Daily Telegram July 10, 1911

Aviation pioneers had a strong attraction to the soft landings provided by sand dunes. The Wright Brothers had Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Fred Wiseman had Pismo Beach.
Thanks to Paso Robles blogger, Dave Skinner, for sharing the link to more Wiseman information.
In December 1903 Orville and Wilbur first took to the sky.
Inspired by a visit to the Wright Brothers home in Dayton, Ohio — Fred Wiseman and his partner Gene Peters built an aircraft in 1910. They based it on careful study of photographs of Farman, Curtis and Wright models. Early in 1911 Wiseman delivered mail from Petaluma to Santa Rosa giving him the honor of the earliest air mail flight. It took two days, since the engine gave out in mid-flight. He also tossed a copy of the Santa Rosa Press-Democrat to a farmhouse on the route. No word if he was able to hit the porch.
During barnstorming that year he spent six weeks in Pismo Beach. The craft was hard to fly and many aviation pioneers, like Harriet Quimby, paid with their lives. Wiseman was in his mid-30s, at least two birth dates are given, after a little more than a year as a daredevil flyer he gave up the sky for safer earthly pursuits.
The restored aircraft is on display in the National Postal Museum.

Click to see Wiseman biplane image from National Postal Museum.

If someone has information or photos of I.A. Tomasini’s Buick race car please post a comment.

Now as advertised here is the article from the July 10, 1911 Daily Telegram.

CROWDS LARGE AT EL PISMO

Aviator Wiseman in sensational flight, beaten by auto.

Another splendid testimonial of the popularity of the aerial demonstrations of Aviator Fred Wiseman was given at El Pizmo beach yesterday, when the crowds fell but little short of what they were on July Fourth. Hundreds went from San Luis Obispo, land large crowds came also from the southern section over the S.P., beside the many who went in autos and rigs.
Aviator Wiseman treated all to another fine exhibition of flying, making several successful flights in his biplane. On one flight he circled the entire length of the beach to the mouth of the Arroyo Grande creek. In coming back from this trip he raced with I.A. Tomasini, the well known automobile man, who beat the aeroplane, making the speed of a mile a minute in his Buick car. The race was in plain sight of the watching thousands on the beach, and was a thriller which was keenly enjoyed by all.
There were other attractions at the beach which helped to make the day a successful one, and thoroughly enjoyed the day’s outing.

The paper apparently did not have a style book and had two spellings on the page for Pismo.

In other news on the page, there were three stories promoting the work of the Anti-Saloon League. The temperance newspaper rarely took a day off from  the cause. Yawn….and there was this item…

$4200 AUTO DESTROYED YESTERDAY

A fine Apperson automobile belonging to Henry Tognazzini was destroyed by fire yesterday a short distance from town on the way to Morro at the foot of what is known as Smith’s hill.
The car, a 55 horse power machine, was completely ruined and there is no explanation as to how it caught fire. This is the second misfortune in this line that has overtaken Mr. Tognazzini, he having lost a valuable car recently in the same manner.

The US Inflation calculator puts the value at about $92,500 in 2010 dollars. [1913 to 2010 closest conversion available.]

July 6, 1911 Daily Telegram

Have you heard? Big doings Sunday in Pizmo Beach.
Mix gasoline with testosterone and you get racing blood.
We see it all the time today, cars on the beach, a yellow biplane flying overhead but this story-line is almost a century old. Turn the calendar back to 1911 when both modes of transportation were in their infancy. The Orville and Wilbur Wright had only ushered in the era of powered flight less than 8 years earlier. The Buick Auto-Vim and Power Company had been founded in 1899 but it wasn’t until 1904 that the bugs had been worked out of the prototypes and a model was offered to the public.
Bug, funny you should mention that name, the Buick Bug was the race car produced in 1910 to promote the brand. Bug is a name now indelibly associated with Volkswagen. The first  Indianapolis 500 would be held in 1911 though the speedway had hosted racing for two years.
Ad from the July 6, 1911 Daily Telegram

Great Biplane and Automobile Race at
PIZMO BEACH
Sunday, July 9
I.A. Tomassini Will Run With a Buick Racer Against Wiseman’s Biplane.
Come and See the Most Sensational Contest Ever Held on any Beach in the World
S.P. Excursion Trains Will Leave San Luis Obispo at 9 a.m.
MUSIC BY BRASS BAND, DANCING ETC.

The ETC. may be a veiled reference to alcohol since the temperance minded Daily Telegram would not accept liquor advertising.

Who won? Revealed in the next post, until then no wagering.

A crowd gathers in San Luis Obispo's Mission Plaza to celebrate college and high school football championships. Telegram-Tribune/Wayne Nicholls

Unprecedented in the state and perhaps the nation, one city simultaneously celebrated university and high school football championships. The magical season began thirty years ago for Cal Poly and San Luis Obispo High School.
San Luis had lost to Lompoc earlier in the season 15-11. The Tigers finished the season with a 7-0 upset win over the Braves before 7,000 fans at Mustang Stadium. The storybook season finished with a 9-4-1 Tiger record.
Why wasn’t Cal Poly playing at Mustang Stadium?
They were in Albuquerque, New Mexico playing the frigid conditions of the Zia Bowl. Poly upset favorite Eastern Illinois 21-13 for their first and only national football championship. The Mustang’s final record that year was 10-3
This front page story is from the then Telegram-Tribune December 15, 1980.

Football champs honored

By Eric Burdick
Sports Editor

Citizens of San Luis Obispo paused today for a noontime parade and rally honoring the city’s two championship football teams.
San Luis Obispo Senior High School’s California Interscholastic Federation Northwestern Conference title-winning team and Cal Polly’s NCAA Division II national champions paraded through downtown San Luis Obispo to the cheers of hundreds of people.
Following the parade, the players were feted at a rally organized by former Cal Poly Mustang Boosters Club President John Kerr at Mission Plaza.
San Luis Obispo County’s Board of Supervisors adjourned its regular meeting to attend the rally. San Luis Obispo City Council members also were present.
Before a sun-splashed crowd estimated at 1,000 people, San Luis Obispo Mayor Lynn Cooper welcomed the players saying, “What an exciting day. After some research, I found out that we’re the only city in the state of California with two championship teams, and probably in the United States as well.
“The City of San Luis Obispo is behind you 100 per cent,” added the mayor.
“Today is your day, and special congratulations to you from the city.”
Both San Luis Obispo High School head coach Leon Criner and Cal Poly’s Joe Harper said they were overwhelmed by the support from the community ant the turnout for the parade and rally.
Said Criner, “I’m simply overwhelmed and very thankful.” Added Harper, “I feel very inadequate to express my feelings I have at this time. I’m completely overwhelmed by the response of the community to both of our football teams.”
San Luis Obispo High School students were excused from classes early to view the parade and rally. Cal Poly students are in the midst of a three-week quarter break.

Time to break out the 1977 Queen album, News of the World. The first single? You guessed it, “We Are the Champions.” Unfortunately that song wasn’t a champion. It only reached #4 on the U.S. Billboard chart. Though it never reached the top, writer Freddie Mercury would earn a platinum record and the band eternal fame when it was adopted as a sports anthem.

Even on a calm day this sheep dog would have a hairy problem viewing the world so it's doubtful the animal saw much of this countryside along Highway 46 east of Paso Robles. ©2010 Mark Aronoff/The Tribune Originally published March 9, 1979

Referee Joe Brudage, first casualty Juanita Booth, college nursing program director, brought him back quickly. Faculty/student basketball game featuring FATS (Faculty Athletic Training Society) against the varsity in the old Camp San Luis Obispo gym. ©Michael Raphael/The Tribune

Cuesta had a band?
A theme song?
Why did this tradition die out?
Paging Cuesta Cougar, Cuesta Cougar to the white courtesy phone.

From the March 13, 1969 then Telegram-Tribune

Annual game
FATS (faculty) wins at Cuesta

By Mike Raphael
Staff Writer

Capitalizing on a slam-bang attack, Cuesta College’s “FATS” (Faculty Athletic Training Society) thoroughly demolished an obviously outclassed varsity basketball team in the second annual faculty – varsity game Wednesday.
FATS coach Wayne Anderson, of business office fame, vowed before the game that he intended to extend his one – game winning streak.
The elderly team jumped to an early 1-0 lead after three or so minutes of the first quarter of three – quarter game, that was sort of played in three-quarter time.
The biggest crowd of the season—if you include the band, faculty wives, children and several dozen county high school students — watched as varsity players got their entire team into foul trouble.
But the younger set seemed bent on defeating the oldsters and at halftime (the end of the second quarter), held an 18-16 lead.
But in the final quarter, FATS surged to a 25-20 lead.
The debacle ended minutes later with the final score 25-23 for the still unbeaten faculty five.
Campus officer Grover Miller led the special team of referees, and often was compelled to use his gun to stop severe attacks by Cougars on the FATS team.
The game ball went to somebody, possibly a band trumpeter, who also may have been the person who set the game records on fire. The scoring is unknown, but it is believed that either Don Hansen, regular Cougar basketball coach, adorned in a hula skirt, or Del Crystal, of plaid skirt fame, led all the scorers.

"Coach" Wayne Anderson (right) cheers, Glover Miller in referee regalia. © Michael Raphel/The Tribune

The game was played under the most rigid of conditions, with only one time out called. That was to allow the band to play a medley of tunes that included the school theme, “I am a Cougar and I Ain’t Lion.”
The varsity crew set several records, including(1) most shots called back, and (2) Most fouls committed in a single game, and (3) most fouls committed after a game.
FATS shot 92.345 per cent, missing only two shots. Both were by Carmen Mauro while flat on his back with referee Joe Brundage standing on his good hand.
One FATS tactic, in the interests of justice and objectivity must be condemned.
That was the old faculty-cheerleader-Jay-Basseri-on-the-ladder-pushing-the-ball-thrown-to-him-through-the-net trick.

[Full disclosure, the author of this blog is not in fact a Cougar but a Mustang. I'd still like to hear their theme song played by a full band.]

June 27, 1890 Morning Tribune

Civilization arrives with the post office. When you can send and receive mail your town is no longer howling wilderness, it is on the map. The 1890 Tribune took a moment to review the American history of the San Luis Obispo Post Office as it moved to a new building on Higuera Street. The town was still so small they don’t bother to give a specific address but you’ll find it next to Crocker’s Department store.
Included here are a few images of stamps from the era. Letters cost two cents, to deliver, cards one cent.
Follow the link and you will see the range of men worthy to be on postage stamps presidents, admirals, generals and senators. The exception is Benjamin Franklin, newspaper editor, best selling author, inventor, founding father and successful early postmaster.
Reminds me of a lyric from at Timbuk3 song

“Everyone want to be on a postage stamp. But nobody wants to die.”

Tribune founding editor Walter Murray was postmaster after the death of his brother but he gave up the office about the time he founded the newspaper in his effort to become a judge. In 1869 he was District Attorney, newspaper editor, notary public and postmaster. It was hard to provide for a wife and six children and he had ambitions to become a judge.

June 27, 1890 Morning Tribune

POSTOFFICE REMOVAL
The Boxes, Books, and Mail To Be Removed This Morning

This morning at 8 o’clock sharp Postmaster Cannon will pack his official duds into a wagon, and remove the postoffice belongings to the new brick building on Higuera street, next door to Crocker’s. Thee finishing touches were given to the new house last night, and everything is now in complete readiness for the transfer.
The mail that is in the boxes will be taken out, the contents of each box separately tied up, the racks, pigeon-holes, mail bags, everything bundled into the truck and hauled to new quarters. Mr. Canon has so arranged matters that practically no delay will be felt by the public, and by 9 o’clock mail will be delivered from the Higuera street office with as little friction as if no removal had taken place.
San Luis Obispo during all the years since 1849 has had but five postmasters, including the present incumbent, but the business has occupied many different stands.
The first mail which came to San Luis Obispo was brought by a sergeant and two soldiers in 1849, thee American government, with headquarters at Monterey having established a monthly service in that year. The route was from Monterey to San Diego, and every station for a relay of horses was considered a postoffice, and on arriving at the sable or corral the sergeant would unlock the mail bag if so requested. It was not an unusual thing to keep the mail here overnight by liberal doses of spiritus frumenti [Latin for alcohol] to the couriers in order that the two or three white persons hearabouts could read the newspapers.
In 1850 the government let a contract for carrying the mail along the coast country, and the soldiers were succeeded by private carriers. Maj. S.A. Pollard was appointed postmaster of this place. He prepared for business by knocking out the side of a shoe box and putting in two or three pigeon holes. When mail was wanted the applicant went to the shoe box, and looked over the letters each for himself. Thee building in which this primitive postoffice was conducted is still standing, being the adobe at the corner of Monterey and Chorro streets. Maj. Pollard acted as the postal representative of Uncle Sam for some two years, when he turned the business over to a blacksmith, whose name cannot now be recalled, who continued in the same capacity until 1856 when Alexander Murray, under President Buchannan’s adminstration was regularly appointed. Mr. Murray conducted the affairs of the office in an adobe building where the Quintana block now stands. In the same year the business was remove to a log house next to the Swiss Hotel. About the year 1860 it was again taken to the Quintana building, and in 1862 Murray bought an unfinished house — now known as the Dallidet house — on Monterey street, finished it and removed the keys of the mail bags to it. There the postoffice remained until after the death of Alex. Murray, which occurred in 1869. His brother, the late Walter S. Murray, succeed to the keys, which up to this time were the principal piece of furniture connected with the San Luis postoffice. Up to the time of the removal of the Dallidet building a soap or candlebox was  usually used in which to put all the mail each inquirer helping himself.
By this time, a few white-shirts had found their way into the county, and a general desire to put on a little style pervaded the community, so regulation boxes and a peephole were introduced—an innovation, by the why, which was not entirely satisfactory to the independent patrons.
Walter S. Murray appointed Judge Simmler as deputy and he practically had full charge of the office. In 1870 Simmler was made postmaster and shortly thereafter removed the business to the old Swiss Hotel building. It was kept there about ten months, and then moved into a little frame house between the Swiss hotel and the French, where the public library was also kept from thence the business was taken to the building now occupied by Dennis Harrington, corner of Morro and Monterey streets. The next move was into a building erected by the Bank of San Luis Obispo, on Court street. Increasing business in a few years more again drove the the office into larger quarters, and this time it went to the Quintana Block, in the room now occupied by Sheehy. Thence it was removed to a building on the site of the present Wells-Fargo office, and it was there when the Andrews burned down, the postoffice building sharing the same fate as the big hotel All the records and mail matter, however were saved although Postmaster Simmler lost all thee personal effects he had there. The government then, as far as this town was concerned, had no home, and for two days the mail was distributed under a tree on Osos street, near the Chinese laundry. Temporary quarters were quickly secured in the Rogers building where the people assembled for their mail for about a month when the postoffice was located in the house back of the Quintana Block, where it remained until this morning.
In all these various removals the office has been on Monterey street and each removal was in order to get larger and better quarters and meet the growing demands of the business.

Other news on the page:
Ten dollars reward will be paid for the arrest and conviction of any persons purloining the Morning Tribune from the doorways of subscribers.

Lost.
On the 17th, a blue iron crank, about 18 inches in length. The crank belongs to the extension ladder of the hook and ladder co No.1 of the Fire Department. The finder will please return it to the city hall.

Barbed wire collectors meet at fairgrounds, M.L. (Bud) Park is one of the county's charter members. © Michael Raphael/Telegram-Tribune

The wide open spaces of the west were more open before the invention of barbed wire. The idea began in 1867 with two inventors adding points to smooth wire and a year later Michael Kelly created the first commercially successful product. The idea took root and soon there were over 570 patents for the thorny product. There would be courtroom battles over patents. More legal battles pitted pro-fence ranchers against free range grazers and trail drivers who feared the end of their way of life. Religious groups and others protested that livestock injuries were the work of the devil. Some called the product “The Devil’s Rope.”
Having done an occasional fence repair I can testify that the wire wriggles like a crazed serpent and can bite like one too.
Nonetheless the product was something steel mills could churn out and that a western rancher could use to economically keep his animals in and the neighbors animals out.
The new invention was the wave of the future though protesters fought back with pliers. At one point laws were passed making fence cutting a felony.
Later uses would be found in the trenches of World War I and at a prison near you.
By 1969 the controversy was over and it was time for the collectors to take the stage. From the March 28, 1969 Telegram-Tribune second section front page:

Big day for barbed wire fans

By Michael Raphael Staff Writer

Prickly, stickly stuff, is barbed wire. And it comes in lots of forms, more that you’d realize.
If you’d like to see many of the 400 varieties, drop by the county fairgrounds in Paso Robles between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. Saturday. That’s where the California Barbed Wire Collectors Association is staging its first ever convention.
At the Industrial Building you’ll be able to see the collections of the 30 members of the state’s only association of the collectors of thorny wire, and it is a free show.
San Luis Obispo County boasts two charter members of the association that established itself in Fresno only two months ago.
— M.L. (Bud) Park, Southern Pacific railroad assistant trainmaster, and Paso Robles Chamber of Commerce manager Swift Jewell.
Park has 103 types of wire, each sample 18 inches long and wired to plywood display boards.
It will be at the show. Some collectors will have as many as 200 different samples in a single collection.
Park started collecting four years ago, when he found a piece of wire called Crandal’s Champion “Ric-rak” near the railway depot in Surf, near Lompoc.
Park picked up one unusual piece of wire in Octavia, an Arizona ghost town, and a J. Haish’s Original “S” near a Los Osos Valley Cemetery not far from his Laguna Lake home.
Collectors identify the wire by the man who obtained the original patent on it, the date of the patent and the nickname, if any.
The oldest wire, by patent date, in Park’s collection is the M. Kelly “Diamond Point,” dated Feb. 11, 1868.
More than half the samples were collected between Oxnard and Soledad, and most of the rest were obtained by trades with collectors in Texas, Kansas, Nebraska, Nevada and other parts of the state.
The big barbed wire boom was during the 1870s when such wire was given as the cause of range wars.
Today there are a small number of manufacturers of barbed wire. Most of the samples in the collections are estimated to be several decades old.
Park found much of his collection in farmer’s dumps and by keeping a watchful eye on ranch fences, as he and his wife Phyllis, took Sunday drives.
“Some people think we’re nuts when we ask to see their fences,” Park said. “Farmers don’t concern themselves with the variety of wires available, just its strength and resistance to rust,” he said.
Park also has World War I entanglement wires, U.S. and German versions, and said he noticed that the American variety is in use on the Vandenberg Air Force Base perimeter.
Barbed wire comes in one to four strands normally, can be square, ribbon or oval shaped, and have any variety and number of barbs. In some cases, points pieces are added by hand to standard wire already strung.

A page from the Tribune June 6, 1890

San Luis Obispo was isolated cow town, connected to the world of commerce via the steam ships at Port Harford by a narrow gauge railway twice a day. A third train departed and connected to points south with the terminus at Los Olivos.
The town had a population of about 4,000 and the three major banks advertising claimed a combined Capital Paid Up of $350,000. According to the Westegg inflation calculator that would be worth $8,250,921.95 in 2009.
The Sinsheimer Brothers were advertising a full line of provisions, glassware, and crockery.
An interesting article this day was an excerpt of the annual school census. The report spent a lot of space categorizing students by race and the article had a boosterish tone encouraging parents to work harder at creating more students.

From the Tribune June 6, 1890.

Our School Census.
A Satisfactory Showing in Spite of the “Gap” in the Railroad.

Mr. M. Egan has been busy the last few weeks in counting up the children of the district, and in spite of the usual efforts at concealment by suspicious mothers, who feared harm to their progeny, or some new scheme for a license tax on the business, or had some other antagonistic notion, the census taker has named and located children enough to demonstrate that in spite of removals the population of the city has not after all, diminished in the past year, and our part of the State school money is not lessened either. We are disposed to question the keenness of Mr. Egan’s scent for babies. It may be a short crop year, but we feel confident that four thousand people can do better than he would have us believe, even in this beautiful climate. The following is an abstract of his report, which was completed yesterday:

White boys between 5 and 17 years of age ….. 489
White girls between 5 and 17 years of age ….. 469
Total ….. 958

Negro boys between 5 and 17 years of age ….. 5
Negro girls between 5 and 17 years of age …. 3
Total ….. 4

Chinese boys between 5 and 17 years of age ….. 3
Chinese girls between 5 and 17 years of age ….. 1
Total ….. 4

[Age 5 to 17] Total ….. 966

Number children under 5 ….. 266
Grand total ….. 1232

Number census children attended private schools but not public schools ….. 118

Number census children not attended any school during year ….. 253

Nativity of children — native, 827; one parent foreign, 173; both parents foreign, 212; foreign born, 20.

The numbers that struck me were that roughly 20 percent of the children at this time did not attend any school. Roughly 10 percent went to private school.
California has long been a land of immigrants. At least one third of the students had at least one parent from another country. There was no breakout on the number of native students who’s parents spoke Spanish. When the Tribune was founded in 1869 it carried duplicate stories printed in Spanish. Previous numbers were not published here so we have to take the editor’s word that parents put in a satisfactory effort.

The railroad gap in the headline refers to the Southern Pacific Coast line. Construction stalled at Santa Margarita after arriving there April 20, 1899. Boosters, including the editor of the Tribune Benjamin Brooks, hoped that when the link was completed that growth would rapidly follow. The railroad would not arrive in San Luis Obispo for four years and a complete Coast Line route would was still a little over a decade away. Rapid growth would be decades later.

A column of one line advertisements on the page included these gems:

Don’t drink bugs. But buy a Gats City filter of Thos. Pattison.

Have you seen the Safety Gasoline stove? To see it is to buy it. Thomas Pattison, agent.

Not a gas stove,  gasoline.  At this time gasoline was a troublesome and explosive oil refining byproduct. Unfortunately much of the oil found in California had a high gasoline content.
Pesky stuff. Some refiners would dump it in creeks just to get rid of it. According to the book Unocal, 1890-1990 A Century of Spirit, automobiles were a rich man’s diversion.

“In 1890, when a motorist putted up to the Santa Paula refinery in his horseless carriage, he was told there was no gasoline in stock — but to check back in several days.”

Gasoline. I’ll tell you now, no one is going to find a market for that alternative energy.

San Luis Obispo Tribune July 29, 1876

In August of our nation’s centennial year there was big time entertainment coming to town.
Montgomery Queen, the self proclaimed “King of Showmen!”  came to the county giving two performances daily during four consecutive dates. The locations were from Arroyo Grande to Paso de Robles. They must have been yeoman movers to make the move to a new town overnight and have two shows underway the next day. The first trains would not cross the Cuesta Grade until 1894 so the one day pull to Paso Robles must have been a epic feat in the days before automobiles. The ad does not mention a tent so they may have a setup shortcut.

According the to the Westegg inflation calculator the $1.00 admission in 1876 translates to $19.90 in 2009 money.

According to Circushistory.org, Montgomery Queen was born October 13, 1821 in Brooklyn but by 1874 was touring the west coast based around San Francisco and Hayward. By 1875 it had grown to a two ring circus but the season was not strong and by the time he came to San Luis he was cutting expenses. By February 1878 he would fire for bankruptcy in St. Louis, MO  his largest creditors being performers, printers and money lenders. The circus animals were sold at auction. He died in 1901, owner of a Brooklyn livery stable.

After Paso Robles shows were to be held at Plito and Lowe’s, where ever they are. I somehow doubt one was at a big box hardware store’s parking lot.

A circus ad from 1907 was a subject included in this post.

Jon Dallons in long hair battle with the Paso Robles High School administration. Son of Paso school board candidate. © 2010 The Tribune/Michael Raphael 3/11/1969

High school administrators dream of the days when the biggest controversy on campus was hair length.
Today they juggle funding issues, test scores, curriculum as well as drugs, campus violence, gangs, teen pregnancy…hey I don’t see haircuts anywhere on this list.
This story ripped from the headlines show Jon Dallons, 15, with a Beatle style haircut, (modified to show his ears), black turtleneck, chain with medallion and looking like someone the principal needs to talk to.

Published in the then Telegram-Tribune March 12, 1969:

School board issue?
Long hair beef at Paso Robles

By Michael Raphael
Staff Writer

The flap over the hair length of the son of a Paso Robles school board candidate is temporarily settled.
Jon Dallons, a 15-year-old sophomore, agreed to the suggestion by Dr. Charles James, district superintendent, to get a haircut.
Dallons, son of John Dalons, 42, who is running for the joint elementary and high school boards, was suspended for 10 school days on Feb. 17 because his hair exceeded student council standards.
“Dr. James would never make it as a student because his hair is longer than mine,” the young Dallons said.
Another ruckus started last Wednesday, over the wearing of medallions, the boy said, when boys and girls were told to take off medallions and necklaces.
Jon was told to get a haircut on Jan.14, and that’s when “the trouble started,” his father said. High school principal Steve Zorich told them he would not allow his son to circulate a petition calling for a rules change to allow longer “current trend” hair, Dallons said.
“We don’t want any trouble on campus,” Dallons quoted Zorich as saying. Then Dallons decided he didn’t want to get his hair cut, but was allowed to stay in school anyway, until his mid-February suspension.
After getting the haircut, Jon was again stopped when he showed up wearing a medallion. He was told to take it off.
The elder Dallons, is owner-operator of Western Quartz Products at 2432 Spring St., directly across from the high school.
He said he is not running for the school board because of the hair issue, but had been intending to run long before it came up because he wants “to see where the money is going.”
Dallons has been in business for himself for 15 years, and brought his business to Paso Robles four years ago. He has attended Bakersfield and Los Angeles City Colleges and spent one year at USC.
He said that communications with school officials has been “pretty good,” but that he backs his son up “all the way.” He said he and his son do not expect a rules change even though Jon thinks “80 percent if the kids will sign his petition.
James said a “school reflects the thoughts of the community,” and both Dallons and James said it is a “conservative community.”
Younger Dallons said he was warned at the last encounter that he had 10 days to get his “marginal” hair trimmed again, and that after that he would be “reminded” to get another cut.
Jon said 10 of the school’s 35 teachers are “coaches of one sort or another,” and are “short hair conscious,” more interested in athletics than teaching.
In Dallons’ letter, he said “the law guarantees and requires me to have an education until 16 without any mention of length of hair.”
That seems to size up the Dallons’ side of the issue. But, as he talks, hair grows and young Jon is again nearing the danger point.

Telegram-Tribune page published Dec. 10 1968 documenting protests.

Conveniently reporter/photographer/friend of Photos from the vault/ Michael Raphael also photographed the relevant punctuation challenged section of the student’s Bill of Laws reprinted here:

Section 3 – Violations
1. Boys
a. Dyed or bleached hair will not be accepted
b. Good judgment and discretion shall always prevail in student apparel and hair styles.
2. Girls
a. Any type of sweat shirt, shorts. capris. pedal pushers and other such apparel will not be accepted except on special occasions designated by the administration.
b. Good judgment and discretion shall always prevail in student apparel and hair styles.

Under these rules apparently the Beach Boys as well as the Beatles are seen as pernicious influences on they youth of our nation. Administrators were having nightmares featuring hordes of fashion deprived young women storming the campus shouting “Viva los pedal pushers, viva los Capris!”

In fairness administrators were freaking out at this time as violent protests were breaking out on college campuses. Disruptive protests at Berkley and San Francisco were fresh in many minds. What short sighted administrators were failing to note was the protests were not caused by hair length.

Uh, this just in, hair length did not create the issues surrounding civil rights, free speech and the Vietnam War.

Jon Dallons’ medallion reads “Verseav 21 Janu. 19 Fev.” Post a comment if you know what the significance is.