Gordon Ansley was related to the Shoup family and lived in their family home on University Avenue. He shared his memories of how he spent his free time in Los Altos in the 1930s and 1940s. Ansley currently lives in Mountain View where his memories were recorded in January 1998.
Entertainment was mainly being with friends. I remember one Christmas my Mother decided to give me a $5 merchandise order for the soda fountain at the Gregory & Shoup store on Main Street. I used to go there for a 10-cent milkshake after school with my friends. With the merchandise order, I could have $5 worth of those milkshakes. I was very popular for awhile. All of my friends would come along with me, and we would stop and have our milkshakes before we'd go on home.
This went on for a couple of months. Finally, someone called my Mother and said, "We're going to have to send you a bill, because Gordon has used about $15 worth of his $5 merchandise order on milkshakes." Well, she paid up ... Nobody came to put me in debtor's prison ... But I lost a little of my popularity after that.
My parents divorced when I was in my mid-teens. Dad was an artist, and he moved to San Francisco and had an art studio. He is listed in most of the books of early California artists as doing portraits and landscapes and that sort of thing. He worked for Foster & Kleiser making up some of their billboard ads, whatever he could make a buck at during the Depression. He also worked for the WPA supervising and doing some of the work on the murals at Coit Tower and other places in San Francisco.
I used to like to take the train by myself to see my Dad at work. I loved to watch baseball games, particularly the old San Francisco Seals. I would go quite often.
I'd take the train to San Francisco in the morning and walk all the way uphill from Third and Townsend, uptown to Dad's studio. Later on in the day, I'd walk all the way out to 16th and Bryant streets, to the old Seals Stadium and go to the ballgame.
I liked to get a seat right behind home plate and listen to the announcers. They didn't sit up in a private booth in those days. They were right down behind home plate. I would get a seat right behind them. I remember Ira Blue and Jack McDonald. I could listen to them announcing and watch the ball game.
Then, I would walk back down to the station and take the train home. I did that quite often. I could see my Dad, get to see baseball, and have a good time.
- Adapted by Donna Shoemaker and the Oral History Program of History House of Los Altos.