Remembering the Way It Was My Community 50 Years Ago
by Cookie Curci
A state-of-the-art fire truck roars out from the Minnesota Avenue
fire station. The clanging of the fire bell and the wail of it's siren cuts
through the silence in the small, adjacent Willow Glen Library.
Down the street, a group of Willow Glen elementary school kids
walk past Ernie Hutton's Mobil station on their way to The Pronto Pup creamery
for double scoop ice cream cones.
John Rena waves hello as they pass by his busy Lincoln Avenue barber
shop. His faithful customer, George Desin sits in the barber's chair,
puffing away on his big, black, familiar cigar, while the barber neatly trims his
thinning gray hair.
Next door, at the Pronto Pup creamery, Dad is busy flipping burgers on
a hot fry grill while noisy teenagers crowd around the shop's horseshoe
shaped counter. The young teens pool their nickels and dimes so they can hear
their favorite songs on the corner juke box. Songs with a rock beat by
Fats Domino, Buddy Holly and Little Richard rumble off the walls. Overhead, a
fan circulates the air with the warm, mouthwatering, aromas of "basket
burgers", fried onions and French fries.
Neighborhood teens spend all their free time at the Pronto Pup
playing the juke box, reading comics and Hotrod magazines, socializing with
friends, and eating their favorite foods: Whimpy burgers, chocolate malts and
cherry cokes.
A couple of doors down the avenue is the Village Shoe Store.
Proprietors Andy and Alberta Trapani are busy restocking their window display for the
new fall season. Heavy soled shoes made of durable leather is the choice of
the day for boys, girls are wearing leather "flats" and "patent leather pumps"
and preteens, everywhere, are wearing black canvas Keds.
The village shoe shop hums with activity as the storekeepers carefully
arrange a myriad of fall merchandise into their small display window. Willow
Glen mom's take their kids here to shop for holiday fashions and durable
school shoes.
Further down the street, Bobby, a young clerk at Bergmann's department
store, sweeps off the sidewalk as he smiles hello.
As my little dog Buffy walks along the avenue with me, she scampers
to the back door of the Little Chef restaurant, La Villa Deli, and the Trio
market to beg for scraps and leftovers from her favorite cooks and clerks,
who always have a food scrap for her.
Walking down the business district, I recognize most clerks and
storekeepers by name. I spend a lot of time here, on the avenue, patronizing shops
and visiting with the store keepers. In turn, they are all regulars at my
Dad's Pronto Pup creamery. Among them: Vivian Lawrence of Lawrence's Drug
store, Betty, of Betty's Beauty salon, Don Drysdale, of Geroge and Inman,
Conrad Bergmann owner of Bergmann's Department store, Pat Pooler of Pooler's
jewelry shop, Joe Di Solvo of Di Salvo's appliances, Ed, proprietor of Ed's
Hobby shop and Rocci and Chanci Bengiveno of the Trio Market.
Willow Glen High school is holding its first assembly in their newly
constructed auditorium; Bob Buchser is the school principle. Popular football
coach Bob Berry is out on the field putting the Willow Glen Rams through
their paces.
Down the avenue the grand marquee of Bud Lima's state-of-the art
Garden Theater boasts its currant movie attraction, "Father Of The Bride", starring
Spencer Tracy and Elizabeth Taylor".
J.A. Bud Lima and his dad J.B. Lima, opened Willow Glen's plush
new Garden theater in 1949. Until then, the only movie house on the avenue
was the old, and antiquated, Willow Glen theater just across from the Meat
market, Orioles Creamery and Lawrence Drugs.
The Fabulous '50s had come to Willow Glen, bringing with it the
latest in cinemascope, stereophonic sound and 3 Dimensional films. What better
place to enjoy these movies but in the comfort of the palatial Garden
theater, with lodge seats, wide aisles, air conditioning, and a complete snack bar
that included milk duds, ice cream bars, popcorn, hot dogs, and sno cones.
Every Saturday, predictable as clockwork, I line up at the
theater's glass enclosed ticket booth and hand in my quarter admission to the
kiddy matinee. Starring in these films are Saturday afternoon heroes: Roy
Rogers, Gene Autrey, Hoppalong Cassidy, Tarzan, and Sabu.
Sometimes, during a long triple feature, the theater swells with the
aroma of tuna fish, boiled eggs, and fried pepper sandwiches rising from the
assorted brown bag lunches the kids bring in from home.
This was my view of Willow Glen some 50 years ago. I've enjoyed
growing up in this community as the daughter of a local businessman, knowing
everyone along the Avenue and being known in return. I was nine years old when
my Dad took over the ownership of the Pronto Pup and I was thirty years old
when he sold it. So, a good chunk of my life was spent in that old teenage
haven, affectionately called "the Pup", and now the home of The Coffee
Roosting Co.
Since then, the community has gone through a lot of changes. Each new
generation that comes along leaves behind a small part of themselves and their
cultural contribution.
But for me, the Willow Glen I grew up in, its neighborhoods, old
businesses, landmarks, and especially its people, will always be an indelible
part of my life.
I'm sometimes accused of writing too flowery about Willow Glen, and told
that I act like Willow Glen is the most important place on the planet. Well,
to those of us who have lived here all of our lives...it is.
A wise person once wrote, "No matter where life takes us, no matter
where we may go, we never forget our hometown and our childhood friends and
neighbors."
For over 14 years, Cookie Curci wrote a popular nostalgia column for The Willow Glen
Resident. (The Silicon Valley Metro Newspapers...San Jose califonia)
www.metroactive.com. She's currently writing a column called "Looking Back" that
appears monthly in FRA NOI - a Chicago based newspaper. In additon she writes for
"Mature Living" in Toledo, Ohio, "Senior News" in West Virginia and THE WILLOW GLEN TIMES in San Jose. More about Cookie is at On Writing a Nostalgia Column.... If you would like to comment on an article, Cookie can be reached at Cookiecurci@aol.com.
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