LoyalTubist

Bill's Sponsors for July 2010

2010-07-28T20:26:00.031+08:00

Minnie Pearl's Roast Beef/Minnie Pearl's Fried Chicken - - Now you can have a choice - - good thing there's a McDonald's next door!

Pontiac Motor Division of General Motors - - Makers of the Aztek minivan. Chrysler wouldn't dare make a car this unique!

Gemco Membership Department Stores - - Our lifetime membership is the best deal there is!

Colton Movieland Frontier Town - - Live Western gunfights every weekend...

Thriftimart Supermarkets - - Every day's a special day at Thriftimart!

Continental Trailways - - You have a choice. You don't have to go to the dogs.

Needles Police Department - - The most isolated municipal law enforcement authority in the conterminous United States...

Maytime Band Review - - May is the best time for a band parade.

Los Angeles Herald-Examiner - - L.A.'s afternoon paper. A Hearst Publication. With the Puck Comic Weekly every Sunday. Still only 10 cents daily, 50 cents on Sunday.

PeoplExpress (People Express) - - Fly to Newark for only $29.99 and up, one-way, from LAX.

Jerseymaid Milk - "All us cows do our best for Jerseymaid!"

Riverside General Hospital - - One of the largest teaching hospitals in the country. Now a Lowes Hardware Store!

Security Pacific National Bank - - Formerly Security First National Bank.

Instant Postum - - The hot drink Mormons have for breakfast. (Yes, I know it's been off the market since 2008... everything on this list is defunct...)

Brew 102 - - Now beer drinkers can enjoy their favorite beverage for the price of a soft drink!

KCHU-TV, Channel 18, San Bernardino - - San Bernardino's first and only commercial TV station. Located in the old Fox Theatre on Court Street downtown. Owned by the Sun-Telegram.

Mode O' Day - - Women, you can look just like your grandmother dressed 48 years ago for about the same price.

Santa's Village - - Santa doesn't live at the North Pole. He lives in nearby Skyforest.

Mission Pak Fruit Baskets - - Send fresh California fruit to the friends and family back east (offer not available in Arizona).

Apple ][e Computer - - Get lightning fast speed and a huge disk to store your stuff! At just under $3,000! Very affordable!

93 KHJ Boss Radio - - Listen to the Real Don Steele, Sam Riddle, Gary Mack, Robert W. Morgan and all the other jocks, playing the best music in Los Angeles.

Italian Swiss Colony Wines - - "Made by that little old winemaker... me!"

Barbara Ann Bakeries - - Honey V Bread: Best damned wholegrain bread on the planet! (Could this slogan have saved the company?)

Flying A Gasoline - - Axelrod says, "Ooh, do we worry about your car."

Pup 'n' Taco - - Now you can get both in the same restaurant! We serve RC Cola.

Let's Eat Out

2010-06-19T18:55:00.017+08:00

A lot of people today complain that the nation is becoming the same all over. Actually, restaurant chains have existed for almost a century, since the first fast food chain, the Pig Stand. Lots of places no longer exist. Some only have one location left. Others no longer have chain operations in the United States but do great overseas. Kenny Rogers Roasters only has one restaurant at the Ontario Mills Mall in Southern California (in the USA). However, it's all over the Philippines (although not where I am now in Cagayan de Oro). Shakey's Pizza is a bigger chain here than it ever was in America. Sambo's only has its original Santa Barbara (California) location. And it closes early.

Burger Chef

Chi-Chi's Mexican Restaurante

Farrell's Ice Cream Parlour Restaurant

Kenny Rogers Roasters

Lum's Hot Dogs Steamed in Beer

Naugles Hamburger Stand

Pioneer Chicken

Pup 'n' Taco

Roadhouse Grill

Sambo's Pancakes

Sandy's Hamburgers

ShowBiz Pizza

Victoria Station

White Tower Hamburgers

Cola Trivia

2010-06-14T12:04:00.028+08:00

The Coca-Cola Company never officially used the word Coke until March 17, 1944. It never appeared on Coke packaging until 1955. That was the year the Coke can first appeared. So there have always been Coke cans, since the day they were first made.

The word Coke was used promotionally. Morton Downey (1901-85), a popular Irish tenor had a radio program called the Coke Club which aired from 1930 until 1950, with Downey as host. It continued a few more years with Eddie Fisher (1929- ) hosting. And, in case you were wondering, Morton Downey was the father of the late talk show host (and singer, too) Morton Downey Jr. (1932-2001).

"Coke" only appears on cans sold in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore. It's not seen on the Coke sold here in the Philippines.

In countries whose native languages do not end words with a k sound, Coke is called Coca. This includes Vietnam, Spanish speaking countries, Indonesia, and German speaking countries. So now you know.

The bottoms of Coke bottles had the names of the cities of the bottling plants where the bottles were made. It was quite interesting to be living in San Diego, California and have a bottle from Jamestown, New York!

The bottle at the right is from Savannah, Georgia.

Disneyland served both Coca-Cola and Pepsi Cola from 1955 to 1982. Coke was almost everywhere but Pepsi was served at the Golden Horseshoe Revue in Frontierland.

The Anaheim, California, theme park is now exclusively Coca-Cola Territory.

Pepsi and Coke employees must swear an oath that they will never imbibe a competitor's product. It's such a solemn promise that even after some workers have been off the job for 60-70 years, they are still loyal to their former employer.

Like was the sugar free version of Seven Up ("the only soft drink made just for girls.") Comedian Louie Nye (1913-2005) starred in some hilarious commercials in which he played a woman, even though acted and looked like the manly man he was. Eventually, Like's name was changed to Diet Seven Up.

A couple of decades later, Like resurfaced as a caffein free cola. There were regular and sugar free versions. The regular version had red packaging. The sugar free version was blue.

Shasta used to make cola in the following flavors: Cherry; Lemon; Chocolate; Vanilla; Pineapple. I loved them all. I think the pineapple cola bit the dust way ahead of the others. And then they just went away. The company that made Shasta pop made some interesting flavors, including draft root beer and draft orange soda (so that kids would have a head on their fizzy drinks, just like Daddy's beer!)

Years later, I wrote to Shasta to ask about them making the flavored colas again. But you know those young kids who run the companies like that.. They didn't acknowledge that these flavors were a part of history. No, they said these originated in Mexico (?????) and the cans were captioned in both English and Spanish. No mention about the past.

Alas...

By the way, this advertisement must be from the early 1960s, at the latest!

Outside the United States, Pepsi Cola is market with Seven Up. The packaging of the two drinks is virtually identical.

Cadbury-Schweppe's bought Royal Crown Cola in the 1990s. The company had earlier bought Seven Up. (They also own Dr Pepper.)

Americans living in the Southeastern part of the country enjoy RC Cola and Moon Pie as a snack.

In the Philippines, Coca-Cola puts out its own generic version of its flagship drink, called Pop Cola. It generally sells for 20-25% less than Coke. There are also generic versions of the company's other drinks: Royal Tru-Orange (the Filipino version of Fanta) has a low priced version called Cheers and Sprite has a discount version called Sparkle. Taste-wise, the less expensive drinks are identical. But there is some stigma attached with drinking these all the time. Coke gets a lot of money, anyway.

Outside the United States, Royal Crown Cola is owned by the Cott Company of Canada. In certain parts of Vietnam, it may seem odd, but RC is easier to find than Coke!

The name of the little boy with the Coke bottle cap hat, premature gray hair and glowing smile is Sprite. He was also called the Sprite Boy. The drink called Sprite did not come out until 1960. Many Coca-Cola bottlers put out Bubble Up. The San Diego Coca-Cola Bottling Company (as well as those in the Los Angeles area) continued to sell Bubble Up into the late 1960s. I remember I could never buy Sprite at a store until about 1969. Sometimes, though my memory isn't as good as I wish it was. I wish I could remember EVERYTHING....

Well, except the bad stuff!

Double Cola was the discount cola when I was growing up. Like RC it came in 16 ounce bottles. It had a very rough taste (to me, but I liked it). Somehow, it disappeared from Southern California sometime in the early 1970s. I went to college briefly in Tennessee and was delighted to see Double Cola at the Mouse Trap Mini Market in Cookeville. (They also had Bubble Up and Kickapoo Joy Juice, but that's another story. Many years after I left that store became infamous for being the top merchant in Tennessee to sell cigarettes to minors...) Double Cola is sold in the Southeastern United States, Southern Asia, the Middle East, and South America. But not Los Angeles. Alas...

The very first national commercial jingle (song used for advertising) was for Pepsi Cola in 1940:

Pepsi Cola hits the spot;
Twelve full ounces that's a lot.
Twice as much for a nickel, too;
Pepsi Cola is the drink for you!
Nickel, nickel, nickel, nickel, nickel, nickel, nickel... (etc.)

So the toothpaste jingle in the musical play/movie, Annie, "You Aren't Dressed Without Your Smile," could have never happened because the story took place in the early 1930s (people tell me that the LoyalTubist is not much fun to watch movies with... I notice too much!)

To explain the jingle, Coca-Cola was sold in tiny six ounce bottles for five cents. Pepsi came out with bottles that were twice as big for the same price. Coke would later outdo Pepsi in 1988 by creating a 16 ounce "tall boy" aluminum can. But that was only an experiment, much to the chagrin of a real Coke lover like me.

Artist Haddon Sundblom (1899-1976) is, by urban culture, and legend, credited with creating the modern idea of who Santa Claus is from the paintings he made of Kris Kringle in magazines of the 1920s and 1930s for Coca-Cola. Older pictures of Santa show him in colors other than red and white, Coke's official colors.

For a couple of years, the Ripley's Believe It Or Not radio show radio show was sponsored by Royal Crown Cola. Robert L. Ripley, announcer Ford Bond, singer "Lovely" Linda Lee, and bandleader B.A. Rolfe did the show in New York City in the 1930s and 1940s. At the closest place where one in New York could buy a bottle of RC Cola was Maryland.

The strongest flavoring agent in Coca-Cola is lemon. In Pepsi Cola, it's cinnamon. And, even though it's not a cola project, in Dr Pepper, it's cherry. Popular 1950s folklore told us it was prune juice, but that isn't true; if you drink too much Dr Pepper and get the runs, it's the carbonation doing what carbonation does best. Incidentally, according to the people who make Dr Pepper, there is no period after the Dr. Actually, I've seen one logo used during the World War II period that had a period after the Dr. Maybe they mean after 1946!

BREAKING NEWS...

2010-05-15T02:43:00.001+08:00

Post Toasties has finally returned. Most people don't even realize the original corn flakes (which actually pre-dated Kellogg's by a couple of years as Elijah's Manna) left us way back in 2006. Four years later, Post Toasties has returned.

Welcome back, Post Toasties!

The Colton Quiz (ANSWERS)

2010-04-25T16:54:00.002+08:00

Sorry to say, but we had no winner. I need to save some reserves in my CafePress store.

Here are the answers:

What are the specific official colors of Colton High School? CRIMSON AND GOLD.
What were the names of the two junior high schools that were replaced by Colton Junior High School in 1954? WOODROW WILSON JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL and THEODORE ROOSEVELT JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL.
Who was Isaac "Cristobal" Slover? AN EXPLORER WHO LIVED IN THE VILLAGE OF POLITANA, NEAR AGUA MANSA CEMETERY. HE WAS KILLED BY A BEAR ON THE MOUNTAIN (now ex-mountain) THAT WOULD LATER BEAR HIS NAME.
What was the name of the Colton Airport? Where was it? Which airline made regular stops there? MORROW FIELD. NEAR THE FORMER SITE OF THE PRICE CLUB AND THE COLTON CABLE SKI-WAY SWIMMING POOL. CABLE CABLE COMMUTER AIRLINES (later known as IMPERIAL AIRLINES).
Name the Chevrolet and Dodge dealers which used to be in downtown Colton. The Chevy place moved north (onto La Cadena Avenue) with downtown redevelopment and the Dodge dealership closed after its owner died of a heart attack. CENTER CHEVROLET and LAUGHTON COLTON DODGE.
What was the former nickname of Colton? It has something to do with the shape of Colton City Hall (formerly Colton Civic Center) as seen from the air. THE HUB CITY.
What were the names of the two Southern Pacific passenger trains that stopped in Colton? Can you also name the two Union Pacific passenger trains and the one Santa Fe train that stopped in Colton during the 1960s? SP: SUNSET LIMITED (New Orleans-Los Angeles) and GOLDEN STATE (Chicago-Los Angeles). UP: CITY OF LOS ANGELES and CHALLENGER (both Chicago-Los Angeles). ATSF: GRAND CANYON (Chicago-Los Angeles)
What were the five route numbers of the two highways that crossed in Colton before the freeways were built? US 70, US 91, US 99, US 395, CA 18.
What does joint mean in Colton Joint Unified School District? The district is located in more than one county. There is a section of the district south of Reche Canyon near Moreno Valley.
Before Bloomington High School was built, high school students in Bloomington went to Colton Union High School (having more than one high school meant that Colton was no longer a one high school high school district, the "union" was dropped, and the high school district subsequently "unified" with the elementary districts in Colton, Bloomington, and Grand Terrace.) Before Eisenhower High School was built in 1958, where did high school students in Rialto go to school? After 1952, they went to Pacific High School in San Bernardino. Eisenhower was originally in the San Bernardino Union High School District.
Name a dairy located in Colton. It was actually outside the city limits on Cypress Avenue. BLUE MOUNTAIN DAIRY--originally the branch of a dairy located in Grand Terrace on Blue Mountain. QUALITY DAIRY had a small property on Fairway Drive in the 1960s.
What was the major chain supermarket at the Mount Vernon Shopping Center? What about the major supermarket at the Rancho Vista Shopping Center (Rancho Avenue and Mill Street, next to the T.G.&Y.)? THRIFTIMART (Mt. Vernon SC). MAYFAIR [later BI-RITE] (Rancho Vista SC).
What was the name of the coffee shop located in front of the old Stater Brothers supermarket on I Street (later Valley Boulevard)? STATER BROTHERS COFFEE SHOP (it was there even after Stater's supermarket moved down the street).
What were the names of the Stater brothers? TWINS LEO and CLEO STATER.
Name a popular 1960s songwriter who graduated from Colton High School. His father had been the pastor at the First Southern Baptist Church (now Sierra Vista Baptist Church). JIMMY WEBB (MacArthur Park, Up Up and Away).
For whom was Colton named? David D. Colton, Vice President of the Southern Pacific Railroad and an Army general in the Civil War. He never visited the city.
How did the Colton High School Yellow Jackets get their nickname in the late 1920s? What was the schools nickname previous to this? Football players wore black tape strips on their gold jerseys. A newspaper reporter said they looked like a swarm of wasps. Prior to this the teams were known as the Crimson Tornado (singular).
Name the original members of the old high school Citrus Belt League. When they were built in the 1950s, Pacific (San Bernardino) and Fontana were added to this group. Chaffey (Ontario), Colton, Pomona, Redlands, Riverside [never referred to as Poly until the 1960s] ,San Bernardino.
For what professional sports team did Kenny Hubbs play? CHICAGO CUBS of the National League (Major League Baseball).
Name a current celebrity who graduated from Colton High School. (Not me.) KAT VON D.
Where was the first Stater Brothers market? YUCAIPA, CALIFORNIA.
Name a former Colton High School student who played professional football, then returned to the school to teach English. DENNIS CRANE. He played for the Washington Redskins and the New York Giants.
What were the three brands of fuel sold by Ray Phillips Truck Stop? FLYING A, PHILLIPS 66, and TEXACO.
What was the name of the hamburger stand across the street from Colton Union High School (corner of Third and I Streets)? BIG G.
What was the original name of La Cadena Drive in Riverside? COLTON AVENUE.

Too bad no one entered. Oh, well...

Bill's find of the day...

2010-04-15T21:30:00.002+08:00

If some of you never got rid of your old Blue Chip Stamps, they never expired. You can redeem them at the following address:

Blue Chip Stamps
P.O. Box 831
Pasadena, CA 91102-0831

They still make reports to the company's corporate owner, Berkshire-Hathaway. And you can get a free catalog at this address. (Try to keep this a secret, if you can, and see if you can get some good deals on old stamp books!)

It's NOT ME!!!

2010-04-10T21:29:00.005+08:00

You probably remember reading in this 'Blog that the Roy Rogers Museum in Branson, Missouri, shut its doors December 12, 2009. I had the feeling things wouldn't be much different in that part of the country than they would be in the Mojave Desert off old Route 66.

I looked on the 'Net today and saw that some (well-known) auctioneer named Billy Long is auctioning off all Roy and Dale's stuff. I haven't worn a suit to work since I left Vietnam. The only time I lived in Missouri was when I was doing Army basic training at Fort Leonard Wood (not far from Springfield). And I don't own a cowboy hat.

Also, I never use the Billy without the Jack. I never use Billy J. Long because my dad's name was Billy Joe Long and that created all kinds of problems. We were both Billy J. Long and there was no Sr. or Jr. What a mess! (At least George W. Bush has one less initial than his dad!) My friends call me Bill. My family calls me something else but I won't go into that.

The auction is on April 30, 2010. It's kind of sad...

Colton High School

2010-01-25T12:00:00.001+08:00

Colton High School

Colton, California

Crimson/Gold

Yellow Jackets

Opened 1896

3,200 students (grades 9-12)

Colton High School

Colton, Oregon

Green/Gold

Vikings

238 students (grades 9-12)

Colton High School

Colton, Washington

Blue/White

Wildcats

108 students (grades 7-12)

If you know of any other Colton High Schools, let me know. I always tell people in other countries not to give the name of any city or town without listing the state.

Did you know there is a Los Angeles in Texas? There is also a New York in Texas. Both of these towns are very small. Hollywood isn't a city in California (it's a Los Angeles neighborhood) but it is a city in Florida. (West Hollywood is a city that neighbors Hollywood, California. For many years it was thought of as the unincorporated part of Hollywood.)

This month's sponsors...

2010-01-15T15:00:00.001+08:00

Marx Toys

The best toys are made by Marx. Everyone loves the Rock em' Sock em' Robots. In the past, Marx created the Stonewall Smith action figure for Montgomery Ward and later made the Buddy Charlie action figure. Unlike the competition, these toy soldiers were made right here in the United States. Marx toy trains work everywhere without electrical power. All Marx toys are American made. Next time you go shopping, look for Marx Toys, made by Louis Marx and Company of New York City.

Ohrbach's

Many television programs have the famous tag, "Fashions by Ohrbach's." While most of the television shows that carry this tag originate in New York, you will be glad to know that you, too, can buy your fashions at Ohrbach's.

In the Los Cerritos Shopping Center in Cerritos, they are the anchor store. We may not have Macy's, Gimbel's, or Strawbridge and Clothier, but we do have Ohrbach's. And, surprisingly, they aren't that expensive.

Movieland Wax Museum

Located on Beach Blvd. (State Route 39) in Buena Park, this is the best wax museum of its kind in the world. See your favorite scenes from some of your favorite movies. If you get tired of movies, hop over to the Palace of Living Art, which is also located on the premises. Here, you can see wax life size reproductions of your favorite paintings. You can see the Blue Boy and Pinkie. Both of these paintings are housed nearby in the Huntington Library in San Marino. But if you want to see what it really looked like, go to Buena Park. It's within walking distance of Knott's Berry Farm!

Thriftimart

Located in the Mount Vernon Shopping Center at the corner of Mount Vernon Avenue (Business Route US 91-395) and Olive Street. We feature Jerseymaid milk and Iris soda pop.

Minnie Pearl's Fried Chicken

Located near McDonald's and Minnie Pearl's Roast Beef Sandwiches on Foothill Boulevard (US Route 66) in Rialto. This week's special is two of Cousin Minnie's pies for the price of one. There is no limit. Come this weekend and enjoy the tastiest fried chicken you ever ate. Made from Cousin Minnie's own recipe. You'd think she fried it herself!

DISCLAIMER: Just so you know, the above firms no longer exist. And Macy's took over almost every department chain in the United States, including the territory of Guam.

San Bernadino [sic]

2010-01-04T17:00:00.000+08:00

What's wrong with my spelling? I was looking at some old books at the local bookstore here in Cagayan de Oro and they referred to the county seat of my hometown as the name of the city you see written at the top of this page.

In grade school, even though we didn't actually live in the county seat, my fifth grade teacher had a very unusual spelling test. Without preparation she tested us on the spelling of words placed on street signs. Words included crossing, through, prohibited, railroad, and the name of the county seat. Five terms on an unprepared spelling test. Most of the class wrote xing, thru, and RXR, which were wrong. But that's the way they are spelled on signs. Surprisingly most of the class could spell prohibited.

No one could spell the county seat, which is properly spelled (and pronounced) San Bernardino. It has two Rs in it. If you can't see that, you must be from Los Angeles and believe that only hicks live in area code 909. (This is the reason why Riverside broke out of that area code and went with 951 a few years ago... Seriously!)

Korla Pandit (1921-98) and Iron Eyes Cody (1904-99)

2009-09-11T14:00:00.004+08:00

Two of my childhood heroes on television during my childhood weren't who they said they were. Only after their deaths did the truth come out.

You probably remember Korla Pandit who was a mainstay at KTLA in Los Angeles from the station's beginnings in 1947 through the early 1960s. Korla was the fantastic organist who never spoke put played such great ethnic music. He wore a turban with a jewel and a stylish dress suit. The programs were 45 minutes long with no talking and no commercials. Even though the program lasted less than an hour, you wished it would go on much longer. Korla was born in New Delhi, India, to a Brahman priest and a French opera singer, who learned to play the organ as a child in France and England.

After his death, his website told the truth about Korla Pandit: He was born John Roland Redd in St. Louis , Missouri. His father, John S. Redd, was a Baptist minister. And they were black!

He began working in radio as a musician in 1938 in Des Moines, Iowa. A few years after this he moved to Los Angeles where his sister, Frances Redd, was working in a radio drama called the Midnight Shadow. John had been working as a musician under the name Juan Rolando. He married a fellow show business worker, Beryl DeBeeson, but because she was white, they married in Tijuana, as interracial marriages were illegal in California for many years after this. His wife came up with a new character, using one of the characters of his sister's radio series, Prince Alihabad. John's new name was Korla Pandit. Through their research they found it was a legitimate sounding name and Beryl would also be playing a role in this game and the Korla Pandit name change was made legal.

Iron Eyes Cody was famous around the world. If he was in a movie or a TV show, we knew it was authentic because he was a real Indian. We knew him to be of the Cherokee and Cree tribes and grew up in a Sioux reservation. We figured that's why the costume he wore had so many different patterns in it.

My ex-wife and I loved reading his autobiography, Iron Eyes Cody: My Life as a Hollywood Indian. He wrote about his work in Hollywood beginning in 1927 and service with the U.S. Military Academy, teaching about the history of the U.S. Army and the Indians in the Western United States. He was our hero!

Then he died. About a year after his death the story broke out that he was really the child of Italian immigrants who grew up in the town of Gueydan, Lousisiana, where his parents owned a mom and pop grocery store. We were sorely disappointed. Iron Eyes was no more an Indian than the local actors who were hired for spaghetti westerns made in Italy and Spain. His real name was Espera Oscar DeCorti.

An Indian and an Indian.. neither of whom really was...

A Blast to the Past on the Internet...

2009-09-07T13:34:00.003+08:00

Some things never get removed from the Internet. I hope you can get a chance to do some reminiscing with these sites. It's a great way to kill time at the computer and visit your past.

You can find old TV shows, games, and commercial campaigns.

Click on the following links:

Carnivores Football (Jack in the Box)
Subservient Chicken (Burger King)
Old Computer Games (Mr. Bigg's/a hamburger chain in Nigeria)

The Toys I Played With as a Child

2009-09-04T12:30:00.032+08:00

DAISY RICOCHET RIFLE - - It was just like a real gun. Except it didn't have bullets. It even smelled like one. A friend's father (who was also a Cub Scout leader), was a detective with the Colton Police Department. He put my hands through the parafin test after I fired my rifle. Do you know, it showed that I actually fired a weapon? Wow. It really was like real.

MATCHBOX TOYS - - These were made in England by a company called Lesney Products. Supposedly, all these cars were made on HO scale, although the Ford police cruiser was much larger than the Greyhound Scenicruiser.

The wheels on Matchbox cars were uneven. Then Mattel came out with Hot Wheels in 1968. Those things would roll! So, eventually, Matchbox introduced Superfast wheels, which were almost faster than Hot Wheels.

The Lesney Company tried to make its total subsistence on Matchbox Toys and continually kept sliding down. Soon, their factories in England were shut down and they began making the cars in Asia.

Tyco Toys bought the line in 1992. Tyco also fell on hard times and was acquired by Hot Wheels producer, Mattel Toys in 1997.

G.I. JOE - - Yes, it was a doll for boys. At least my sister thought so. It gave her a chance for me, a boy to play with her dolls and get away with it. I said it was OK, so long as my G.I. Joe could have wars with her Barbie and Tammy dolls (Tammy was a Barbie wannabe made by the Ideal Toy Company).

The Louis Marx Toy Company began putting out its own cheap G.I. Joe wannabes. There was Stonewall Smith and the Montgomery Ward exclusive, Buddy Charlie.

Parents liked Stony Smith. His uniform was molded onto him so there weren't any clothes to buy for him. He came with all the equipment needed, including a mess kit (with tiny knife, fork, and spoon that would get lost the first time you took it outside!) He also had a poncho that could double as a pup tent... only I didn't have much luck with that. If your parents had a little more money, he even came with a Jeep, but Stony had a little bit of trouble driving it (his legs didn't move!)

Buddy Charlie: I learned later in life, as a soldier, that this was an oxymoron (like jumbo shrimp and pretty ugly). Buddy is a pal, right? Well, to a soldier, Charlie is what they call the enemy. So who was this guy?

As for G.I. Joe, the Hasbro Company got everything right, except what to call a member of the Air Force. They called him the Action Pilot. Not everyone in the Air Force can fly a plane. And there are pilots in all five branches of the armed forces, including the Army. The term for a member of the Air Force is airman, which can refer to a male or a female.

When G.I. Joe was introduced, they had the Action Soldier, the Action Sailor, and the Action Pilot. The Marine Corps complained that they weren't represented. Hasbro responded by stating the Action Soldier could be a member of the Marine Corps, as they're all soldiers. The Marine Corps retorted that marines aren't soldiers (ask your friendly neighborhood marine if he's a soldier or not!) Checking their dictionary, the folks at Hasbro realized that a soldier is, specifically, a member of the Army. So they soon had the Action Marine.

Clothes were then added. New uniforms, including Army and Marine Dress Blues. They cost almost as much as a Robert Hall suit! (Sometimes more!) My sister tried to have her Ken doll wear my G.I. Joe's uniforms but they just didn't fit.

CRASHMOBILE - - It's nice to have a toy that will break on purpose. I had the big Crashmobile and the Crashmobile Jr. The big one had a Model T type crank you'd wind up and then it would crash into something and break. Lots and lots of fun. The little one had to be pulled backwards and the same thing would happen. Boy, it sure didn't take much to excite us when we were young. If we had today's video games then, we probably couldn't stand all the excitement. I might not even be here today!

EMINEE GOLDEN TUBA - - This was actually a very popular toy for almost twenty years! It was a tiny sousaphone that sounded just like all the other toy wind instruments that the Eminee Toy Company made. These included a trumpet, a clarinet, a trombone, a saxophone, and possibly many others. Remember the Eminee Polychord Organ? It was almost the same thing, except that you didn't have to blow it. It made its own air.

You can blame the lack of funding for the lack of interest in a musical education... I don't... I blame it on the demise of the Eminee Toy Company!

TONKA TOYS - - They were rugged. They lasted forever.

One birthday present I received when I was three was a Structo Farms semi-tractor and trailer (Structo was one of Tonka's competitors) complete with lead farm animals (they didn't know better then!) The cab was plastic and was soon destroyed in a few days. I can remember my mother saying that "I should have gotten him a Tonka Toy!"

Here's what Tonka Toys are like today. (Notice the company is in Fontana.)

THINGMAKER - - It was an oven for baking Creepy Crawlers and Creeple Peeple. You had to have lots of Plastigoop to create lots of toys. The problem was, when the fad died out (but we still enjoyed making these things), you couldn't get anymore of the Plastigoop. We'd hunt down the close out stores and everyone else was buying the stuff out... sigh!

Who said the fad was over, anyway?

TOOTSIE TOYS - - These were extremely inexpensive. They were great if all you wanted to do was play with cars (and detail wasn't too important.)

They're probably one of the oldest toys on this list and they still make them today. The advertisement posted here is from the late 1930s. So all those styles are contemporary for the time!

Wouldn't I like any or all of those!

LEGOS - - I have a secret. Don't tell anyone, but if you were to give me a box of Lego bricks now, I'd probably be playing with them for the next three or four hours!

When my older daughter was celebrating her first Christmas, we gave her some Duplos (large sized Legos for toddlers). So did all our friends and relatives. We had thousands. On that Christmas night, after she went to sleep, my wife and I built houses and cars, almost until dawn. I'd probably do it again, if I had the chance!

MINI-LINDY - - These were a cross between Matchbox cars and model kits. The Lindberg Line was a company that made model kits. Mostly World War II military airplanes. The box states you could "BUILD 'N COLLECT" them. Actually, they were also quite durable and you could play with them just like any other toy car this size. My favorite was the mail truck. It looked like the one pictured here except that mine was yellow.

GARTON TRACTOR - - I got this when I was three or four. I never got tired of it but I did outgrow it. It was probably the only toy I had that I did outgrow.

It had plastic make believe spark plug cables that got lost as soon as I got it. That didn't matter. It also had a hitch I could use to pull the neighbors' Radio Flyer wagons Remember the little red wagons? My brother would later have one of those and I could pull him with my tractor.

My tractor was also one of the few toys I played with that, except for the spark plug cable, never broke down. It was so wonderful. What a toy!

________________________________

CASPER GE-TAR (by Mattel) - - As a musician, I never learned to play any stringed stummed instrument, such as the guitar or ukulele. That's a fact that really embarrasses me today. (...you have three music degrees, Bill?)

My parents gave me several gifts when I was four years old when I had to go to the hospital to get a growth surgically removed from the front of my neck. (It was found to be benign, but it could have choked me to death!)

The Ge-Tar was like a ukulele which had a hand crank music box (in the picture, Casper is the one the boy is playing). I didn't much care for the strumming but I liked the music box. But I did get bored with the song it played. I discovered that if I turned the crank backwards it played an even better song. I never stopped playing it. I loved it. I'm sure the nurses loved it, too.

SNAP TRAIN - - This was a wooden toy train which was connected with the help of clothing snaps. My parents gave this to me when I had to go to the hospital for the removal of that growth on my neck at the age of four.

Now that I'm older I realize now why I have trouble sleeping at night. Having this train in my bed gave me a nonsleeping activity. That's not very healthy. I've been known to use my laptop computer, do my income taxes, and even eat meals in bed. I know it's bad. And now I can remember where I picked up these bad habits.

The Snap Train was made by a company in Los Angeles called Jack Built. Whatever became of it?

SOUP SPOON - - Best tool for digging holes, making lakes, castles, and houses, and filling your Mighty Tonka Dump Truck with dirt. Just remember, kids: Always ask your mother before you take anything out of the cutlery drawer when you want to play with it outside!

The Colton Quiz (possibly the first of many)

2009-08-31T12:00:00.002+08:00

Good afternoon.

One thing you enjoy doing when you get older is reminiscing over things that aren't there anymore. One fun way of getting through this is a quiz. I lived in Colton from 1966 through 1976. I remained in the area (family moved to Rialto) until going to college in Tennessee (returning periodically) and finally enlisting in the Army as a musician in 1979.

If you live in the Riverside-San Bernardino area, take this quiz. I haven't been around for almost three years now. But the answers to this quiz haven't changed. Enjoy. Post your responses as comments here.

What are the specific official colors of Colton High School?
What were the names of the two junior high schools that were replaced by Colton Junior High School in 1954?
Who was Isaac "Cristobal" Slover?
What was the name of the Colton Airport? Where was it? Which airline made regular stops there?
Name the Chevrolet and Dodge dealers which used to be in downtown Colton. The Chevy place moved north (onto La Cadena Avenue) with downtown redevelopment and the Dodge dealership closed after its owner died of a heart attack.
What was the former nickname of Colton? It has something to do with the shape of Colton City Hall (formerly Colton Civic Center) as seen from the air.
What were the names of the two Southern Pacific passenger trains that stopped in Colton? Can you also name the two Union Pacific passenger trains and the one Santa Fe train that stopped in Colton during the 1960s?
What were the five route numbers of the two highways that crossed in Colton before the freeways were built?
What does joint mean in Colton Joint Unified School District?
Before Bloomington High School was built, high school students in Bloomington went to Colton Union High School (having more than one high school meant that Colton was no longer a one high school high school district, the "union" was dropped, and the high school district subsequently "unified" with the elementary districts in Colton, Bloomington, and Grand Terrace.) Before Eisenhower High School was built in 1958, where did high school students in Rialto go to school?
Name a dairy located in Colton. It was actually outside the city limits on Cypress Avenue.
What was the major chain supermarket at the Mount Vernon Shopping Center? What about the major supermarket at the Rancho Vista Shopping Center (Rancho Avenue and Mill Street, next to the T.G.&Y.)?
What was the name of the coffee shop located in front of the old Stater Brothers supermarket on I Street (later Valley Boulevard)?
What were the names of the Stater brothers?
Name a popular 1960s songwriter who graduated from Colton High School. His father had been the pastor at the First Southern Baptist Church (now Sierra Vista Baptist Church).
For whom was Colton named?
How did the Colton High School Yellow Jackets get their nickname in the late 1920s? What was the schools nickname previous to this?
Name the original members of the old high school Citrus Belt League. When they were built in the 1950s, Pacific (San Bernardino) and Fontana were added to this group.
For what professional sports team did Kenny Hubbs play?
Name a current celebrity who graduated from Colton High School. (Not me.)
Where was the first Stater Brothers market?
Name a former Colton High School student who played professional football, then returned to the school to teach English.
What were the three brands of fuel sold by Ray Phillips Truck Stop?
What was the name of the hamburger stand across the street from Colton Union High School (corner of Third and I Streets)?
What was the original name of La Cadena Drive in Riverside?

KCOP Channel 13 - - Very Independent - - Chris Craft Station

2009-08-20T14:30:00.006+08:00

It went on the air in 1948 as KMTR-TV. When radio station KMTR became KLAC shortly thereafter, so the TV station became "KLAC-TV, Where everything is active." When the Copley Press, publisher of the San Diego Union and Evening Tribune bought the station, it became KCOP. The Chris Craft motor boat company bought it in 1960.

All of the pioneer TV stations of Los Angeles were unique. KCOP was no exception. They made most of their own commercials in the 1950s. This was the original station that had commercials for Worthington Dodge, somewhere on Slauson Avenue in Huntington Park... I remember everything except the house number. Did you know Cal Worthington (b. 1920) was a Hudson dealer? This began when Mad Man Muntz (1914-87) was still selling Kaiser-Frazers and used cars at his lot downtown.

Anyway, KCOP had the best Hanna-Barbera cartoons. Lloyd Thaxton (1927-2008) had a musical show every day. Around the time in my life I started school, channel 13 had travel programs almost every night of the week. Bill Burrud (1925-90) had several shows. The one I remember most was the one with Hal Linker, his wife Hadla, and their son, Harold. Always wearing their Sunday best for their program, I always had a fear that if I ever flew on a commercial airliner, I'd never look good enough. By the time I made my first flight at age 15, no one cared.

Despite having studios in the middle of Hollywood (located at 915 North La Brea Avenue, two blocks north of Pink's Hot Dog Stand at 709 North La Brea Avenue), channel 13 always had a folksy, non Hollywood air about it. They had a contest which always had such prizes as a car, a trip to somewhere exciting, and a Packard Bell console color television/stereo system. They never told about the contest much on TV but there was always a poster about it at the local laundromat.

KCOP was always very different. We could always count on the station to bring cartoons, until all the stations quit showing cartoons in the late 1980s. And also the best of the worst in low budget movie classics. However, in 1995, it became the Los Angeles outlet of the United Paramount Network. Ah, but that was only two hours a night. Well, a few years later, the boat company merged with News Corporation, the owners of the Fox network.

In 2003, the station moved in with KTTV, the Fox station, at 1999 South Bundy Drive in West Los Angeles. Today, channel 13 doesn't even have its own website. Everything seems to be a KTTV hand-me-down.

What was on the Radio in Colton 1969...

2009-08-15T12:00:00.011+08:00

In 1969 you could go to the Thrifty Drug Store at the Mount Vernon Shopping Center (I rode there on my bicycle) and, for $3.50, buy a pocket transistor radio. During the day, I wired it to the handlebars of my bike. At night, it was under my pillow.

Here are some of the things we heard:

570 kHz
KLAC
Middle of the Road Music (Talk at Night)
Los Angeles

590 kHz
KFXM "Tiger Radio"
Top 40
San Bernardino

640 kHz
KFI (NBC)
Variety (Full Service)
Los Angeles

690 kHz
XETRA "Xtra Music"
Beautiful Music
Tijuana

710 kHz
KMPC
Adult Standards
Los Angeles

740 kHz
KBIG "K-Big" (daytime)
Beautiful Music
Avalon (on Santa Catalina Island)

790 kHz
KABC (ABC)
TalkRadio
Los Angeles

870 kHz
KIEV (daytime)
Country and Western (and other stuff)
Glendale

900 kHz
KGRB (daytime)
Big Band
West Covina

920 kHz
KDES
Top 40
Palm Springs

930 kHz
KHJ "Boss Radio"
Top 40
Los Angeles

980 kHz
KFWB
All News
Los Angeles

1020 kHz
KGBS (daytime only)
Light Pop (featuring Bill Ballance)
Los Angeles

1050 kHz
KTOT (daytime only)
Variety
Big Bear Lake

1070 kHz
KNX (CBS)
Newsradio
Los Angeles

1090 kHz
XERB
Oldies (with Wolfman Jack) at night
and the Holy Rosary (in English and Spanish) during the day
Rosarito, Baja California

1110 kHz
KRLA
Oldies
Pasadena

1150 kHz
KIIS "Kiss Radio"
Top 40
Los Angeles

1190 kHz
KEZY
Top 40
Anaheim

1220 kHz
KKAR
Top 40
Pomona

1240 kHz
KRNO "The Golden Sound"
Beautiful Music
San Bernardino

1260 kHz
KGIL
Adult Standards
San Fernando

1290 kHz
KMEN "K-Men" (ABC)
Top 40
San Bernardino

1300 kHz
KWKW
Spanish
San Gabriel

1330 kHz
KFAC (Mutual)
Classical Music
Los Angeles

1350 kHz
KCKC (ABC)
Country and Western
San Bernardino

1370 kHz
KREL
Top 40
Corona

1410 kHz
KCAL
Spanish
Redlands

1440 kHz
KPRO (CBS)
Music/Information
Riverside

1480 kHz
KWIZ
Top 40
Santa Ana

1490 kHz
KPAS
Variety
Banning

1510 kHz
KMSL
Easy Listening
Ontario

1540 kHz
KPOL
Beautiful Music
Los Angeles

1570 kHz
KACE
Adult Standards
Riverside

1600 kHz
KWOW
Top 40
Pomona

Do notice the lack of religious radio stations. During the 1960s these were all on FM, except for the Rosaries on XERB.

I will have more about radio in upcoming postings.

What is Your Favorite Color?

2009-08-13T13:00:00.001+08:00

Listed below are eight colors. Find your favorite color and see if the description matches your personality:

GREEN - - Nature lover, likes to sleep outdoors when possible (if the weather is right), concerned about the worlds problems.
YELLOW - - Likes to have fun, nice personality, friendly, but can be in own world at times.
RED - - Very passionate (throws oneself into whatever projects are being done or political debates or whatever), has a fiery temper, has a strong personality. (This is also true for the color ORANGE.)
BLUE - - Animal lover, likes to sleep with the window open. Concerned about local problems.
WHITE - - Very organized. Hates messiness. Very prompt. Keeps a tight schedule.
BROWN - - Likes to give instructions. Likes to talk. Concerned about people's feelings. A hard worker.
PURPLE - - Doesn't care about what people think about himself/herself. Very free thinker.
BLACK - - An intellectual who likes to talk and pick people's brains. Concerned about family.
PINK - - A fun person who likes to make friends. Tells great jokes. A very devoted and loyal worker.

Write your comments below. I've used this for the past six years and it's 99% right. I use it as part of the counseling sessions I give. I can tell so much from what a person's favorite color is.

A Pleasant Thought for the Day...

2009-08-12T14:00:00.000+08:00

William Shakespeare was born on April 23, 1564. He died 52 years later on April 23, 1616, his fifty second birthday. If I haven't accomplished anything else, I outlived him.

Ontario International Airport

2009-08-11T13:00:00.001+08:00

Between August 1995 and June 1997 I was Teacher of Instrumental Music and English as a Foreign Language at Sekolah Pelita Harapan--Bukit Sentul Campus, located near Bogor, West Java, Indonesia. One of the benefits of being a teacher there was receiving money for a round trip ticket to our home of record.

When I took the job, they flew me from Los Angeles International Airport. I remember being happy that the company put us on Singapore Airlines and not Philippine Airlines. There was a Philippine Airlines plane next to our plane. It would leave thirty minutes after us. But it began loading thirty minutes earlier. And they packed it like a sardine can.

My wife was a Green Card holder at this time and had to periodically make trips to the United States for two weeks at a time. We'd go to Guam for a fraction of the cost to California and it satisified that requirement. (Continental Airlines no longer flies between Bali and Guam so I don't know what we'd do today...)

When the school had us fill out the paperwork for our travel bonuses they wanted to know the closest airport to our homes of record, not necessarily the one where we came from. I wrote: Ontario International Airport (ONT). They said we could get more money that way.

Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) would pay $750 per person or $3,000 for the family. I got $7,000 or $1,750 per person. I thought the extra $4,000 was a mistake. It's only 15 minutes to fly to Ontario from LAX. Why should it cost an extra thousand bucks?

The school answered that their books said that it's four hours to fly from Los Angeles to anywhere in the province of Ontario. Then I knew they didn't understand. They never knew that Ontario is a large city in Southern California. I tried to explain over and over. Too bad I didn't bring any road maps to Indonesia!

Old Time Radio... IN 1994!

2009-08-10T13:30:00.002+08:00

When most people think of Old Time Radio (OTR) they think to the 1930s or 1940s. Some of us don't have to go so far. Los Angeles radio, 1994, had KMPC (710 kHz) still playing adult standards. There was a lot of TalkRadio, SportsRadio, and Spanglish radio. AM radio was humming 15 years ago. There was very little in the way of Top-40, although it was still around. The alternative non-TalkRadio/non-SportsRadio/non-Spanglish stations offered SUPERIOR entertainment and information.

KPLS, at 830 kHz, in Orange was the Los Angeles home of Radio Aahs. Previously, this station was the home of Catholic Family Radio, offering liturgy, music, sermons, and (really late at night) OLD TIME RADIO! As for Radio Aahs, most of the personalities were actual children with a few adult announcers and there were plenty there for supervision. The network studios were located in the Minneapolis -Saint Paul area of Minnesota and the commercials featured lots of products for which that area is famous, such as General Mills cereals and Pillsbury cookie dough.

KGRB at 900 kHz in Industry (licensed to West Covina) offered the best in popular music of the past 75 years. There were plans to offer, in addition to the NBC Radio news it had on the hour, to add NBC old time radio shows and give it the call letters, KNBC. NBC never owned a radio station in Los Angeles. Because of the illness and subsequent death of the stations owner, the planned NBC station never happened.

KNX at 1070 kHz, under George Nicholaw, offered one of the best full service AM radio stations in the country. It never offered 24 hours of news. Even during disasters, when the Drama Hour was not aired, there were other features broadcast.

But it was the Drama Hour that kept us focused on that station. The old radio shows, some of which were broadcast from Columbia Square when they first aired, were a fixture on the station until the night of October 31, 2004, when the station decided we needed more news, so they added TalkRadio and a cooking show. Bleah!

I'll have more about radio much later on.

____________________________________________

Today is my birthday. At 4:30 PM (Philippines time) I will officially be 52 years old (this was 1:30 AM in Riverside, California, where I was born). Since I don't like the traditional birthday song that the Hill sisters wrote about 120 years ago (and it's still under copyright), let me teach you this song.

This is great:

Put another candle on my birthday cake
We're gonna bake a birthday cake
Put another candle on my birthday cake
I'm another year old today

I'm gonna have a party with my birthday cake
Come on and take some birthday cake
Put another candle on my birthday cake
I'm another year old today

We'll have some pie and sandwiches
And chocolate ice cream too
We'll sing and play the day away
And one more thing I'm going to do

I'll blow out the candles on my birthday cake
And when I do, a wish I'll make
Put another candle on my birthday cake
I'm another year old today

Put another candle on my birthday cake
We're gonna bake a birthday cake
Put another candle on my birthday cake
I'm another year old today

I'm gonna have a party with my birthday cake
Come on and take some birthday cake
Put another candle on my birthday cake
I'm another year old today

We'll have some pie and sandwiches
And chocolate ice cream, too
We'll sing and play the day away
And one more thing I'm going to do

I'll blow out the candles on my birthday cake
And when I do, a wish I'll make
Put another candle on my birthday cake
I'm another year old today

"Happy birthday to you"
I'm another year old today.

Thanks, Sheriff John!

This Week's Sponsors...

2009-07-27T12:30:00.001+08:00

Roy Phillips Truck Stop - - Flying A gasoline and Diesel Fuel. We offer unlimited parking for most rigs and a place for Colton High School students to smoke/hang out between classes. Located at the corner of Rancho Avenue and Valley Boulevard (where I Street becomes Valley Boulevard) just immediately outside the Colton city limits, so it takes at least 30 minutes for the San Bernardino County Sheriff's deputies to get to us.

New Colton Theatre - - One of the oldest cinemas in the area, complete with a real balcony. Tonight's film is El bolero de Raquel, starring Cantinflas. Take the Ninth Street exit from the San Bernardino Freeway (I-10).

San Bernardino Valley College Indians Football - - Saturday's games pits the Indians against the Riverside City College Tigers. There will be a special half-time show by the SBVC Marching Band, under the direction of C. Paul Oxley. The game will be at the National Orange Show Stadium and begins at 7:30 PM. Come early and enjoy an exciting pregame show by the band.

Harris' Department Store - - The finest in merchandise to be found in San Bernardino, Riverside, and Redlands. We are the exclusive retailer for Magnavox electronics. We give and redeem S&H Green Stamps.

Blue Mountain Dairy - - Colton's own dairy. We provide milk for all of the schools of the Colton Joint Unified School District. Visit our convenient cash and carry store on Cypress Street, just north of Valley Boulevard

From the Bible...

2009-07-24T13:00:00.001+08:00

"...their normal lifespan will be no longer than 120 years."

Genesis 6:3
(New Living Translation)

God has said that human beings can't live any longer than 120 years. That is why the Guinness World Book of Records has trouble believing anyone who has lived for 140 years.

I intend to live at least 100 years. Despite a family history of cancer, diabetes, arthritis, heart problems, and high blood pressure, I think I can do it.

Mickey Cohen (1913-76)

2009-07-19T12:00:00.000+08:00

Meyer Harris Cohen was born September 4, 1913, in Brooklyn, New York. His mother had immigrated from Ukraine. At three, he moved with his sister Lillie to the Boyle Heights section of Los Angeles. Two of his brothers (Harry and Louis) became gangsters at a very early age. His father was a gangster. His brother Sam took a different route and lived the ordinary life of a hard working Orthodox Jew. Ironically, most people saw Mickey as a sweet kid with a delightful personality.

He went back to New York in 1923 and began working in the illegal alcohol business at the age of nine. (This was the time of Prohibition, when alcohol was illegal to be sold as a beverage. He would sell the drinks to his older brother who owned a drug store that did a fair business as a speakeasy.

As a teenager, he went back to Los Angeles and began boxing illegally. This led to other criminal activities. He was a smooth talker.

He spent time in Chicago and met Al Capone. Mickey worked with Al's brother Frank for a brief period. But he'd always keep going back to L.A. He became the head of the syndicate in Los Angeles, dealing mostly with illegal gambling... but packing quite a few weapons.

There was also some sex related activity, usually voyeuristic pornography. This was not such a big thing for Mickey. He preferred dealing with schemes that made money.

In 1947, he took over the role that Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel (1906-47) of managing the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Much more happened, but this was not the Mickey Cohen I remember seeing when I was growing up. In 1961 he was sent to Alcatraz Prison on the charge of income tax evasion. After Alcatraz closed in 1963 he was sent to the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary. He was released in 1972 on medical grounds. Diagnosed with an ulcer, it was found to be stomach cancer, and it was fatal.

Mickey lived the last five years of his life as a sweetheart of talk shows (including Merv Griffin), becoming a Christian believer at a Billy Graham Crusade (some say that was for show), and informing Attorney General Ramsey Clark (1927-) on the real activities of the mob.

He dealt with the kidnapers of Randolph Apperson Hearst's (1915-2000) daughter, Patty (1954- ) to release her. For those of you who remember that situation, the whole thing was quite confusing... One minute, you thought that she went with the group of thugs on her own free will and the next, you thought she was kidnaped. And that's what TV was like during the spring of 1974!

Mickey died on July 29, 1976, and is interred at the Hillside Memorial Cemetery.

US Highway 466

2009-07-18T14:00:00.001+08:00

It began in Kingman, Arizona, where Route 66 and Route 93 met. From Kingman, it followed Route 93 to Las Vegas, Nevada. From there, it went south down Route 91. Just before Route 91 got to Barstow, California, it went off on its own way into Bakersfield. It went up Route 99 to Famoso and then took a turn westward to Shandon, and west to Paso Robles. It then went south on Route 101, took a turn west at Atascadero, then ending at Morro Bay (according to my 1936 map of California...)

Probably the most famous thing that ever happened on the road was on September 30, 1955, when actor James Dean (1930-55) was killed in an accident with his Porsche Spyder. It's ironic that he had just done a TV safety spot with Gig Young just prior to that occurrence. He warned young drivers not to speed... "...the life you save may be my own!" But it was his own speed that killed him.

When John Steinbeck's novel (and later the motion picture) The Grapes of Wrath appeared, the Joad family took Route 466 to get from Barstow to Bakersfield. It should be pointed out that 466 only met Route 66 at one point, its terminus in Kingman. At Barstow, Route 466 was two miles north of town. In real life during the Depression, it was no problem to find the road... there were people on the highway 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

California's Department of Transportation (Caltrans) decommissioned Route 466 in 1964. It had served the state as a major thoroughfare for 32 years. Route 58 went from Barstow to Bakersfield, then went elsewhere. From Famoso to Paso Robles it became Route 46. And between Atascadero to Morro Bay it was Route 41. (Actually, it was colabeled with Route 41 around Shandon and between Atascadero and Morro Bay.)

When Caltrans built a new freeway for Route 58 to the SOUTH of Barstow a few years ago, the exit for the old highway was listed as OLD HWY 58. Route 466 was completely forgotten.

However, the LoyalTubist has not forgotten the road. And here is your chance to own a piece of history. Click on this link to buy your own Route 466 hooded sweatshirt. It's available in white or gray. It shows the California version of the highway shield.

Did you know California is the only state that cuts out its US highway shields in the shape of a shield and not a rectangle? Perhaps this is the reason, in 1964, that Caltrans eliminated all but six US highways: 6, 50, 95, 101, 199, and 395.

School of the Day

2009-07-17T18:00:00.002+08:00

John F. Kennedy High School
Barstow, California

Go Spartans!

THIS WAS THE FIRST SCHOOL NAMED FOR THE LATE PRESIDENT THAT CLOSED DOWN. IT EXISTED FROM 1965-78. AT THAT TIME THE SCHOOL DISTRICT HAD GOTTEN SMALLER AS BAKER AND YERMO GOT THEIR OWN HIGH SCHOOLS. BARSTOW UNIFIED COULD NO LONGER BE CALLED "THE LARGEST SCHOOL DISTRICT IN THE UNITED STATES."

The Lion Cub Scout Rank

2009-07-17T15:00:00.000+08:00

When I heard the Boy Scouts of America were discontnuing the rank of Lion I cried. I joined the Cub Scouts when I was eight. I was a third grader at North Oceanside Elementary School in Mrs. Butler's class.

By that time, the girls were already in their second year of Girl Scouts, as they started Brownies in the second grade. Cub Scouts began one year later. My school didn't have Cub Scouts at the time. There were some older students who belonged to packs (Cub Scouts don't have troops, they have packs) sponsored by service organizations and churches.

We were then attending the First Methodist Church in Oceanside with a neighbor driving us there every Sunday morning. They didn't have a pack.

A woman we knew from church, Claudia Joslyn (whose son Michael was in my class), wanted to start a new pack and be a Den Mother at North Oceanside School. And so it started, meeting in the Joslyn home, about a block from school, in September 1965. We met Tuesday at 4:00 and finished about 5:45. The entire pack was made up of Den 1. That was Pack 710 of Oceanside, California.

Dues were ten cents a week. Once we passed the requirements to be a Bobcat (the first rank) we could wear a uniform. If a Cub Scout came to a meeting without a uniform, there was a fifteen cent fine. You never saw a Cub Scout from Pack 710 wearing jeans with his uniform. Everything had to be official. Mrs. Joslyn and some of the other mothers knew where to get second hand uniforms for a dime or a quarter at the Salvation Army or the Goodwill.

We made crafts. We went on field trips to local cultural, historical, and natural sites. On Saturdays we had activities with our fathers. These were usually barbecues or softball games. (My dad hated sports.)

I passed the requirements for Wolf in record time. I earned one gold and three silver arrow elective points. Most of these were for cooking.

In May 1966 my family moved from Oceanside (near San Diego) to Colton (near San Bernardino). I joined Den 3 of Pack 48, sponsored by Ulysses S. Grant Elementary School, where I attended until the new Paul J. Rogers Elementary School was completed during the 1966-67 school year. Everyone in Den 3 made the transfer to the new school. Most of the members had family members who worked at the Blue Mountain Dairy (located not far from where I lived at the time on Cypress Avenue... I used to get cheap Popsicles there during summer).

My requirements for the Bear rank went well and I earned it quickly. Then we got some bad news: The rank of Lion was going out. So my pocket wouldn't look like the picture above, with the three ranks like that. Instead, it would look like the one below, with only two ranks. It was rather disappointing. Also, the secret meaning of Webelos, the pinnacle rank in Boy Scouts was going to be different, too. We learned that it meant, "Wolf, Bear, Lion, Scout," with some vowels added. The new meaning would be, "We'll Be Loyal Scouts." Actually, that made more sense.

When became ten years old, we wouldn't be in the same den anymore. There was a new Webelos Den. And there were no Den Mothers. Men were now in charge of the show. And now we would be Webelos Scouts, with our own variation of the Cub Scout uniform. And we got to earn neat activity badges. It ended up not being so disappointing.

A Salute to the Lifetime Membership Department Stores

2009-07-16T18:00:00.003+08:00

A lifetime is a long time. It's too bad our lifetimes were longer than yours!

Fedco
Gemco/Memco
ABC (not the Hawaiian souvenir chain)
F.O.R.E.
Unimart
Fedmart (had its beginnings as a membership store)

Today's Sponsors

2009-07-16T12:00:00.001+08:00

Tigers

by Topper Toys

Salvo Detergent

Barbara Ann Bread

KHJ-TV, Channel 9
An RKO-General Station
Los Angeles, California

Sir George's Royal Buffet

Consolidated Freightways

Pillsbury Funny Face
drink mixes

Sears, Roebuck, and Company

2009-07-15T12:00:00.008+08:00

Founded in 1886 by Richard Warren Sears (1863-1914) and Alvah C. Roebuck (1864-1948), Sears Roebuck began as a mail order service to sell goods to people who lived on farms far from any major city or small town. Sears wasn't the first to do this. Way back in 1872, Aaron Montgomery Ward (1844-1913) began publishing his leaflets to the same target group, which also led to a large catalog in 1883. Sears began its big catalog in 1896.

Sears had its own manufacturers producing many of the products it sold. It also borrowed some of the ideas from Montgomery Ward. The idea, "Satisfaction guaranteed or your money back," was invented by A. Montgomery Ward. Both firms were based in Chicago.

It was in 1925 that Sears had its first retail store. Ward's didn't get one until the following year. Sears became known as the World's Largest Store. It bought a radio station, WLS, and later sold it to the Prairie Farmer magazine. The Sears advertisements continued being broadcast on that station.

One could buy a house from Sears: The house came in a kit. If a customer had a small parcel of land, Sears sent all the materials needed to build a frameless bungalow or cottage. What was the saying? "Just add water"? These Craftsman houses became famous. In Riverside, California (my birthplace), students at Polytechnic High School (then all-male) built many of the residences in the downtown section. Today, more than 80 years later, they are considered classics.

Sears began selling Allstate Insurance in 1933. In the 1952, when the automotive firm Kaiser-Frazer had trouble selling its compact car, the Henry J, Sears began selling them under the Allstate monogram.

Between 1908 and 1964, Sears manufactured sports equipment (including rifles and bicycles) under the J.C. Higgins banner. James C. Higgins (d. 1950) was an accountant at Sears in Chicago from 1898 to 1930.

Like most department stores, Sears had a candy counter and a dining area. These lasted into the 1990s.

The last products Sears tried were credit cards (Discover) and bank accounts (Sears Bank).

One of the signs that Sears was going through tough times was the cancellation of its catalog.

When I was growing up, these catalogs were in my house:

Montgomery Ward
Sears Roebuck
Aldens
Western Auto (more than auto parts)
Spiegel
J.C Penney (though we didn't get it in California until the late 1970s)

Except for Western Auto, which had very limited clothing selections, these catalogs were the closest thing to pornography in my world as I was growing up, at least in my room. However, Ward's, Sears, and Spiegel either padded the model's clothes with tissue paper or airbrushed certain areas of the bodies. Not Aldens. They let you see everything. And like Playboy magazine, which was not doing full frontal pictures at this time, when the model wore panties, you saw her from the rear. There were no hipsters or bikinis at that time either. I guess I had to do without a lot of what kids take for granted today. They can see a lot more on cable TV when their parents go away... We could go to Stater Brothers and try to sneak a peak at the "men's magazines" there, but it was very risky... (Believe it or not, until I was in junior high, those mags were not hidden from children's view...)

You're probably wondering why I got semi-graphic at this point. I was thinking about the episode of the Waltons TV show when Grandpa had to spend some time without Grandma. So he kept a Sears catalog under his bed, turned to the women's undergarments section.

Sears canceled its catalog five years after Ward's canceled theirs. I tried to save the 1985 Christmas catalog, but I lost it on one of my moves. Sears canceled its catalog in 1993. Today the only catalogs left are J.C. Penney and Spiegel, although the latter seems more like a women's fashion magazine today.

Eventually, Sears sold off Discover and the bank. They even canceled their own credit card for a brief period. Sears was shedding parts of itself and it was hurting. The culprit was said to be Wal-Mart, although this was just the result of a changing world and competition. Consider that sixty years ago, there were seven major automobile manufacturers in the United States and today there are only three, and those might not last.

Sears ended up merging with Kmart, one of Wal-Mart's competitors, to form the Sears Holdings Corporation.

By the way, Sears still publishes a catalog in Canada, though it's extremely difficult to obtain in the United States.

Where have you been, Bill?

2009-06-15T12:00:00.004+08:00

On Tuesday morning, April 7, at 6:35 A.M., my sister took her last breath. When you're the oldest kid in the family, you never expect to outlive your younger siblings. Brenda had double breast cancer and did very well during the operation. But when she had chemotherapy, she was found to have congestive heart failure and had been suffering from it for many years.

My sister and an were not very close. Something happened when we were teenagers and we completely lost touch with each other. Admittedly, it was probably my fault. I wish I could go back and take everything I ever said.

Lots of people lose younger siblings. You never think it can happen to you. Consider that I have already lost my father and a very close aunt... my mom's little sister, Sherry.

If you have any quarrel between you and a sibling get it over now. I'm 51 and I'm healthy. My sister had just turned 50 in December. I didn't know how unhealthy she was. Even if you're on the other side of the world, send a note. Send something. Don't wait until that brother or sister dies. I can't do anything now.

Black California License Plates (1963)

2009-04-07T12:45:00.001+08:00

Just so you know, if you have a car purchased before late 1970 in the state of California, it originally had a set of black license plates like the one pictured at the left. If you're lucky, the car still has the old tags. They're still good.

In fact, since 1963, when the black plate made its debut, there have been six different major changes in general issue license tags issued by the Department of Motor Vehicles of the State of California.

Some people like to have only one license plate. Why? I don't know. But there are some states which only issue one plate. If they are fleeing from the police, they will often steal a front license plate from a California vehicle to make them look less guilty. I've had this happen three times. I have since learned it's a good idea to get bolt locks to prevent this from happening. It's $7.50 to get a new set of tags and if it happens often, it can get mighty expensive...

Here is a list of states and other jurisdictions of the United States and the number of plates they currently issue:

Alabama-1
Alaska-2
American Samoa-2
Arkasas-1
Arizona-1
California-2
Colorado-2
Connecticut-2
Delaware-1
District of Columbia-2
Florida-1
Georgia-1
Guam-2
Hawaii-2
Idaho-2
Illinois-2
Indiana-1
Iowa-2
Kansas-1
Kentucky-1
Louisiana-1
Maine-2
Maryland-2
Massachusetts-2 (1 in 1978-88, which are still valid)
Michigan-1
Minnesota-2
Mississippi-1
Missouri-2
Montana-2
Nevada-2
New Hampshire-2
New Jersey-2
New Mexico-1
New York-2
North Carolina-1
North Dakota-2
Northern Mariana Islands-2
Ohio-2
Oklahoma-1
Oregon-2
Pennsylvania-1
Puerto Rico-1
Rhode Island-2
South Carolina-1
South Dakota-2
Tennessee-1
Texas-2
Utah-2
Vermont-2
Virgin Islands-1 (Did you know that this is the only U.S. jurisdiction where traffic moves on the left, instead of the right?)
Virginia-2
Washington-2
West Virginia-1
Wisconsin-2
Wyoming-2

The Two Route 66s through San Bernardino...

2009-04-06T12:15:00.000+08:00

Most of you from around San Bernardino know the story of how the McDonald brothers moved to California from New England to California, where they tried running a drive-in restaurant in Arcadia. They moved to San Bernardino, where they thought it would be better, but it was no different.

The books (and the brothers) always said something about both establishments being on US 66.

Those of us who grew up after the freeway was built (originally I-15, then I-15E, now I-215) remember that Business Route US 66 (the old highway) joined Business Route US 395 at the corner of Fifth Street and Mount Vernon Avenue. Past Highland Avenue, the route moved to Cajon Boulevard where it left San Bernardino.

But there was also a City Route, which was discontinued when the freeway was built: At the intersection of Fifth Street and Mount Vernon Avenue, City Route 66 continued eastward to E Street. At E Street it went north until it hit Kendall Drive, which almost paralleled Cajon Boulevard, but at the end, when Kendall met Cajon, that was where the City Route ended. That was until 1964.

And it was on this road that the original McDonald's was located.

From 1964 to 1982, the section of this route from Highland Avenue to the Interstate was marked as California State Route 206, which didn't include the former McDonald's site.

Now, if you can find an old Riverside-San Bernardino Street Map, which you probably got for free at a Signal Gas Station in 1961, you can see what I mean.

Woolworth's

2009-04-06T11:45:00.000+08:00

Frank W. Woolworth (1852-1919) was the first major discounter in the United States. His was a success story that actually worked...

However, in the 1980s, the company wasn't doing so well... The company owned Kinney Shoes and the Foot Locker. It tried to outdo Kmart and Walmart with its Woolco chain.

San Bernardino had two stores downtown. One was in the Central City Mall (now the Carousel Mall, Berdoo's infamous monument of an idea gone horrible.) The other one was at the corner of Fourth and E Streets. The company fought to keep the E Street property. Unfortunately, even though the contract would expire in 12 years, the chain completely shut down.

Woolworth's had one of the better lunch counters. Only Grant's was better.

Der Wienerschnitzel

2009-04-06T11:30:00.002+08:00

I have some sad news for you but it might seem a little late:

There is no such hot dog stand as Der Wienerschnitzel...

Actually, it hasn't existed since 1977, about the time the stands started selling hamburgers. They dropped Der... Now it's just Wienerschnitzel...

The chain started by John Galiardi in 1961 in the Wilmington neighborhood of Los Angeles and is probably the closest thing we have to a national hot dog chain. They do not serve the Austrian veal specialty, Wienerschnitzel. They never did. And they never will...

But one of my favorite sayings: Name changes never happen without a reason. In Der Wienerschnitzel's case, it was the addition of hamburgers...

Here is the original menu... Everything was 15 cents, except the Polish Sandwich, which was 45 cents... very expensive at the time...

Mustard Dog
Chili Dog
Kraut Dog
Relish Dog
Polish Sandwich
French Fries (actually offered later)
Soft Drinks

Later, a Ketchup Dog was offered, but most window people would sell you a Mustard Dog without mustard with a couple of ketchup packets. For a hot dog purist like me, I still don't know why they don't still do that...

Safeway

2009-04-06T11:15:00.001+08:00

Safeway was one of the biggest supermarket chains, not just in the United States, but the world. In 1979-82, when I was stationed in Berlin, Germany, when the Army band was on a trip to Hamburg, I can remember visiting a Safeway supermarket there that even had Cragmont soda pop!

On trips to Ecuador and Indonesia, I saw Safeway brand names at grocery stores there. More Cragmont soda pop!

I don't know what happened but the whole chain went crazy a couple of years after I got out of the Army in 1986. All the old Safeways became Vons. For a few years it was as if there were no Safeways in Southern California (they linger on in NorCal). And then, in the mid 1990s, they dropped most of the Vons brands and replace them with Safeway house brands. Some of the old names were gone. There was something quaint about Mrs. Wright's Bread. But they still had Lucerne milk. Which meant that Jerseymaid milk was gone. They kept that name for the ice cream.

By the way... I don't know if the building is still there, but there used to be a Safeway at the corner of F and Ninth Streets in Colton. While they were building the new library on Ninth Street, it served as a holding area for the books...

Safeway is gone in Germany. It was taken over by Morrison's in the United Kingdom and by Woolworth's (no immediate relation to the former F.W. Woolworth chain in America...)

The old library on La Cadena Drive (Eighth Street) is now the Colton Museum... More about that in a future posting...

Canada Dry Jamaica Cola...

2009-04-06T11:00:00.000+08:00

It had more caffeine than a cola had a right to have. Made by Canada Dry, we were able to get it until the Coca-Cola Bottlers of San Bernardino started selling Canada Dry flavors (it would be many years before we got Fanta.)

A few years after this, I did see Jamaica Cola in other parts of the country but I think it's gone now.

This was one of the last cans. I remember it having a much prettier one than this.

Canada Dry ended up resorting to selling only mixers like club soda, ginger ale, and tonic water. They had wonderful fruit flavors and root beer.

Too bad it's all gone.

Life in 1975

2009-04-05T12:00:00.001+08:00

Richard Nixon was President of the United States.
Jerry Brown was Governor of California.
The War in Vietnam was over April 30, 1975.
Generalisimo Francisco Franco died.
The First National Tuba-Euphonium Symposium-Workshop was held at the University of Illinois, Urbana, in May 1975. (I attended it.)
Students at Colton High School usually listened to KFXM (590 kHz) or KMEN (1290 kHz). A few liked KCKC (1350 kHz). Bill listened to KNX (1070 kHZ) and KPRO (1440 kHz).
The University of Southern California beat Ohio State University 18-17 in the Rose Bowl.
The Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Minnesota Vikings 16-6 in Super Bowl IX at Tulane Stadium in New Orleans.
Bobby Unser won the Indianapolis 500.
The Golden State Warriors beat the Washington Bullets, 4-0 games, to win the National Basketball Association championship.
The Cincinnati Reds beat the Boston Red Sox in the World Series.
AM America (now known as Good Morning, America) debuted on ABC.
Rod Serling, creator of the Twilight Zone, died June 28, 1975, at the age of 50.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest won the Oscar for Best Picture. Jack Nicholson won Best Actor, Louise Fletcher won Best Actress, and Milos Forman won Best Director, all from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.
W.T. Grant's went out of business.
The original Jeopardy! TV game program went off the air.
NBC afternoon soap opera Another World went from 30 minutes to a full hour in January.
A Christian contemporary FM radio station, KQLH, went on the air. Today it is CBS-owned KFRG--K-Frog.
Average price of gasoline--44 cents a gallon.
Average house rent--$200.00 a month.
Average income--$14,100.00 annually.
Average new car price--$4,145.00.
Average price of a new house--$44,500.00.
First class postage stamp--10 cents.
One Dozen Eggs--77 cents.
One Gallon Milk--$1.57.

E Ticket

2009-04-04T11:00:00.002+08:00

An E Ticket is something different than an eTicket. This is a Disneyland E Ticket. Those rides and attractions listed were the most expensive when each required its own admission ticket.

The nice thing about this was the admission price to the park was a lot cheaper and we could go more often. That's a good reason to promote season tickets.

They stopped using these in 1982. Southern Californians looking for cheap adventure had to go elsewhere.

Disneyland Miniature Golf Course

2009-04-04T10:30:00.000+08:00

I never went there. Most people remember it. I always wanted to go there but I never got the chance...

Sigh...

Los Angeles Herald-Examiner

2009-04-04T10:00:00.000+08:00

It was the last newspaper that used children to deliver it. It took about two hours less to read than the Los Angeles Times. It was owned by the (in)famous William Randolph Hearst Jr. And the comics were much better than the Times, too.

But it came out in the afternoon and no one wanted an afternoon paper. When they started it as a morning paper, it didn't take hold, and the paper went out of business in 1989.

Howard Johnson's Restaurants

2009-04-04T09:45:00.000+08:00

Did you know we had a HoJo's in Colton? Clam rolls in the land of burritos and taco burgers. Actually, it was a nice change of pace. Too bad you can't eat there anymore.

American Bandstand

2009-04-04T09:30:00.000+08:00

As a kid growing up in the 1960s, we had a lot of the teen dancing shows. They weren't a lot like the music shows that air here in the Philippines. Once these programs were over, they were over. The shows that are on now seem to linger on for minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years afterwards.

Bandstand was one such local show that was seen in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, beginning in 1952. It had a number of hosts until Dick Clark (1929- ) took the reins in 1956. Until 1957, it was seen only on WFIL-TV, channel 6, in Philadelphia (now WPVI), when it went out every weekday afternoon to ABC affiliates throughout the country. The name was changed to reflect this: American Bandstand.

The program didn't specialize in any one area of music. Performers of all genres of music that appealed to young people appeared on the show.

In 1963, the show began running on Saturday, after the morning cartoons. At that time, the live broadcasts were now being taped ahead of time. The weekday shows gave way to soap operas.

In 1964 the show moved to Los Angeles.

Dick Clark stayed with Bandstand until 1989, when it had one more host, but he remained the producer. He ended up producing specials, game shows, and documentaries. Bandstand went off the air in 1989.

Today he's best known for his New Year's Eve TV show, in which he didn't appear after he had his stroke, but now at age 79, he remains active.

Dyed Chicks for Easter

2009-04-04T09:15:00.000+08:00

Being a devout Christian, I never celebrated Easter in the Pagan way with egg hunts and chocolate bunnies (except after Resurrection Sunday when I could get them at a sizable discount... I do like Chocolate).

I never understood why someone would want to dye baby chickens different colors. And I was a sadistic kid growing up, too. I loved to dye the dog's hair with Kool-Aid (pink and green were the best colors for our beige poodle).

But to dye a chick... I'm not an animal rights advocate, but that's cruel and sick...

And they still do it here in the Philippines. This is Holy Week.

Telephone Answering Machines

2009-04-04T09:00:00.000+08:00

Living in Asia, where most people don't have a landline phone, they aren't much fun.

For a while, they were a lot of fun in America. But, like Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In, it was a fad bound to die within a few months.

My favorite line was to record my message:

"Hi. You've got me when I can't come to the phone. Please leave your name, number, and a short message after the tone. Thanxcelot!

And that was supposed to be the end of the message, but I pretended to make a mistake in recording...

"HONEY, WHERE'S THE TV GUIDE?"

Nowadays, if you have Voice Mail, you don't need the machine and that works even during a power failure.

Bank of America

2009-04-04T08:45:00.000+08:00

It began in 1904 as the Bank of Italy by Amadeo Giannini in San Francisco, California. After merging two banks together to form the Bank of Italy and America in 1916, it was shortened to the Bank of America in 1929. It managed to branch out of California in 1967. And it had its own credit card, the BankAmericard. That became Visa in 1975.

With all the bank mergers that took place in the last thirty years, it isn't a wonder that the Bank of America was bought by the former NCNB (North Carolina National Bank), when it was still known as Nations Bank. Since the Bank of America was an older and more reputable institution, it took on that name.

It's not the same as the Bank of America that existed when I was younger. That was a California bank. It's now based in North Carolina.

Walt Disney's School Bus Lunch Box...

2009-04-04T08:30:00.001+08:00

When I started school, this is how I took my lunch. Do you know they wanted seventy bucks for this thing on an auction website?

By the way, most schools would ban this lunch box today because it's made of metal and could be a weapon. You could do the same thing with a plastic box, too. (By the looks of the dents in this thing, it looks like it had been used as a weapon once or twice!)

Made by Aladdin Industries in Nashville, Tennessee, which made the first character lunch box, which pictured Hopalong Cassidy (William Boyd.)

Cigarette Commercials on TV

2009-04-04T08:15:00.004+08:00

In the United States, these were banned in 1971. It is my belief that this was one of the factors to make my native country one of the lowest per capita of tobacco users in the world, if not NUMBER ONE.

No one in this part of the world (I live in the Philippines) believes that this is so, since they see it in the movies. Having worked with movie actors on several projects let me put it to you this way:

They will not smoke in the movies unless the script calls for it... Smoking is such an addictive practice that the actors cannot just stop. It's a pitiful web.

The LoyalTubist has been smoke free since 1977.

Pink Panther Flakes

2009-04-03T07:00:00.001+08:00

Do you remember eating these? I do. They were nothing more than corn flakes dyed pink. When you poured milk on them, the corn flakes turned back to their original orange and the milk turned pink, but it tasted great!

I like soggy corn flakes.

Mount Slover

2009-04-03T06:30:00.000+08:00

Isaac "Cristobal" Slover (1780-1854) was killed by a bear on top of the mountain that later bore his name. For the next 140 years following, the elements to make concrete and cement were dug off this hill. Students and teachers at Colton High School, which is located not far from the site, often had to brace themselves often for the explosions which occurred when they were trying to blast rocks.

Slover was buried under a pepper tree at Agua Mansa Cemetery. The blasting operations ceased just prior to the end of the twentieth century.

Cyclamates

2009-04-03T06:15:00.000+08:00

I'm allergic to Nutra Sweet (Aspertame). I can't stand saccharin. Someone please tell me, since scientists say there's nothing wrong with cyclamates, why they are using them in Canada and the United Kingdom but they're still banned in the United States?

Been banned since 1969...

Colton Junior High School

2009-04-03T06:00:00.001+08:00

Our colors were purple and blue, but you never saw the two colors together. I was a student at Colton Junior High School from September 1969 to June 1971. I was a band geek. I was one of two tuba players in the band. For me, it was grades 7 and 8. We in Colton got into high school a whole year ahead of Redlands, Fontana, Rialto, and Corona. They stayed in junior high for their ninth grade. Colton, Riverside, Alvord, Jurupa, and Chaffey all had four year high schools.

Today they're all four year high schools.

Most of the "junior high schools" are now "middle schools" and incorporate grade 6, so they're all three year schools.

Junior high school is no more.

Colton High School Yellow Jacket Marching Band

2009-04-03T05:45:00.001+08:00

Call me a party pooper, but I hate the latest stuff on the band scene. I loved it when I was in school and the band did band reviews on fall weekends (and a couple in spring, too).

Band reviews were parades which featured only bands competing against each other. You didn't have to pay to watch a band review. It was out on the street. The bands played a standard military march in a military formation. Nothing could be simpler or more elegant. And it was fun...

There are still a number of band reviews still going on. Southern California doesn't have anymore spring reviews.

The most memorable ones: the El Primero Band Review in Santa Monica, the Maytime Band Review in National City, the Autumn Band Review in San Diego, and the All-Western Band Review in Long Beach are only memories. There are still band reviews in Arcadia, Chino, La Palma, and a few other places.

But you won't find Colton there anymore.

Colton Piano Company

2009-04-02T19:00:00.000+08:00

Vern Schafer had a piano store in Colton. I went to school with his kids (through junior high). After that time, he began to make it into a chain. There were stores in Colton and several locations in the Los Angeles area. Then it suddenly vanished.

In case anyone from Colton was wondering, Colton Piano Company is alive and well in Northern California, far from Colton, in the San Francisco Bay area.

Nice, huh?

Colton, California - - the HUB City

2009-04-02T18:45:00.001+08:00

When I moved to Colton from Oceanside, I noticed how proud the Coltonites really loved the town's nickname:

the HUB City...

What did this mean?

A few years before we moved there, there were two main highways which intersected in them middle of town.

US 70, US 99 - - I Street (now Valley Boulevard)
US 91, US 395, California 18 - - Eighth Street (now La Cadena Drive)... the truck route turned east on I Street to Mount Vernon Avenue (former 14th Street)

When they put in freeways, Highways 70 and 99 became Interstate 10. It was the San Bernardino Freeway west of the Colton Interchange and the Redlands Freeway to the east of it. Highways 91, 395, and 18 became Interstate 15 to the north of the Colton Interchange and was known as the San Bernardino Freeway. South of it, it was known as the Riverside Freeway.

A few years later, when it was decided to make Interstate 15 go all the way down to San Diego, they rerouted Interstate 15 NOT to go through Colton. This changed a lot. The new Interstate designation of the road became first Interstate 15E (E for East), then to Interstate 215, making it not a primary Interstate, but a secondary one.

Suddenly, Colton was no longer the HUB City. Even Larson's Hub City Drug Store dropped "Hub City" from its name and became Larson's Drug Store.

Roy Rogers Museum

2009-04-02T17:30:00.001+08:00

Located in Victorville, California, it was one of the most inspirational places I ever visited: the Roy Rogers Museum...

Born Leonard Slye in 1911 in Cincinnati, Ohio, he became a cultural icon of life in the American Southwest... the King of the Cowboys! Roy Rogers!

The museum was wonderful. These guys kept everything. Cereal boxes with Roy's picture on the front. His old clarinet he played in high school band. Drawings his kids did in school. This was the world's largest refrigerator door! I could spend hours in this place.

It closed down in 2002 in Victorville, having originally been located in Apple Valley, where Roy and wife Dale Evans are buried. Roy died in 1996 and Dale died in 2001 at the age of 88. Their grave is located at Sunset Hills Memorial Park.

Everything moved... including the taxidermized remains of Trigger, Buttermilk, and Bullet...

And it all moved to Branson, Missouri, in 2003...

The museum in Victorville is now the local office of the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department. Victorville's police department.

Roy Rogers Fast Food

2009-04-02T17:15:00.001+08:00

It was started by Marriott in 1968 in Falls Church, Virginia. To be honest, it had very little to do with a cowboy star, except that the company paid him to use his name.

The menu included burgers, roast beef sandwiches, fried chicken, and a lot more. Roy's picture was everywhere.

There used to be several outlets in Southern California. But it always was an East Coast chain... only those of us who lived on the other side of the country never realized that. For some reason (and I've looked everywhere) the chain suddenly disappeared from the face of the West Coast in the early 1980s.

It was a tremendous shock for me, when the Army sent me to Fort Dix, New Jersey, to find a Roy Rogers hamburger stand in nearby Wrightstown. It's gone now, since the nearby post was taken over by the New Jersey National Guard. But you can still find Roy Rogers in the area.

Even in Times Square, New York City.

Kenny Rogers Roasters

2009-04-02T17:00:00.001+08:00

Kenny Rogers began his Roasters restaurant chain in 1991. Within four years the restaurant had locations in Asia, including Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, and other countries.

Sadly, there is only one Kenny Rogers Roasters location in the United States, at the Ontario Mills Mall in Ontario, California, not too far from my home town of Colton.

I now live in Cagayan de Oro in Mindanao, in the province of Misamis Oriental, the Philippines. We don't have a Roasters. The nearest one is about twelve hours south (by bus) in Davao. Besides the Philippines, they still have locations in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. They are also in Brunei and China and will soon be in Dubai and Australia.

Cucamonga, California

2009-04-02T07:45:00.000+08:00

Cucamonga was a real place that ceased to exist when it incorporated in 1977, joining the other unincorporated communities of Alta Loma and Etiwanda. Since it took the name Rancho Cucamonga, the former Cucamonga handle was completely forgotten.

It was famous for wine. All but one of the vineyards are gone. Today it's a residential, retail, and light manufacturing area. The Metrolink commuter train station, near the Epi Center baseball park for the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes (of the California League) is on Jack Benny Drive...

"Train leaving on Track Five for Anaheim, Azusa, and Cu-ca-monga!"

TV Editorials...

2009-04-02T07:30:00.001+08:00

Remember the days when the news would end five minutes early so some old guy would tell you how he felt about something that didn't make any difference to you?

Boy, I sure miss those days.

This is a picture of Van Sauter, who used to give editorials on Channel 2 in Los Angeles several times a week.

Foremost Milk

2009-04-02T07:30:00.000+08:00

Foremost began as a project of James Cash Penney (JC Penney? Right!) Foremost was actually the name of his prized bull, Langwater Foremost.

Foremost became a national dairy in the 1950s with Foremost milk being sold in all 48 states, plus three territories (Alaska, Guam, and Hawaii.)

Today Foremost milk is sold by several companies using the name. There is a Foremost Cooperative based in Wisconsin. There is a Foremost Dairy working out of the Coca-Cola plant on the island of Guam. In California, Foremost milk is produced by Heartland Farms. And Foremost milk is also sold in Malaysia, the Netherlands, and many other countries around the world by Friesland Foods.

World Trade Center - - NYC

2009-04-02T07:15:00.000+08:00

I lost friends there.

Mirafone Tubas

2009-04-02T07:00:00.001+08:00

Miraphone was one of the first German musical instrument companies that surfaced after the end of World War II. Using patterns from pre-war German and Czech (Czechoslovakian) tubas , the company began in Bavaria in 1946.

They looked for a market outside Germany. In the late 1950s, they looked to America. This was the time when Tommy Johnson (1934-2006) began playing for many cartoons and television shows in Hollywood. So working with the Lockie Brothers (which distributed foreign musical instruments), Tommy became the company spokesman and was featured in a few of the magazine ads.

The spelling of Miraphone was changed to Mirafone for the American market. Mirafone had warehouses in Downtown Los Angeles and the Sun Valley neighborhood of L.A. before moving to Santa Clarita (Valencia), California, in 1990. Then the outlet was sold to a Netherlands percussion company and moved to suburban San Antonio, Texas. A few years later, Miraphone stopped with the idea of having a warehouse in the United States and did all its work from Waldkraiburg, Germany.

My fellow tubists argue with me (I own a 1962 Mirafone 186-5U CC) but I think there is a difference between the Mirafone and the Miraphone tubas. But no matter now... they only make Miraphones now.

Miraphone's website.

Busch Gardens (Los Angeles)

2009-04-02T07:00:00.000+08:00

Anheuser-Busch (makers of Budweiser, Michelob, and Busch beers) opened a brewery in the Van Nuys section of Los Angeles in 1954.

Twelve years later a family amusement park was put in with the beer making stuff.

Busch Gardens lasted just a few years. Its great magnet was the offering of free beer. All the beers that Busch made could be had just by showing a driver's license (for anyone over 21 years of age.)

Supposedly the kiddies were supposed to have fun. But I'm sure the ride home was hellish.

Hoffy's Hot Dogs

2009-04-02T06:45:00.001+08:00

Hoffman Brothers was one of the greatest meat companies in Los Angeles. They made terrific hot dogs and bacon. But the message of how great their meat was wasn't getting out.

So, in the 1970s, they hired Pat Boone as the company's comercial spokesman. In Los Angeles they surpassed Oscar Mayer, which had been the leader in hot dogs, thanks to national advertising.

But Pat got into other things.

You can still buy Hoffy's hot dogs at most Los Angeles area supermarkets. But Hoffy's best are not available to the general public, except as prepared hot dog sandwiches served at Pink's in Hollywood. These are the kind with a natural skin... the kind that crunch when you bit into them!

New Coke

2009-04-02T06:30:00.000+08:00

Do you remember this? In 1985, after being beaten mercilessly by Pepsi Cola's marketing techniques the folks at Coca-Cola had the wild idea that they should make their drink more like Pepsi.

Coke's formula was virtually unchanged since the amount of coca leaves was diminished early in the twentieth century. But Coke was suffering. So they all threw their hands up and came up with a new product which wasn't as good.

Sales plummeted. Less than three months later, Old Coke (now called Coca-Cola Classic) reemerged on the shelves.

Did you know, they kept New Coke (later known as Coke II) on the market until 1990?

By the way... For those of you who say there is no difference in Coke and Pepsi: Coke has an overwhelming flavor of lemon juice. In Pepsi, it's cinnamon.

California Baptist College

2009-04-02T06:15:00.000+08:00

It began as a small school on the grounds of the First Southern Baptist Church in El Monte, California in 1950. In 1955 an old folks' home in Riverside opened and it became the campus of California Baptist College. For years, they offered only Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science degrees in a number of subjects. After about thirty years in existence, they offered a Bachelor of Music degree (known as the LBM, the Long Bachelor of Music program, since most students couldn't do it in less than five years.)

After dropping out of college in 1978, spending seven years in the US Army, I entered Cal Baptist (CBC) in Spring Semester 1986. I graduated with the Bachelor of Music degree in Tuba Performance in 1989. I believe I am the last person to have earned that degree. It was eliminated a few years later.

For years the college had been trying to get bigger. We always seemed to have an enrollment of 666 students, not a good number for a Christian university. In the 1990s, a new president was elected to head the institution and eventually the name was changed to California Baptist University. Today there are over 4,000 students and, while it does not offer a Bachelor of Music, it does offer a Master of Music degree... and about 20 other graduate degrees.

As far as the changes, for a family man struggling to get through college, I liked the older school better. It helped me to grow up with a small, tight knit community, with whom I wasn't always so afraid to make mistakes.

I didn't go to CBU. I went to CBC.

Dressing up to go out

2009-04-02T06:00:00.003+08:00

There was a time when, if you wanted to go out, you had to dress up. Even if you were going on vacation, whether you were a passenger on an airplane or a train, you had your traveling suit (most people had two or three). I can remember seeing people in 1963 wearing curlers at the supermarket (I was five or six at the time.) I thought that was absolutely rude.

Why did people dress that way? It goes back to our rural roots. We'd dress down to stay home and dress up to go out. No one wanted to see what we wore at home when we were shopping, even if we were just going out to get a couple of onions and a half gallon of milk.

With the urbanization of America, we began to dress down a lot more. The hat industry suffered. Did you know there was a time when you didn't go out unless you were wearing a hat? I usually do wear a baseball cap when I'm out today. But that's not exactly what you call dressing up to go out. That's play clothes.

Master Charge

2009-04-01T12:45:00.002+08:00

As I have often said, "Name changes don't happen for nothing." A credit card began in 1966 as a competitor for the BankAmericard. It was the official credit card for a group of banks known as the Interbank Card Association. The banks included:
Bank of California
Crocker National Bank
United California Bank
Wells Fargo Bank

All of these banks were in California. The credit card was Master Charge - - the Interbank Card. In 1974 banks from other parts of the country were added. The name was changed to Mastercard when the card became international in the 1990s.

Montgomery Ward

2009-04-01T12:00:00.003+08:00

Aaron Montgomery Ward (1844-1913) published the world's first mail order catalog in 1872. Thirteen years after his death, the mail order business became a retail store. Although Sears Roebuck copied Ward's idea of a catalog in 1896, Ward's would struggle for the rest of it's existence as a sales business by its competition with Sears.

Ward's stores started in 1926. The company was very big with private brands (Skips sneakers, Airline electronics and musical instruments, Brent men's clothing, Hawthorne bicycles, etc.)

Ward's (later Wards) was the first retailer to use the expression:

----------------------Satisfaction guaranteed or your money back.

By 1883, Ward's catalog was known as the Wish Book. Sears would later copyright that term for that company's use.

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, the story and the song, were both written for Montgomery Ward promotions in 1939 (the song in 1948 by Johnny Marks).

The company had several owners from the 1960s on, including Mobil Oil and General Electric. It was General Electric which suggested liquidating the company in 1999 and putting the whole thing up for sale.

In 2004, five years after the original company went out of business, the Wards name was put onto an Internet business at wards.com.

CBS Radio Mystery Theater

2009-04-01T11:45:00.001+08:00

It started on New Year's Day 1974. The host was E.G. Marshall. CBS was the last network to have regular radio drama. The last shows CBS aired as part of the Golden Age of Radio were Suspense and Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar, in September 1962.

Himan Brown (born 1910), who had done many radio shows was in charge of its production. For most of its run, the CBS Radio Mystery Theater aired seven times a week.

As a soldier, I never got to listen to it when I was in basic training (we went to bed before 8:30 at night and never thought of anything like radio). I heard it when I wasn't busy at the School of Music (Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base) for my advanced training. My two roommates would always enjoy it. When the Army sent me to West Berlin, everyone listened to it. It came on at 6:00 on AFN (American Forces Network) Berlin. They also played other current programs such as the Bob and Ray show that was playing on NPR (National Public Radio) at the time. After all that, then we got to hear four hours of Old Time Radio. I treasured everything I heard.

Actually, my best recollections of the CBSRMT were when I was a high school student. We had two choices to listen to it: It first came on KNX (1070 kHz, Los Angeles) at 9:00, just before they had an hour of Old Time Radio. It also came on at 11:00 on KPRO (1440 kHz, Riverside... this wasn't the same KPRO station on the air today) just before it went off the air. The family usually opted for the later broadcast and the five of us had four radios (my parents shared one) and we all went to sleep as the Radio Mystery Theater gave us a bedtime story.

Family togetherness.

German Democratic Republic

2009-04-01T11:30:00.002+08:00

I was stationed with the 298th Army Band of the Berlin Brigade from October 1979 to January 1982 as a tuba player. For an American soldier in his first assignment, it was a most unique one. We couldn't do our duties until we finished School of Standards classes. And those classes filled up quickly. My class wasn't scheduled until a week before Thanksgiving, so the only work I was allowed to do before that time was rake leaves or be a relief guard (charge of quarters) at night.

The band had gone to Moscow (Soviet Union) for a few days. There were only a few people who could work as charge of quarters. I raked leaves from about 8:30 AM to 11:30 AM and 12:30 PM to 3:30 PM. As soon as I raked a pile, the wind blew more down. It wasn't much of a job but it kept me busy. It was steady, predictable, and the weekends were free.

My first weekend, I bought a day ticket on Saturday that was good for all of the U-Bahn trains (subway). I picked up a system map and planned all the places I was going to see. I didn't have a guide book or anything. I've never been to scared to explore a new place. My plan was to get off at every station and get off, exploring the place thoroughly.

Everything went well until I got off at the Friedrichstraße station. Things looked very strange. The police didn't look like West Berlin police. I saw uniforms I hadn't seen since I had ridden the American Duty Train from Frankfurt am Main. I was now in EAST BERLIN!

Now it wasn't forbidden for me as an American soldier to be in East Berlin. There were certain rules I had to follow: Either I could have a pass and wear my dress uniform (without a name tag) or I could be on leave with leave orders, a passport, and the proper visa and NOT be in a uniform. I didn't have either of those. I was wearing a blue Pendleton wool shirt, Levi's jeans, hiking boots, and a Greek seaman's cap. My identification was my Army ID card.

Shortly after I got to the station, I felt really bad and had to go to the toilet. I looked around and saw those beautiful letters: WC. Once finished, I heard a train going the other direction. I paid the washroom attendant the fee in West German marks (which was allowed) and headed back home.

Looking at the map when I got on the train, I saw the Berlin Wall was well marked but I was too stupid to know what it was. Rather than finish my "tour" I took a train to Kufürstendamm where I went to Burger King and ate two Whoppers.

Later, I would spend lots of time in East Berlin, but I never told anyone about my first trip until after I was discharged out of the Army, after 1986. I was so scared something would happen to me.

Now that I look back at it, I'm surprised I didn't get in trouble.

Victoria Guernsey

2009-04-01T11:15:00.000+08:00

Here's a bit about my past:

When I was born, I was born in Riverside, California, but my parents lived in the neighboring community of Sunnymead (which is now part of the city of Moreno Valley... like many things in my life, much of where I lived isn't there anymore... which I personally find fascinating!)

My dad worked in migrant agriculture, working for the Davis Brothers Produce Company. He moved wherever the potato crop was going.

The moving got to be too hectic for him, so after my sister was born in December 1958, he was given a job that would keep him in one spot, the Victoria Guernsey Dairy in San Bernardino. There were actually two dairies. One was on Base Line Street in Highland. The other was at the corner of Ninth Street and Waterman Avenue. He worked at the latter and they let us park our trailer house there. As a toddler, I spent a lot of time on the fence behind my house, watching calves get born. My dad often took me with him on trips he made in a huge International Harvester combine truck, which was used for everything from feeding the cows, to picking up orange juice at the Vita-Pakt plant in Covina, to taking cows that wouldn't produce milk to the slaughterhouse. Yes, I did get to see the cows get killed. I still remember what I saw. And, no, I'm not a vegetarian.

Dad got tired at being at the beck and call of the dairy. When a job for experienced workers were called for the Santa Fe Railroad in 1961, the first thing he did was go to the hardware store and bought every tool the job announcement said he was supposed to have, plus a toolbox. Then he left the tools out in the rain one night to get some "patina." The next morning, he carefully dried them, but they didn't look new anymore. He went to the interview with his toolbox and was one of the first men hired.

At first, we moved to Corona (which neighbors Riverside) and he lived during the week in an outfit car (an old passenger coach turned into a rooming house) in San Diego. Later, we moved to San Diego, where my brother was born in 1962. (We lived there from late 1961 to August 1962... then we moved up the road to Oceanside...)

So now you know more about my past...

Victoria Guernsey quit producing milk in the early 1970s. The place where my family used to live became a Kmart store in about 1973. Then it went out of business and many businesses have occupied that spot since that time...

Phone Booths

2009-04-01T11:00:00.000+08:00

Do you remember phone booths? I was probably the last person on the face of the earth to get a cell phone, which actually coincided with my ex-wife suing me for divorce. I can remember how difficult it was to look for a working pay phone...

When I lived in Indonesia, there were two kinds of phone booths... the kind that took coins and the kind that took phone cards. The card type were always easier to use because you never knew how long your 5,000 rupiahs was going to last for a call.

Living in California, having a cell phone made sense. When my Volvo broke down in the middle of the desert, for example, I didn't have to get out of the car and walk a 30 mile round-trip to the nearest Shell station to get a tow. No, all I had to do was get my cell phone and my Automobile Club card. I could get back home, refreshed and not exhausted.

I don't know why I didn't get a cell phone earlier.

Phooey on phone booths.

7up Gold

2009-04-01T10:45:00.000+08:00

I'm probably the only guy that liked this stuff. It came out in 1988. It was called "spice soda." When I lived in Berlin, Germany, it was my tee-totaller days (yeah, I know... bummer living in Germany and not being able to drink beer!) But I loved the German soda pops! They had something called Kreutzer, which had a very unsweet flavor. (For those of you know don't know, except for cola and some chocolate, I'm not too fond of sweet things, except pretty young women! I prefer savory.) This stuff was great.

Some 7 Up purists didn't like the fact that this stuff had caffeine (more than Coca-Cola) and you couldn't see through it.

When word came out late that year, I tried to buy up as much of the stuff as I could afford. Alas, when it was over I went back to drinking my Coke.

Pay TV

2009-04-01T10:30:00.000+08:00

This was a precursor to such services as HBO and Cinemax. It worked like this: You wanted to watch uncut movies at home. And this was long before low priced videocassettes had been introduced. You called up one of the Pay TV providers. The Los Angeles area had three...

Z-Channel (began in 1974, used a low power channel... not available outside Los Angeles)
ON-TV (began in 1977, used facilities of KBSC-TV, channel 52, in Glendale)
SelecTV (began in 1978, used facilities of KWHY-TV, channel 22, in Los Angeles... in 1984 it merged with ON-TV and broadcast on channel 22)

Charges were $19-25 a month (more if hard core pornography was desired). At first, channels 52 and 22 showed their regular programming and at 7:00, the picture would become scrambled, prompting subscribers to turn them on and watch movies until the next broadcast day began at 6:00 AM. In the wee hours, there would be another scrambling of the picture, for the porn subscribers.

In the movie. American Pie (1999), one of the characters is seen trying to watch scrambled movies. It was pornography on over-the-air pay television. Now you know.

Pay TV ended in 1991, when everyone started getting cable.

Sambo's

2009-04-01T10:15:00.000+08:00

Started in Santa Barbara, California by Sam Battistone and Newell "Bo" Bohnett, it was named "SamBo's" after themselves. Soon it became tied up with the story of a dark skinned boy who liked to play with tigers. Pictures depicting this story were placed all over the restaurant.

Other Sambo's began to appear all over the country. At their height, in 1979, the chain had 1,200 restaurants in 47 states.

But some groups viewed the Sambo name as being pejorative. New stores couldn't be built because the local governments wouldn't let a racist name like that be used in their community. The company began losing money fast. They tried a couple of name changes for new outlets: The Jolly Tiger and Sam's. But nothing worked. Bankruptcy happened very quickly.

By 1982, only one Sambo's was left... the original one at 216 W. Cabrillo Blvd. in Santa Barbara. And it remains open today.

For those who didn't know, while the chain went out of business, the restaurant itself never shut down!

Earp House, Colton, California

2009-04-01T10:00:00.000+08:00

Virgil W. Earp and his wife, Alvira ("Allie"), lived in his parents' house (Nicholas P. Earp and his step-mother) at what is now 528 West H Street in Colton, California, not far from the campus of Colton High School. The house is still used (by a different family). Nicholas was Justice of the Peace and Virgil ran a small private detective agency. His brother, Morgan S. Earp, who was killed in the Gunfight at the OK Corral, is buried at Hermosa Municipal Cemetery at the corner of Meridian Avenue and C Street. Virgil was the first marshal of the City of Colton when it became incorporated in 1887. The house was one of the first with electric lights. The family would move on but the house still exists. And functions.

Pic 'n' Save

2009-03-31T08:15:00.001+08:00

After moving to the Riverside-San Bernardino area (real natives from that neck of the woods don't say "Inland Empire!" It sounds like you're trying to sell something) from Oceanside in 1966, we often went to a store in Fontana (which was on the site of a recently closed McDonald's Supermarket--no relation to the fast food chain). This was a store that sold things other stores couldn't sell. And this store had something else... FREE STUFF! I remember getting finger puppets that were absolutely free, even if my parents didn't buy anything!

The store, later I realized, was part of a bigger chain. Over the years, I came to appreciate it. I could get almost anything I wanted for pennies.

When I moved to Texas in 1989, I was surprised that there were several Pic 'n' Save stores in the Fort Worth area (I also refuse to say Metroplex!) But for some reason, after about a year, the store name was changed to MacFrugal. Nothing about the store had really changed except the name...

But remember this: Name changes never happen for no reason! What happened was there was a Pic 'n' Save chain in Florida and this cleared up the confusion of two chains with the same name. Never mind that there weren't any other Pic 'n' Save stores in Texas (that I knew of) besides the one chain I knew from California. Outside California, Pic 'n' Save was MacFrugal.

Fast forward about fifteen years. I was back in California and started noticing the signs were changing. Now it was Big Lots! This was more than just a name change. It marked the beginnings of a merger with a store chain from back East and this chain promised not to sell any junk. For that, you have to go to the 99 Cents Only Store or Dollar Tree.

Sigh!

Riverside's Osteopathic Hospital

2009-03-31T08:00:00.001+08:00

I went to Google to look for 4295 Brockton Avenue. It's my birthplace. It was Riverside's Osteopathic Hospital until about 1961, when it became a psychiatric clinic. Years later, when my family moved to nearby Colton, it had become a secretarial college. That's what it was when I left California in 2006. It's also been the site of a bail bonds office. I don't know what it is now.

As a hospital, it was very small. There wasn't even a physician on duty. I was born at 1:15 AM, it was Saturday, but, to my parents, it was still Friday night.

For those who don't know, an osteopath is a physician who employs some chiropractic techniques. Most of my doctors have been osteopaths, but I've only known them to use "normal" medical practices.

Incidentally, Riverside, even though it's the largest city (312,000) of Riverside County, California, doesn't have very "urban" sounding house numbers. The hospital was located in the middle of the city.

Rooftop TV Antennas

2009-03-31T07:30:00.000+08:00

Originally, cable television was for people who lived too far away from a local TV outlet to receive it with an antenna. Consequently, Barstow, California, had cable long before Los Angeles, Chicago, or even New York City!

As a student at Tennessee Technological University, living in the dormitory, a cable box came free with the room. Without it, the only channel we could pick up was WCPT-TV, channel 55, in Crossville. That station has long since left the air (1983). We didn't have any "premium" stations. We couldn't even get WTBS in Atlanta (today's TBS). But we could get two of the three network affiliates in Knoxville, most of the stations in Chattanooga, the lone ABC affiliate in Bowling Green, Kentucky (site of then arch rival Western Kentucky University), and everything that came on in Nashville. Since we were on the dividing line between the Central and Eastern Time Zones (but living in the Central), we had to think of the clock accordingly. The 6:00 news on channel 9 (ABC) in Chattanooga came on at 5:00 in Cookeville.

A few years later, the movie channels were added then the special interest channels. Today it's possible to watch everything on TV and never watch anything airing on the local stations. Since the channels can show nothing but commercials, it's not really worth watching most that comes over the air...

I can also tell you about how, in the 1970s, when there was a tropical storm in the Pacific Ocean somewhere off the coast from Los Angeles, we could get some amazing "skips." I can remember watching something on KNBC, channel 4 (Los Angeles) in 1975. The wind blew and we were watching a news broadcast from somewhere in North Dakota. The picture was absolutely clear! You can't get that with cable!

Ken-L-Ration Dog Food

2009-03-31T07:15:00.000+08:00

My dog's bigger than your dog;

My dog's bigger than yours!

My dog's bigger

'Cuz he gets Ken-L-Ration;

My dog's bigger than yours!

North Oceanside Elementary School

2009-03-31T07:00:00.001+08:00

When North Oceanside Elementary School was built in 1939, it was a state of the art school with everything every school is supposed to have. It was my first school I went there from September 1962 (Kindergarten) until May 1966 (third grade), when we moved to Colton (next city to San Bernardino, but not far from my birthplace, Riverside).

Let me interject a sidenote here: The day after we settled into the Mount Slover Trailer Village in Colton, my mother was curious and went to the offices of the Colton Joint Unified School District to ask when school started in September. But school was still running... it was still running in Oceanside, too. The administration knew that some schools outside California have school years that end sometime in May. So they promoted my sister and me four weeks before the school year was over. But when they knew we were public school students, sitting at home, doing nothing except watching Sheriff John, they told us to go to U.S. Grant Elementary School as soon as possible. We still had three more weeks of school left! Bummer...

For the students at North Oceanside School, this would be their last year. The school was to be demolished to put in a new freeway to bypass Mission Avenue (California State Route 76). They would go across the San Diego Freeway (I-5) to North Terrace Elementary School.

We didn't keep much in contact with old friends in Oceanside and soon forgot them. But we'd go to Oceanside on the weekends... they had a very decent beach with no charge access. Parking was under $1.00...

Strange, we often went by the old school and nothing happened! It was closed but all the buildings were still standing, something like a ghost town!

Time passed by... I graduated from Colton High School in 1975... I went to three different colleges before dropping out in 1978... Then I joined the Army in early 1979, and was honorably discharged seven years later... I graduated from college, moved away to Texas for graduate school and work... I came back... And we'd go to the beach in Oceanside and nothing happened to my old school... until...

1995, we saw some earth moving equipment on one of our beach trips. About a year after this, we saw what you see at the top of this posting. My old school is where you see the palm trees on the right side. I think one or two buildings are still there. And it really wasn't a freeway... It is the San Luis Rey River Expressway. It has intersections and not on/off ramps.

Just think, it only took thirty years!

Earth Shoes

2009-03-30T10:15:00.000+08:00

Remember these? The toe was higher than the heel. And I actually owned two pair of them!

Helms Olympic Bread

2009-03-30T10:00:00.000+08:00

"Toot! Toot!"

I remember the Chevrolet panel truck driving in the trailer parks I lived in, both in Oceanside, and Colton, California. It was a mobile bakery shop selling many varieties of breads, cakes, donuts, and pies.

Now maybe the Helms man is partly the blame for my type-II diabetes. After the driver/vendor was done with his route, he offered the kids all the donuts they wanted. He said otherwise, the truck would be full of ants and it saved time cleaning up the truck. I think each of us received 10-15 donuts, which we stuffed into our faces at once. Right after this it was dinnertime and none of us felt like eating!

Helms started in 1932. They were one of the sponsors of the Los Angeles Olympics in 1932. They provided white and whole wheat bread, as well as other bakery goods, in the Olympic Village. They were the bread providers for the US Olympic teams in 1932 (Los Angeles), 1936 (Garmisch-Partenkirchen and Berlin), 1948 (St. Moritz and London), 1952 (Oslo and Helsinki), 1956 (Cortina d'Ampezzo and Melbourne), 1960 (Squaw Valley and Rome), 1964 (Innsbruck and Tokyo), and 1968 (Grenoble and Mexico City).

The founder and CEO of the company Paul Helms died on January 5, 1969. The company struggled to survive. But they managed to do a few gimmicks...

They provided bread for the Apollo 11 lunar mission (July 20-24, 1969). This was the first lunar mission and Helms was the first bread on the moon...

Sadly, though, by the time the astronauts came back to earth, the Helms Bakery was out of business...

Deposit Bottles

2009-03-30T09:30:00.001+08:00

If I remember correctly, 6-16 ounce bottles were five cents, 26 ounce bottles were ten cents, and Mother's Pride (1 quart, the biggest size before the advent of PET containers) bottles were fifteen cents. In 1973, when the Colton High School Yellow Jacket Marching Band was raising money for our summer European tour, we raised a heck of a lot of money from collecting pop bottles from many of the citizens of Colton and Grand Terrace.

Remember what supermarkets looked like then? Just past the front doors were baskets and baskets of dirty returned empty bottles.

In October 1979 I left California for Berlin, Germany, for duty with the Berlin Brigade (298th Army Band) of the United States Army. At the PX and Commissary, all of the American soda pop was sold in 12 ounce cans. They said that's the way it always was and I was accustomed to it.

But when I returned to California in 1982, it didn't look any different than the US military stores in Germany. There was a huge void in the supermarkets. No deposit glass bottles. In time the space would be occupied by plastic bottles, but this marked a new era in beverage history.

25 years later, when I was living in Saigon, Vietnam, I bought some Tiger beer at the local supermarket in glass bottles. The price marked was 12,000 dong (about US $.80 then). But the cashier charged me 14,000 dong. The reason? I had to pay a 2,000 dong (12.5 cents) deposit. My girlfriend had left a lot of beer bottles in the house. So the next time I went to buy beer I took seven bottles to the store and didn't pay anything!

Citizens' Band (CB) Radio

2009-03-30T09:15:00.000+08:00

Breaker, breaker, one-nine...

This is Gassy Weasel...

I'm looking for a friendly soul today...

Give me your 10-20, but don't give me an 8-1.

I'm just looking for some jaw jacking. Maybe we can meet up the road for a cup of Joe.

Isn't there anyone on the air?

I don't hear anyone...

This channel is dead!

Forget it. If anyone wants to txt me, my cell phone number is...

Ponderosa Ranch

2009-03-30T09:00:00.004+08:00

I loved the Bonanza TV series (NBC, Sunday nights, 9:00 PM/8:00 PM Central/Mountain, 1959-73). Here was a Western with very few cowboys... the Cartwrights were ranchers. In 1966, a theme park based on the series was put up in Incline Village, Nevada, overlooking Lake Tahoe (it wasn't far from Carson City or Reno). I went there in April 1975 and August 2004.

The ranch was great. It looked just like the TV show. I especially liked the family house (pictured here). I've often told people I want to build a replica of this house but I know I can't really have it.

It was the only theme park I know of that had its own line of liquor, a working saloon, and a working gambling casino... Heck, this was in Nevada. All those things are legal for adults past their 21st birthday.

I can't say much about the first time I went there but the second time I went with my (soon to be ex) wife and my parents. We took a week long vacation together in my parents' car. It was a bittersweet trip. My dad died shortly after my marriage of 20+ years ended in divorce.

And the Ponderosa shut down on September 27, 2004, my dad's 77th birthday...

Hoagy's Petting Zoo

2009-03-29T13:00:00.001+08:00

It was a pet shop with a zoo in the back of it. Located near the Rohr Aircraft plant (now Goodrich Aviation) in Riverside, California, you could buy exotic animals there (until the Humane Society deemed that animal to be unfit to live with humans).

The truth is I really don't know what happened to this place. I was last there when I was in junior high school. It was a lot of fun. I discovered I don't like unsalted peanuts (that's what was given to the elephants there).

I would love to hear from anyone who remembers Hoagy's Petting Zoo. The picture I selected for this page really doesn't do anyone any justice.

Farrell's Ice Cream Parlour

2009-03-29T12:45:00.002+08:00

I remember the Farrell's in Riverside, behind the Tyler Mall (corner of Magnolia Avenue and Hughes Alley). It just wasn't a good place to eat ice cream... the Reuben sandwiches... the unique soda pop from years gone by...

In time that Farrell's became England's Ice Cream Parlour. It became independent. Then I went off to join the Army and spent a few years in Germany. I came back AND IT WAS GONE...

The Farrell's chain survived many years after this. However, today there are only three left... One is in Santa Clarita (north of Los Angeles) and the other two are on the island of Oahu in Hawaii.

If you are using the information I put in my old website about one being in San Diego... that one went out of business 3-4 years ago!

Typewriters

2009-03-29T12:30:00.003+08:00

A little girl got excited when she saw the office device pictured at the left:

"Look what I found, Mommy. It's a computer. But it doesn't have a CPU. The keyboard is built into it. It has its own printer. And there is no monitor.

"Wow! it sure looks a lot nicer than Daddy's Macintosh Pro!"

ZZZZ Best Carpet Cleaning

2009-03-29T12:15:00.001+08:00

Barry Minkow was a whiz kid. He got a few household supplies and started cleaning the carpets in his Los Angeles neighborhood when he was 16. He got to be so good he started advertising on TV and became wealthy at a very young age.

He was shown to be a model kid. Everyone was so proud of him. But he got involved with the wrong kind of people and money laundering. Eventually, he wound up in prison.

Today he works to help people understand that you cannot survive without being honest to anyone, especially yourself.

San Bernardino Valley College Indians

2009-03-29T12:00:00.003+08:00

I was a student at Valley College in 1975 through 1976 and again in 1982. I played with the pep band, as the marching band had been disbanded two years before. We were the Indians. SBVC had been the Indians since 1927. The original nickname was the Wrens. It seemed strange to me then that the original nickname had been the wrens... I never saw any wrens. But it isn't that silly a thing... there are many wrens in the nearby desert...

Founded in 1926 as San Bernardino Valley (Joint) Junior College, Riverside Junior College (later known as Riverside College, Riverside City College, and now Riverside Community College) was twelve years older. Valley was always a bigger school with impressive athletic teams and bands. (The Valley College marching band was in the Tournament of Roses Parade long before RCC (Riverside Community College) even thought about being in it.

My band director at Valley was C. Paul Oxley. He was there from the 1950s through the 1980s. A studio trombone player in Chicago, an Army musician during World War II, and a high school band director in Tennessee, I owe a lot of my musical knowledge to that man.

In 2000 the students at Valley College voted to change the nickname of the school to Wolverines. Now wolverines don't even live in Southern California, except in zoos. The reason given for the change was that the term Indian was a pejorative term in describing the people who lived here before white people. Christopher Columbus called the people he saw Indians because he thought he was in Asia (and that's what they called Asians then).

No matter, in 2004, the entire musical program was wiped out so I wouldn't go back to that school today.

One thing many people against the Indians nickname protest is that the nickname demeans Native Americans. Arcadia High School in Arcadia, California, is the Apaches. For many years they abused that name. But in recent years, everything they do is approved by the tribal council of the White Mountain Apache Tribe of Arizona.

There are those who say there are no Caucasian school nicknames. Here are five. I'm sure you can come up with more. I linked the schools. Enjoy...

University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana - - "Fighting Irish"
Rim of the World High School, Lake Arrowhead, California - - "Scots"
Erasmus Hall High School, Brooklyn, New York - - "Flying Dutchmen" (a mostly Black school)
Loara High School, Anaheim, California - - "Saxons" (mostly Latino)
Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College, Miami, Oklahoma - - "Norse" (mostly Indian/Native American)

Continental Trailways

2009-03-28T08:15:00.001+08:00

There are people who will tell you that Continental Trailways didn't go out of business... it just got smaller.

It actually started out in 1936 as the National Trailways Bus System, a loose knit group of regional bus companies that could get people from one end of the country to the other. In time there were the local companies and the national system. They were the worst competition Greyhound had.

In 1987, the company (Continental Trailways, not the other Trailways companies) were taken over by Greyhound.

The thing I remember that they didn't go on the same routes. They went to Cookeville, Tennessee (Greyhound didn't, until 1987!) They had very unique buses. And the drivers drove a lot faster!