Painter Robert Lyn Nelson returns to his hometown of Ontario this weekend for events around his exhibit at the Chaffey Community Museum of Art. He’s a well-known commercial artist who lives in Maui but has never exhibited in Ontario until now. I interview him about growing up here, his creation of what became the Modern Marine Movement in art and why he decided to switch things up, all for my Sunday column.
Category Archives: Around Ontario
Column: In bakery’s last days, gratitude is icing on the cake
I drop by Ontario Bakery again and find them hard at work fulfilling cake orders and drying customers’ tears before its final day Saturday. The owners are touched by how much everyone cares. Also, a church in Pomona is set to mark 135 years. Read about both in Friday’s column.
Column: A sweet ending for bakery as owners retire
Ontario Bakery has been in the same couple’s hands for 40 years. They’re retiring later this month and closing the shop. They’re the subject of my Sunday column.
Column: Over decades, hotel saw visit by Chaplin, police shooting
Ontario’s old Casa Blanca hotel was notable for at least two incidents, one great, one terrible. Charlie Chaplin visited, and nearly 40 years later, a reserve officer was shot to death on the veranda. I delve into the history in my Wednesday column.
Column: Casa Blanca Hotel was an earlier Ontario teardown
Following up on the recent fire that gutted Ontario’s city-owned Fallis House, I write about the old Casa Blanca Hotel, which it turns out once stood across the street. It too fell into disrepair and was demolished in 1998. History is fragile, folks! That’s the subject of my Friday column.
Column: Ontario landmark now ‘a teardown’ after fire
Ontario’s first designated city landmark, the Fallis house, was gutted by fire last month and may be a total loss. The family had occupied the house from 1906-41 and owned one of the city’s finest shops, Fallis’ department store, for decades. I write about the history of each in Sunday’s somewhat somber column.
Column: Charles Phoenix shows slides from near and far
I attend a slide show by (Ontario native, LA resident) Charles Phoenix in Brea, present a few bon mots from the late sportswriter Jim Murray, quote a letter from a peripatetic reader that supports the idea of a borderless Inland Empire column, and offer some bittersweet news from Upland, all in my Friday column.
Incidentally, this is the first of three columns penned before the vacation I’m now enjoying; they’re composed of items either written in recent days/weeks and unused, or in items spun from recent reader emails, or in a few cases, like the Charles Phoenix item, of bits that would not have been written had I not needed copy for these columns. (I was just there for fun but did take a photo, and jotted down one bon mot for possible use; writing a long item as I did was not in my plans.)
I’ll be curious to hear the reaction to these columns: Does it seem like I’m reaching or scraping the bottom of the barrel, or are these three low-key columns as enjoyable, or (horrors) more so, than the ones in which I’m out interviewing folks and trying harder? There is no wrong answer.
Column: At 100, she remains lively, loquacious, loved
I attend a party for a woman turning 100. Does Emmy Lou Berryman have deep local roots? At 17, she was “Queen of Fontana” at the town’s silver anniversary. In 1938. And she’s lived in her Ontario house for 70 years. I write about her in Wednesday’s column.
Column: Cleary’s first taste of California living was in Ontario
Did you know children’s author Beverly Cleary came to Ontario to attend school? Well, you may if you’ve been reading these columns long enough. But her death last week is a good reason to bring it up again. That and a Riverside County brIEfly item make up Friday’s column.
Column: Two landmarks get recognition from history buffs, city
A 1912 stone church and a 1940 laundry (now a restaurant), both on Euclid Avenue in Ontario, now have markers sharing their history. Do you remember them? Plus, four other news items from around the city, all in Friday’s all-Ontario column.