The Helms Bakery Truck

Remembering James Arness when he was a surfer called 'Big Jim'

“Big Jim” (as we knew him) was a surfer. When I was about 13-14, my mother and stepfather used to take my sister and I to San Onofre State Beach on the weekends. Several soldiers who had been stationed in Hawaii during World War II had returned to Southern California. They learned to surf on their tour and when they came back, they brought their long boards with them. They began to congregate on the beach in San Onofre, surfing the big waves. We were allowed to surf there during the day, but at night we couldn't sleep there. So, after dark, and after burning rubber tires and eating hobo stew or barbecue, we drove to the Trestles, a campground nearby, where we all slept in our cars, on the ground or in old Helms Bakery trucks converted to surf wagons. When the trains went by, the sound was deafening, as we were practically on the tracks. Once, legendary surfer Duke Kahanamoku came to the beach. This was a huge honor for the surfers. It was party time and there was roast pig, lots of ukulele music, big bonfires, lots of booze and hula dancing by the surfers. What a riot watching surfers hula! I got to ride in the outrigger canoe the Hawaiians brought over. It was so fast on the big waves and a huge thrill for me. Later, when Arness made it big and I saw him on screen, I wondered how long he surfed there and what he remembered of that time. Most of those veterans are probably gone by now, but they remain a great part of my girlhood. I had crushes on some of them. I loved hanging around the guys and they used to tell me, “Scram, but come back when you're 18.

FLASHBACK – The Helms Bakery Truck – Hidden Los Angeles

I can distinctly remember the Helms truck making its way down the back alley behind our home in the valley when I was a little kid. The Helms man would shoo us away from the truck with Bazooka Joe gum, admonishing us in his thick accent (and with a wink), “Don’t buttah ya muddah in da guttah!”

It was years later that I came to realize exactly what he was saying: “Don’t bother your mother in the gutter (alley)!”

I grew up in San Dimas and stil remember their fabulous cream puffs……and everything else, really. It was easy to recognize that whistle going off when he came down 2nd. St. in a small panel truck in a creamy soft yellow color. Big treat for us! Helms and Vande Kamp products were the best. I loved Vande Kamps date nut loaf.

Uh, I’m getting hungry!

Pacific reporter

... a distributor and salesman of bakery products for Helms Bakeries, ... sure that she wanted something, and she was walking right toward the truck. ...

Emerald ice, selected poems, 1962-1987

The Helms Bakery Man The Helmsman came in a yellow truck, with a hard-shelled top, like a beetle. Sometimes when I am in bed at night, I remember his donuts ...

Automobile cases..., The full texts of all higher court decisions, state and federal, in insurance and negligence cases involving automobiles

Ives 16-1317 Hecht's Bakery v. Johnson 16-470 Heerman v. Burke 16-1306 Heldman: Pope v 16-1012 Helms v. Leonard 16-1127 Helwig: Redwing Carriers, ...

Reports of cases determined in the courts of appeal of the state of California

Helms Bakeries, Ltd., 6 Cal.App.2d 299 [44 P.2d 604] ; Mecchi v. ... did not relieve the truck driver from the duty to himself exercise ordinary care, ...

Benjamin Kritzer

Every day he would listen for the whistle of the Helms Bakery Truck and as soon as he heard it he'd run outside and yell, “Hey, Helms man! ...