the formerly blacklisted screenwriter Ring Lardner Jr., starred Donald Sutherland, Elliott Gould, Sally Kellerman, Tom Skerritt and Robert Duvall.  Based on Richard Hooker's sexist, racist, boys-will-be-boys army novel, the film led to the long-running television series of the same name, starring Alan Alda and Loretta Swit.

Catch-22, directed by Mike Nichols and starring Alan Arkin, was based on Joseph Heller's 1961 satirical, Cold War novel of the same name.

These A-list films demonstrated that drive-ins weren't just the gulag for "B" westerns, pulpy crime dramas, little green men from Mars and cheapie pin-up flicks despite the chronic warfare with film distributors.  For more on the history of the American drive-in movie, see the Lemon Grove Historical Society's study guide, which accompanied its 2001 museum exhibit on the Ace Drive-In.