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.
After a few paragraphs about old-time newsboys in my column in late April, I heard from two real-life ex-newsboys, both of whom sold papers in Ontario circa 1940 to passing motorists. Now both 90, they had some great stories, which I share in Sunday’s column.
If you drive through the Euclid Avenue interchange in Ontario and Upland, you’ll see a lot of activity and a lot of bare dirt where grass and trees once grew. (And where brick planters rose in the portion over the freeway.) I visit and take photos of the work, which will result, eventually, in a wider freeway and an improved interchange. Also, a favorite haunt of mine, Nancy May’s ’50s Cafe in Rancho Cucamonga, opened Monday for the first time since mid-March. I write about both in Wednesday’s column.
Two plugs on “The Tonight Show” by Jimmy Fallon and an episode of “Ghost Adventures” give Ontario’s Graber Olives a rush of publicity and sales. Also, a former Mother of Invention band member checks in and the Rancho Cucamonga Public Library’s annual Star Wars Day event goes virtual. All of that is in Wednesday’s post-holiday column.
Like Rancho Cucamonga’s library, Ontario’s is now offering its own version of curbside service to provide materials while the facility is closed to the public. (You have to leave your car, but it’s a short walk.) I write about that in Sunday’s column, as well as providing two short Upland items.
An Ontario woman asked her neighbors to step outside at noon Sunday and sing “Happy Birthday” to her for her 93rd. They did that and more. Also, many readers try to be helpful concerning the 1960s pole in downtown Upland that I wrote about, and a Chino fixture closes. All this is in Wednesday’s column.
They still sell newspapers — and magazines, and books — at Newsboy Books, a mainstay of downtown Ontario since 1957. I write about the store that time forgot in Sunday’s column. Above, owners Roberta and Jack Gingold.
A planned “A League of Their Own” TV series filmed the other day at Ontario’s Jay Littleton Ball Park, the same venue where the movie was filmed nearly three decades ago. Also, a punk- and horror-themed flea market will descend Sunday on downtown Upland, where it’s expected to draw thousands. Those items and more make up Friday’s column.
Exhibits at two adjacent museums in downtown Ontario are devoted to the work of the late woodworker, and they’re free to view. Also, the final (?) word on La Verne’s old Tastee Freez, readers share stories of their missing socks and keys, a genteel author event is coming to Pomona and yours truly is out sick. Read all about it in Friday’s column.
Ontario is getting a Norms, as I learned by going to lunch and noticing a banner on a vacant building. Sometimes it pays to go to lunch. (I was heading to Corner Deli, btw.) Also, musician Chris Darrow dies, Susan Orlean is headed to Claremont and Mad magazine name-checks Pomona, all in Friday’s column.