My Start with the Big Orange

Orange Julius, Gil Stratton, Jack Snow, Walter Alston, Engineer Bill, Sambos; my aunt took me to meet Mr Ed, he was stabled just around the corner from where she lived...they used peanut butter to get him to talk.

Watched the 67 USC vs UCLA at the LA Boys Club; OJ vs Beban.
Use to be able to drive from Van Nuys to LAX in 30 minutes and that was WITH traffic...lol

Not the 213 I grew up with...a far stranger place these days but Chavez is still a great place for a ball game. Did you know they filmed the climatic final episode of the Fugitive at POP?

 

"Whoaaaa Nelly"...
I just had 30 minutes of winter...now we are on to spring

 

I love Newport. Former Riverside hooligan.

 

Maybe we have met; I was born and raised in Huntington Beach, played hooky from Huntington Beach High (surfin' south side of the pier, Baby!) during my semi attendance and barely graduated.
I used to think anybody that lived east of the 5 fwy. were farmers; how in tarnation did I end up in New England?
BTW, Do any of you guys remember when there used to be real mountain climbers on the Matterhorn at Disneyland?

 

Sambos? OMG, I havn't heard of that place since before Bobs Big Boy went kaput!
Sambos. I remember all the decorations in those restaraunts; kind of a story in pictures of a little boy in the jungle. I heard that those pictures (along with the name) weren't politically correct so the place finally had to close.
I do miss those pancakes though.

 

Bob's is still in Pasadena, killer blue cheese dressing. Sambos had Tiger butter which was part of the story. I knew one of the Matterhorn climbers but didn't want to work there myself...the climbers I knew all got fired for being very un-Disney like.

 

Glad to hear that Bob's is still around in Pasadena. From what I remember, the original Bobs did open up there (or was it Burbank) sometime in the 30's.
And I do remember the Bleu cheese dressing was the best thing going. They even used to have a Bobs comic book for kids starring Bob, Dolly, and their dog Nugget. Probably more intellectual reading material in that mag than most newspapers these days.

When people now ask me where I'm from, I tell them So. Cal. Many of them reply with an "I'm sorry to hear that". I tell them, Oh if only you knew how that place used to be! Back in the day; was paradise: No crowds fighting over scraps, cheap real estate, no militarized police around every corner, no crazy (not too many, anyway) laws and regulations designed to only make the rich even richer (kinda' sounds like the entire U.S.)... ahh memories.

 

Although the question wasn't directed to me, allow me to field the question.
George Putnam, --- news caster, rode a horse in the Rose Parade every year.
P.O.P., --- yup, I remember. How about the Pike in Long Beach? Wooden roller coaster that extended out over the waters of the Pacific Ocean. There was an age limit to ride it, --- my dad fibbed and told 'em I was older than I was. We were seated in the first car. I remember the climb to the top at the beginning of the ride. I thought that was cool, --- my first roller coaster experience. Then we reached the top and the tracks looked like they went straight down. The rest of the ride was sheer terror. I was never so glad for a ride to be over. My dad was seated next to me and even he admitted it was scarier than he thought it would be. Said he had no plans to ever ride it again.

Doctor George?
Weatherman on ABC TV as I recall. Weather was his hobby. He used to host a TV show for kids on Saturday mornings. Do y'all remember Ralph Story?
Beenie and Cesal -- (might be spelled wrong. Back then I was too young to read and/or spell.)

"Pacific Ocean Pier"? You talkin' 'bout Hunnington, known now as Surf City, --- where more bicycles are stolen than any other SoCal city?

YuP! My dad knew of the Pike from his days in the Navy. Whenever the ship put in there he and the crew made the Pike a must. At the time he lived in New York. One time in Long Beach the ship put to sea and was several hours out when they received a frantic message to return to Long Beach because they wanted to use the electric generators aboard ship to provide power to the city --- just hit with a major earthquake and was in shambles. I have photos he took of the massive damage.
I was born there sometime thereafter, --- when my folks migrated west from the Empire State -- Up-State, pullin' a travel trailer before the Interstate System. I have the Atlas they navigated with. Hardly any lines --- and none that went straight or for long.

Ask for directions in rural area:
Excuse me sir, can you tell us how to connect with highway X?
Why sure sonny, --- just take this here road yer on now 'bout six or seven miles, when you see the old Johnson place it'll be the next road you'll wanna turn on. It's where that big 'ol oak tree used to be, --- a few years back. Tornado, don't cha know.
Anyway, --- follow that dirt road through the corn fields till the crop becomes beans, .... then a couple groves of pecan trees, then oats. When it turns to oats, take the next road west if you wanna save some miles, --- but it'll be a tad overgrown this time of year. Might be better if you just pass that road and stay on the one you'll be on, --- 'bout three miles before it ends, --- take that road west 'till you come to where that airplane crashed eight years ago, --- no survivors, pity it was, --- anyway, that's the road that'll git'cha to a cross-roads. Now, you'll think ya should go right, --- but don't do that. Go straight. If the gate is closed, be sure to close it after you open it to drive through. Farmer Smith gets a might riled if ya leave it open. He's a good shot and been known to use tires as targets, --- on the move.
Anyways, ..... you'll come to a second gate, ---- same thing applies. That'll take you past the Fenton spread, --- they're friendly folk. Probably wave at'cha.
It ain't far from there that you'll come to Ruralville. In the center of town there's a bunch-0-signs pointin' every which way. One of 'em will point the way to highway X.
Have a nice trip. By the way, -- where y'all headed?
California.
California?!
Hmmmmmm -------
I ain't sure y'all can git there from here -----

Remember the Red Car? A commuter rail transportation that connected the surrounding cities. Pacific Electric. That company was purchased by General Motors, Firestone, and Chevron/Standard Oil Co., --- who disbanded the rail service in exchange for buses. Buses that GM built, Firestone provided the tires, and Chevron/Standard provided the fuel. Years later folks realized how much better the Red Car was. Too late though. The movie Who Killed Roger Rabbit was based on that event.

MaN-0-MaN!
You're bringin' back memories I forgot I had!

Do y'all remember Engineer Bill?
"One the green light you go, --- on the red light you stop, --- 'cause no engineer would run a red light". Guest kids would then play the game sipping milk on the green lights.
How 'bout the Buffalo Ranch?
Or, when Seal Beach & Sunset Beach was marshland?
The Navy stored munitions at Seal, --- powder and projectiles.

More-N-likely hummers were had in a woody, or a hearse.
Ever surf Trestles?.
Body surf The Wedge?

Sambos?!
Hail YeaH!!
More on that later.

Golly Wilbur,............
Didja get his autograph?

And cop cars had chrome shrouded sirens mounted on a fender or the roof. Some departments drove Nash cars, usually Fords though. Flat-head V-8 engines ruled back then, --- before GM introduced the over-head valve, then Chrysler's Hemi-head. SoCal is where drag racing began. Each season, N.H.R.A. begins and ends in Pomona, WinterNationals and World Finals, (really in the city of La Verne. The track used to be Parker Ave when they weren't racing.)
I attended the 50th anniversary event last year.
John Force, a former Big truck truck driver from Yorba Linda, didn't do so well, --- but he has another daughter piloting a top fuel dragster now. She looks promising.

Do y'all remember back before they used number prefixes? Back then it was a word, like Keystone or Torry. Just dial the first two letters, ie: KE, then five numbers. Dial "0" and the operator dialed long-distance numbers for you.

"Stranger place"?
You got that right!

I did not know that.
War Of The World was filmed somewhere around Corona in Riverside County, just over the hill from Orange County. Hwy 91 goes through there now, as well as I-15, 'bout 18 miles from Ontario.

A homeboy!!
Did you know that Lido Isle was formed when the Santa Ana River flooded?
They want to raise the Parado Dam, but there's a bird that's on the endangered list that nests behind the dam, so it's preferable that thousands of lives be at risk should the dam be breached. Cypress would be under about five feet of water. The flood waters break through around Atwood, where the River makes a bend. The City of Orange, then Anaheim, and on down the line would be very wet. The damage would be astronomical.

That was me, by less than a mile though. But you weren't too far off. Back in the day there were strawberry fields and orange, and other citrus groves, everywhere. Disneyland is on land that was once orange grove and strawberry fields. Last time I was down there, on the corner of Kattella Ave and Harbor Blvd there were still a few acres of strawberry fields, --- across from the Convention Center. Original Japanese family still owned that land and grew strawberries, much to the displeasure of the Anaheim big-wigs.

I wonder why in tarnation I'm still in the general area, here in the Land-0-Fruits & Nutz.

I do!
I grew up about a mile-and-a-half from Disneyland, --- I was there first. I remember when they were building Disneyland. I was young and couldn't comprehend what an "amusement" park was or meant. I remember watching them build a mountain they called The Matterhorn. For a long while I thought all mountains were man built. I remember the fireworks that, at first, lasted a half hour or longer, --- until neighbors complained about the noise. I remember, just prior to the fireworks, Tinkerbelle went from the top of the Matterhorn over the folks below, on a cable --- spotlighted. When the skyrockets exploded it sounded like a war zone, --- it rattled windows and walls. If you weren't aware of the time, the first salvo would scare the hail outta ya. To this day I have no interest in firework skyrockets. I over-dosed on them a long time ago.

Where Disneyland originally built their parking lot, and where California Adventure is now located, used to be an orange grove owned by the Principal of the school where my mother was a teacher. He was told and convinced that the land was worthless as nothing would ever be built there, and the citrus industry was dying in Orange County, so why keep paying taxes on worthless land.
He sold the property.
A couple of years later, something WAS built there.
Now Disney Corp is buying up neighborhoods all around the park to expand even more,
If they keep goin', --- we'll all be livin' in a Disneyland.

There are still a few Bob's Big Boy restaurants around. There's one in Norco, just off I-15.

YuP!
Right outta the book in which "Black Sambo" was the main charecter.
Used to eat at the Sambo's in Palm Springs.

If memory serves me correctly, originally they were named Black Sambo's, but that didn't set well with some folks, You're correct though, First to go was "Black", just "Sambo's" then, but some folks still objected. So they went away altogether. Black Panther fireworks went away also, --- same reason.
Remember Amos & Andy?
Same reason.
It's a shame.

Their dressings can still be had in jars sold in grocery stores.

Try to find that little book written for children now-a-daze.
Seems it went away too.

There was a time when Disneyland would not allow males with long hair into the park. With middle of the back length blond hair, (surfer), I wasn't a good influence.
Oh well, now I don't feel guilty for sneaking in all those times before I had long hair. Or, when it cost kids sixty-cents to get in. We'd cash in pop bottles for the deposit (remember deposit bottles?). Six of us, ten-cents each, then, give the most honest among us the cash, --- he'd buy admittance and quickly go to the exit, --- have his hand stamped for re-entry, --- we'd all meet and smear the ink on all of our hands and head for the entrance, --- and got in. A couple of times the ink was faint, --- think quick! "I told my mom that if I washed my hand the stamp would come off"....................... that routine never failed. Then we discovered a way in off West Street, through a tunnel that led to the Indian Village inside the park, --- through the bushes.
"HEY, you kids, get outta the bushes"!!!
Okay sir.
Never said get outta the park.

Bob's Big Boy restaurants, I've been told, was owned by The Church Of Latter Day Saints (Mormons). Alpha-Beta grocery stores too. I don't think they're affiliated now. And Alpha-Beta stores are gone.

I remember.
I wish we could turn memories into reality
Then, Knott's Berry Farm would still be free to enter, just like back in the day.

HeY folks, ...... thanx for the trip up and down memory lane.