Remember the kids’ table? It was, and perhaps still is, a staple of Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners.

It was the smaller, lower table where the pint-sized members of the family were seated, the better to give the adults some peace and some time to catch up without constant interruptions. And, of course, it was fun for the kids to sit together — allowing us to catch up without (ahem) constant interruptions from adults.

I remember my cousins and I blowing bubbles in our beverages through a straw — no adult ever thinks this is cool — and making mashed potato volcanoes with our gravy. And yet, there was always envy of the grownup table. Once you graduate to the grownups’ table, you’re there for good. You leave behind the kids’ table for (sniff) good.

A metaphor for growing up, one might say.

What did you think of the kids’ table, and do you still have one at holidays?

It was on Aug. 3, 1968 — 40 years ago today — that Montclair Plaza opened for a sneak preview, prior to an Aug. 5 opening.

That’s the subject of today’s column — which you knew already, right?

Lots of you must have memories of the Plaza. Stores and restaurants you enjoyed over the years (Bob’s Big Boy, the Hollander Cafeteria…). Shopping trips from childhood. Movies you saw back when the Plaza had a couple of theaters. Features of the mall you liked — the big clock, for instance. If you’re old enough, you might have been around to know what life was like before the mall, or what opening day was like.

So post away and we can create a sort of informal history of Montclair Plaza.

A fair-sized crowd turned out Thursday evening for the Charles Phoenix slide show at Fairplex’s NHRA Museum. I was told that 60 or 70 people, or more than half, had reserved spots after seeing a mention in Wednesday’s column, which was nice to hear. Nobody glared at me afterward so they must have had a good time.

Phoenix narrated vintage slides from his collection of various Pomona and Ontario landmarks. Among them: Tate Cadillac, Sears, Vince’s Spaghetti, the Fox Theater, Betsy Ross, the Agitator Shop, the Valley Drive-In, Donahoo’s Chicken and L.A. County Fair attractions such as the Fun Zone, the Flower and Garden Pavilion, the Clock Tower, the Garden Railroad, the Grandstand and the Monorail.

Ah, yes, the Monorail. It was built in 1962 — “Richard Nixon rode on it,” Phoenix said — and removed in the 1990s. It hung from an overhead track and plied the fairgrounds. The original design was by sculptor John Svenson, of all people.

A success? Not exactly.

“They forgot one thing. There was no air conditioning,” Phoenix said. “And the windows didn’t open.” As Quizno’s likes to say: “Mmmm…toasty.”

Anyone ever ride the fair’s monorail? And do you know if the ski lift replaced it and follows the same route?

Sid Robinson has joined the blogosphere. A Claremont High grad who may be best known for his years as L.A. County Fair spokesman, Sid has been blogging for a few weeks now.

I just discovered his blog this week when he wrote about “Things that aren’t here anymore,” kindly noting yours truly’s role as a collector of such ephemera.

Sid wrote a post sharing memories of places he enjoyed growing up like Thriftymart, Value Fair and Magic Tower Burgers. Oh, and a Keds shoe store run by midgets. Good reading, and he even has a few photos.

Reader Develyn Sperling left this comment on the “things that aren’t here anymore” thread, but let’s put it here for you nattering nabobs of nostalgia:

“Does anyone remember a little place called the Tiger Cafe on Holt Blvd in Ontario? My Uncle Tommy owned it. It stayed open after all the Blvd. bars closed. People lined up to get his Sober You Up Chili before driving home.

“Or, the Dairy Queen on Holt, just east of Campus.”

Ah, memories. I like the idea of hangover-prevention chili. Anyone want to add details about any of these places?

Following up on her hard-hitting Stinky’s query, Mary Simon socked me with another set of recollections and questions for the readership:

“I have another question or two, one of which I KNOW that no one but me will remember.” [Don't be too sure, Mary. -- DA]

“In later years, I showed hunters and jumpers through southern/central California. I trained at a place in Pomona — the Parnell girls academy. It was a residential school for girls, but also a riding school where peasants like myself could take lessons. Does anyone remember Parnell?”

I’m not sure which one Mary assumes no one will remember. Just to be safe, let’s try to dredge up anecdotes about each, OK?

* Update, May 2011: Parnell now has a Facebook page. And I’ve added photos here courtesy of Bev Chauvet: from top, the lower ring in Pomona circa 1969; the school’s main house; and the school’s owner and principal, Miss Yoder, with student Trisha Lane Bowler.

Photo from the 1958 CMC yearbook, The Ayer

Reader Mary Simon, who calls herself “an old Upland girl now living in Lexington, Kentucky,” writes:

“Does anyone remember a nasty little dive called Stinky’s on the corner of Mountain Avenue and Foothill Boulevard in Upland? It was a little stone building with picnic tables inside, all carved up by decades of miscreants. But they had the most sinfully messy and delicious hamburgers!

“I know it was there through the 1960s; it was later torn down and replaced by a Bank of America. Isn’t progress wonderful? A crummy restaurant called El Gato Gordo was also put up right next to it.”

If it’s any consolation, Mary, El Gato Gordo has been torn down. I know many people remember Stinky’s because it’s been brought to my attention numerous times over the years. Anyone want to share memories?

What I’m especially curious about is that I’ve also been told of a place named Stinky Stevens that used to stand at Mountain and 8th in Upland. Two restaurants named Stinky in the same town?

So, while we’re on the topic, can anyone enlighten us about Stinky Stevens?

I got an e-mail from ex-Ontarian Bill Gunn the last time the Ritz Theater was mentioned here. Now that the Ritz is on the blog again, here’s Bill’s note, as timely as ever:

“I was wondering what the Ritz Theatre was all about until I realized you were talking about the California. What about the Park? It was toward Holt from the Ritz about four doors. It was Ontario’s third theater.”

Ontario’s leading theater was the Granada, still standing on the west side of Euclid Avenue at 305 but used now as a church. The Park and the California, later named the Ritz, were on the east side of Euclid. The California/Ritz, at 136 N. Euclid, burned down.

The Park is the most obscure of the three, not least of which because it went through multiple names. It seems to have had the Park name from 1948 to about 1962. Here’s what I found out Tuesday from the Ontario Library’s Joanne Boyajian:

The theater was built in 1913 at 122 N. Euclid. First it was the Isis, owned by Jacob Lerch. In 1915 it changed hands and became the Euclid when the competing theater across the street, the Euclid Photoplay, took it over and relocated.

The new Euclid theater had more than 500 seats and up-to-date stage and dressing rooms to accommodate “any road show that comes to the city,” according to the Daily Report. Owner H.E. Milling’s stated specialty was “high-class moving picture dramas and only the better class of vaudeville.” Inferior acts were “strictly barred.” But of course.

The Euclid remained through at least 1928. It was known to be vacant in the mid-1930s, in the depths of the Depression. (The California and Granada theaters apparently closed in the Depression as well before being reopened in 1933 by Jack Anderson.)

From 1937-1938 the Euclid was resurrected as the Forum Theater and it remained under that name until 1948 when it was named — finally! — the Park Theater, owned by the Anderson brothers.

But by 1962, it was a pawn shop, Euclid Loan and Jewelry Co. Today Euclid Loan is still operating, but the pawn shop is slated to relocate across Euclid so the building can be demolished for the great downtown project that at this point isn’t looking so great.

Whew!

Anyone have any memories of the Park?

Almost five months after comments were made here about Ontario’s old Ritz Theater, previously known as the California Theater, a new comment came in. Except at this late date, reader Dave Linck was unable to append the comment to the entry, and neither was I.

So, here it is:

“When the California became the Ritz in 1961, my Dad, Ontario Postmaster Charles Linck Jr., became a minority investor. He was a huge movie fan and it was a dream come true for him.

“But I can still see the theatre’s interior…walls covered in faux lava rock with sparkly ceilings…new seats unfilled. And there’s my brother and I, racing up and down the empty auditorium aisles, 6-year-old ‘owners’ of our own theatre!!!”

Oh, to be 6 and have the run of a movie theater.

Today’s column is drawn from “The Diamond Mine,” a self-published memoir by Gerry Whitehead, a.k.a. Jim Diamond, a radio jock from Bakersfield who grew up in Ontario. The first 80 pages or so are about Ontario in the 1950s and ’60s and his radio habits as a youngster.

Back then, the valley, while small, had several radio stations. Here’s what Whitehead tells us in his book.

In the late 1950s Ontario had KOCS-AM (1510), which simulcast on KEDO-FM (93.5). Both were owned by the Ontario Daily Report and located at 222 E. B St., next door to the newspaper’s office.

Whitehead writes: “The station call letters KOCS did stand for something. O-C-S stood for Ontario City Service. The AM station, KOCS, signed on in 1946 with a mighty 250 watts and was originally a ‘day-timer,’ which means that it was licensed by the FCC to operate only from local sunrise to local sunset.”

The station, if I understand correctly, was sold in the ’60s and became KASK-AM. It broadcast from 8729 E. 9th St., Cucamonga, from a ranch-style house with three tall towers behind and a huge wooden cask in the parking lot.

Pomona, meanwhile, had KKAR-AM (1220) and KWOW-AM (1600). (KWOW was originally KPMO.) And San Bernardino had KMEN-AM (1290) and KFXM-FM (590).

This is all courtesy of Whitehead, who seems to know what he’s talking about. Anyone want to offer corrections, clarifications, lore or favorite memories of local radio?