00:00:01.120 - 00:00:19.320

But uh I did go and check and sure enough the feet of breaking the speed of sound was documented in there and he's the same guy of course that I had met in Louisiana. That that crazy bastard's book. Well the payoff was last month I was

00:00:19.320 - 00:00:38.460

in san Antonio At the 60th reunion in my flying school class or 60th anniversary, which is gonna be our last one because we can't find enough light body. Uh my very favorite buddy, uh I was in flying school with them. We went to Korea together, we

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flew 100 commission together, uh wives medicine. We went on vacation together and we meet at every reunion Except I missed 1 2 years ago in austin texas. And I hadn't, we hadn't touched base. Uh but when I showed up at the one in san Antonio last

00:00:57.280 - 00:01:13.870

month I was walking across the lobby of the hotel and Harold Jack, my buddy and he took a look at me and you would have thought he saw a go, he just jaw dropped and he kind of, he says you're supposed to be dead and I

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said and this was just two days after each year I said, but I was Jack. But I when I got up to heaven, I noticed you haven't sent flowers. I came back yesterday so I could check out what the hell's going on. He says no. He

00:01:27.330 - 00:01:45.930

says I read in the military officers magazine, Harrison the h bunny comstock, a former fighter pilot had joined the Fallen Eagles and he was this other guy. But he then he tried to call Diane to commit to it and all that. Well I had changed my

00:01:45.930 - 00:02:09.780

phone number three years ago and he gets the message, that phone has been disconnected then I didn't make the reunion two years ago to Austin said well that was a payoff. I was Harold Harold, quote money. Jack said I read it Harold, he said I always

00:02:09.780 - 00:02:28.110

thought your name was Harrison and then I thought maybe I was getting confused with Harrison, Great Road. Anyway the whole weekend reunion they were referring to me as the second coming. So what we'd like to do is to just uh I ask you a few questions

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about your background of course your family's background a little bit uh a few personal things I'm interested in is um your memories of the bench of course, you know coming from a judge's family and you know what that was like and what what you remember and

00:02:45.670 - 00:02:59.970

of course and what you were told and and also I want to find out a little background about you and I think if it's alright with you um maybe we could just start out with that. Uh you lived in a beautiful house off Mendocino, right? Yeah

00:02:59.980 - 00:03:22.090

well that that's not where I was born uh born in the general hospital which is still sits there on the corner of 7th and 8th street though it's not the general hospital anymore as was my wife who was born next door to me, we didn't get

00:03:22.090 - 00:03:44.310

married the first time around, but I went to fremont Grammar School which is now the santa rosa Middle school and Senator was a junior high, which is now the fremont Grammar School Center of high school once a year to santa rosa Junior College. Although uh I

00:03:44.310 - 00:04:06.750

was uh I was sworn into the Army Air Corps On December 1, 1943, which was the middle of my first year in Junior College. And uh unfortunately I didn't get called in before the end of the year so I, my grades weren't too good. I was

00:04:06.760 - 00:04:20.940

working eight hours a day at the greyhound bus company as a baggage boy. But you started out, you were sworn in, you went into the Air Corps in 43. Yes. And would you train here in santa rosa? No, I was, I was, I took all the

00:04:20.940 - 00:04:41.010

tests and was qualified for aviation cadet training and uh I was to be inducted as an aviation cadet and I was just, unfortunately they didn't get around to doing that for about 13 months. I was called into active duty right after new year's in 1945. I

00:04:41.030 - 00:04:56.990

went to, well step back since I finished my first year of junior college with lousy grades and and uh so in the fall and I still hadn't been called in, I went down to Berkeley and started cal but I had to start in cal extension to

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make up the deficiency and then I got called in at mid mid semester before I finished the first semester, Berkeley went to Keesler field Mississippi as an aviation cadet on the line trainee. They caught us because they didn't have enough room in flying schools and I

00:05:18.250 - 00:05:39.450

did, I would say 11 months, 23 days, one hour and 34 minutes uh as an online trainee. And by then the war had ended and well I was transferred up to Scott field Illinois for to go to tech school and that the war was over and

00:05:39.460 - 00:05:56.900

they came around and decided, yeah, they would give us an opportunity to go to flying school if you're willing to find to sign a three year hitch. Uh and you know, I was looking around and all I could see was flying schools closing and I thought

00:05:56.900 - 00:06:10.500

they get three years out of my body and I still won't touch an airplane. So I got out as a buck private and I joined the reserve because the war was still I mean the world was still in a turmoil and I didn't want to go

00:06:10.500 - 00:06:32.500

in the army, I wanted to go back in the Air Corps. Now went back started Berkeley and made up my deficiencies and Did two more years until 1948. And uh then I went over to Hastings and was admitted and they let us go to graduate school

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um without a college degree. The veterans. So I started Hastings and I finished two years and the war in Korea broke out and mr Truman sent me a telegram and says a private comstock going home. And So there I was back in the Air Corps, I

00:06:57.980 - 00:07:12.140

was a buck private and there weren't any buck privates in those days. I was 23 years old and I had two years of graduate school and I said well heck with it. I was always sorry, I didn't fly a outright airplane. I re applied for the

00:07:12.140 - 00:07:35.670

cadet program when I was admitted. And yeah, 13 months later I was a jet fighter pilot. So you flew jet flew jets in Korea. Yes, I went over from, we took our jet training at uh Chandler Arizona Williams Air Force base. And uh then they when

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we graduated we went then across the other side of phoenix to luke Air Force base and got three months of combat crew training. We flew 30 hours in f eighty's and then 30 hours in F 84 where we learned their tactics, we heard the grand tactics,

00:07:57.700 - 00:08:20.300

diet, bombing, skip bombing, strafing napalm rockets and all that stuff. So were the jets utilized towards the end of World War Two or not In World War II. The Germans developed uh to an engine jet called ME- 262 which was the first jet fighter plane ever

00:08:20.300 - 00:08:37.500

was in combat and it was deadly. But it uh it didn't have any range and didn't have much in the way farmers but he could get up through the formation and down through the formation in school was out. It was not very effective but if Hitler

00:08:37.500 - 00:08:59.760

gotten it a year earlier he would have won the war. Uh huh. But Korea was the first really forget war and we used F eighties F 84 F 86 is And I threw the F- 80 for how long is the tour in Korea? One year or

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100 missions or until you get dead uh 100 100 missions. And it took me about 9.5 for 10 months. Uh And I when I came home they sent me I had another two years to do on my hitch they sent me to Aberdeen proving ground in

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order to test work which I didn't know, I didn't know that the army developed all the ordinance that the Air force carried. And I guess that was just a carryover from the old Army Air Corps. They just haven't got around to changing that by then. But

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we tested it's just some weird stuff. They they you know they'd hang something on an airplane and until you go out and fly it and let's see how it did and you know half the time you I swear that the scientists didn't have never seen an

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airplane. I go out and look at it and they have this contraption hanging under the wing of an f 80 maybe. And I'd say, well I can't fly that. And he said, well why not? I said, wait, if I, when I rotate this thing, I gotta

00:10:13.270 - 00:10:29.700

pull the nose up, that's gonna make the tail of that bomb drag on the ground. Yes sir. Okay, back to the drawing board and then uh one time I went out and I had some hung up that was really snuggled up the wing and it fit

00:10:29.700 - 00:10:48.970

nice that I could rotate fine except I couldn't drop my flaps and you had to drop 20° of flap to get the thing off the ground. Um so, but we, it was really interesting. I enjoyed it. Uh Well I came home for, from Korea as a

00:10:48.970 - 00:11:15.190

first lieutenant and I was made, I was still first lieutenant when I got out in 1945. Yeah. So can I ask you about um first of all your family family history, you've got a pretty famous family, locally, locally famous, maybe locally famous, but you know, what

00:11:15.190 - 00:11:43.940

do you know about your family history in Sonoma County? Uh Actually my my dad was born in evanston Illinois and he was one of seven Children. And um mhm. His, his mother and father were divorced. I don't know exactly when, but he was raised in his

00:11:43.940 - 00:12:08.890

grandfather's house grandfather, his name was harvey Bostwick heard and he is a person of some note in Illinois if you, if you ever read the statutes of Illinois, you'll see they're called the smith. Heard statues, statues. And he also was noted for having written the first

00:12:09.110 - 00:12:33.010

court law in the, in the country in this country. He was big at Northwestern University and there is a hold there named Heard hall after him. Um I know nothing about my paternal grandfather except what's in this budget. Yeah. His name was ever mentioned. We never

00:12:33.010 - 00:12:51.530

talked about him. I mean I sat in a duck blind with my father hundreds of hours and never mentioned his father. Yeah. And what brought him out here? My grandmother was in contact with Luther Burbank and I think she was sending him money. I think my

00:12:51.530 - 00:13:09.850

grandfather is pretty well off. They lived in a 15 room house on Ridge Avenue in Evanston's. Yeah, they weren't hurting. My grandmother lived on a trust fund for the whole rest of her life but she came out here and bought a little farm out on Highland

00:13:09.850 - 00:13:34.230

Avenue. I have never been able to locate where you know now it's all houses. Uh and then uh my father actually worked for bank for a while. Uh do these Gardner. My father was let's see 15 years old when they moved out here and he somehow

00:13:34.230 - 00:13:59.140

became acquainted with um a man and a lawyer named James W. H. O. A. T. E. S. And ended up studying law under Colonel Oates who was a southern gentleman. In fact Colonel Oates was reputed to have have having killed some guy in a duel. I'm

00:13:59.140 - 00:14:21.660

not sure about that. But my dad studied under Colonel Oates and Took the bar and pastor was 21 years old. Uh in those days it was an oral exam before the Supreme Court and I think he said they asked him three questions. My dad never went

00:14:21.660 - 00:14:48.200

to school. Um Well not exactly, but my grandmother didn't agree approve of public schools. Yes, they were beneath beneath the constructs, I don't know. Anyway. She educated all the kids. And uh except that when my dad was, you know in France after World War two, during

00:14:48.200 - 00:15:08.090

over and World War One, I mean, and somehow he was able to get a semester at Oxford University and I don't know how he finagled that, but he was uh enrolled at Oriel College at Oxford. I've seen it, I didn't see his name on it anywhere,

00:15:08.090 - 00:15:29.410

but uh that's the only formal education he ever had and that was long after he became a lawyer. Yeah. Now I know um you see your dad came over here when he was 15 and do you know when that was 197 Let's say 1907. Okay. And

00:15:31.290 - 00:15:50.930

okay that's close enough. And uh so he became a lawyer and do you know anything about his history as a lawyer before he became a judge, he became a judge when I was two years old. Uh I don't know you know I don't except that he

00:15:50.940 - 00:16:16.440

he practiced with with Colonel died. And uh when Oates died my grandmother bought Colonel Oates's house. That's what they called the comstock house, but he's the one who built it, had it built. Um that's the house on Mendocino. They were talking to him about any significant

00:16:16.450 - 00:16:34.120

cases. Uh But he seems to have made a living at it. I was looking for a book. I have that uh it's about this big and it's so big I can't find it. But it has it has a list of his expenses on a couple of

00:16:34.120 - 00:16:56.920

pages and it was interesting to see you know how wonderful it was when he gave his secretary $2.50 a month raised from $65 to 67 50. A few things like that. Yeah. But you know most of my life with him was as a judge sat on

00:16:56.920 - 00:17:18.020

the bench for 35 years and then he wouldn't have retired except they had some stupid law that said that the judges had to retire by age 70 or at the expiration of their current term if they turn 70 during that term. He stayed in the army

00:17:18.020 - 00:17:47.790

reserve for years and years until at one time. Some court determined that it would be illegal for public employee to draw to public um paychecks. And so I can take off a few triple quadruple dipper's. Yeah. Have a double dipper. Actually I got a military retirement

00:17:47.800 - 00:18:09.080

and Social Security Reserve for 31 years. Active reserve subject to recall on 10 days notice at any time in the whole time. I practice law. So sticking with with your dad for now and I don't want to ask you about your own practice and you're your

00:18:09.080 - 00:18:23.490

own history. But so your your earliest memories, of course, your father is on the bench. And did he ever take you to court with him? Yeah, I used to go in and sit in the courtroom a lot when I was a kid. Uh and he tolerated

00:18:23.490 - 00:18:45.890

that. What was the courthouse like? I suppose you've seen pictures of the old county courthouse. It was wonderful, just a beautiful courthouse. Um You know you you felt like you were somebody when you're in a courtroom there, marble staircases and that big rotunda in the middle

00:18:45.890 - 00:19:09.790

and wonderful. The worst thing ever did was knock that down. Unfortunately, it's not the only one to take. Our board of supervisors has ever made. Uh My dad enjoyed presiding, he enjoyed being the presiding judge and he was always the presiding judge. They didn't rotate. He

00:19:09.790 - 00:19:28.800

lived just a mile down the street, he was able to stroll down fourth Mendocino Avenue across fourth street to go to work and say hello to every, every person on the street, Everybody knew him, he knew everybody. Mhm. He worked hard. A lot of people used

00:19:28.800 - 00:19:44.430

to ask me if I I'm not a judge and I said, first of all, nobody ever asked me. Second of all, I think the job to to restricting my dad worked till six o'clock every evening. If a lawyer wanted an order signed at 5 30 on

00:19:44.430 - 00:20:05.320

friday night, he got it signed. Uh huh. And he worked and can't remember working nights before he could go off on his vacation to get his working order because there was only two judges uh is what I think they were getting a month's vacation those days,

00:20:05.320 - 00:20:30.800

which was nice. But um he his interest for rifle shooting in duck hunting and fishing and he he had to organize his vacations to include things like that. He was always a member of the California national California rifle team to shoot the national rifle matches back

00:20:30.800 - 00:20:54.470

at camp Perry and he distinguished himself in those shoots. Um But that would take a week of his vacation time. I remember your sister Martha when Dennis was still alive, showing me some targets that were kept up on the roof of the house on Mendocino Avenue.

00:20:54.480 - 00:21:11.910

You know, there must have been from those matches. They were they were in the attic actually the whole time. I was a kid in both our houses on Spring Street and our house on Mendocino Avenue, we had a rifle range in the attic, 50-foot range and

00:21:11.920 - 00:21:17.840

we could go up and shoot anything we wanted. We had unlimited ammunition, uh.