ARBONA: Today is Thursday, July 29, 2010, and this is actually our second
interview with Gloria Magleby. I'm Javier Arbona, and this is our third tape overall, number three, and we're back again at the house in Bay Point, California.MAGLEBY: You bet.
ARBONA: We were just talking about a good starting point that could be going
back to a little bit where we finished last time and pick up where we left off. You told us about some German POWs that were, I guess, captured during the war, and you mentioned in that interview that they were baptized through your church.MAGLEBY: Yes, I did.
00:01:00ARBONA: And I just thought I'd ask you first if you could expand on that a
little bit, how you knew them or knew of their stories and what else came of them.MAGLEBY: I will. You know there were five of them in all, and what was
interesting is that we found a man from Martinez who could speak fluent German. So we got him, the church did, and brought him over to Camp Stoneman and said, "Let's send out a notice to the German prisoners of war that if they wanted to come and listen to your discussions on the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints that they could." I do not know how many came to listen, but five of them decided that they liked the message, and they received extensive knowledge about the church and lots of classes, and decided to join the church. Well, that 00:02:00meant, of course, that the church had to talk with the powers that be in the Army and say, "Can we take these five German prisoners of war down to the Suisun Bay or the waterfront and baptize them?"ARBONA: [noise] We have a truck going by.
MAGLEBY: That's a big truck. But we will pay no attention to trucks. Anyway,
they agreed that that would be fine, but they had to send guards, and that we could take priesthood, which would be at least three men, one to baptize and two to witness the baptism, and that it would be all right to take them down to the waterfront and baptize them. Now, I remember the names of two of them, Alfred {Amelong?} and Karl {Hillen?}, and I wrote to them after the war was over because in talking with them I remember saying to them one time, "Wouldn't you 00:03:00like to live in America?" And they looked at me like, "No. We're Germans. We want to go home." And I thought to myself, "Well, that was a dumb question to ask them." It would be like asking me, "Do you want to leave with us and go to Germany and live?" So I appreciated their comments that they appreciated the care that they were given by the American soldiers and by the Army, but that when the war was over, they wanted to go home. They had wives and families there.And so understanding that they were going to be in Germany, we found out where
they went, and I and some of the others wrote letters to them just saying, "Thank you for letting us appreciate your testimony of the Gospel, and we want you to know that when you joined the church you joined a huge church, and that 00:04:00there were lots of members in Germany, and that you are welcome in the wards there." We heard back from them for a while, and I'm so sorry that I didn't actually stay in touch with them because now that I'm this old, I could have had a lot more experience with how they were accepted when they got home. "You mean you joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints while you were in America? What was the big idea of that?" And I didn't hear any of that. Or maybe they said, "Good for you. It's time you got some Christian gospel in you." So I just don't know what happened to them.ARBONA: I take it you saw them at services several times.
MAGLEBY: Yes, I did. Very nice men, very clean cut, but they had families and
children, and they wanted to go home. But when they got home, we wanted them to know that we were appreciative of their testimonies of the Gospel and that we 00:05:00appreciated them joining the church. So we wanted to kind of keep up with them. Matter of fact, I think we sent them some gifts. We, meaning the bishop and some of the other priesthood members, like maybe some fudge or candy or things like that, maybe cookies. But we wanted to stay in touch with them and tell them that we will always remember them. And I still do to this day.ARBONA: And aside from the person from Martinez that could speak German, would
other people at church speak with them or try to communicate with them?MAGLEBY: No. They didn't come to church per se. They only had classes at Camp
Stoneman. They did not participate in our meetings. They only had classes at Camp Stoneman, weren't allowed to leave the Camp, of course.ARBONA: So the bishop would have to go to the camp.
MAGLEBY: The bishop would have to go to the camp, and other priesthood members
and the teacher from Martinez would go to the Camp Stoneman area. And I think 00:06:00they were taught, I'm sure, thinking back on it, in an old chapel there. And by the way, that old chapel went up for sale after World War II was over, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints bid on the chapel, and we won. Out of fifteen bidders, we won the chapel, and I think I explained this last time--ARBONA: Yeah.
MAGLEBY: That we paid $984, something like that, for the whole church.
ARBONA: Wow. So did you ever go to Camp Stoneman to that service then?
MAGLEBY: Absolutely. Absolutely. As a matter of fact, I went to Camp Stoneman to
meet with members of the church that would be my age. See, I was only eighteen years of age then, and we had services for members of the church, servicemen there, so I was there a lot. I led the singing for them. They pretty much ran 00:07:00the service because they know how, but the young men were not connected at all with these German prisoners; that was another story completely. But we did have services at Camp Stoneman before the war was over and then, of course, after the war was over. That was interesting, too.ARBONA: And how much longer did they stay around after the war? Were they sent
back immediately after?MAGLEBY: No. Most of the American servicemen went home. I don't recall that very
many stayed; maybe some married a girl from Pittsburg. I think three or four that I know of did, but most of them after the war was over went back to their homes.ARBONA: Sorry, I just meant the Germans.
MAGLEBY: Oh, no. They didn't stay around at all. When the war was over they went
back to Germany fast.ARBONA: Right away.
MAGLEBY: And I don't know how they went back, whether they went by boat or
00:08:00whether they flew them back or how, but they went back to Germany. That's why we wrote to them in Germany.ARBONA: Did you keep any of those letters?
MAGLEBY: No. I didn't. Well, I don't think I did. In the house that I live in
now, it's a trash bin for lots of lots of things because I save everything. And so there's a possibility that I could find one of those letters eventually, but at this point in time I don't think I kept any.ARBONA: Well, just shifting subjects a little bit, another one of our--through
our conversations we talked about, talking about the community of Port Chicago--MAGLEBY: Right.
ARBONA: I guess we can start by talking about your friends there, or how you
socialized with people at Port Chicago, how were you familiar with Port Chicago since you're here. You're close by; you're here in Bay Point which is only a few miles. 00:09:00MAGLEBY: Yes. Exactly.
ARBONA: So how did you come to know people in Port Chicago?
MAGLEBY: Well, mostly from school, and I did not go to Port Chicago that much
while I was going to school because there was nothing for me to go there for. I didn't live there. But I had friends there, and it was just another part of the community like this Bay Point or West Pittsburg was a part of Mt. Diablo High School, such as Pleasant Hill was part of it. So there were lots of little communities that went to Mt. Diablo High School, including Port Chicago. So my friends that lived in Port Chicago were the same as friends who lived in Clyde or Nichols or Pleasant Hill or, of course, Concord.But the reason I got close to Port Chicago is that before I graduated there was
a man that came from the Naval Magazine and interviewed girls and boys who 00:10:00needed a job or who wanted a job because there were many being offered. And I went to an interview, and I signed up right then and there. So the very first job I ever got out of high school was at the Naval Magazine in Port Chicago. And this would be late June 1944, and remember, it's July 17 that it blew up. So I was only there for almost less than a month working as a clerk typist. Then came the explosion, but that was a boon for me because I wanted to go to school. And I had to have some money to go to school or to go to college, and so I took the opportunity to take a job there, and I worked there from July through the explosion through December and then went to the University of Nevada in Reno to 00:11:00school with the money I made.ARBONA: I recall from our last conversation that you, as you just mentioned, you
left and then you came back, so what were your impressions when you returned about how Port Chicago was recovering after the explosion. What did it look like?MAGLEBY: Well, I was intimately concerned about it because I had a very good
friend and family, the Chomor family. He has passed away and she is long gone, but they lived in Port Chicago, were members of our church and were just full of agony when they realized that the Navy at that time wanted to destroy Port Chicago and use that area as a buffer zone for the Naval Magazine. And they worked day and night, some of the people in Port Chicago, to save their town.Now you can imagine what it would be like having been born and raised in a
00:12:00little community on the waterfront and all of a sudden, you're going to have to leave your house, watch it razed to the ground, demolished, and you wanted to save it. You didn't want anything like that ever to happen to your little hometown. And so it was an agony that they went through and that their friends went through. They went everywhere that they knew how. They went to Washington. They went to Sacramento. They wrote letters by the thousand and petitioned by the thousand, but nothing would deter the Navy from saying, "You have to leave Port Chicago. We're going to use this as a buffer zone, and it's going to be demolished."Now, I'm sure they didn't say that directly to them, but that's what happened.
And it was agony for me to watch, to see the people. In a way, they died the day 00:13:00they all had to leave Port Chicago. And they still remember it as the place they were born and raised and the sweet, sweet memories they have of that little town. And, as I said before, it was a bitter agony to my mind than some of the men that died in the war because they knew they were there to fight for us, and the families knew that if they were killed, then that was part of war; that's what war does. But this group of people were wiped off the face of the earth without dying. And that's what was so hard for me and for everyone to accept, that they were gone from their little town. They tried and tried and failed, and that was what was so agonizing for all of us. And that was a bigger story by far than the mutiny. The mutiny was a few men who died, of course, but men were 00:14:00dying all over the world in the war. They knew they were going to die, many of them. The mutiny itself was not near the story that a whole community of mothers, fathers, children, grandmothers, grandfathers, wiped out. The town is not there any more, but they still call it home. That's the name of the little book that was written about them.ARBONA: You mentioned the name Chomor.
MAGLEBY: Yes.
ARBONA: C H O M O R?
MAGLEBY: C H O M O R. Arthur Chomor. He was very instrumental in doing his best
to keep Port Chicago alive, and it died. They weren't successful, but they gained friendships during that time that will be everlasting. And the whole community of Port Chicago stayed together as much as they possibly could and 00:15:00still coming Saturday, have another reunion of what is left. It gets smaller and smaller because people do die, but they do have a reunion, and the children of those who lived there are going to probably keep that reunion going as long as they possibly can, once a year, the last Saturday in July, Port Chicago reunion at the Ambrose Park in Bay Point.ARBONA: Have you gone some years?
MAGLEBY: I have indeed, and it's very, very fun to watch them. They're older and
older, you see lots of canes, and you see lots of walkers and so on. But there are a younger generation, too, that joins them, and they will carry on I feel confident. But it's fun to watch them talk about the good old days in Port Chicago, and I am so sorry that their town is gone, but their friendships will 00:16:00never die.ARBONA: Do you remember when you first heard that the Navy was trying to condemn
the town, approximately what year that was?MAGLEBY: Oh, boy. I do not remember because I was going to school and getting
employment by myself. You'd have to talk more to the people who lived there and who were intimately involved. I certainly do remember the time, but not intimately. The Arthur Chomor type would remember that, but there are many people that will be at the reunion on Saturday who will remember, and that would be a good place for you to find out and talk directly with those who said, "I remember the day I left my house." And they will tell you the agony they went through. The whole world, it seemed like, turned on them. They felt like they 00:17:00had been rejected by the country and by the world. They were in a state of angst because of what has happened. But they left, and they survived.ARBONA: Did you ever become active during that period, going to any meetings or--?
MAGLEBY: No, I wasn't. I was only watching it as a good friend to the Chomor
family, and they were so involved. I was hoping and praying that it would work for them, but it didn't.ARBONA: I wanted to also ask you, I've read in different places, reports that
some people when they left the town actually did pass away. They did die 00:18:00because, either directly or indirectly, depending on how one interprets it, that really the separation from home was so difficult, and it also broke a lot of social bonds. Did you know of any people like that?MAGLEBY: I did not. I did not. But that could very easily have happened because
they were in agony, and the tremendous pull on their hearts was bad, but I did not know of anyone. I could imagine it could have happened, but talking directly with those people, you may find that out. But I did not know anyone personally.ARBONA: I wonder also about, you mentioned the mutiny and the mutiny trial, and
so many things changed after the war. The military changed from a segregated institution to an integrated institution. Did you notice any changes in Port 00:19:00Chicago, for example, that any African-American families move in, or did some of the composition change?MAGLEBY: No, because I wasn't that intimately involved with the town. Once the
war was over, once I quit my job to go to school, I didn't have that much connection with Port Chicago. I did know people who came from there, the Lichti family. I think Otto Lichti was the judge there. But I did not have that much connection with them after the war was over and especially after I left the Naval Magazine and went to school.I was delighted when the war ended, of course, and that meant that no more
loading ships, no more explosions because we weren't loading any ships to go anywhere. V-E Day early in the year and V-J Day later in the year, and it was 00:20:00over, and I think that was 1945, as I recall. So after that, then things settled down until Port Chicago knew that their town was going to be taken from them, and I only felt agony for them at that time.ARBONA: But then the Korean War came around.
MAGLEBY: Yes. That was not anything in particular to me because it was a war
that was called because of their problems there, but servicemen became servicemen starting 1940-41 on and on and on due to conflicts throughout the world, Korean War being one of them. But I was not intimately involved in any of that either. That was a world situation, and men that were in World War II went back and joined the Army or whatever to be a part of fighting for America in the 00:21:00Korean War.ARBONA: I was wondering if you have any recollections during the Vietnam War and
in this vicinity. Did you know people, for example, from Port Chicago that went and fought or hearing stories of that?MAGLEBY: No, I don't. I don't. All I know is the Vietnam War was "how do I get
out of going?" That was the thought on the minds of so many. Many wanted to go to serve in the Army, and that was those very, very patriotic people who wanted to serve. But there were a lot, I would almost say half and half, would say "not me, boy; don't send me over there." And so that was the conflict that we had at that time. Some who said, "I'm not going," and some who said, "I'm going to go 00:22:00because it's the patriotic thing to do."ARBONA: So let's talk a little bit about the post Port Chicago, after that
condemnation. Oh, there's your phone.[tape pause]
ARBONA: Okay, so I'm just making sure we're rolling again. Let me see if I can
remember what I just asked you.MAGLEBY: Exactly.
ARBONA: Well, I had asked you about the post-Port Chicago. How did that affect
the community of Bay Point or what was then West Pittsburg. You mentioned that they left the town, of course.MAGLEBY: Okay. I can only talk to a couple of instances because on my street
there was one really nice family that moved in from Port Chicago. In Shore Acres the Chomor family moved in there, and I was in their house many, many times. 00:23:00There were maybe, as far as me personally, only about four or five families that I knew who moved in into Bay Point. Most of them moved into Concord, and some moved other places, but they had to find a house; they had to find a place to live. And so they bought where they could, and I'm sure the Navy made arrangements for them. I'm not sure that they were happy with the financial deals; I'm not sure at all. But, as far as getting away from Port Chicago, they did. And I know of maybe four families that moved into Bay Point, especially the Chomor family, the DiMarco family and a couple of others, but they continued on with life.ARBONA: It sounds like they didn't, of course, want to move very far?
MAGLEBY: They didn't want to move far; no, they didn't. So then there was
00:24:00housing to be found in those days, especially in Bay Point in the Shore Acres area and, as I said, on my street, right up the street, there were vacant lots that people built a house. But I don't know the intimate details of their--of course there were lots of people moving, but I only of four families that moved into Bay Point. There could have been a lot more, but I don't know them.ARBONA: But you have the Ambrose Park not too far from here, correct?
MAGLEBY: The Ambrose Park district, yes, but did not include Port Chicago, but
the Ambrose Park district includes part of the Pittsburg area and all of Bay Point. But the Ambrose Park district is made up of the community center, which is on Willow Pass Road right downtown Bay Point, and the park, which was a 00:25:00donation; the land was a donation, from Clementine Enes of the Enes family who built this house. This house and the houses in Enes tract where I live were built by the Antoine Enes family and, I think, his sons, Bernard, Alfred and others. There were four brothers that were contractors and built this tract. They started building this in 1940, maybe '41, and lo and behold came World War II, so when we moved to California because my father got a job here, of course, there was housing, lots of housing to buy.We bought this house for $4,500 in 1942, moved in in 1943, but that was because
00:26:00they had to finish the housing. And, by the way, that was a good time to build houses because you could use the bona fide redwood hardwood. All of these houses are built of redwood hardwood, and they give and take, redwood hardwood does, with earthquakes. It shifts, kind of. I learned that. I don't know how much more there is to know about that, but I learned it. I'm glad I live in a house that will give a little bit with an earthquake because it doesn't just crumble. The redwood hardwood gives with earthquakes, so I'm glad for that, truly glad.ARBONA: Well, it sounds from what you said a little bit earlier that the yearly
reunion of the Port Chicago town, Port Chicago people, is in Ambrose Park in what is contemporary Bay Point--MAGLEBY: Right.
ARBONA: So it sounds like this is a little bit of a new nucleus of the
community, is that fair to say? 00:27:00MAGLEBY: No, the Ambrose district has been going sixty years; 1946 was when the
Ambrose district was organized. It has been going for many, many years, and it was the place that people went, the Ambrose Park, because it's in a little ravine type, and there you find just a little hidden treasure where the Ambrose Park is, but that's only part of the district. The district includes three or four other little parks and Anuta Park, and, of course, the Ambrose Center, which was the house or the schoolhouse for a long time, an elementary school in Bay Point, and it was bought by the Ambrose district, and that's where our center of this community is now, the Ambrose Community Center, 3105 Willow Pass Road in Bay Point, which was at that time West Pittsburg.You understand, the situation between the name Pittsburg and West Pittsburg and
00:28:00Bay Point all of those communities had the same zip code, so it's pretty hard to differentiate sometimes between which is which. When we moved to California, we thought we were moving to Pittsburg, and we were delighted that it was Pittsburg, but it was a little community at the side of Pittsburg, and some of the people who lived here called it West Pittsburg. And then, of course, in the mid-nineties there were some people who said, "Well, do you realize that this entire area was once Bay Point?" At one time it was Bay Point.I'll tell you a quick story; maybe I told this already. In 1857 the first school
district organized in Contra Costa County was a district from Railroad Avenue in 00:29:00Pittsburg to Pacheco. That school district was called Bay Point School District. So that will tell you that Bay Point was a lot bigger than the little community that we see now. It had the name from way back, a lot bigger than it is now. But then the community that was Port Chicago called themselves Bay Point, and they decided they didn't like the name and changed it to Port Chicago. So Bay Point has a name good and bad. Some people didn't like it, and now some people still don't like it because they took the West Pittsburg name away and named it Bay Point. But when you get it all together, the name Bay Point is bigger than this little community will ever be.ARBONA: Because it sounds like at one point it was used loosely for a district,
and at the same time it was the name of Port Chicago before they existed over in 00:30:00the thirties.MAGLEBY: Exactly.
ARBONA: So how about that name change from West Pittsburg to Bay Point? Why did
that happen?MAGLEBY: Well, I think it happened because people found out that the genealogy
of this area was Bay Point. And they said well, why don't we go back and why don't we call it Bay Point? Because West Pittsburg seemed like an appendage to another town, like not our own community, but, of course, the people who really loved the name West Pittsburg were adamant against changing it. We had meetings where there was very vociferous language spoken. It was sad to see that there was such a divide between those who said "why don't we call it Bay Point" and those who said "don't you dare call it Bay Point; it's West Pittsburg." Those people still will not call it Bay Point. They insist on calling it West 00:31:00Pittsburg, which is their privilege, their right to do, because it has history. It will always be an historical name. As a matter of fact, when I organized a Bay Point Historical Society, the object of that historical society was to preserve the names of Bay Point, Clyde, Nichols, Port Chicago and West Pittsburg. None of those names will ever be lost, as far as I am concerned, because the Bay Point Historical Society will keep them alive for as long as we can.ARBONA: It sounds like you were very active when this name change--
MAGLEBY: Yes, that's the first activity I ever got into because I was going to
school, I had a job. I wasn't interested in this little town I lived in, but all of a sudden things changed, and it changed with the name change. I was not 00:32:00adamant about it, but I thought it was a good idea. Bay Point sounded good to me, and West Pittsburg didn't have any real glamour or glory, and it didn't have any. I didn't cling to that name, so I was willing to vote for a Bay Point name. I worked on it, not extensively, but I did sign petitions and had other people sign petitions, and then we finally got permission from, I think, the League of Women Voters. They said they would have an election. Sure enough, we had an election. They sent out mailers to everybody that lived in Bay Point or West Pittsburg then, and said which name would you choose? And they chose, the majority chose Bay Point. So it was over when the election was held, the name Bay Point became official. The names on the streets were changed to Entrance to 00:33:00Bay Point; Entrance to Bay Point was the name then that was given to all of our community. And we had then the Bay Point everything, so that was the difference, and I think that was 1994, if I'm not correct. I think it was; we can check that out.ARBONA: We could, yeah. What do you think divided people? Why would some people
cling to West Pittsburg, and what maybe identified the folks that wanted Bay Point?MAGLEBY: Oh, I think it was the fact that the people that wanted it Bay Point
that first started out were new to the area. They were genealogists and new to the area, and those that were old timers here. Of course I'm an old timer, but I think young, so I was not so taken back. But those who had lived here forever 00:34:00said, "What? You're not going to change the name of our town." And I think they were angry more with the people who started the program or started the process, more than the fact that it was going to be changed. They said, and those people who helped change the name will ever be remembered as "those people helped change the name of our town." So there are still people who won't call it Bay Point.ARBONA: Now when you say new, new people, do you mean new from completely out of
the State of California, or--?MAGLEBY: No, well, yes, yes. Some of them completely away from--they lived here,
maybe came here in 1990. Well, that's way late in time for Bay Point or for West Pittsburg. And if you come to our town and then you want to change the name, you better not. But it was successful because of the fact that when they looked on 00:35:00the computer and looked for Bay Point there, they found a zip code 94565, which is the Pittsburg zip code. And they said, "Whoa, the post office knows about Bay Point. Why don't we name the town Bay Point?" And that's what started it all, the fact that they found the zip code for Bay Point the same as Pittsburg zip code. So they said the name is genealogically correct; let's change the name. And really it was a boon to this community, Bay Point is known far and wide for Bay Point, not any more West Pittsburg. But West Pittsburg is historical, and we never denigrate the name.ARBONA: So it didn't necessarily have anything to do with the families from Port
Chicago that wanted to go back to a previous name of Port Chicago then. 00:36:00MAGLEBY: No, not really. Well, it resembled that same thing because in those
days in Bay Point and Port Chicago, the change from Bay Point to Port Chicago created all kinds of stir, too. There were two sides to that story also. But you're going to find that with people who their family history says Bay Point or their family history says Port Chicago, they don't want it changed. They don't want it lost. So the West Pittsburg people said, "Leave it alone; don't change our name." But now people have been born in Bay Point say, "Don't mess with Bay Point. Let's keep it that way." It's just a matter of opinion, and it happens every time you try to change something. It means forgetting something in the past, and people don't like to do that.ARBONA: So from being somebody who signed petitions and maybe, you know,
00:37:00participated in different elections or ballots, you then it sounds like you started to become much more active beyond ballots and beyond--MAGLEBY: I did indeed. I did indeed, and let me explain--
ARBONA: How did that happen?
MAGLEBY: Let me explain how that happened. In 1996 Mr. Seeno, the Seeno that
builds the houses here, S E E N O, wanted to build a casino outside of the boundaries of Bay Point just a little ways. I keep saying I could throw a rock and hit the spot, but I couldn't. But it was to the west of us and a little bit to the south, and they had visions of a casino being built there, Albert Seeno and the people that lived in Bay Point and in Western Pittsburg, you've got to 00:38:00be careful to say Western Pittsburg, not West Pittsburg, said, "We're not going to put up with a casino in our back door." So I joined with a group from Western Pittsburg and Bay Point fighting against the casino that wanted to be built at our doorstep almost. And we worked very hard on it. We spent about $10,000, raised it somehow, and Mr. Seeno spent $300,000. And we worked very, very hard, went door to door and finally got the City of Pittsburg to say, "Well, let's let the voters decide." And so that meant that we had to reach to the voters, and so we went to every house in Pittsburg, not Bay Point. We couldn't even vote on it. It was a Pittsburg thing. But I worked very hard on it, and the people against 00:39:00the casino won two-thirds to one-third. It was a huge victory for us having spent so little and Mr. Seeno having spent so much. And we won decisively. After that I was on such a high that I thought I could do anything.So then I ran for election on the Bay Point Municipal Advisory Council and won
that election. And in 2001 I decided that it was time to revive the Bay Point Pride. It was called the West Pittsburg Pride, and nothing had been done since the name change. And so I revived the Bay Point Pride, and those people who ran the West Pittsburg Pride were very adamant that it wasn't going to happen, but 00:40:00it did. And it's been going now for ten years, and we're celebrating that very thing on August 12 at the Ambrose Recreation and Park District and will be at the community center where we'll receive certificates from Senator Torlakson or from Assembly person Torlakson now for the ten years that we've had the Bay Point Pride. The Bay Point Pride covers over graffiti that comes on every community; we try to paint ugly houses that maybe they don't have money to paint. And so we get free paint and have volunteers and go paint the houses. We clean up vacant yards and do things like that. We have to buy a lot of weed eaters because weed eaters give out, and we have to buy new ones every so often.We also have a little program in the Bay Point Pride called Yard of the Month.
00:41:00And five sections of Bay Point get a certificate and $25 every month for ten years to say you have the best yard in your neighborhood, or you have a beautiful yard, so you win Yard of the Month for August 2010. And so we're going to celebrate ten years of that; that means 600 yards when you add it all up have been given Yard of the Month.You'll notice over on the side of my wall there's a sign that says Yard of the
Month. That's the sign we plant in their yard. You won. You're a winner. Then we give them the $25 certificate from one of the stores. Sometimes it's Ace Hardware, mostly it's Home Depot. But it's worked that long.Then after organizing that and it worked, I said, "You know what? I think Bay
00:42:00Point needs a historical society." And so lo and behold I got the people that I knew that were old timers here together, and we organized the Bay Point Historical Society, and that's where I say our job is the preserve the histories of Bay Point, Nichols, Clyde, Port Chicago and West Pittsburg and so that society has been going now since 2003.In 2003 I was chair of the Bay Point Municipal Advisory Council so I had a
little bit of clout to be able to go ahead and decided Bay Point needs a Chamber of Commerce. And so 2003 I organized the Bay Point Chamber of Commerce. Since that time we have had about fifty members, not all from Bay Point, people who 00:43:00sell in Bay Point. For example, Allied Waste, the garbage company. They have always belonged, and they are in Pacheco. We have the Pittsburg Disposal, they're in Pittsburg. We have Ready Print, which is in Pittsburg.But the Bay Point Chamber of Commerce is going strong, and we keep it going
because this community has twenty-three, maybe twenty-five thousand people. They deserve representation in a business community, and the people who have stores here deserve accolades for them, for keeping their stores open. There's still vacant property here. We want the economic growth in Bay Point to truly grow, and so that's what the Chamber of Commerce does. We meet once a month in a luncheon and have speakers there. We sponsor the Bay Point parade that happens 00:44:00on Memorial Day every year. We handle the memorial service, and we foot the money for the parade and the festival.So the Bay Point Chamber of Commerce is alive and well, and it's so nice to have
members on the board who are site managers of our big industry and who are managers and owners of the small industry here. It's a beautiful combination, huge industries joining and small businesses joining together to promote this little community. It's a thrill to see it.ARBONA: So you would say that it was, it sounds from the math and the years that
you mentioned that it was around the year 2000?MAGLEBY: Right.
ARBONA: That Bay Point Pride was organized.
MAGLEBY: Exactly.
ARBONA: You read sometimes in the newspapers about issues like crime and other
community concerns. Was that part of the I'd say agenda at that time, or was 00:45:00that part of the concern that--?MAGLEBY: Not really. Not really at all because we were doing what we felt was
the proper thing to do to prevent crime and that's to have a beautiful community. If you have a clean, nice community, you have less crime. If you have a tacky community and one window broken you're going to have blight immediately and crime. So our job was to make the community more beautiful and more accessible and open more stores and have more businesses promote this little community, and that would handle any crime, and it certainly has. The crime rate in Bay Point is no bigger than it is in Alamo or Danville, and that's a pleasure to always say because we are not in a position where we are afraid at all. What 00:46:00we want to do in Bay Point is make it cleaner and better, and that brings people to dress up nicer and to act better. The whole thing goes together.Then, of course, one more thing I thought about, and that was a garden club, so
2004 I organized a garden club, or I founded it. And it's going now. They're the people who actually handle the parade. The Chamber of Commerce provides the money, and the Bay Point Garden Club handles the parade, including, of course, the garden club does a lot more than just the parade. They do talk about plantings and what to plant in Bay Point, and we have our own little garden section where we have, right next to the Ambrose Center is the community gardens. So you can buy a plot there, and it's been going for almost a year, maybe more now. So it all adds up to a community that is involved, and that was 00:47:00my main point, get people involved.I can say that since the organization of all these groups that maybe over 500
people have been involved. And that's a good feeling because that's 500 people that weren't involved before who now say, "I'll join your group," or "I'll be on that committee," or "How about we go paint the church over there because they need some help?" And so we get free paint, but we have to buy a lot of things to go with it for the Pride, the Chamber, the Historical Society, and the Garden Club, so we are a community. And LAFCO who decides what can be a community and what can't, can look at our community and say, "We better not disrupt them. They're going fine." And that's one of the reasons I think that I did it, 00:48:00although I wouldn't be adamant against being annexed to Pittsburg. I'm just not that kind. I look at both sides and say what is the best for the community, what is the best for Bay Point.ARBONA: So this is a possibility, that they'd annex Bay Point to--
MAGLEBY: We are in their sphere of influence. S-O-I, sphere of influence, and if
they wanted to, they could annex us. If LAFCO said, "That sounds like a good idea," but if LAFCO said, "I don't think that's going to work. I think this little community should stay by itself. They have their own groups; they have their little civic groups and community groups, and I don't know that they need to be annexed." On the other hand, it could very easily happen. If Pittsburg said, "Look what we could provide for you. You've waited a long time for the waterfront to be developed. We could do that overnight because we have the money 00:49:00and the county is broken, or broke. Not broken, but broke. The county has no money, and we do." So, you know, there's a way to resolve all kinds of things like that, but all I do is look at both sides and make the decision what is best for Bay Point?ARBONA: The name you mentioned, is that the Mayor? I'm sorry, I don't, it
doesn't, LAFCO--MAGLEBY: LAFCO is the group that tells you whether you can, they organize,
they're the ones who say, "You can be a city or you can't," or "You can annex this or you can't." That is the local area formation committee.ARBONA: At the county level.
MAGLEBY: At the county level. Yes. So that's just the name that we always say,
"LAFCO might let them do it. Maybe LAFCO won't." They're people that's a community group.ARBONA: Let me see how we're doing on time real quick, well, it does, we might
00:50:00have time for one or two more questions here.MAGLEBY: Okay.
ARBONA: I think that we've covered more or less a lot of what I had on the
outline, but this might be jumping back a little bit, but I was wondering if I could throw it in there just to ask you how you would like to see Port Chicago remembered.MAGLEBY: Oh, I think Port Chicago should be remembered as the sweet little
community it was. You can't have a little town that had so much fun together, that had their own mayor, their own bank, their own chamber of commerce. You can't wipe that out and have it not be remembered. It is remembered with sweetness and always will be because they didn't do anything wrong. They didn't do anything wrong. They just lived there, but they were wiped out anyway. And 00:51:00that's big government that does things like that sometimes, and maybe we can say certainly the Army and the Navy and so forth. But when you think about a little community that didn't do anything wrong and yet had their town wiped out, the sweetness that was there will always be remembered, not only by the people who lived there, but by the people who were round about who said, "That can't happen," but it did.ARBONA: Was there ever a presence in common places in, say, restaurants or other
places of leisure where you'd see the officials or military people that were on the other side of the Port Chicago condemnation?MAGLEBY: No. The military people never spoke about whether it was good or bad.
It came mostly from, I'm thinking, from Washington, DC, and that's about as 00:52:00simple as how it is. It didn't come from local Army or Navy, I'm sure, but it came from the higher ups and they were far, far away from that little community. I still think it was a shame, but we can't bring it back. Can't bring it back.ARBONA: The soldiers, more employees of the base, was there any relation to
them, or would they just stay on base? I'm trying to understand more or less how they mixed in.MAGLEBY: They probably went out to dinner with Port Chicago people. I'm sure.
They were the Navy people there, and I'm sure they were invited to lunch in Port Chicago and other places around. But they didn't take a stand. I'm sure they didn't because I don't think they realized what was going to happen, and when it finally did happen, they were long gone. But the servicemen in Port Chicago that 00:53:00were loading those ships, they were friends, a lot of friends locally, and the African Americans who were loading the ships had friends in Pittsburg. I know some of those today, and it's a thrill to visit with them and to know them and realize their position.Eddie Hart, who was an Olympic champion, and his father were at Port Chicago,
and all of those people do remember. But they don't have bitterness. They don't have a lot of bitterness now. It's over, and let's build a life. Let's look to the future, and they certainly do. Eddie Hart and his father are very active in Pittsburg, and I'm part of their activity, support them all the way.ARBONA: These actually might be--you mentioned those names. I think we might
want to get in touch with some of those folks if you have their contact info.MAGLEBY: You could do that, and I can put you in touch with Eddie Hart's family.
I'll certainly do that because he remembers. 00:54:00ARBONA: Also before we run out of tape I'll just ask you if there's anything
else that strikes you as important that you haven't mentioned, that's somewhere in the back of your mind that you wanted to say.MAGLEBY: I'm sure there is something because living here this long and going to
Mt. Diablo High School. Mt. Diablo High School, as I have said before, was at that time the premier high school in California and maybe in the nation. It had a fabulous record, and so many went to college after they graduated. The scores were so high. It was a great place to go to school, and we still revere our going to school there, and I think I told you this, that we have a meeting once a month during school time where we take the kids and say, "This is how good we thought this school was." And they're saying, "We think it's good, too." And we're building self-esteem in them right today. But if there's anything I've 00:55:00left out, I will be in touch with you because I certainly want this, I am interested in history as much as anybody. And I have a long way to go in this life, so who knows what's left to come. But I'm looking to the future, and I'm still organizing. If you want a job, come and see me, you'll be on my committee.ARBONA: That might be very important after a PhD.
MAGLEBY: Yeah, it should be. We need PhDs.
ARBONA: Well, thanks a lot for your time Ms. Magleby, and I think we'll just
wrap up the tape right there, and I'll just hit the pause button.MAGLEBY: I thank you; you're very good to work with.
ARBONA: Thank you.
[End of Interview]