 |
|
|
|
Our Gang: The author, seated at left, and some of the old Terra Bella Avenue gang were probably getting ready for a game of baseball, three flys up, or hide and seek in this 1947 photo.
Remember When
That Old Gang of Mine
By Cookie Curci-Wright
They say once you've lived in the Santa Clara Valley you never want to live anywhere else. And judging from the many people I know who have spent their lifetime here, I'd say that opinion holds true.
Through the years, I've received letters from childhood friends and neighbors who, like me, were born and raised in this area, and share common memories. Some of these letters come from old Willow Glen pals who grew up with me on Terra Bella Avenue.
Reading through these letters jars my own memory, giving me a few goose bumps and chuckles when they mention moments that I can picture in my mind just as vividly as the day it happened.
Every letter brings with it a little piece of the past--something never forgotten; maybe it was a day playing "three flys up" at the corner lot, or building underground forts in our backyards. Then again, it could be the day we got our first TV set and how we all sat together in rapt attention, watching a continuous and motionless test pattern.
Though those were simple times, the moments we shared were precious and still return to me almost as clearly as the day they occurred.
To me, and the many people like me, who were born and raised in this valley, the beauty we experienced as kids was more than visual. We could feel it in the wholesome environment we grew up in, we saw it in the faces of our hardworking parents and we experienced it in our neighborhoods where a mix of ethnic backgrounds put down family roots.
It was good to be a kid back then, growing up in postwar America. A prosperous country had just elected Harry S. Truman president. Television had come along and with it the frozen TV dinner. The Radio Flyer wagon, a baseball bat and glove and the Schwinn bicycle were among our most coveted toys. Our favorite TV personalities: Howdy Doody, Hopalong Cassidy and the Lone Ranger. After the wartime years and a stern "Uncle Sam" we were happy to know our comical Uncle--"Uncle Miltie." Wartime words such as bombs, blitz and battlefield were replaced by happier names and headlines such as: "Jackie Robinson joins Dodgers," "The Bronx Bombers in 11th World Series," and "Citation wins Triple Crown."
In those days, San Jose's city buses ran only as far south as Malone Road. Anything beyond that was considered out of the city limits. Terra Bella Avenue was just a block past Malone Road so we didn't have far to walk to a bus stop. Actually, we were lucky that our street wasn't under city ordinance. Those who wanted could keep livestock on their property. Some kids raised their 4H hogs, lambs and cows in their own backyards. But I was content keeping rabbits, chickens, ducks, dogs and cats. In our beds at night, when all was still and quiet, we could hear a muted assortment of squeals , moos and clucking coming from the backyard menageries.
For a kid, in 1948, catching the downtown bus was a grand adventure. Downtown was the meeting place for regional San Jose. Most of our parents worked there and some of the kids in the neighborhood held summer jobs there, as well, My dad owned the Spartan Do-nut Creamery on Fourth Street.
Taking the bus was fun for us, but walking the streets of town, observing the myriad of intriguing window displays and street characters was the exciting part.
Downtown San Jose drew kids like a magnet. Within a dozen square block area there were movie houses: the Fox, the California, Studio, United Artist, the Lyric and the Mission, as well as department stores and 5&10 cent stores that beckoned us with their goods and soda shops. There were stores such as Hart's, Hales, J.C. Penney, Blums, Roos Brothers, Montgomery Ward, Sears Roebuck, Grants, Woolworth's, Kress, Newberry's and Thrifty's.
In the 1940s, going downtown was a necessity, we had to go there to visit our doctors, lawyers and bankers; we went there to get a good haircut, mail a package at the main post office, buy gas for our cars, shop for our clothes, pay our utility bills, or bowl a few lines. Downtown had other indispensables: restaurants and people.
Later, as our city grew, and urban spread took hold, grocery stores became supermarkets, shopping centers became super malls, and, as most streets, Terra Bella and its residents became part of the expanding city limits. Before long, we no longer needed to go downtown for our supplies, our doctors and our dinner houses. We could find it all right here in our own backyard. In 1952, dad sold his downtown shop and opened the Pronto Pup Creamery in Willow Glen, just a few blocks from home. Like a lot of men in our old neighborhood, dad was in business for himself.
Recently, I received a letter from childhood pal Tommy Ross, one of the kids from my old neighborhood. He reminisced of those days when family-owned businesses thrived in San Jose. He recalled my next door neighbors, the Phil Herold family, who owned the popular downtown Herold's shoe store on South First Street where Tommy worked as a stock boy during the summers. He remembered our neighbors the Spiveys who owned Spivey's 5-Spot Drive-In restaurants, and three of our best friends on the old block-the Jones kids: Phillip, Gary and Patsy. Their dad was a building contractor who headed up the Lew Jones Construction Co. Next door to me, in a two-story colonial, lived the Nelson Family, owners of Nelson's Furniture. (Not Ozzie and Harriet, but just as wholesome.) The Brinkman family lived across the street. Mr. Brinkman was the proprietor of the auto repair shop, Brinkman's Garage; the Domroses were masonry contractors,(Domrose Masonry) and Mr. Graham was a road contractor (Reed & Graham).
Occasionally, I'll hear news of these childhood friends. I know that one of our neighborhood pals, Pat Call, grew up to own and operate Call Manufacturing, a successful sheet metal contracting company; Gary and Philip Jones took over the helm at Lew Jones Construction; The Herold boys, Leslie and Scotty both became doctors, and Michael Hall became a prominent local banker. And what of little Tommy Ross? Well, he grew up to become Thomas G. Ross of Blach Construction Company, builders of our community's new Presentation High School.
It's nice to know that so many decades later, these kids still remember and treasure, as I do, those tiny moments in time we shared together. Moments that left us with pleasant memories, everlasting effects on our lives and an ongoing appreciation for the community where we grew up.
|
|
|
|
Willow Glen, California Since 1992
