From the Arroyo Grande Herald-Recorder. Some of these places are still with us, and some not.

Not the same pier, of course, but it’s still there, in all its creosote glory.

A teredo, or shipworm, with a face—whichever end it is—that only a mother teredo could love.

Happy 100th Birthday, Mason Street Bridge!

The bank in Taft that Eleanor robbed is today The Bank, a sports bar/restaurant. It was still a bank fifteen years after Eleanor fired a pistol shot into the ceiling. My dad was a teller there.

Of course, the Campground is still there, along with the beautiful tabernacle.


The article identifies the six-plane squadron as “VS-2,” which denotes a scout plane squadron. This is likely the kind of plane that visited Pismo. But that’s not all.

The ship that will call, USS Prometheus, was a repair ship. One of her sisters was USS Vestal.


This is USS Vestal on December 7, 1941, just outboard of the battleship Arizona.

Arizona blew up moments later, claiming two sailors who’d grown up in Arroyo Grande.

Finally, and tragically, here is the rest of the story—one no one could have seen coming on June 26, 1924.