SAN ANTONIO – Lydia Guzman, 80, has lived in the South San neighborhood all her life. Her father purchased her a home there from a German couple for $1,000.
Five generations of Patricia Limón Medina’s family live in South San. Limón Medina is 64.
Frank Runnels, 86, and John Torres, 72, were born and raised in South San. Torres and Guzman grew up on the same street.
Both men describe growing up in South San the same way: “Easy.”
“Everybody knew me. I could get in trouble real easy, and I did,” joked Runnels.
Neighbors remembered fields of flowers planted and harvested by their Belgian neighbors.
“There were a lot of farmers in South San and most of them were Belgian,” Torres said.
Torres described the South San he grew up in as a melting pot.
“It was Germans. Polish. Everybody was here,” Torres said. “And there was (sic) no issues about race or anything like that.”
“Everybody went to church on Sunday and drank beer on Monday,” Runnels chuckled.
South San was once its own city separate from San Antonio. Neighbors described a trolley that ran south of the big city.
San Antonio began annexing South San into its city limits in the mid-to-late 1940s.
The Kelly Connection
There are tremendous ties between South San and Kelly Air Force Base. The base provided jobs and economic opportunities to South San residents.
“My dad retired from there after 44 years. I retired after 27,” Guzman said.
Kelly AFB was the nation’s largest hub for the maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) of military aircraft.
“It’s where everyone wanted to be,” Guzman said.
Runnels remembers Kelly during World War II.
“Right after World War II started, there was not enough housing for all the Air Force. So they built a tent city,” Runnels recalled. “I never will forget going out there... Hundreds of tents just up and down that hill.”
Years after the end of that war, neighbors remembered when a plane taking off from Kelly crashed in the neighborhood. The crash killed the nine crew members who were onboard.
Runnels was a kid playing baseball with his buddies on that summer morning in 1951.
“This is ‘51 and the planes, man, they’re taking off from Kelly (Air Force Base). One right after another. And, all of a sudden, we hear KABOOM,” Runnels said. “We saw this ball of smoke and fire come up over there by the old high school.”
“I remember everybody was panicking and trying to run over there,” Guzman said.
“It came down in the middle of the street,” Runnels said
Engine failure caused the plane to crash in a location neighbors call the “Y” at Palo Alto Road and Somerset Road.
The crash damaged a local tavern called the Grey Eagle, which still stands today. Now, the building also houses an insurance business and a barbershop.
“This was in the summer when a lot of those workers were out there in the fields picking cabbage or hoeing corn,” Runnels said. “And they said they saw it. They could see the guys in the windows as it went down.”
In 1995, the federal government announced plans for Base Realignment and Closure, or BRAC, which would lead to the closure of Kelly AFB.
“I was mad,” said Guzman, who retired in 1999 when the base closed. “You just adjusted to the closing. What could you do?”
Guzman remembers neighbors moving out of South San looking for work.
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Claims of contamination
While Kelly AFB meant jobs and stability for decades in South San, neighbors sued the federal government in 2003 claiming contamination from Kelly caused ailments such as cancer for neighbors.
“I was one of the 12 people that sued the government, Kelly, for the contamination of property,” said Limón Medina. “It was 2,800 properties.”
“The dirt ended up having chemicals,” she said. “A lot of people got sick.”
In 2010, the government agreed to settle the lawsuit for $1 million.
“They gave everybody money but it was only like the value of your property at that time,” Limón Medina said. “And mine was $1,000.”
“If this happened in the North Side, they would have been on it right away,” Limón Medina added.
Generations of the same family tend to stay in South San. In some cases, they live next door to one another or under the same roof.
“Once a Southsider, always a Southsider,” Guzman said with a smile.
“It’s affordable,” Torres said. “Houses are affordable.”
Another tidbit of South San history: what is known today as an Academy Sports and Outdoors store first started at VFW Post 8397 on Southcross Boulevard.