By JOYCE CHANG Special to the Daily Press
Harold Thompson, 83, is having a ball in his role as the “go-to guy” at Memorial Park.
“Go get Hal!” was one of the first reactions of city recreational softball teams after they disagreed over the rules of the game, during which the umpire said to a player, “You say another word, and I’m going to chase you.”
Thompson, known as “Hal” to community members, has worked for the city’s community programs department for the past 14 years, handling ball games at Memorial Park. Thompson is the oldest city employee. Two years ago, he became the city’s only permanent part-time employee and now works nearly 24 hours a week at the park.
Ray Fitzpatrick, program supervisor of sports for community programs, said everyone who comes into contact with him seems to love Hal.
“They recognize him as a grandfather figure,” Fitzpatrick said. “He’s always there to handle any problems that come this way. In a constant state of flow, there’s one thing that people know is there every week, and that’s Hal. When he’s not here, people ask, ‘Where’s Hal tonight?’ He’s part of their recreational experience.”
Thompson, who has lived in Santa Monica for the past 35 years, has been married to his wife, Ethel, for 63 years. She was a childhood movie actress for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) and the Walt Disney Studios. They both went to Venice High School, but didn’t know each other. They met before Thompson went into the service, but bonded when she entertained on board a ship during his Navy service in World War II. During his 3 1/2 year tour, Thompson married Ethel. He traveled as far as China and all of the South Pacific.
He was 25 years old when he returned to the states and got a job working for Raytheon Corporation, which was previously Hughes Aircraft. The Thompsons had a son, who died in a plane crash in Malibu during his second solo flight.
Thompson now spends his time at Memorial Park forming the softball leagues, inspecting the fields for safety, and ensuring minor but important details, such as making sure teams have a softball with which to play. He sees to it that players follow the rules, while also managing the umpires. Thompson said that on Sundays alone, the park has 37 teams that play, so there’s quite a bit of work in keeping the teams organized. At night, he’s one of the last to leave, turning the field’s lights off and picking up the bases. Finally, Thompson fills out the score sheets for all the games. He said people can read updated information about Santa Monica’s sports at www.san-tamonicasports.net.
The Daily Press caught up with Thompson at the ball-fields of Memorial Park to talk about life and his work in the community.
How did you start working for the city? “I was just interested in sports, and they needed help. I volunteered at the park, umpiring ball games once in a while. I still have to ump sometimes when the umpires don’t show up. They don’t like me very well out there as an umpire. I give ‘em heck. The other night, I made a call at second base. All of the sudden, this centerfielder comes running all the way in there, and said, ‘Blue, that’s the worst call I ever saw in my life!’ I said, ‘Get your butt out there — you haven’t seen my worst call yet!’ So he went back out there, mumbling to himself.”
Where else have you worked? “Until the time I retired at age 65, I worked for the Raytheon Corporation as a senior buyer. Raytheon is the old Hughes company. It was called Hughes Aircraft, but they never built any aircraft. Raytheon built radars and some of the missile tomahawks. My job at Raytheon was 100 percent different from my current job at Memorial Park. A different field on the other side of the desk. My work at Raytheon was interesting, to say the least. I had some personality conflicts once in a while, but not that much. It was surprising that I was accepted, but that opens the door in sales.”
What’s your favorite thing about working at Memorial Park?
“My favorite is just the association with the people. That’s the main thing.”
What’s your least favorite thing about working at the park?
“Once in a while you get the person that doesn’t realize that it’s recreation. And the temperament that they have is worse than some of the little league kids. That’s the only problem that you can have out here once in a while. At that time, we sit them down and say, ‘You’re out of the game, and you forfeit your next game.’ That’s about it. And, the homeless... just abstinence. They’re sleeping over here and this and that. Nothing here that’s sacred to them. I’ve had to call the police a couple times and have them taken care of.”
As a war veteran, what are your thoughts about the situation in Iraq?
“I think it’s stinkin’ right now the way it’s set up. They should pull out of there and leave it. I know there’s going to be a hell of a lot of problems, but I cannot see the U.S. people getting killed.”
Did you feel differently about WW II? “Absolutely. 100 percent different. We were attacked. We were not the aggressor — we were the defendant. We lost so many of our friends in Pearl Harbor, on board ship. My brother — he was on board ship there in Pearl Harbor. My niece and nephew were in Hickam Field’s housing. They found a Japanese bullet that was lodged into their bed from the Japanese strafing the fields. So he could’ve been dead, too.”
Where do you live?
“We live in Santa Monica. We’re not going to move. We’re apartment dwellers — rent control is in. Our last home was in Playa del Rey. We built three homes. We built one in Venice right after the war and one up in Westchester. And then we built one in Playa del Rey up on the hill. Back when the marina was still a swamp, they had what they called the Lake of the Seven Moons in there. It was where you’d take your girlfriend in the evening. We saw the first pumpings come out of the marina. There were a lot of shells that came out of the marina when they dredged it. Some people had tried to use that as an area to raise oysters because it was nothing but a swamp. We said, ‘The marina will never work. There’s no way they can ever fill all that with all of those boats.’ Look at it now. That was around the same time when Abbot Kinney was doing the Venice canals — they were still in operation. They had gondolas on the canal with music and everything. It was Italy. They were clean at the time. Later, Los Angeles allowed them to start pumping the oil wells down there and that just degraded the whole territory.”
What do you like most about Santa Monica? What is your favorite place here?
“Just the atmosphere — the beach and the park. Where we live is convenient. We’re in walking distance of the hospital, post office, mall, stores, markets, everything. My favorite place is Palisades Park and its view of the sunset. It’s very relaxing to see the sun go down. And I like the squirrels, of course. People hate the squirrels, but I like them. And the ocean — I like trees and water.”
What’s your least favorite thing about Santa Monica? “The homeless.”
When did the homeless situation become worse and why?
“It started about 10 years ago to really go bad. People were feeding them and advertising to each and every one of them. There’s a regular list of where these people can get fed out there. If they play their cards right, they can get fed three times a day in Santa Monica. They were feeding them before in front of City Hall. That’s when Father Dollar was here — about six years ago. Father Dollar is a priest who is now well documented down at the City Hall. They used to have a line in Santa Monica in front of City Hall. It was all organized, with the rangers and everybody to keep the peace. They would come up, get their food, go past the table. At the end of the table, there would be Father Dollar. He would have a stack of dollars in his hand. He’d give every one of them a shake of the hand and hand them a dollar. I think he’s downtown now. But what would happen — three people would get together, pool their three dollars and go get a couple jugs of wine. He was ruining better than he was helping.”
How has Santa Monica changed over the years, for good or bad?
“The bad is the homeless. That’s about the only thing that I know is bad. Some of the good they’ve done is the decoration of trees — the beautification started about three years ago, and they went quite heavily on it. They started doing the beautification on Pearl Street and on some of the not-so-popular streets. That’s been an improvement. But, with the improvement, now to turn to the other portion of it, the traffic is horrible in Santa Monica. Something’s going to have to be done with that because we’re getting more automobiles instead of less automobiles on the road. And the city is going to have to start evaluating the parking situations and the street conditions. They’re going to have to start improving the paving. If you ever try to go down some of the boulevards, you gotta hang on to your hat. They gotta quit their beautification, and turn their money to something else there so people can get about. The trees we need, of course, we know that. But I think we have a sufficient amount for the moment.”
What sports have you played? “I didn’t really play baseball — I just know about the games. I know the rules, regulations, everything about it. Football was my game. I was a football player in college at Loyola University — now that’s Loyola Marymount. When we came out of the service, there was a group of us that formed the Venice Athletic Club around 1944. We played on Sundays at the old dog track — where PROFILES, from page 7 Costco is now. We had a heck of a good team, including some players that had played for USC. The club was formed mostly to help younger children — we donated our money to little league teams. I was involved for about four years in the club.”
What do you do for fun? “Eat. That’s about it. I make custom furniture during the daytime. Sometimes I just give it away, sometimes I don’t. I like making oak pieces and china cabinets. It’s a hobby that I started after I built custom homes. What happened was that I had contracted rheumatic fever. The doctor gave me something like 27 shots of penicillin every 2 1/2 hours. Got ‘em all in the fanny. He suggested I not stay indoors, but work outdoors. So, at that time, I went to work constructing homes with my father-in-law. So, there’s quite a few homes up in the Palisades that we can put our name on. They’re still standing, so they were well made. Also, my wife and I are movie buffs. If we’re not going to a movie, we got ‘em at home. We try to remember the old names of movie stars. We drive ourselves and each other crazy with that. We usually watch one of some sort every night after I get off from work.”
Having been married for 63 years, do you have any advice for couples?
“If you have a disagreement or an argument, never go to bed until it’s settled — until you make up for it. We stayed up quite late many times. We say, ‘Divorce, no; murder, yes.’ Somebody has to give in. It works. You don’t go to bed angry. Get it settled before you go to bed.”
Do you have any bad habits? “I smoked for 50 years and quit. It was the thing to do — everybody smoked. To quit, I chewed gum, of course, like everybody else. The other thing I did was to cut up your regular straws — cut them into three and put them in my pocket. And I’d chew licorice and hold those in my hand for something to hold, too. So, it was about a week. And then that was over — enough that I could get rid of it.”
How do you feel about being recognized in the community?
“We’ll be walking down the street, and the homeless will approach us in a certain manner. They’ll say, ‘Hi Hal.’ Ethel says, ‘Who’s that?’ I say, ‘I don’t know.’ Come to find out it’s one of the homeless over here. They all know me, too. A lot of the other people say they recognize me when we’re in Santa Monica or shopping. It gives you a little ego complex, you know. You’re not totally obscure when you’re going around. You feel that you must have been doing something right.”
What are your future plans? “I’ll keep working here. I feel one thing — that the mind controls the body. You’ve seen people that their mind is ill. Their body deteriorates also. As long as you can be a thinking person, you’re going to be a healthier person. So that’s kind of my philosophy on life. Be in association with people and activity. Seems to be working so far, so I don’t want to change it yet. If things go right, I’d tend to do it two more years at least. Time flies when you get older, too. Just enjoy life. That’s it. Life is here to enjoy, if you make it so. You can make it sad, you can make it happy, or you can make it with a laugh.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 20, 2005. Read the original PDF.