Responding to Tim McOsker, Vol. II, No. 15 – How he purchased his home

Jul 3, 2020

Oh my gosh! I love Tim McOsker’s story! It makes me think of my mother’s Joyce (Metzger Samsel) house story. She bought the home at 1478 Paseo Del Mar, SP in 1944 when it was brand new. She was 20 years old, but lied about her age, going so far as to get a new birth certificate that stated she was born in 1923 instead of 1924 (as if every banker in town couldn’t easily figure out she was lying because the Metzgers were well-known in San Pedro at the time). She bought the house for about $5,000 and moved in with my grandmother, Carrie Metzger.

At some point after my mother married, the deed was turned over to my grandmother. She continued to live there until she died in January 1979. It recently sold for $875,000. The man who lives next door remembers my grandmother. Because of that, the people who bought the place let me walk through last November when I was in town for the San Pedro High School Pirates Athletic Hall of Fame ceremony. All six of my uncles were inducted posthumously.

Thanks so much for this project to preserve San Pedro and harbor area history for posterity.

Laurie (Samsel) Olson
Dayton, Nevada

Note: Laurie was born in San Pedro, and related to well-known Metzger family. She attended White Point Elementary School, then her family moved to San Fernando Valley, and later to Oregon.
She is in process of writing a novel inspired by the experiences of her mother and a group of girl friends who were seniors at San Pedro High School on December 7, 1941, when Pearl Harbor was attacked. In the spring of 1942, they started a club that endured the rest of their lives. When her mother passed away in 2013, she left club minutes and memorabilia that served as springboard for the SP World War II story that Laurie calls The Girls In Club . The book is in editing phase with no publication date at present.

 

Tim McOsker's Stories