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C h a p t e r 2 The Fastest Growing Town Ron Finger was born in 1941 in Jefferson, Iowa, where his father worked as a plant manager for Economy Forms Corporation, a company that made steel forms for buildings, bridges, and concrete work. In 1948 the company needed a supervisor for its newly opened Los Angeles office. Los Angeles was exploding in building development, and Economy Forms wanted to be a part of that surge. The Finger family were also drawn to LA’s postwar boom and the opportunities it opened for them. Soon, Ron, his younger brother, and their parents were packing their bags to move to California. Their first stop was a duplex rental house in the Los Angeles County suburb of Bell Gardens. It soon became apparent, though, that the house would be woefully inadequate for their needs, as it shared its only bathroom with another family. So after a year the family moved to Compton, where they rented half of a two-family stucco house on West Spruce Street. The home sat on a corner lot and, Ron recollected, had a “very, very small front yard,” a “good-sized backyard,” and “a few flowers along the house.” The house had two bedrooms, a kitchen, and dining and living areas. It was modest, but after Bell Gardens it seemed ideal.1 Pamela Grimm’s parents also saw moving to Compton as a step up the social ladder. Living temporarily in Oregon after leaving their native South Dakota, Grimm’s parents soon left for California’s Southland, first living in downtown Los Angeles, then in the suburb of Lynwood, and finally settling in Compton. They chose Compton because they heard it was “the place to be,” and so they “moved up.” Once there they realized the town had a lot to offer their young family other than just status. Families filled the neighborhood and the children often played outside together. It was also affordable; the family could live on one salary. Pam’s father worked at Northrop Aircrafts in nearby Hawthorne, which was not surprising since, according to Pam, The Fastest Growing Town 41 “everybody’s family had parents who worked in aircrafts.” Pam’s mother was a homemaker and a stay-at-home mother while her children were in their formative years, but once they reached secondary school she began a career selling real estate.2 Shirley Holmes Knopf also grew up in Compton at mid-century, and she remembered her childhood town as “idyllic,” because, despite the rapid development of the town, vacant lots remained where Shirley and her friends could “build forts and throw dirt clods.” She enjoyed the security that came from living in a small community. Her family became particularly well known as they became deeply involved with local sports, something on which many Compton residents prided themselves. Her father taught at local schools: first at Lynwood High and then at the combined Compton High School and Junior College, after which he became director of athletics at the junior college when it got its own campus. Shirley’s mom stayed home with her children until they entered secondary school and then she too taught in Compton schools.3 In many ways, these three young families exemplified Compton residents at mid-century. Moving to California for employment, they settled in the town because it offered the opportunity to live in a small community, with all the benefits of a major metropolitan center. For some, like Shirley’s parents, Compton was the place of their employment, but for most it was not. Instead, its housing stock and geographic proximity to the more industrialized and commercialized areas of Los Angeles County made it a bedroom suburb. Compton residents commuted easily to a number of industries that boomed in Los Angeles and in doing so, they maintained Compton as a traditional suburb, a place of homes and parks, separate from the metropolitan center. Living in a suburb carried social cache and moving to a town like Compton was often part of establishing one’s family on a higher rung of the social ladder. This social mobility was marked in several ways. First, the actual act of moving outside city bounds served as a meaningful emblem. Living in a house was also important. Though the Fingers, Grimms, and Knopfs were not all homeowners, they approximated the suburban dream as best they could, renting a home rather than an apartment in a complex. The families were also...

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