J. A. 66hln Privett o o o ^&fty Years ,4 Los z{nge/es Lumberman

fo' bits just for loading that lumber back on?" He was assured he would. And so by pure coincidence, Al Privett earned his first money'loading lumber in Los Angeles.

He got a job handling lumber in the San Pedro yard. And from that day to this, a little more than fifty years, he has been continually and continuously employed in the retail lumber business in this district, and has never missed a. day's work or a day's pay. His first job with San Pedro Ltrmber Co. paid him two dollars a day, out of which he paid {our dollars a week for board and room. So he was rich right from the start, just as he had hoped he would be rvhen he decided to leave the farm at Fayetteville. The man rvho gave him the fifty cents for loading the wagon remained his friend for life, and in after years worked for the boy he gave the fifty cents to.

"Spring has cam€, winter has went, It was not did by accident, Ihe birds have flew, as you have sal, And spring has came to Arkansas."

Spring had "came to Arkansas" in April, 1897, fifty years ago, when a tall, husky, apple-cheecked farm boy got on a train heading West. The place was Fayetteville, Arkansas, where heihad been born just sixteen years before, and Al Privett was heading for the golden west to Seek his fortune. California he had heard much of, and when he told his father that he was going out into the world on his own, he headed right for Los Angeles, then a little town of less than 100,000 population.

When he got off the train in Los Angeles his earthly possessions consisted of $2.10 in cash, and a change of shirts. Someone told him about a boarding house, and here he found a motherly woman to whom he told his ambitions. His entire ambition was to find a job. She looked him over and said, "Son, you'Il find a job. I know it. You can have your board and room here for four dollars a week, and pay me whenever you get it." So he moved in.

Someone told him they needed laborers at the San Pedro Lumber Company yard, so he started in that direction. Strange to relate, he passed the yard of Kerckhoff-'Cuzner. Here a slight accident had happened right in the street. A load of lumber had slipped ofi one of their wagons, and lav on the ground. The yard manager had just come out, and seeing the country boy from Arkansas, said to him: "Son, you want a job ?" Al said he did. The lumberman said, "Well, you load that lumber back on that wagon and I'll give you fifty cents." Al said, "You mean you'll give me

When he started shoving lumber for the San Pedro Lumber Company, Los Angeles did not look much like it does now. He recalls that the heart of the city was the junction of First and Main Streets. There was an orange grove at Eighth and Main. At Sixth and Main where the home oT The California Lumber Merchant now stands, there was an old timey lumber yard owned by D. J. Nofziger. Cutting prices was a popular activity in those days, and this yard advertised so all might read: "We skin them a11."

When he r.vorked for the San Pedro Lumber Company the first three years of his lumber career, the manager of that yard was a famous lumberman of the past, Mr. L. W. Blinn. When he went to work for the E. K. Wood Lumber Company in the year 1900, that concern was just three years old. It had started business just a year before Al arrived from Arkansas. With a short intermission when he sold Iumber for a time for others, Al Privett has worked for E. K. Wood ever since. Twelve years ago he became Manager, succeeding a great and well loved man, Frank Curran, whose assistant he had been for many years.

When he first went to work for E. K. Wood the local Manager was another great character of the old lumber days, Mr. Jim Schultz. Now a very old man, Mr. Schultz still lives and is in the farming business in the San Joaquin Valley. Mr. Privett knew the original E. K. Wood very well for many years, and in his memory Mr. Wood looms large as one of the truly great lumbermen of "the good old days." Mr. Wood never lived in Los Angeles, but divided his time betr.veen the Pacific Northwest and San Francisco. Al Privett has now rvorked for three generations of the E. K. Wood family.

Searching the lumber records of the past fifty years, Mr. Privett can remember no other lumberman who was in the lumber business here when he started, and still is. He thinks back over the army of men he has known in the Los Angeles lumber industry with tremendous interest, and could write an interesting book on their histories and personali-