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MN: -- '39 the Graf Zeppelin visited Mines Field. Were you able to go out there and see the Graf Zeppelin?

TY: Oh, yes. Yes, I was right there. That was a big thing, man, I'm telling you. It was amazing.

MN: It was, it landed on Mines Field. For those of us who don't know what Mines Field is, what, where is that now?

TY: That is, right now it's LAX. It's right there, right there.

MN: So what was Mines Field before it became Mines Field?

TY: It was a pasture. I think that was Leuzinger's property. I think, I'm not sure, but I think it was. There was one section there. I think it was Leuzinger's property, I'm not sure. And the way that LAX became was prior to the Graf Zeppelin two people -- one, one of 'em was my friend -- they had a biplane. Our friend, rather, and then they used to land their airplane there and they used to take people for a ride, ten dollars or five dollars a round trip. And then somebody else brought their plane over there, then they started taking passengers for a ride, this and that, and in due time they decided to make L.A. Airport over there. And so then they zoned it for L.A. Airport and then, I don't know how long L.A. Airport name was, name lasted, but all of a sudden became Mines Field, and so that was Mines Field for a long time. They made additions to the buildings and they improved the landing strip and all that, and then no sooner after that they got to be LAX, Los Angeles International Airport. And then they had so much runway there and the runway wasn't enough because as time went by the plane got larger and larger and they needed a longer flight, flight path, so they dug up Sepulveda Boulevard and then they put an underpass in there. And that was, I don't know what year that was, but yeah, that was way before evacuation, but they dug a tunnel through somebody's field and then they covered it over, then they made the runway strip longer so the larger airplanes could take off and all that. And then as time went by, man, it got to be a huge airport, and today it is a huge airport. So we just lived right there, and we used to go jackrabbit hunting over there, nighttime, one guy would drive the car and a couple guys stay on the back with a shotgun. Nighttime, we got the spotlights, spot the jackrabbit, boom. We used to have a bang out of shootin' jackrabbits because you hit the jackrabbit and the jackrabbit'll boom, up, jump about twenty foot up in the air. Yeah, we used to have a bang out of it. We done that for a long time. [Laughs] It was good old days then. You can't do that anymore. You can't even carry a gun anymore. It's kind of bad, but I guess due to the density of the population.

MN: So what was it like seeing this big Graf Zeppelin?

TY: Pardon?

MN: What was it like seeing the big Graf Zeppelin?

TY: What was it like? Wow, a big cloud came by. Just, it was amazing. You just didn't know what to think about it because it's so huge and large. Wow, that thing came from Germany all the way up to here? How many people was on it? This and that, how did that thing go through the air through the storm and the wind and all that? But it got here, and it was so, so amazing that it was hard to believe. That was our thought. And then we didn't see how they landed. I mean, I guess the way they landed was the crew slid down on the rope and they pulled the zeppelin down and tied it down. It was right there, not, not immediate there, but it was about maybe hundred, two hundred foot away. It was amazing. It was really, really amazing.

<End Segment 15> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.