Nostalgia (Pomona, Pasadena, Orange: universities, casino, lawsuit)

[nmnita]

Originally Posted by Susan Gautier

What about P.O.P., Pacific Ocean Park? They had rides & carnival things. I can't recall which beach it was at, maybe Santa Monica?

wow, the worst sunburn I ever got had to do with POP. My girlfriend who was as fair as me and I spent about 3 hours at the beach and then decided we had enough sun so we sould head to POP and have some fun. Hello, there is sun there as well. We went from game to game and ride to ride wearing our suits and a little blouse cover up: I got so burned that when I got marrried a year later I still had the marks from my suit. I won't mention where I got the most burned, but in those days it was part of our body we didn't usually expose: my suit just happened to slip a little that Sunday.

Nita

[Fontucky]

Originally Posted by Susan Gautier

What about P.O.P., Pacific Ocean Park? They had rides & carnival things. I can't recall which beach it was at, maybe Santa Monica?

Yep, Santa Monica. I have fond memories of the place.

[Crankybill]

Originally Posted by barbtoo

Pops Willow Lake was in Lake View Terrace, in fact my sis was just talking about it last Saturday with some old family friends who grew up there and apparently when we went to visit them we would walk over to Pops to play....Fortunately they are older than I and have more memory of it than myself!!!! I could ask them if the have any pics. They are thinking it was closed down when someone drowned there. So sad, but not verified.

Pop's Willow Lake:
I Think in the early 1950's they had a bad Chlorine leak in the swimming pool and hurt or killed some people at Pop's Willow Lake....Mabe that's what closed it down.....not verified...just a vague memory.

[sixfoot2]

Originally Posted by Abearhunter

No one has mentioned Genieland in Burbank yet. Does anyone remember the place? It was a kids party place where the birthday child would go onstage, sit on a giant toadstool (I believe) and collect candy and such from puppets and characters. Afterward, everyone would go to a party room to have cake and ice cream and open gifts. I remember the place being absolutely wild (of course, I was a child.) Anyone else?

Genieland! My girlfriend had her birthday party there when we were about 5-6 years old, and it was so awesome. I had never seen anything like that before, so it was a real memory. I was just reminiscing with her about it yesterday, and she told me the name of the place. Now I know that it was in Burbank (we were in Van Nuys). Thanks for confirming!

[asucubbydback]

The Pacific Electric: This was the public transportation system that Los Angeles used to have. Although I'm too young to have experienced it, I've heard many great things about it. The legend has it that the demise of the P.E. was brought about by General Motors, Standard Oil, and Goodyear Tire, all of which wanted to put people into their own cars.

To a certain extent GM, Standard Oil and Goodyear Tire were the demise but, the actual railroads themselves were so mismanaged and corrupted that they kind of dug their own graves.

[majoun]

Originally Posted by asucubbydback

The Pacific Electric: This was the public transportation system that Los Angeles used to have. Although I'm too young to have experienced it, I've heard many great things about it. The legend has it that the demise of the P.E. was brought about by General Motors, Standard Oil, and Goodyear Tire, all of which wanted to put people into their own cars.

To a certain extent GM, Standard Oil and Goodyear Tire were the demise but, the actual railroads themselves were so mismanaged and corrupted that they kind of dug their own graves.

PE was before my time. I'd heard that the trains were very poorly maintained and broke down a lot even before GM and Goodyear got involved. BTW, when the county took over PE and formed the original MTA, the system got dismantled within a short period of time.

[mateo45]

Originally Posted by jdavid93225

I can remember many of these things from my childhood, most of them very fondly. I'm sure that if I put my mind to it, I will be able to come up with some other fond memories from that era. For now, though, I'd like to hear about what others remember from their earlier days.

It was a "simple pleasure" we used to take for granted, but living in Long Beach during the 60's and 70's, I recall when you could still drive into a large shopping center, and SoCal still wasn't so crowded yet, that you could easily find a parking spot, without having to aggressively "compete" for it!

Recently was at a Costco here in rural NorCal (the "real" NorCal ), and while watching folks calmly (& unstressfully) come and go in the parking lot, I realized how uncommon that simple experience has become in most of the suburban & metro parts of Cali these days.

[ne'ne']

can anyone tell me when lankersheim elementary school on lankersheim blvd in north hollywood was cut from 2 stories down to 1? when did it quit being an elementary school? it was such a beauty in the late 60's. i was very disappointed to see how much it had changed while on google maps. however, to my suprise the area in general hadn't changed all that much in 40 years.

[Huckleberry3911948]

came here from france with 150 bucks and 2 suit cases 30 years ago. california has been very good to me.
thank you california.

[MotleyCrew]

Originally Posted by Huckleberry3911948

came here from france with 150 bucks and 2 suit cases 30 years ago. california has been very good to me.
thank you california.

Glad you found your spot on this globe. It is still a beautiful state.