A LOOK BACK:Huntington High lore

Huntington High School has had a very interesting and colorful past in its century of learning, and this week we’re going to look back at two bits of the school’s history.

One is an interesting fact while the other — well, let’s just say that it’s something to tell the grandkids on Halloween night.

Yet both are true and a part of the school’s rich past.

These days we hear about the need to conserve water, even while developers continue building more and more homes and apartments. We are in the driest year for rainfall and our groundwater supplies will be getting low.

I can remember reading years ago that Huntington Beach well water was the best tasting of any in Orange County and possibly in any city in Southern California.

I think the record for the worst tasting drinking water of any city goes to Long Beach in the past.

I remember going to the Nu-Pike in Long Beach in the early 1950s and trying to drink some of that sulfur-smelling water out of a drinking fountain.

So what does all this talk about water have to do with Huntington High?

It was in August of 1933 that the high school got its own water well.

The school trustees hoped that with this new well the school would save about $100 a month.

The school’s board of trustees contracted with the Pomona Pump Company to build the well on school property.

The Smith Emery Engineering Co. was assigned the task of testing for chemicals and bacteriological content.

A 61-foot well was drilled and the water that emerged was so excellent in both taste and color that the tests revealed the water to be very soft, relatively free from chemicals, with no bacteria and to be entirely safe for drinking.

Smith Emery retested the water several times and each time proved the water unusually pure and that the water table underground remained practically at the same level during their all-day pumping tests.

During these all-day tests the water would flood the upper football field into a shallow lake.

The experts said this well should support all the school’s need for water for years to come. The trustees also had a 10,000-gallon pressure storage tank built to hold the school’s water. This tank would be built on piers alongside the school’s greenhouse near the east end of the bleachers. A six-inch pile line ran from the well to the storage tank with a provision made to flood the athletic field.

The school custodian of buildings and grounds, Harry Gallienne, tasted the water and proclaimed it looked and tasted like the water on his old home near the Holly Sugar Co. where Pacific Electric railway workers used to bottle water for their families back in Los Angeles.

So now when I need water I’ll just go over to our high school and fill up with good old pure Huntington Beach water.

Our second bit of high school lore centers around two local girls that occurred in early 1945.

The story goes that on one dark and windy night Sara Clapp and Pat Hackler were walking past the high school and decided to see if they could get in.

They found the back entrance door leading to the shop classroom unlocked.

The girls heard some teachers working in the art room and they quietly slipped in, tip-toeing past the art room and into the patio.

A ghostly light shined on the girls while outside they heard the wind rustling through the trees and the sounds of the steady throb of oil wells, which to them sounded like a spooky heartbeat.

The two walked through the empty hallway and when they reached the school office the office clock suddenly echoed through the halls, frightening both girls.

As the girls passed the biology room, a light mysteriously flickered, yet there was no one there.

Now more frightened than ever, the girls walked past the lockers that in the darkened hallway — legend has it — looked like empty coffins.

As the pair proceeded past a window, the streetlights cast not two shadows but 10.

Sara was so frightened by now that she wanted to get out through a window and on to the school roof.

But the windows mysteriously remained locked and they were trapped.

Suddenly, they heard eerie footsteps and the two tore down the hall, passing the math and social studies classrooms and finding themselves at the auditorium door.

Trying the door, the girls found it locked and holding Sara and Pat prisoners in its dark labyrinth.

Maybe it was a friendly spirit of some former Oiler or just good luck, but the girls managed to find the front door open and dashed out, bumping against the walls in their haste.

Standing outside in the cold night air, under a blackened sky, with teeth chattering, the girls assured each other that they weren’t scared at all, that what they saw and heard could easily be explained, and that there was nothing to be frightened about.

But still, they couldn’t bring themselves to ever go back at night and repeat their nightmarish adventure.