September 2007 Archives

More comments about Walter and Cordelia Knott have rolled in since my Sept. 21 column on their ties to Pomona.

Brian Hurst and his fiancee visited the ghost town of Calico, near Barstow, on impulse on a recent drive back from Stateline. They were surprised to learn that the Knotts were responsible for the site being in San Bernardino County's hands as a park.

"Mr. Knott bought the site of the old Calico town back in the late 1950s for about 13 grand, restored it to its heyday of the 1880s and donated it to the county about 1966. It is a monument to the Old West, thanks to the founder of Knott's Berry Farm. It has an original mine shaft, costs a buck, but worth it. Think of the Calico Mine Train ride at Knott's Berry Farm. Only this one is the real McCoy."

Tommy Mushegain Sr. of Fontana, meanwhile, called to say that his family's dairy was near Knott's Berry Farm in the 1950s and '60s. He knew the Knotts a little and his sister, Patty, worked for Cordelia in the Chicken Dinner Restaurant.

You won't be surprised to hear that the Knotts were decent people. Although Cordelia apparently had an impish sense of humor: One day when Patty was leaning into a tub of ice cream, Mrs. Knott came up behind her and playfully pushed her face right into it, saying, "Get a good taste of it."

Wonder if it was boysenberry?

Reader Bette Cooney of San Dimas writes:

"I have read your stories and continue to remember those days around the valley. I have a bit of information for you that you may find interesting. In San Dimas on the corner of San Dimas Canyon Road and Bonita Avenue there used to stand a shopping center for many years that included several shops in a strip mall. The most famous you would recall would be the Pizza Royal and Canyon Theater from back in the early '70s. Also the Bravo Burgers that was originally a Bakers Tacos, also in early '70s.

"This center has been a eyesore for many years while the tenants finally finished the leases. While there was some disagreement with the city of San Dimas and the owner of the lot, they are finally going to put up some town homes. (Like we need more of those)!"

I'm familiar with those businesses only by reputation, I'm afraid, having only moved here in 1997. I can report that corner is also getting a small shopping center that is rumored to contain a small Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market. I asked Bette about her recollections of Pizza Royal, which still has a restaurant in Rancho Cucamonga.

She replied: "They had a piano player and also played the banjo. They played Dixieland music. Was a fun place for the whole family."

I missed out on all the good stuff.

Here's an unusual posting: a recipe.

"In the spirit of the Fair (and maybe because it will draw more folks to the blog), I'm going to e-mail you the recipe I used to win the Grand Championship of the Barbecue Contest at the Fair in 1990," writes the helpful Bob House. Well, it can't hurt. Click below for the recipe.

Journeying from Ontario into upper Rancho Cucamonga on Thursday, I had lunch at Corky's Kitchen and Bakery, a fairly new place at 6403 Haven, just above the 210 Freeway.

The interior (cheerful, bright, with an inviting bakery case and country clutter-type decor) and the menu (pancakes, sandwiches, salads, homey dinner entrees, pies, muffins) remind me of Polly's Bakery Cafe, a SoCal chain I like. Corky's is ambitious: It's open an astonishing 24 hours a day. At least until it sinks in with the owners that no one in Rancho Cucamonga is up past 8:45 p.m.

At any rate, I ordered my baseline sandwich, a tuna melt on sourdough, which proved better than average. The sandwich came with a dinner salad that showed some effort. As Corky's had a half-dozen pies on hand, I tried a slice of Dutch apple. It was practically a meal in itself, bursting with tart apples. Corky's is pretty far out of my way, and yet I can see myself going back on a long lunch hour sometime. Unless the mood strikes me at 3 a.m.

UPDATE: Corky's, I've since learned, was opened by Mike and Jennifer Towles after closing their Tole House Cafe in the same shopping center. It's named for Mike's late grandmother.

One of my Seven Wonders of the Inland Valley, the Super Tents building at the University of La Verne, was the site of a ceremony and open house Tuesday evening to mark the completion of $8 million in renovations. Nice to see one of the Wonders spruced up. (The Montclair Mystery Tower, meanwhile, was being spruced up, then was tagged unmercifully, and now is being spruced up again. We'll see if it looks better in the end, or worse.)

Friday's column will have more details on the Super Tents. In the meantime, I'll tell you that my tour of the facility, led by Jeff Rouss of ULV's major gifts department, showed that the interior is much improved. The building has far more useable space now than in its previous open layout. And the halls still have that "new tent" smell.

My column today on Cafe Montclair, the latest restaurant in the building that once housed the Plum Tree, the Majestic, Ginger's Place and, originally, Lizzy's, prompted a note from Bob House:

"Today's column about the new Montclair restaurant got me thinking about Valley restaurants and bars that are no more. Would readers find that an interesting thread? I nominate two from Claremont's past: Stinky's, a burger place on Foothill that lasted into the '60s, and The Midway, an iconic dive bar, also on Foothill, that made it into the '70s. The Midway is featured in Kem Nunn's first book, 'Pomona Queen.'"

Feel free to add to the list, readers.

Two further notes I left out of the column: The hostess at Cafe Montclair, who held the same job at Plum Tree, is Pia Jackson, whose family owned the fondly remembered Di Censo's Italian Restaurant in Upland. And Joanne Boyajian of the Ontario Library discovered there was a Tin Lizzy restaurant on Holt Avenue in Pomona from 1968 to 1970, of unknown relation to the Montclair Lizzy's, which also had a Tin Lizzy theme. Huh!

The photo is too large and blurry to post, being shot from a moving vehicle, so trust me on this: A road sign in Switzerland -- shot by former Upland resident Brian Hunt -- shows distances to Chur, Sargans, Buchs and “San Bernardino, 117 km.”

Was Hunt motorvating on Switzerland’s answer to Route 66? I don’t know, but the Swiss version of San Bernardino is a mountainous village that serves as an entry point to the San Bernardino tunnel.

Nice to know there are Spanish place names in Switzerland, as well as a touch of the Inland Empire.

Here's a note I got a while back from reader Jackie Leffingwell, who was responding to a column on the late Pomona character and one-term mayor Urban Ziegler:

"Maybe one of your readers knows if he had (perhaps) a sister, Miss Ester Ziegler. She taught 6th grade at Upland Elementary School in the '40s, and took a bus home every day to Pomona. She is a story in herself, and influenced many young lives, including my own.

"I'm sure that there are still many of her students in the area who remember her fondly. I was in her 6th grade class in 1946, and I don't know how much longer she continued teaching."

From Urban Ziegler to Upland Ziegler! Thanks, Jackie. Anyone else remember Miss Ziegler?

I dropped in Sunday at Scripps College's Ruth Williamson Gallery to see the Millard Sheets art exhibit.

Sheets was a titan in the Inland Valley's art scene, a watercolorist and muralist who taught art at Scripps from 1932 to 1955 and assembled exhibitions at the Fine Arts Building at the L.A. County Fair, giving the masses sometimes their first exposure to art. He also designed more than 40 mosaics for Home Savings bank branches.

The Williamson Gallery has some nice paintings of his on display through Oct. 14, from rural scenes -- including 1930s Claremont, Chino, Carbon Canyon and the Chino Hills -- to the California coast, urban L.A., Mexico, New Mexico and Hawaii. There's a second Sheets exhibit, at the county fair, that I hope to catch this week.

The Williamson Gallery show is at my kinda price -- free -- and you can find it at 11th Street and Columbia Avenue, open from 1 to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday.

As I left the gallery, two middle-aged men passed me on the sidewalk, walking together and chatting. One was walking a small dog. The other was pushing a baby stroller. It carried two small dogs. In Claremont, the free entertainment never stops!

As reported here last Sunday, and in my column today, I'm the grand marshal of the Pomona Christmas Parade on Dec. 1. (That is, until the Jaycees admit they're pulling my leg.)

I've asked who has hosted this parade before, so we can see what company I'm keeping. Hector Rodriguez of the Jaycees has agreed to compile a list.

One name I'm particularly interested in is Ann B. Davis. A friend who grew up in Pomona swears that circa 1969, the "Brady Bunch" actress, who played Alice, was the parade grand marshal, riding through downtown in a convertible while wearing, why not, her TV housekeeper's uniform. Anyone know if this is true?

I hope it is, because following in the footsteps of Alice's sensible shoes would be a kick.

I wrote recently in my column about Inland Valley mom-and-pop restaurants where you can reliably get a slice of pie: Roady's in San Dimas, the Village Grille in Claremont and, most notably, Flo's Cafe in Chino, where two employees work full-time baking pies, cobblers and other goods for the two Flo's locations.

Co-owner Donna Hughes, who with her husband Paul bought Flo's from founder Flora Slack in 1976, told me post-publication that the bake shop was his idea: "My husband is a big sweet eater. He wanted to have desserts put in, so we did."

What of pie places past? Charles Bentley recalls a few: Chavens in Montclair, which was near the old Holiday Roller Rink east of Montclair Plaza, and the Pie Place in Ontario, on Mountain Avenue in the building now occupied by Home Kitchen.

Then there was Wag's on Ontario's Euclid Avenue and the Hollander Cafeteria at Montclair Plaza, Bentley says. I can add Katie McGuire Pies at Base Line and Archibald in Rancho Cucamonga, now occupied by Dairy Queen.

Any memories of pies past, readers?

In conjunction with my print column today, which has more details about Walter and Cordelia Knott's pre-Berry Farm days in Pomona, here's a note from Patricia Smithen Adams. It concerns the Knotts' residence from 1911 to 1913 at 1040 W. Fourth St. of that city:

"My grandparents were friends of Walter and Cordelia and lived on West Second Street. They would visit on the front porch at that home. My uncle still lives there. I was just a small child but I remember stories about the Knott family. I was in the class of 1956, Pomona High."

Thanks, Patricia.

Got an interesting recollection from reader Bob House on the glory days of Pomona's West Second Street, a topic of Wednesday's print column. If you didn't see that one, the buildings on the north side of Second between Thomas Street and Park Avenue will be razed for new development.

As the wrecking ball nears I'll try to write more about the history of this once-vital street, where the whole valley came to shop. In the meantime? Take it away, Bob:

"Another blow to nostalgia. I just did a little research and discovered that included in the demolition is the former John P. Evans store at 2nd and Main. In the '50s (and before, I assume) it was Pomona's leading men's store and where I bought all my Cub//Boy Scout accoutrements. They had a glass case of prizes you could 'buy' by trading in store coupons that were earned with clothing purchases. I can't remember today what prizes were in that case, but I remember standing in front of it dreaming of someday owning them all.

"Also in the neighborhood were Beamon's Sporting Goods (where I won a Davy Crockett coonskin hat as a booby prize in the Prog's weekly football-winner picking contest) and a shoe store with a very cool wooden climbing/sliding apparatus built into one wall to keep kids entertained while Mom bought shoes. The shoe store also had one of those big 'fluoroscopes' that you stuck your feet under to be 'X-ray'd' for a perfect shoe fit.

"If you haven't seen this Ganesha High alumni site, they have some old postcards showing the redevelopment area: http://www.ganeshahighschool.com/vbportals/ganesha/showthread.php?t=236

"I was there for the opening of the pedestrian mall in the '60s. High hopes were never realized on that project."

Great note, huh? Buy Bob House a round on the house. His letter is one reason I asked for a blog -- I could never have fit all that into my print column, not without letting Bob write it for the day, so I'm glad I have this new forum for sharing extended reminiscences.

Commuters in L.A. and Orange counties waste 72 hours a year stuck in rush-hour traffic, but "the Inland Empire and the Ventura area are gaining ground," says the LA Times, in a rare 909 compliment of sorts.

Gaining ground how? San Bernardino and Riverside motorists spend 49 extra hours crawling through traffic, up from nine hours 20 years ago. That's according to the Texas Transportation Institute, source of all these numbers, in its annual report on traffic delays. LA/OC is No. 1 in the nation, the IE is No. 13. (But we try harder.)

How bad is it? Overall, traffic congestion drained $78 billion from the national economy, the institute claims. I don't know how they come up with that number and don't care to wade through their study to find out.

My own research reveals that $23 billion in productivity is lost each year deciphering, pondering and writing about the Texas Transportation Institute study.

Gore Vidal, that is. The novelist, playwright and essayist spoke Tuesday evening at the Claremont McKenna College Athenaeum to impressionable college students, town graybeards and journalists (me).

At this point the literary lion doesn't roar, he merely speaks in a sepulchral purr. To summarize his key points, America has been in deep decline for five decades, the world hates us, things are unlikely to improve and most of us are too dumb to know it, to know our own history, or to care.

Moderator: "So I'm not hearing a lot of hope."

Vidal, poker-faced: "I bubble with it."

On what passed for the bright side, Vidal said in response to a question about 9/11: "Bush didn't do it. He's too incompetent."

If you hear reports of a mass suicide in Claremont, you'll know what triggered it.

Before Monday's Pomona council meeting, I dropped into Bravo Burgers for a bite. It's apparently a small chain operation, with an outlet in La Verne, among other cities. The one I visited is in Pomona, at Orange Grove and White avenues, next to DiCarlo Liquor and its neon champagne bubbles sign.

Nicer inside than you'd expect -- Bravo, not DiCarlo -- and my $2.85 burger was hot and satisfying, with a thick tomato slice, lettuce, pickles and onion. I like how it came not only wrapped in paper, but served on a paper plate. Made me think of a more genteel era when this newfangled item might have been called a hamburger sandwich.

Overall, I'd rank the Bravo experience up there with Golden Ox, Classic 66, K 'n F and Samo's, Pomona's other contributions to burger excellence. I say bravo.

Well, the hiatus is over, and now we can finally learn if they get off the island. No, wait, that's "Lost." Tonight's big return is the Pomona City Council, back in session after six long weeks off.

Feeling lost yourself after six weeks? You could probably go to the City Clerk's office and get copies of the previous year's meetings on DVD, if you feel the need to catch up.

Personally, I think it's better to start fresh. Besides, if there was a cliffhanger at the end of the last meeting, the council's probably forgotten it too.

I bet the DVD bonus features and commentaries would be fascinating, though.

A voice mail was left last week by Karen Davis, who introduced herself by explaining that she is chairwoman of the Pomona Jaycees' 56th annual Christmas Parade, which will take place Dec. 1.
Davis had a request.
"We would like to invite you to be this year's grand marshal," she said.
I almost dropped the phone.
Me, grand marshal of a parade? And in my favorite city? I was so flattered I couldn't think of anything to say but yes, so I phoned her back and said yes.
Davis was relieved, telling me that while everyone in the Jaycees thought her idea of inviting me was swell, they all said: "You'll never get him."
Really? Maybe I should have played hard to get.
Incidentally, I'm announcing my parade duties here as a bonus for those of you checking out my blog. (And thank you for doing so.) A longer account will appear in my column later this week.
Oh, and if turns out the Jaycees were just kidding: Never mind.

Some people think Huell Howser is too corny to be taken seriously, but I like him. His show Friday featured the Claremont Packing House, the subject of a column of mine a few weeks back when the place was rehabbed and reopened, so I tuned in with interest.

One historical tidbit: In the 1970s there was a commercial worm farm in the basement, only the worms reproduced faster than they could be sold. The rest of the story I knew, but it was fun to see Howser touring the place and interacting with Jerry and Nancy Tessier and Ginger Elliott, all of whom I had interviewed as well.

Howser is an enthusiast, you have to give him that. In fact he's sometimes more enthusiastic than the people actually invested in the subject. Marveling at the new College Heights sign out front, a nod to the original citrus association that packed lemons in the building, he exclaimed: "You're really reigniting an interest and a curiosity about the history of Claremont!"

Two favorite bits:

* The only "wow," a Huell Howser trademark, came at an unlikely moment.
Howser: "Did this place always have a second story?"
Jerry Tessier: "They actually added a second story about 1945."
Howser: "Wow."

* He listened to someone at the Claremont Forum's used bookstore talk about how book sales provide money to send paperbacks to prisoners. To clarify things for viewers, Howser (in jest) (I think) asked: "So you don't have to be a prisoner to shop here?"

A package delivered to my desk this morning turns out to contain a $23.95 book titled "Who Named the Knife," a true crime story, sent to me here at (according to the address label) the "Ontario Daily Bulletin" by Random House. Why would Random House think your mild-mannered columnist would be interested in a book subtitled "A Book of Murder and Memory"? The best clue is in the jacket flap, which says the author is a resident of Toronto. Which is in Ontario, Canada. Can Random House think my address of "Ontario, CA" means the author and I are practically neighbors?

Every week I try at least one new restaurant, usually on my lunch hour, and usually on Monday. This week, delaying my foray until Wednesday, I hit El Ranchero at 19th and Carnelian, in the upper reaches of Rancho Cucamonga. It's in a standalone building in a small shopping center and, based on the sign out front reading "El Ranchero Fast Food Mexican Restaurant," my hopes weren't high.

Inside, though, the place had colorful tile and a mural on one wall. Bright and cheery! At the counter I ordered three carne asada soft tacos and a horchata. They came in the traditional way, small tacos with onions and cilantro, and weren't bad at all. The booths were full up even at 1 p.m., so it's a popular place. There's also a generously sized patio. All in all, it's one of those restaurants that, like the Transformers, is more than meets the eye.

Testing, 1, 2 ... greetings, and welcome to my blog!

If you're here, surely you already read my Inland Valley Daily Bulletin columns. (Readers: "Don't call us Shirley.") If not, look for those pieces at www.dailybulletin.com/davidallen, where I roam from La Verne to Fontana, Upland to Chino, with lingering stops in Ontario, Pomona and Rancho Cucamonga, looking for silly stuff, quirky stories, culture, charm and character before development drains it all away.

Why do a blog AND three columns a week? Because overkill is underrated. Also, it's an experiment on my part.

I find more material than I can always get into print in a timely way, I get entertaining comments from readers (especially reminiscences about the recent past) there's no room for and I notice things around the valley, such as business closures, that I can't think of much to elaborate on but that ought to be put on the record.

Moreover, I try new restaurants and almost never write about them, and I journey outside the valley to places you might like to read about -- for instance, I was at the Rialto Theater in South Pasadena for its closing weekend -- but that my column isn't really set up to chronicle.

Thus, this blog.

My goal is to post daily, so that every time you check in, there will be something new here to read. I can't promise it will always be scintillating, and it may be just a few lines, but hey, at least it'll be fresh. Your readership and comments are encouraged and will help this experiment succeed.

Oh, and one more thing: I'll call you Shirley any darn time I like.