Reader Mark Junge writes that he discovered this blog by Googling something — we get a lot of new readers that way, and it’s great — and thought to drop me a line in hopes of jogging his memory.

“I used to live in Pomona and saw many changes there before getting married and moving away. I was hoping you might know about a couple of things:

“1. At what is now the Indian Hill Village, when it was still an open/outside mall, they used to put up a tall tinsel Christmas tree outside of the old JJ Newberry’s. I know I’ve got a picture or two of that tree, but I can’t find it right now. Do you have any pix of it, either on your blog or elsewhere?

“2. There used to be a desert painter who, I believe, emigrated over from Germany. He used to show at the weekend Griswold’s art shows, and he used to have a studio in the small building across the parking lot from the old Boys Market. Would happen to know his name, or could you tell me who might know that? (The current owners of Griswold’s doesn’t have records of that time — I checked).

“I hope to spend more time reading your blog online. I can see it’ll bring back lots of memories! (By the way, I now live in Yucca Valley outside of Joshua Tree National Park.)”

I don’t have a picture of the old Christmas tree, but surely someone (Darin Kuna? Ren?) does. And I don’t know anything about the desert painter in Claremont, but perhaps one of you do. If so, leave a comment.