In the early 1900s, La Jollans sometimes became bored with the daily routines of rounding up abalone for dinner, collecting mail at the post office and sharing neighborhood gossip. Consequently, clubs and organizations with rather far-fetched and somewhat dubious characters took shape. The Rattlesnake Club, formed in 1921 with about a dozen members, was probably the most unusual with purposes both scientific and practical: observing rattlers in their natural environment, shooting a number of them and tanning their skins for future use as handbags and belts. The mission didn’t go far, as the club had disbanded in about a year, but the first field trip on Sept. 21 with the “Indian Trail above the Biological Grade” as the point of departure imparts its own special hilarity. A note from the Rattlesnake Club file elaborates: “Those assembled were President Burdick equipped with leggings and antidote, Mrs. Burdick with a yellow flag to catch the varmints teeth, Field Captain Peak with a long staff, 2 Misses Savages with short skirts and no leggings, Mrs. Lane in knickerbockers and low slippers, Mr. Lane looking slightly bored but wishing to be on hand in case of snake bites, Miss Lord late but enthusiastic, Wood field secretary with gun and other heavy armament.” The entourage soon became tired and disgruntled as no rattlesnakes were found until one of the members went off the beaten trail and “unearthed a 3 rattle rattler out of a little hole and the willing Secretary, on request, blew its bloomin’ head off.” End of snake — but the club survived to the next January for its annual — indoor — winter meeting. They discussed tanning solutions as advised by the California Academy of Sciences. Earlier, in 1907, a much tamer and less adventurous organization was formed as the Old Ladies Club of La Jolla. Its basic interest was playing cards. Among the members was La Jolla’s leading citizen, Ellen Browning Scripps, then in her early 70s. The group experienced a slight adventure when one of the member’s homes was being moved from Cave Street to Eads Avenue near St. James by-the-Sea Episcopal Church. The homeowner invited the Old Ladies for cards and they played a wicked game as the house moved along its way drawn by a strong team of horses. After some time, the Old Ladies Club tired of the endless card games and another more exclusive organization took shape called the Old Maid’s Club. Historical records do not indicate the exact nature of this group’s purpose. At the time of World War I, another unusual group was organized called The Cavemen — purportedly to entertain the military in the nearby army camp. Many community leaders like Dr. William Ritter (head of Scripps Institution of Oceanography) and J.C. Harper (Miss Scripps’ attorney and right-hand man) were members and didn’t seem to think twice about attending meetings in animal skins and calling each other familiar names such as “Little Stick” and “Big Stick.” Appropriately, The Cavemen held their first meeting in the La Jolla Caves with someone they called Lorelei singing from a rowboat off shore. Their second meeting incorporated a military officers’ banquet held at the socially fashionable Spindrift Inn in La Jolla Shores on June 7, 1917. The distinguished Melvin Klauber gave an address on “Cocoanuts as a Medium of Exchange” and there was a raucous singing of the “Cave Men Greeting” to organ accompaniment: “In pre-neolithic days Man was simple in his ways; Dress suits didn’t really matter, And the ultra ‘highbrow’ chatter Of that early age, I wis, Must have been about like this: Woof! Woof! Yow! Yow! Zooy! Zing! Biff! Wough!” Let’s hope neither Fido nor Neanderthal was listening, because with that song, The Cavemen buried their last hatchet. — Carol Olten is the historian of the La Jolla Historical Society.
