Bruce Wilson

Michele was in the Desiraes. Anybody have some old club photos?

Bruce Wilson

This is an article my old basketball buddy Bryon Shewman wrote. It presents some of the real history of Chula Vista [35].     http://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2004/jun/17/otay/

Bruce Wilson

OK - two more. Memorial Park (around 1940) before the gym and pool were built. Note packing plants right near Fourth Avenue almost at F. The wooden building west of the bowl is the "old" Youth Center where the 1960's aftergame dances were held. Surfer Stomp Wehmeyer was there. Jan Ronis and Dr. Wilson got hauled to the police station because Jan was leading the doctor around in a straight jacket. Can't recall what were we charged with.

Lane Field around 1937.

Kathleen Margaret (Kathy) Crusilla (Maloney)

Boney's Market between 3rd and 4th on the south side...

Kathleen Margaret (Kathy) Crusilla (Maloney)

The packing house between F street and Parkway was called the MOD packing house( Citrus) Lemon and Orange... . During the 2nd world war the tower was a look out tower for volunteers to watch for any enemy invaders.

Bruce Wilson

Hint: Not my dermatologist preparing to scan for AK's. HHS class of 1964 though.

There was Melhorn Music at 310 Third Ave., but there was another store across from La Bella or maybe Melhorn moved north?

Bruce Wilson

Everybody back in [sic] the Chub's Club pool.

The ones folks bet most on: golf and 9-ball

Others: straight pool, rotation, 8-ball, snooker (my game), billiards (had to go down to Broadway in SD)

Anyway, didn't it all begin for most of us with The Hustler?

Bruce Wilson

Where were you in '62 ...er... '67?

Bruce Wilson

That market at Third & K was the Lucky Market. The slogan says it all. Ray used to put those horse shoe taps on my suede and alligator Florsheim shoes. Although, Ray is no longer with us, he lives on at the Center Street address, since the new owner(s) chose to preserve it's name. A couple of cuties, Mary and what's-her-name - no?

Gail Eileen Dillon (Boone)

Ok, now I have to ask.  . . What was the name of the market (with a live butcher behind a real meat counter) that was on the west side of 3rd between "E" and "F" Streets?  It was next to a tiny accessories store and a few doors up the street from the Universal Boot Shop, the one with the foot x-ray type machines which were later banned.  The butcher used to give kids raw hots dogs to snack on.  Ugh.

Bruce Wilson

Gail:

Georgia Farrington was wondering just the same thing the other night. There was the Butcher of Seville across from the original House of Music, but that's not the one.

This may be the elusive store "across the street from Chub's Club."

Another tenant of 281 Third Avenue was "Elm's".

George Bracey Gillow

I only recall the "Butcher of Seville" butcher shop on the west of 3rd north of G street. 

I think Glenn's Market on the west side of 3rd between E and F started years later.

Bruce Wilson

George: Aaah! Glenn's -  now we're getting somewhere.

Sprouse-Reitz actually occupied 261-263 Third Avenue (if we can believe what we read).

I don't think I ever had Neiderfranks* Ice Cream (362 Third Avenue), but the store did get some raves on the walls of El Juan (in National City) which shut it's doors March 30, 2013. The place opened in 1946 (same year many of us arrived on scene) and by the strangest coincidence Michele and I went there to eat that day.

Glen's Sporting Goods occupied 322 Third Ave.

Elm's appears to have been a clothing and/or yardage.store.

Remember how we all used to take our sailboats out on the weekend and after school?

Clyde's Fat Boy, 3131 Bonita Rd.??

Angel's Complete Food Market, 444 Broadway

Rasco 5-10-25c Stores, Third & F Street

*By 1964, Neiderfrank's had moved to 726 A St., National City

George Bracey Gillow

Some of you may remember the San Diego KFMB evening news with Ray Wilson, Doug Oliver, Harold Keen and others from TV-8.

I put a short video on YouTube of "This Day 1964 News" with excerpts from one of the TV-8 news programs from 1964 (this and my other videos are found by searching "gsquarb")  

Notice how in the story about the injured man, they give his name and address and play somber music in the background.

Below is the video:

Barbara Sindelar (Seagren)

The pool in Memorial Park taught all sorts of classes... swimming and diving, life guarding, synchronized swimming and even sailing. I remember attaching leeboards to canoes and sailing from the concrete steps to the diving boards. When my class mastered that feat we had a real outing, sailing from Chula Vista to Coronado and back. We took our lunches along and ate them tied to the seaplane markers in the bay! Simple times, but memorable.

Bruce Wilson

Great posts  Barbara and George:

Amazing that you actually sailed across the bay and back, Barbara. I remember several folks attempting to paddle surfboards across (nobody that I remember actually did it). Similarly, some attempted to paddle from Coronado North Bearch to a surf spot called Ralph's at the tip of Point Loma. Nobody succeeded on that route either.

It's been a long time since high school, so I had to look leeboards up.

So George, do you have any video of Johnny Downs dancing on the big Golden Arrow milk bottles? I think that was quite a special effects feat for those days. Your newsreel is really fantastic.

Bruce Wilson

More Third Avenue (before cars and driver's licenses, it was after all, the place to be).

 Yardage City, Kirby's, Lawson Schiller, House of Music (new location)  ... Can't find where I found this originally to see if there is a clearer version. Feel free to fill in the gaps.

Note the boatload of kids in the [my guess - 1951 Chevy], stopping for Ms. Tejada to cross the street.

Gail Eileen Dillon (Boone)

Speaking of Yardage City, does anyone else remember that the lady who owned it spoke with an accent and had numbers tattooed on her forearm?  I remember asking my mother one day, in that loud stage whisper voice that kids use at all the wrong times, why the lady had numbers on her arm.  Try explaining that to a nine-year old. . .

Bruce Wilson

The path from there (allá) to here (aqui) is a hard one to follow, but, be that as it may, we have now reached Graffiti.  First, however, a few words from Paul Simon:

"Sonny sits by his window and thinks to himself
How it's strange that some rooms are like cages
Sonny's yearbook from high school
Is down from the shelf
And he idly thumbs through the pages
Some have died
Some have fled from themselves
Or struggled from here to get there
Sonny wanders beyond his interior walls
Runs his hand through his thinning brown hair"
 

What I can remember of graffiti is very minimal. "Pray for Surf", "Jesus de Sidro" and the like.

Later, even this one (courtesy of Mac Meda Destruction Co.& The Pump House Gang)

Well, OK, it did turn a bit nasty or is that gnarly?

Now graffiti is everywhere (it was a good movie though, no subtitles, didn't even rain ). Michele and I did the OTC (Olympic Training Center)/Upper Otay Lake loop today.

Short little video on topic (i.e. praying for surf).  http://vimeo.com/40236180

The modern era. I believe the first academic treatment of graffiti was a Ph.D thesis done in the UCB Department of Anthropology (late sicxties - early seventies?).

Bruce Wilson

I don't know where graffiti ends and murals begin, but Michael Schnorr deserves a separate segment here since he was a childhood friend and a good man. Michael, in addition to teaching at Southwestern for many years, was the driving force behind the restorations done at Chicano Park. The last time I talked with him several years back at the family home on First Avenue, he mentioned that Judy was getting ready to retire (I believe from teaching in SD county).

http://www.cityprojectca.org/blog/archives/14804

Bruce Wilson

More "between E and F". There was a restaurant on the west side of Third Ave. that featured a collection of antique firearms on the walls. Norm's comes to mind, but who knows? I believe they relocated south to a spot near Third and Moss.

On the east side there was a very small news/cigarette stand, I think. The gas station at Third and E got torn down and as far as I can tell nothing was ever built there. It's a mini-park today. This gas station was right next to where the superior pool player Jay "Swanee" Swanson lived. (Thank God I pulled that one out of the memory bank. Does anyone else notice having problems remembering things?).

Third Ave. in general. How many places had "counter" service? Zontek's did, drug store across from Chub's, Thrifty next to Mayfair at Third and H (this one had the miniature jukeboxes where Gary Baldwin and I listened to Stagger Lee whilst scarfing down (there's a sixties word for ya) french fries with catsup, a chocolate malt, and pie ala mode. Pat Quick (Gary's squeeze - more sixties jargon ) lived just across the vacant field from there on I Street, right across from Danny Jones.

Zorba did not attend any reunions, nor even HHS, but he was around in 1964.

Kathleen Margaret (Kathy) Crusilla (Maloney)

That was Norms, relocated on 300 blk Moss. His speciality was hamburgers in a basket. He and Wilson's which was on the 300 blk F street, across from the bowling alley, (SDGE was in the building later), were the two top spots for hamburgers. Norm was in the 200 blk of third Ave before going to Moss Street.

Wilsons had a ceiling that if you were able to blow your straw cover and stick it in the ceiling, your malt was free. Later they had a spinning wheel and all chairs had a number. If the wheel landed on your number, food was free.

Bruce Wilson

Thanks Kathleen. I've been wondering about Norms for a long time especially what ever became of all the guns.

Since my father had such a close relationship with Bob Wilson (same unit in the Army, Bob convinced Woodrow to move to San Diego from Washington (state), I'm wondering why I can't recall ever going to Wilson's.

The other hamburger place on Third Ave. (and I recall a counter there) was Mel's, right down by Ray's.

The bowling alley was the Cee Vee Bowl, but I've seen it billed as the Cee Vee Playdium [sic?] Bowling. I don't know if they meant the alternative spelling. Where is Daddy-O when you need him.

A little C-W and jukebox trivia. In the song A-11 by Hank Cochran ("I don't know you from Adam, but if you're going to play the jukebox, please don't play A-11"), the plea is superfluous, since jukes didn't have an A-11). You can catch Buck Ownes version here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxdH2Cwk560

Bruce Wilson

There are a few Rosebankers here, so here goes (Sixth grade, 1955 - HHS class of 1962). I recognize Tom MacNamara and Bill Rector (row 6, column 5). Bill took us to Hourglass Field to the drags a few years later. Somebody told me he was a card dealer in Los Vegas. No news on Tom (row 1, column 1).

Rosalee May (Rosie) O'Day (Mason)

That looks a lot like Craig Higgs right under the 1955 on the 6th grade picture.  He lived up the street from us (which used to be the dead end of E Street) and was a few years ahead of us in school.  I remember having a HUGE crush on him. Mrs. Higgs lived in the family home up the street for many years until her death just a few years ago.  Craig is a very well-known, respected lawyer in SD.