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Remember When
updated: Sep 21, 2012, 8:33 PM

By Edhat Subscriber

What memories do you have of the traffic signals that used to be at Highway 101 in SB? I faintly recall one Christmas Eve a family stopped for gas at one of the stations and left one of the young family members behind. (Somewhere in my scrapbook is the article.) Wondered if that was the inspiration for the movie which came out years later - Home Alone.

Comments in order of when they were received | (reverse order)

COMMENT 322849P	2012-09-21 08:44 PM
How many traffic signals were there? What year were they removed? Other than Jonesie and the person who would shout out "I love you" to passing cars, I've forgotten most of the scene. Was there a cafeteria next to the freeway traffic lights? Or was that Pripp's downtown, near State and Anapamu?
COMMENT 322856	2012-09-21 08:59 PM
My favorite memory was a hick hiker with a sign that read "Keep Santa Barbara beautiful, give me a ride!"
CAPTAIN HALEY	2012-09-21 09:03 PM
There were four lights, at Santa Barbara, Anacapa, State, and Chapala. I lived in a collective household on lower Anacapa -- we used to go down at dinner time and collect the hitchhikers, bring 'em home for dinner and a bed, and send them on their way the next morning. Good times!
D8VANILLA	2012-09-21 09:11 PM
I remember the lights very well. I used to stop and pick up hitchhikers that had money for gas. It was much safer back then. And, my bf, my big dog used to hitch-hike when we got bored, at the lights there too. Got great rides all the way to SF. And, the Fiesta Parade would start at the beach and cross the street there, and it would delay the traffic for a long time. As, I recall, there was a grass center, and lots of grass along the sides. No businesses in that stretch, but off the freeway on the side streets.
COMMENT 322860P	2012-09-21 09:21 PM
On the corner of the 101 and Chapala there was Coit Cleaners. Remember those black vans? Which we renamed Coitus Cleaners. True story. We were young. . .
BULLSEYEB	2012-09-21 09:23 PM
I remember getting stuck at the lights when a train was passing. It was a forever stop when it was a freight train! I also remember the signs that said, "Turn off your engine while waiting for light to change," or something like that.
YIN YANG	2012-09-21 09:31 PM
I have faint and fond memories of the stop lights; I was a kid passenger in the folks' car. My family also sat in the SBCC bleacher seats for the 4th of July fire works. I've always tried to figure out the meaning of "Coit Cleaners" but never researched it. I just laughed at it. What the heck else, besides "coitus," are we supposed to think of?!
COMMENT 322863	2012-09-21 09:31 PM
I was traveling with two women friends in August, 1981 when we stopped at State street on Saturday night. (Fiesta) I had never seen anything like it. People stumbling across the 101, beer in hand, I thought it was paradise. There were no rooms in town so we ended up sleeping in a motel in Ventura, but that night is still fresh in my mind.
YIN YANG	2012-09-21 09:34 PM
It was darn fine people watching, and I loved the bizareness of 101 stoplights, even as a young kid!
COMMENT 322866P	2012-09-21 09:36 PM
Traffic signals at the 101 - another example of how Santa Barbara was and is different than most places in CA. Bless Santa Barbara.
COMMENT 322868P	2012-09-21 10:08 PM
I remember the hitchhikers. Lots of guitars and trash. The city wouldn't put out trash cans. They said it would encourage hitchhiking. Never understood that one.
COMMENT 322869P	2012-09-21 10:15 PM
haha after the volleyball tournaments that they used to let sb have at east beach getting stopped there and car hopping! fun times! dangerous perhaps but fun! Also waiting and waiting to cross so we could go to the bikini factory to check out the suits when the store was right there :)
COMMENT 322870P	2012-09-21 10:16 PM
I was a ucsb student and would hitchike back to IV on occasion....amazing to recall that many young women like myself did so frequently. But i did enjoy hanging out along the 101...i remember an older black woman who i swear was there every day for years- preaching to us youngsters......i always wondered what happened to her....
COMMENT 322885P	2012-09-22 05:20 AM
The stop lights made it very easy for hobos to get off in SB and find a bush to sleep under. Not much has changed in that respect. Sad to say...
COMMENT 322890	2012-09-22 06:20 AM
I got a ticket for running the light. Headed towards the Beach on State and hit the line on Green Light, was pulled over into the Chevron Station that used to be there and cited...nobody believes the teenage driver in a Saab 96 'witch-mobile'....at least the fine wasn't much in those days.
COMMENT 322891	2012-09-22 06:26 AM
For a long time both the city and state desperately wanted them removed, and steps were first taken to do so in 1954. And in typical CalTrans and City of SB fashion, $25 million (adj. for inflation) was spent over the next 34 years just to come up with a workable plan. The work began on the light removal in April of 1988.
COMMENT 322892	2012-09-22 06:31 AM
When I was at Cal Poly in the late 70's and early 80's, I'd pass through SB once month or so. As I approached the Castillo offramp heading southbound, there was always a lot of paint splatters on the freeway. It appeared that someone was filling balloons with paint and dropping them out of their vehicle, as they approached the signal traffic jam. It was an ever changing pattern of paint and I looked forward to seeing it every time I drove south. I did pick up the occasional hitchhiker at the signals -- don't know that I'd do that now.
COMMENT 322893	2012-09-22 06:33 AM
Nobody believes 322890 either, as the lights were long gone before the '96 Saab was even on the drawing board. The last light was removed from the 101-Anacapa intersection on November 19th, 1991.
COMMENT 322898	2012-09-22 06:50 AM
I went up to fisher gas station, filled up the tank in the VW for $4 (25cents gal). Went back down to the fig tree camp to find a hitchhiker for the ride to Washington state and that's how I found my buetiful hippie girlfriend. She was 6 years older than me and taught me all about love on our camping trip north. She got off in Seattle and that was it. I never did get the pachuilly oil smell out of that car. Good times and a monumental change in our culture.
COMMENT 322903	2012-09-22 07:20 AM
In 1971 at midnight my pregnant friend called to say she was home alone (in Montecito) and her water had broken, and could I give her a ride to Cottage Hospital if it wasn't too much trouble. I jumped out of bed, raced to her house in my 1963 VW bug and got her into the car. I had no gas! I had to get to the open Chevron station at the lights. We made it and as I pulled in I yelled out the window—Please help. Hurry. My friend is having her baby. Can I get $1 worth of gas. Next to me in the car she was panting and holding on to the little white rubber handle above the glove compartment. We got to the hospital in within a very sort time her son was born. A few minutes later my friend's mother came running into the waiting room. She had been on her way home from a party and stopped for gas at the Chevron. The attendants were still talking about our quick stop for gas, thus she knew it was her daughter and she came right to the hospital.
SQUIDMB	2012-09-22 07:42 AM
Hitchhiked across the country twice and then from San Luis Obispo to LA a couple times a month. The longest I ever waited for a ride was at the stoplights! 3 hours. My arm and thumb were tired!!!
COMMENT 322910	2012-09-22 07:49 AM
There was a light at 101 and Carrillo St. Shell ? station located at the S/E corner, DMV located next door. I took my driving test there in 1953 (not in the station) ! Also there was a light on 101 at Mission St., many street races began there and raced north on 101 to about opposite the Silver Saddle Motel. Santa Barbara, in the early 50's was a car guys paradise.
COMMENT 322912P	2012-09-22 07:57 AM
There were traffic lights at Mission? Only vaguely recall that. Funny how it's the lights closest to State Street we remember. Anyone have specific memories of the Mission St. traffic lights?
REXOFSB	2012-09-22 08:04 AM
@893: Before calling someone out for lying, please reread what he/she said--the car in question was a Saab 96, not a '96 Saab. The Saab 96 was made from 1960 to 1980, and was old even before the traffic lights were removed.
COMMENT 322921	2012-09-22 08:19 AM
Cruising State...from the Wharf back down to the curve where it hits De La Vina, and back again. Just people watching at all the lights, including those at 101 and State.
COMMENT 322922P	2012-09-22 08:19 AM
The best part of having those lights, when driving up from Ventura, was the ability to turn right onto Santa Barbara street and head into town. I still miss that shortcut sometimes
STACE	2012-09-22 08:37 AM
I remember one occasion in the late 60's when my parents took the family on a trip up to Modesto. My brother, sister and I were already bickering by the time we got to the lights and I guess the parents could tell it was going to be a very long trip. There was a kid in his 20's who was hitchhiking and holding a sign saying he was headed for Salinas. Without much thought or warning my stepdad pulled the car over and invited the hitchhiker to join us. We had a station wagon so I guess he thought there was plenty of room for the kid. I got in the "way back" and sat in the sideways seat all the way up to Salinas. And all of us kids were quiet and polite because we had a guest in the car and wanted to behave ourselves. Good one Dad! Even though Mom wasn't initially thrilled with the idea, she had to admit later that it was a brilliant plan.
CARBELECTRIC	2012-09-22 08:42 AM
I worked graveyard shift at the Texaco gas station, across State St. from the Chevron, Union was next door. One of my jobs was changing the gas price onThursday night, I remember the regular because I had to change both numbers, from 29.9 to 33.9. I aso remember the night the Harbor resterant burned down. We always kept felt tip markers for the hitchikes to make signs out of cardboard.
ROGER DODGER	2012-09-22 08:42 AM
I used to sleep right near them. I remember two guys from Canada running the lights on Harleys and slamming into the back of a tractor trailer..I lost a friend crossing there got ran over by a few cars. Good memories.
COMMENT 322934	2012-09-22 08:50 AM
I remember the sign on Anacapa that said "Up to a 4 minute wait. Please turn off your engine." There was also a man (or woman?) in the median who would wave at everyone going by.
COMMENT 322936	2012-09-22 08:54 AM
What year were the lights removed? I can't remember.
COMMENT 322939	2012-09-22 08:58 AM
I remember just before you would get to the traffic lights (driving North bound) There was a sign that read "Speed Zone Ahead" .. my friends and I always got a chuckle out of that, we were teenagers of course...
COMMENT 322944	2012-09-22 09:10 AM
I worked at the Mobil gas station at the corner of Santa Barbara St. and 101 North, graveyard shift. It was my first job in Santa Barbara in 1975. It gave me such a great view of California Culture. The 4 traffic lights were the like a catchall for Hitchhikers, car wrecks, the Freeway Lady, local families that lived right there, 4 wheelers going to Pismo for the weekend, CHP pulling people over and ticketing them in front of the station. There was a family that lived across Santa Barbara St. from the station. They were the Dudleys. The coolest people ever. Mr. Dudley on many an occasion would feed the hitchers and sometimes let them camp in his back yard, and then make them coffee in the morning! One night, after working there for 2 days, a brand new VW bus pulled in with a rickety old trailer with a beat up old washing machine in the back. I went around to the drivers window and it was Dicky Smothers from the Smothers Brothers. I thought, wow, this is California!!
COMMENT 322954	2012-09-22 09:31 AM
I remember being in my folks car and we had stopped at the light, and there was a guy hitch hiking with only his shirt on, yeah he got a ride with the cops! I hitch hiked to Ventura to Jimi Hendrix play, scared me to death, never did that again!!!
SBJULES	2012-09-22 09:35 AM
I remember the lights, but hardly fondly!! The back ups were awful. I do remember that there were lots of hitchhikers. The only good thing was that SB held out until they got the route they wanted instead of the one Cal trans wanted.
COMMENT 322960	2012-09-22 09:43 AM
I remember thinking it was the looongest light on Earth. I think it was near Bath St., but I was very young at the time.
COMMENT 322965	2012-09-22 09:52 AM
322893 - the last Saab model 96 sold new in the USA went out the door in late 1978 and had been made a year or two before that. The model 900 was rolled out in 1974 in Sweden and by 1977 was their main offering in North America. You may have read Saab 96 and thought you saw 96 Saab - common enough mistake. The 96 was a pretty decent car despite suffering from a little anemia. A little peppier than the earlier 94 and 95 models which struggled in traffic with tiny little V4 ford engines and no plumes of blue smoke like the antique 93 series with their two stroke engines that burned motor oil mixed with gas (or you could just rebuild the engine every time you tuned the car and skip the oil and the smoke).
COMMENT 322966	2012-09-22 10:00 AM
Hitch hiked there a few times in the 70s & remember a sweet woman, her bible, housedress & straw hat. We called "the freeway lady". Always had a smile & kind word. Someone mentioned Jonesie. One Halloween he dressed up in a suit, carried a briefcase & walked up & down State St. Was so funny & different from his usual tye-died & colorful outfits & a statement on the rest of us "regular" people.
COMMENT 322968	2012-09-22 10:19 AM
I think someone mentioned "the light" in a suicide note. I remember the elderly woman seeking converts amongst the hitchhikers. I recall my VW having the entire back of it crushed because the drunk in the pickup behind me did not deal with the red stoplight in the middle of the freeway.
COMMENT 322974	2012-09-22 10:40 AM
Hitch Hiking Hippies. (It was safe back then to give them a ride.)
COMMENT 322975	2012-09-22 10:41 AM
Charles Manson used to walk down to the freeway lights when he lived in SB and hitch rides. I wonder how many picked him up only to never be seen again?
COMMENT 322976	2012-09-22 10:43 AM
My Dad would pick up hitch-hikers too. My brother, several years older, beat me up in the back of the el camino. It had a shell on it and I hit my head on the cooler. We stopped at that first light going north, my mom washed the blood off in the gas station bathroom.
COMMENT 322977	2012-09-22 10:44 AM
That stretch of 101 was a great place for visibility so I met some of my Dos Pueblos High School students down there one morning before school with our signs for MADD...Mothers Against Drinking and Driving. Our local assemblyman Jack O'Connell greeted us there as we worked to raise awareness. I have videos of this and good memories.
COMMENT 323006	2012-09-22 12:10 PM
Hey, anyone remember our local, soon to go National, Sambo's restaurant? Right there at 101 (now the Spearmint Rhino). Pancakes to Pasties. The Manager used to make the hitchhikers pay when they ordered because he had so many 'dine and dashes' !! I 't-boned ' a station wagon one night at the light for Chapala. I'm headed northbound, fortunately at about 35 mph, and suddenly a car turned left right in front of me, towards Chapala, against the red left turn light. Out of towner in a rental car saw the light turn green for southbound traffic and went too. Car didn't make it but I did! Humm Baby!
COMMENT 323025	2012-09-22 01:14 PM
It WAS the longest light in history.
COMMENT 323030	2012-09-22 01:24 PM
My worst memory of the lights was one time when I was on Garden Street at the light waiting for it to turn. I worked in Santa Barbara at the time and lived in Ventura so I was tired and wanting to go home. It had just turned dusk. Well the light finally changed, and I hesitated a heartbeat before going, and it was a good thing I did. Right in front of me, speeding past, was an 18 wheeler running the red light. Had I jumped on the green light, he would have pushed me to Goleta. I drove back to Ventura that night very carefully.
COMMENT 323033	2012-09-22 01:41 PM
I remember SB was the last town to have lights on the 101 between San Francisco & LA. The second to last was Morgan Hill, which had like eleven, it was highly annoying, even in the middle of the night three or four would go red on you.
COMMENT 323044	2012-09-22 02:27 PM
During the Fiesta Parade, the 101 traffic would detour up Santa Barbara Street (northbound) and down Anacapa Street (southbound), getting back at Mission Street. My father used to be a letter carrier, working out of the Milpas Street station and delivering in Hope Ranch. To get back to the station, he would have to detour all the way up to Foothill Road.
COMMENT 323066	2012-09-22 03:34 PM
"The Freeway Lady," that brings back memories. Anyone else remember Cadillac & Oldsmobile showroom was at State and Hwy 101? Sambo's. Yes. And CALAVO was down there somewhere, too, behind Sambo's. Best free avos ("too ripe to ship.") My fondest memory of the lights was my boyfriend and his pal calling me from Ruth & Rogers: "Come have dinner with us!" I jumped on my Peugeot bicycle, jammed down Anacapa St. and barely made the green light at 101. Timed myself. It took me 8 minutes, from top of Olive St. to Ruth & Rogers, and only because I hit every green light on the way.
COMMENT 323068P	2012-09-22 03:41 PM
Had forgotten all about Butts Buick car showroom down near the freeway traffic lights.
COMMENT 323090	2012-09-22 04:42 PM
I don't miss the lights much nor am I nostalgic for them. The idling cars couldn't have been good for the air quality. There really wasn't a good way around them & the delay they caused. I did use them occasionally to hitch hike somewhere when I lived in IV. Later when I moved onto the lower Riviera in 1980 I was surprised at how much noise the trucks made in the middle of the night when they had to downshift to stop for the lights. Probably not as much noise as the train horns make now however.
COMMENT 323120	2012-09-22 05:23 PM
Sorry Edhat readers. The historical comment I posted in response to the 101 freeway signal light inquiry wound up on the next article about City College security.
AUNTIE S.	2012-09-22 06:01 PM
These are all such great stories. I never dreamed, when I saw the question, that there would be so many great memories. Someone (?) should print them all and make a book. They're really wonderful!
AUNTIE S.	2012-09-22 06:06 PM
Hey 323044, thanks for the memories. We lived on Mission St. just up from Santa Barbara St. and when the detoured cars had to stop at the corner, my kids would go down and sell lemonade for a dime a cup to all the hot and bothered drivers.
COMMENT 323193P	2012-09-22 08:21 PM
My father worked at the Shell station there for a few years. It was so long ago they had bidets in the ladies room, and a lovely pearlized shell that housed the pay phone. Years later we were out of town and we heard about the earthquake ('77?) And we were able to realise how bad it was by seeing the dealership's shattered windows as we headed home to Goleta. I remember that Butts Buick with the neon rams, being the worst with shattered windows, but the two little rams still up above them.
AQUAHOLIC	2012-09-22 08:24 PM
One of my favorite things to do when I first came to SB in 1980 was ride my bike down State St., get caught at the lights and wait...the wait was always long and entertaining, as the crowd of bicyclists and cars piled up, it felt almost like a carnival type atmosphere with people meeting one another, chatting up the hitchhikers and just enjoying the brief moments of connection...always loved that! Agree with Dan S. too...one of the first times I came to SB during Fiesta and saw the general debauchery and fun, I thought I had found paradise too! Haha!...great memories indeed!
COMMENT 323431	2012-09-23 07:26 PM
I moved to Santa Barbara in the early 70's and the lights on the 101 freeway were the only ones except the ones on Pacific Coast Highway in San Diego. In later years I remember driving from Ventura in my BMW Bavaria (now that was a powerful 3.0 liter car) and the gas gauge did not work so I would estimate the number of miles I could go by the amount of gas I put in the car. Well one afternoon I guessed wrong and ran out of gas on the northbound 101 freeway as I was approaching Santa Barbara St. and I remember a good samaritan helping me push the car from the freeway to the Mobil gas station that was nearby. Those were the good old days!!!
COMMENT 323476	2012-09-23 08:42 PM
Hell on Earth
COMMENT 323582P	2012-09-24 10:26 AM
I was born in SB and hitched from there a few times as a young teenage girl in the early 70s. Went up to SF once, Oregon and Washington. Those were good times, and I was very lucky. I remember the freeway lady passing out religious materials to all the hitchhikers every day. Tried to only take rides from hippies driving VW buses!!

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