George Liddicoat

From Palo Alto Wiki

George Liddicoat grew up in Palo Alto as the son of a grocer. He graduated from Palo Alto High School in 1943. He served in U.S. Marine Corps then worked for Chevron as sales representative overseas. He returned to Palo Alto in 1972 to work in the family grocery business. He closed the grocery store in 1976. The University Avenue location is now run as a group of restaurant stalls.

[edit] Memories

"I used to work Saturdays cleaning up in my dad's butcher shop, and got $3. It wasn't bad. Mostly it went into gas for my car. But you could get five gallons for a dollar if you were careful. Then if people needed a ride somewhere I'd charge them a nickel or a dime.

"I had a '27 Chevy that I got from a friend of my aunt's for $35. It was in beautiful shape. It was a neat old car and we went all over. It was during the war. I drove it to school, and one time on the way to school I got broadsided at the corner of Lincoln and Middlefield. It's the only time I've ever been hit. It kind of smashed into the running board and doors. So we took off the rest of the doors and the top, put plywood where the doors were, painted it camouflage color and made a jeep out of it.

"One day we were at Rio Del Mar beach with a bunch of kids on the back, and we'd put red flags on the back of the car for no reason at all. The Coast Guard came along and thought we were signaling the Japanese or something.

"We used to drive the car right down the beach. One time I got too far out in the water, the car started sinking down, waves were coming up and the motor died. I thought I'd lost it, but a bunch of kids came and pulled it out. I finally did lose the car when I was up in Northern California working on a forestry project. One of the other kids' dad had died and he asked to borrow the car. He wrecked it--nearly got himself killed--and then he paid me my $35 back."