ON THE ROAD AGAIN CHP VET RECALLS OLD DAYS.Byline: Carol Rock Staff Writer NEWHALL - Flipping through a box of black-and-white pictures, Marty Forinash picked up a photo from a traffic accident and smiled. ``This truck with barreled oil went up the escape ramp and another truck with Brahma bulls went up after it and they both turned over,'' he said. ``Most of the bulls couldn't get out but one did and started chasing some of the officers. Three of them ended up on top of my patrol car and of course, I had to write a report. I got called in by the captain because he couldn't believe the story.'' Forinash, who turned 88 on Saturday, retired from the California Highway Patrol highway patrol n. A state law enforcement organization whose police officers patrol the public highways. in 1971 after a 30-year career. Except for a six-month stint in Barstow when he was promoted to sergeant and three years in the service of the U.S. Navy during World War II, he was a fixture in the Newhall office. These days, he and his wife live in a comfortable home in Friendly Valley, the noise from the Antelope Valley Freeway The Antelope Valley Freeway is a freeway in Los Angeles and Kern counties in southern California. It is signed as California State Highway 14 along its length. It connects Greater Los Angeles to the rapidly developing Antelope Valley. a distant reminder of the life he used to spend patrolling the highways. Born in Wabaunsee, Kansas, Forinash attended Alma High School Alma High School may refer to:
BROS Benefits and Retirement Operations Section (King County, Washington) BROS Barnes and Richmond Operatic Society (London, UK) . service station washing cars before landing a job as a messenger for Paramount Pictures in Hollywood. ``The last picture I worked on was 'Union Pacific,' one of C.B. DeMille's epics,'' he said. Between movies, messengers were often laid off, so Forinash found a job in the tooling department at Lockheed, where he was working when he heard the Highway Patrol was looking for Looking for In the context of general equities, this describing a buy interest in which a dealer is asked to offer stock, often involving a capital commitment. Antithesis of in touch with. men. ``One of the men in my boardinghouse knew the captain at the Hollywood station and he told me to get myself a motorcycle and practice riding,'' he recalled. ``I rented one from a kid on La Brea La Brea (lə brā`ə), area, S Calif., formerly in Rancho La Brea. The La Brea asphalt pits, which yielded prehistoric animal and plant remains, are in Hancock Park, Los Angeles. . I used to go to his house at night and ride around La Brea and Fountain. I took the test with 3,500 other guys at the L.A. Armory in the spring of 1941 and they called me to work in May 1942.'' By that time, the country was in the midst Adv. 1. in the midst - the middle or central part or point; "in the midst of the forest"; "could he walk out in the midst of his piece?" midmost of a world war. With a 1-A draft status, Forinash found himself sought after by the Navy, which tested him and immediately ranked him mechanic 3rd class. His experience working at a truck weigh station A weigh station is a checkpoint along a highway to inspect vehicular weights. Usually, trucks and commercial vehicles are subject to the inspection. Overview Weigh stations are equipped with scales, some of which permit the trucks to continue moving while being weighed, landed him a job weighing warplanes. ``Because I had been working the scales for the Highway Patrol, they gave me a tractor and I weighed B-24s,'' he said. ``We worked on planes at North Island, San Diego San Diego (săn dēā`gō), city (1990 pop. 1,110,549), seat of San Diego co., S Calif., on San Diego Bay; inc. 1850. San Diego includes the unincorporated communities of La Jolla and Spring Valley. Coronado is across the bay. , then I was sent to the Philippines.'' Forinash came home to Newhall in 1945 and resumed his routine patrol duties. ``One hot, miserable day, I was riding my motorcycle and thought a malted milk would taste good, so I stopped into this little place out on what's now The Old Road. Cafes were a premium on that beastly beast·ly adj. beast·li·er, beast·li·est 1. Of or resembling a beast; bestial. 2. Very disagreeable; unpleasant. adv. Chiefly British To an extreme degree; very. old highway,'' he said. The place was 99 Oaks and the waitress who prepared his milkshake was Ethel Proctor, who, despite ``beating the milkshake to death'' that summer afternoon, caught Forinash's eye and won his heart. The couple married in 1947. Because of the burgeoning Bermite plant, housing in Newhall was at a premium. The newlyweds lived in Sylmar until a CHP CHP Chapter CHP Combined Heat and Power CHP California Highway Patrol CHP Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi (Turkish: Republican People's Party) CHP Chemical Hygiene Plan (OSHA) CHP Community Health Plan friend transferred out of the area and gave up his place, where the couple lived until 1952. Forinash saw the best and worst of the sleepy towns of Saugus and Newhall as they grew. He regales visitors with tales of drunks tracked down by helpful telephone operators and the first local CHP station in a cement building on San Fernando Road San Fernando Road is a major street in the city and county of Los Angeles. It starts off in Castaic as The Old Road, passing through Santa Clarita and the Newhall Pass, where upon its intersection with Sierra Highway near the junction of the Golden State (I-5) and the built with donations solicited by William S. Hart. His stories weave a colorful quilt of life before the population topped 100,000, as Valencia and Canyon Country grew closer together. He's been around town long enough to know the grandfathers of today's high Today's High The intra-day high trading price. Notes: In other words, this is the highest price that a stock traded at during the course of the day. More often than not this is higher than the closing price. See also: Today's Low school football coaches, and when he had to respond to crowded football games, where the ne'er-do-well youths would break off car antennas. And he's seen the social climate change, recalling the time he met a photographer standing in the middle of the street taking a picture. ``This was when they were building CalArts, at the height of the hippie days. After I had a business conversation with this man, he introduced himself to me as Doctor somebody,'' he said, laughing. When it snows, Forinash always tells Ethel that he's glad he doesn't have to go out to the Ridge Route The Ridge Route, officially the Castaic-Tejon Route,[2] is a narrow two-lane highway in the northern Greater Los Angeles Area of the U.S. state of California. and help get the traffic through the mountains to the north of Santa Clarita. While he admits to missing the exciting life on the highway, he's grateful that it's being handled by younger folks. ``I did some unusual things and met some unusual people,'' he said. He used to weigh trucks near Castaic. Now he weighs in with stories of a town a little less populous and a little more wild, spinning history into a sought-after story for his grandchildren - or any visitor with time to listen. Carol Rock, (661) 257-5252 carol.rock(at)dailynews.com CAPTION(S): 3 photos Photo: (1) The Forinashes have this old photo in front of the Saugus Cafe in their collection. (2 -- 3) At left, CHP Sgt. Marty Forinash stands with another officer and one of the valley's first radar cars; above, he and his wife take a stroll in Canyon Country. David Crane/Staff Photographer |
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