A pioneer on the peninsula

Fred Woodworth, 96, was born on a small farm in Nebraska and spent

the first part of his life working as a farmer.

After completing college and working as a teacher for a few years

in Nebraska, he decided to move to California where the wages were

higher.

Disappointed with California’s public school system, Woodworth

joined the Air Force during World War II and taught at the Santa Ana

Army Air Base.

He moved his family from Burbank to the Balboa Peninsula and

bought a house on the beach -- one of the only houses on the beach in

1942. He can remember when Balboa Boulevard was still Central Avenue,

and the best way to get around town was by streetcar. He also

remembers when Lido was nothing more than a big pile of sand.

He and his wife were a part of the Airstream caravan craze in the

‘60s and ‘70s and saw much of the world that way.

The Daily Pilot’s Lindsay Sandham recently caught up with

Woodworth, who now lives at Avalon at Newport -- an assisted-care

facility in Newport Beach -- to hear some of his travel stories and

life experiences.

When did you come to California and what made you decide to move

here?

I did a lot of hard work on a small farm. We did a lot of

concentrated vegetable farming. There were eight in our family -- I

had two sisters and three brothers. My mother didn’t have much to

give us, but she wanted to give us an education so all of the kids

got a college education.

I graduated from the University of Nebraska in 1932 with a

Bachelors in Science. I had a lifetime teacher’s certificate from

Nebraska, so I taught school for a few years in Nebraska.

The depression was on and the wages were very low in Nebraska so I

moved to California in 1937 ... one of the best moves I ever made.

So how did you go from being a schoolteacher to joining the Air

Force?

I was never happy with California public schools. I was in

Burbank. World War II came along and I heard they needed instructors

at the Santa Ana Air Base for teaching cadets, so I came down and

interviewed with the major. After about 15 minutes of the interview,

he says, “How soon can you come down?”

This was in April of 1942 and I said, “I’ll be down next week.”

So I quit school teaching and joined the Air Force.

Is that when you moved to the Balboa Peninsula?

Yeah ... I bought a little house on the peninsula. My son has my

house now -- same house. It’s probably the oldest house in Newport

Beach. It was just a beach cottage when it was originally built.

I was in the Air Force then for four years. My major then in the

fourth year, late 1945, said I had the opportunity of remaining in

the service and going to the Pacific or being discharged.

I chose to be separated because at that time, I had a wife and

four little kids.

I lived in the same house, that remained my home.

So the area has changed quite a bit since when you first moved

here?

In 1942, there were streetcar tracks going down. At that time,

Balboa Boulevard was called Central Avenue, and there were streetcar

tracks going down as far as the pavilion. And years prior to that,

the only way to get into Newport was by streetcar.

We probably lived in the oldest house still standing in Newport

Beach. It was built as a little beach shelter when there was nothing

there but just sand.

After you left the Air Force, what kind of work did you do?

I got a state accounting license and I did accounting work. I took

an examination for real estate salesman and got a real estate

license. So I did accounting and real estate work.

In the course of a few years, I bought rentals for myself. I

started renting and managing real estate and doing accounting.

Then in 1962, my wife and I bought an Airstream travel trailer.

They’re the aluminum travel trailers. We began traveling.

Did you go all around the country?

Airstream company conducted caravans and the club had rallies,

several rallies every year. In the summer of ‘62, we went on an

Airstream caravan into Western Canada.

We continued traveling then until we had probably traveled all

over eastern and western Canada and Mexico several times, and into

Guatemala one time.

In 1971, we joined an Airstream caravan that was planned by the

company to ship our cars and trailers to Europe, and we toured Europe

as a group for six months. There were 150 cars and trailers that we

shipped across the ocean on a freighter.

Where are some other places you’ve traveled?

We joined the International Caravan Club, in which we went to

foreign countries and rented vehicles. We went to South Africa and

rented cars and trailers there and toured South Africa for about

three weeks. We went to New Zealand.We booked a group tour to China

before they ever had a tourist agency in China, but they were

accepting groups.

All we knew is we were going into Peking and we would be trudging

through interior China for about three weeks and we would come out at

Canton and go to Hong Kong -- that’s all we knew.

It was a wonderful tour. One of the highlights was the Great Wall

of China. I’d read about that in history books. Our last trip abroad

was to India. My wife said she’d like to see the Taj Majal and that

was a part of the world we had not been to.