Around Rancho Cucamonga: December 2007 Archives

Referring to my comment in a recent column about "stuffed animals" at Rancho Cucamonga's Bass Pro Shops, longtime reader Mel Leets writes:

"Animals are now mounted on mannequins using the hot glue system to tailor-fit the skin to the type of animal mannequin. About the only thing they stuff anymore are turkeys."

Correction noted by this turkey.

(Always nice to hear from Mel, by the way. He's been commenting on my columns longer than just about anybody.)

Touring neighborhoods to see Christmas lights isn't my idea of entertainment, although I know a lot of people like that sort of thing. I'm not a Christmas-lights kind of guy, whether my own or anybody else's. I don't even put up a tree.

But an opportunity presented itself to see Thoroughbred Lane in Rancho Cucamonga the other night, courtesy of a Christmas party a couple of blocks from the street, and it was high time I checked out perhaps the valley's most decorated street.

A bunch of us walked Thoroughbred on foot, which I highly recommend, for pollution as well as exercise and aesthetic reasons. You're smart starting at the west, by the way, as traffic from the east, on Sapphire, is ridiculous.

So how were the lights?

Well, once past the letdown that only years of hype can engender, I had to admit the street's decorations were pretty impressive. A tropical-themed front yard, which included a sign reading "Happy Hula Days," was my favorite. Plenty of people went to a lot of effort and, fossil-fuel consumption aside, the effect is quite nice.

Although I was also impressed by the rare houses that did nothing, or nothing beyond a banner by the front door or a bow on a tree. In that neighborhood, that takes nerve.

Around the same time, Phil Godwin of Chino Hills e-mailed with another tip:

"If you want to see the coolest decorated house, go to Chino. South of Philadelphia on Monte Vista, the third house from the corner on the east side of the street. Park where you can see the whole front of the house. Tune your radio to 90.3 FM. The house must have 6 bazillion lights; they all blink in time to the music on the radio. There are three or four songs, all different. The owner went to a lot of trouble for this one. Really a neat visual."

I'll try to check it out, and you lights-fanciers can too.

Comment with any other must-see stops below.

Today's print column closes with a mentiion of Shanty Devlin's.

As described to me, Shanty Devlin's was a bar on the northeast corner of Archibald and Foothill in Cucamonga in the early 1960s. The owner was a San Bernardino man, Dick Devlin.

Perhaps the bar's best-known feature was a piano player known as Elegant Ethel. She may have been in her 80s. She was blind. And she knew her stuff. She played the old songs, like "Won't You Come Home, Bill Bailey?" As Wayne Leavitt told me admiringly: "She would really bang on that piano."

On whatever the local radio station was in those days, Elegant Ethel would come on daily at noon to play a number. Her appearances were sponsored by First Trust Bank.

We're missing characters like Elegant Ethel these days. Or if we're not, and characters like her still exist, we don't know about them.

Anyone oldtimers want to add or correct details about Shanty Devlin's or Elegant Ethel?