Nostalgia (Los Angeles, San Francisco, Long Beach: bus, safer, retired)

[ferretkona]

Originally Posted by theatregal

Wow... I remember the "Pike" amusement park in Long Beach... It was called Queens Park in the 70's, after the arrival of the Queen Mary. That is about the time they also had the "spruce Goose" on display.,,,,,.

My next door neighbor was the manager at the Pike, he used to take us and give us a whole roll of tickets to play with.
After the pike closed up he remained, they shot a lot of movies at the park. Charlies Angels, Bionic Man, Berreta, etc.
Ed would bring home stuff from the horror house, like the mummy, dracula, etc for decorating at halloween. During a shoot for Charlies Angels someone broke the arm off the mummy, bones were revealed. Ended up it was a gangster from Chicago was stuffed in a mummy outfit and sold off.

The spruce goose was moved to the dome in 1980. It was in the Guinness Book of records for the largest ocean crane operation, the crane had been brought over from Germany by the Wrather Corporation.
The crane company had never been paid by Wrather Corp.

The house my wife and live in was at one time owned by Howard Hughes's lead engineer, it passed thru a couple different owners before me. He was just about as eccentric as H. Hughes. He did some wiring on the house that I have had to fix. He apparently came in after hours as the house was built and added stuff.

There has been a few Bob's Big Boys around, there has been one in down town LA. One on Spring in Long Beach. It seems that they are trying to keep it alive but the menu is not even close to the past and the food really was not great, not like it was in the 60's, 70's and 80's.

I miss the old Sambo's, loved their all you can eat clam strips. They went thru several changes: God Fathers pizza then into Bakers Square. I understand the original sambos is in Santa Barbara.

Farrells ice cream has had a restaurant up on the grape vine for awhile, can't wait to see them come back.

[nicet4]

Originally Posted by Charles

That's pretty interesting.

At least you had DVD players, laptops with movies and high speed internet from satellites to pass the time.

Here's that route on google maps with the "avoid highways" feature enabled:

from: sfo to: Rapid City, sd - Google Maps

There was a two lane highway that I-80 followed because I remember going through Lovelock and Battle Mountain, Nevada. Then we would go through Evansville then Evanston and Caspar, Wyoming to get there. I do remember, you guys got to remember I was young so my memory might be off on some things, when I-80 was being built it was built in sections. We'd be driving along on two lane in the middle of Nowhere, Nevada and jump on to a spacious 30 mile stretch of wonderful interstate only to run into two lane again. I think this must have been around 1956 or somewhere about.

I remember grandma talking about how wonderful it would be when they got it all done.

My dad died when I was very young but I do have a couple of memories of him. My grandfather was well off, they lived in Atherton at the time, and one of my first memories was being held in my dads lap watching horses in a pasture across from the house in Atherton. This must have been in 1952. The buzz back then was grandpa bought that Atherton house, it's still there on McCormick Lane near Marianna Lane, looking exactly like it did, for $50,000 which was a huge sum of money (bought it in 1936) at the time.

Grandfather was a developer that built most of the 1940's and 50's track homes around San Carlos.

But so much has changed. I left the bay area in the early 1970's and didn't return until 2001. Like anyone would do when I got to San Francisco I rented a car and spent an afternoon driving by old places and haunts. It was exciting to see things that were still there that I remember but so much had changed. I remember I spent a lot of time with my boyhood friend in Los Altos but I couldn't remember the street so I went looking. They had a ranch style home but I never did recognize it probably because someone added a second story or something.

Westinghouse, where they made circuit boards, was a big employer and so was the cannery. Can't remember the name of the cannery but it was huge. I think it is all gone now.

[nicet4]

Oh, who can not mention San Francisco Airport!

I was fortunate in that I was well traveled as a kid. I was four when I got my first airplane ride it was a trip from San Francisco to Missouri. I don't remember much, it must have taken a long time and I don't even remember if we had stops but I do remember when they started the engines there was was a guy by the propellers at the ready with a fire extinguisher.

Lived a year in Missouri where my uncle was a dentist in the army and when he got out we moved to Anaheim where he started a practice.

I think I had just turned six, this would have put us around 1954 in the dead middle of summer, and when we left Missouri there were four little kids in the back seat. This was before air conditioning and I remember it being so hot even with all the windows down and the car moving. My aunt stopped, there was a two vehicle caravan, and got two big bags of us we kids could put our feet on. The trip must have taken us through Arizona in the middle of sumer before the Interstates. That I do remember.

It's funny how memories work. The trip must have taken three or four days, my aunt and I talked about it not to many years ago at a reunion, but all I remember was the bags of ice and how hot it was.

[Charles]

Originally Posted by ferretkona

Farrells ice cream has had a restaurant up on the grape vine for awhile, can't wait to see them come back.

It's off Soledad Canyon Road in Santa Clarita. I've been there. Almost looks like a warehouse in an amusement park from the outside. On the inside it pretty much looks like Farrells.

Farrell's Ice Cream Parlour & Restaurant

[nmnita]

Originally Posted by ferretkona

My next door neighbor was the manager at the Pike, he used to take us and give us a whole roll of tickets to play with.
After the pike closed up he remained, they shot a lot of movies at the park. Charlies Angels, Bionic Man, Berreta, etc.
Ed would bring home stuff from the horror house, like the mummy, dracula, etc for decorating at halloween. During a shoot for Charlies Angels someone broke the arm off the mummy, bones were revealed. Ended up it was a gangster from Chicago was stuffed in a mummy outfit and sold off.

The spruce goose was moved to the dome in 1980. It was in the Guinness Book of records for the largest ocean crane operation, the crane had been brought over from Germany by the Wrather Corporation.
The crane company had never been paid by Wrather Corp.

The house my wife and live in was at one time owned by Howard Hughes's lead engineer, it passed thru a couple different owners before me. He was just about as eccentric as H. Hughes. He did some wiring on the house that I have had to fix. He apparently came in after hours as the house was built and added stuff.

There has been a few Bob's Big Boys around, there has been one in down town LA. One on Spring in Long Beach. It seems that they are trying to keep it alive but the menu is not even close to the past and the food really was not great, not like it was in the 60's, 70's and 80's.

I miss the old Sambo's, loved their all you can eat clam strips. They went thru several changes: God Fathers pizza then into Bakers Square. I understand the original sambos is in Santa Barbara.

Farrells ice cream has had a restaurant up on the grape vine for awhile, can't wait to see them come back.

wow, mentioning H. Hughs, my husband worked for the PR company that had the HH account.

As for Bobs, I remember the first one in Glendale. I was just a little kid at the time and Sambos, loved that place. It is sad to think of the end of so much we remember about Los Angeles. Of course they still have: Phillipes, as well as a few other things I remember from a kid. I do remember Farrells, but I also remember Coast Curries.

Nita

[majoun]

Found another L.A. nostalgia blog, which ostensibly is dedicated to the Go-Gos but which covers a great deal of aspects of life in '70s-80s SoCal which spawned the band (with some content about places and events dating back to the early 20th century)

The Go-Go's Notebook

This entry is particularly interesting as it talks about the decline of L.A. over the course of the '70s:

The Go-Go's Notebook: February 2008

Before people blamed all of L.A.'s problems on illegal immigration....they blamed all of L.A.'s problems on busing.

[stillkit]

Originally Posted by nicet4

Oh, who can not mention San Francisco Airport!

I was fortunate in that I was well traveled as a kid. I was four when I got my first airplane ride it was a trip from San Francisco to Missouri. I don't remember much, it must have taken a long time and I don't even remember if we had stops but I do remember when they started the engines there was was a guy by the propellers at the ready with a fire extinguisher.

Lived a year in Missouri where my uncle was a dentist in the army and when he got out we moved to Anaheim where he started a practice.

I think I had just turned six, this would have put us around 1954 in the dead middle of summer, and when we left Missouri there were four little kids in the back seat. This was before air conditioning and I remember it being so hot even with all the windows down and the car moving. My aunt stopped, there was a two vehicle caravan, and got two big bags of us we kids could put our feet on. The trip must have taken us through Arizona in the middle of sumer before the Interstates. That I do remember.

It's funny how memories work. The trip must have taken three or four days, my aunt and I talked about it not to many years ago at a reunion, but all I remember was the bags of ice and how hot it was.

Crossing the high desert on Rt. 66 was a real adventure back then and frought with real danger. People could, and did, die out there in that desert. Few cars had air conditioning, so the choice for travelers was to roll down the windows and suffer dehydration or roll them up and sweat to death. There was a product on the market which was basically a small swamp cooler which you secured to the car by rolling it up in a window. Outside, it was tubular shaped and had a fan driven by your speed which forced air through some kind of water jacket into the car. It didn't work very well in the Mojave's 110 degree heat. Most people opted to cross the desert at night, if they could.

Rt. 60 from Blythe to Los Angeles wasn't any better. (I think it was 60 before it was I-10). The same blistering nothingness which could be rapidly fatal if your car broke down, which many did, usually from the radiator boiling over or worn tires giving up the ghost from the heat. Remember, this was in the days before radial tires and steel belts. Cheap bias ply tires with only 2 or 3 rayon or nylon belts couldn't handle the heat.

Once you got across the desert coming west, you had to negotiate the old road down Chiriaco Summit. It was two lane and wound down through the canyons, ultimately ending up at the red light where Dillon Rd and Rt. 86 cross now (there was a truck stop on the SE corner of that intersection). You can still see parts of the old road from I-10 even today. The biggest danger to motorists were trucks coming down the hill behind you. Truck brakes weren't as good then as they are now and a "runaway" nearly always resulted in someone being run over and killed. There were no runaway ramps on that old road.

Today, we breeze across the desert at 70 mph in air conditioned comfort, secure in the knowledge that if we have trouble, the CHP will be there in about 5 minutes to rescue us (they patrol the desert aggressively looking for broken down vehicles). We no longer fear, or even give a thought to the desert as we fly through it, but that didn't used to be the case. Not even a half-century ago, you literally took the lives of yourself and your family into your hands when you crossed the Mojave.

[Charles]

Originally Posted by majoun

Found another L.A. nostalgia blog, which ostensibly is dedicated to the Go-Gos but which covers a great deal of aspects of life in '70s-80s SoCal which spawned the band (with some content about places and events dating back to the early 20th century)

The Go-Go's Notebook

This entry is particularly interesting as it talks about the decline of L.A. over the course of the '70s:

The Go-Go's Notebook: February 2008

Before people blamed all of L.A.'s problems on illegal immigration....they blamed all of L.A.'s problems on busing.

Those photos are great. Someone went to a lot of work.

[JustPassinThru]

Originally Posted by Charles

Those photos are great. Someone went to a lot of work.

I agree. This woman tells a great story and her words and photos have energized my memory cells.

I purchased my sportcoats and ties at Sy Amber's (downtown), and saw "Deep Throat" at the Pussycat. Doctors at Cedars-Sinai saved my infant child's life when he could not retain anything in his stomach and became dangerously dehydrated.

I often ate "breakfast" at Pink's, not because their dogs were anything special, but because you could be in and out of there in five minutes in the morning. I was delivering blueprints on San Vicente when JFK was shot, and my MIL was working at Good Sam when Bobby was rushed in that evening.

I admit to being a little underwhelmed when I first visited Grauman's Chinese in 1955, but Hollywood became my hangout not long after that. We used to sleep in (or on) our cars at the Legion Lanes but, even then, you had to be aware as sexual predators were always on the prowl.

I worked at Safeway School of Driving on Gower when Hollywood was an exciting, vibrant community. By the late sixties, it was not a place to raise a family, but it still retained it's magnetism for the multitudes.

[BayAreaHillbilly]

Originally Posted by nicet4

There was a two lane highway that I-80 followed because I remember going through Lovelock and Battle Mountain, Nevada. Then we would go through Evansville then Evanston and Caspar, Wyoming to get there. I do remember, you guys got to remember I was young so my memory might be off on some things, when I-80 was being built it was built in sections. We'd be driving along on two lane in the middle of Nowhere, Nevada and jump on to a spacious 30 mile stretch of wonderful interstate only to run into two lane again. I think this must have been around 1956 or somewhere about.

That older highway was US-40.