Nostalgia (Los Angeles, Palmdale, Simi Valley: park, dinner, locations)

[breeze823]

Or how about Handy Man, did you have those up there? We had one in La Mesa and I remember as a kid going out into the nursery and there were always a bunch of tiny frogs in the plants!

[Charles]

Originally Posted by breeze823

I remember Gemco! We had them in San Diego too. I think before that, they were called White Front?
And A&W Rootbeer stands where they come out to your car and put the tray in the window!

White Front and GEMCO were two different stores.

Gemco - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

White Front - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

(image not protected by copyright)



If this picture doesn' make it, look here:

Synthetrix Photos Of The Forgotten

[breeze823]

Pup N Taco! I totally forgot about them! Remember Naugles? Yum! My friend and I would always get chocolate shakes and french fries and dip our fries in the shakes, how weird!
Is this just an LA thread or does anyone remember those "I Love You San Diego" Tshirts from the 70's? I can't remember what that was about but I remember it was a big thing! I had a brown one!
Dolphin shorts? I think I had every color!

[breeze823]

Originally Posted by Charles

White Front and GEMCO were two different stores.

(image not protected by copyright)



If this picture doesn' make it, look here:

Synthetrix Photos Of The Forgotten

Oh ok! I think our Gemco opened in the old White Front, which is now one of those electronic stores like Circuit City or something!

[breeze823]

Originally Posted by CA4Now

Speaking of that chain, remember Licorice Pizza?

I remember the name but don't think I ever saw a store either. We did have The Warehouse, and something else in the mall, I guess Music Plus?

Remember Pioneer Chicken and Picnic N Chicken?

[breeze823]

Originally Posted by Charles

I took my kids to Farrell's last Friday when we were in SoCal on vacation. It is in Santa Clarita in sort of an amusement center. The exterior looks like a warehouse but the interior resembles the classic Farrells of the 1960s and 1970s. There are also lots of old photos of kids' birthday parties from the 1970s.

On the wall (near the restrooms) are original menus from 1968 (I think) and 1980.

In 1968 the Zoo was like $6 or $7 but it said it only served 6.

In 1980 a Zoo was $10 but it advertised serving 10.

Today a Zoo is $49.95 and a trough is I think $10 or $12, maybe $14, I forgot.

Farrell's!* The Fun Is Back!!

The Farrell's Zone

Check out this Zoo video from 1974

http://www.happyitis.biz/multimedia/zoorunning.wmv

Aw Farrells! I think everyone back when I was a kid had their birthday party there! I had my daughters 2 birthday there, 12 years ago, and it's so different than it was. It really was a let down. Remember all those little neon colored plastic zoo animals they'd put in the zoo? Not anymore! I can't even remember if they ran the ice cream out like before.

[mmouwse]

I rememnber corporal punishment in schools... the old Disneyland and Magic Mountain mentioned here... Busch Park... MarineLand... the Wild Animal Park where you drove through in your car and the animals roamed free ... movies were 25 cents and you could stay and watch it as many times as you liked??
Remember Knotts Berry Farm when it had the amusement park on one side and the other side was an Island park with wooden animals with wooden foot levers that gushed water out of their mounths when you jumped up and down on them?
Remember the Japanese Park Petting Zoo and trained animal shows.... in...was it ? Buena Park?
OC when it was rural with farms and agriculture and nothing on the southeast side of the santa ana river? when it had strawberry fields, walnut groves and orange groves along Beach BLVD down to Huntington Beach ? When there were no fences along PCH and the sand was on both sides of the highway with huge amounts of open land? When cerritos and cyprus were dairyland? Riverside and the Inland empire were wheatfields and orange groves??
When there was only one freeway, then 2... and there were never any traffic jams??? and the sky was always blue and the air was always dry???
Remember when all the children used to play outside all day (us) and (our) parents never feared ? Remember all the varieties of tag we played? Remember how thin and healthy we all were? Remember when fitness was more important than the label on your clothes?

oh my ..... <sigh>

[mmouwse]

Originally Posted by breeze823

Wasn't there a Lion Country Safari a long time ago? And whoever mentioned Sambos, I loved Sambos. They had the best French Toast, or so I thought.
This is a long thread, I've only read the first page,lol.

yes! Lion Country Safari!! That was down in southwestern OC...Lake Forest now...
and Sambo's! That chain was started in Santa Barbara... I read the story somewhere... he built it up, then closed it down....He still has one in Santa Barbara though!

[mmouwse]

cheese!! wHO sTARTED THIS THREAD??!!
thank you!!
Licorice pizza....kmet...klos....DR. George Fishbeck ... all the t.v. personalities we grew up with...all the restaurants, stores, traditions, parks, and places.... It is great to read your memories and remember and ad my own and remember...
Bob's Big Boy...Sambo's wooden nickels for coffee.... picking fresh oranges off the trees on the way home for school then squeezing fresh oj... orange julius.... the ice-cream truck... Dr. Dimento and his demented discs !! Wolfman Jack!! The beach cities before they were developed out! all the oil fields with pumps dressed up to look like grasshoppers! oh! and.... <great big smile>

[MIKEETC]

The Gemco where I lived at the time (Pomona) located on Indian Hill Boulevard near the Greyhound bus station closed down and for a while it was vacant. Then there was an Expo grocery store, then it was vacant for a while again. Now, the building is gone and the whole site has been redeveloped into condominiums.

The Music Plus on the same street was bought by Blockbuster and they converted it to Blockbuster Music. Blockbuster screwed it all up and after a while it closed down. It is vacant now.

Back in the day going to Music Plus was a weekly event. My friends and I would go over there and just look at cassettes and CDs for hours. Then I got a job there and worked there for about 4 years (including the Blockbuster days).

It was one of my favorite jobs...