Can anyone in Newspaperland believe that after years of happy talk and months of furious preparation, Culver City’s year-long Centennial celebration officially will launch one week from Saturday morning?
Mountains of talk and anticipation are about to spring to life.
A parade from Vets Park to Downtown and the Culver Hotel will fling open the door on 12 months of jubilation and partying.
Unlike some century-long communities that scramble to discover hometown history prior to, say, yesterday Culver City leaders and residents equally are impressively familiar with how Culver City was born and matured.
It is almost against the law not to be familiar with the outlines of Harry Culver’s journey from Nebraska to the founding of a signal community just west of downtown Los Angeles.
It is taken for granted that children and adults know the Harry Culver story as well as they do the storylines of Christmas and Easter.
This kind of everyday familiarity with history “is what is so special about living and working in Culver City,” says Paul Jacobs, chair of the Centennial Celebration Committee.
“This is a community proud of its heritage, also very proud of the community we are today, proud of its diversity, and proud of its unity in sharing certain values, values of community, values of family, values of giving back to a community.
“This,” said the 74-year-old Mr. Jacobs, “is why our institutions – service clubs civic clubs, charitable organizations, municipal panels are all strong. They are staffed by men and women whose values create an interest in maintaining community.”
