Orange County Memories: Ed Tunk's Country Store

Ed Tunk's Country Store

by Steve
Thursday, January 12, 2006

Does anyone remember Ed Tunk's Country Store?

I believe it was located on the corner of Westminster and Magnolia in the City of Westminster.

It was a store that sold locally grown produce, and it had sawdust on the floor. Radio station KEZY would often set up a remote broadcast from Ed Tunk's.

The store has since gone, and there isn't much else on the Internet about it.

Below are a few comments we collected from the old days of OCThen.com. By: Jerry Parker, 12 July 2001

In the mid-60's I recall Ed Tunks Country Store in Westminster or Seal Beach. I remember the location as bieng Golden West and Westminster. I could be wrong. On weekends, KEZY from Anaheim would broadcast from the store. As I was interested in radio then, I would hang around and watch the DJ play records and do his radio thing. Bythe way, KEZY was the Anaheim radio station "With studios and offices in the Disneyland hotel." Their studio was on the ground floor of the Disneyland Hotel, in the old building where the monorail station is, across from the drug/camera/card store where I worked in 1968.

By: Shirley Azvedo, 6 Aug 2001

I came to Orange County in 1963 and there was an Ed Tunk's Country Store on the corner of Westminster and Magnolia. There is a strip mall there now.

By: Eileen, 7 Dec 2001

I remember Ed Tunks also - I recall sawdust on the floor and real low prices on food. Sad to hear it is no longer there.

By: J. Russell, 4 Mar 2002

Oh my gosh! I haven't thought about Ed Tunks Country Store in so many years. I remember when I was little, my mother would take us there to buy fruit. They had the best cherries!! And my sister and I loved to run in the sawdust. Thanks for the memory.
If you remember Ed Tunk's Country Store, please click on "Post a Comment" below and tell us what you remember.

Labels: Ed-Tunk's-Country-Store, Westminster

21 Comments:

I thought it was Gene Tunks. Yes, it was on the corner of Magnoila and Westminster and it was a popular place for students at Bolsa to work.

By Anonymous, at January 29, 2006 6:39 PM
Ed Tunk's- You Betcha! I used to go there with my mom and get dill pickles from a barrel. I think in later years it was called Gene Tunks.

By Anonymous, at February 14, 2006 5:27 PM
My Brother Sandy used to date Ed's daughter Martha Tunks back in the late 60's

By Anonymous, at May 22, 2006 4:28 PM
1963 and fresh out of the Army, with a wife and a new son, I had no job skills. I worked in sweat shops and we shopped at Ed Tunks. Our grocery budget every week was $5.00 for the entire week. We could carry home two sacks filled with veggies and still have a little money left over. We ate a lot of what we called `Chef Sallads'; shredded lettuce, tomatoe slices with a dollop of Mayo and if we were splurging, we threw in a slice of cut up balogna.

By Anonymous, at July 15, 2006 3:08 PM
Tunks sat back from the corner of Magnolia and Westminster Blvds... On the corner was a gas station that opened and closed several times... Next to the station and between Tunks and Westminster Blvd. was Tom Cotton's Dari-Delite fast food place... I had my first job working there... The Tunks employees would come over on break and sit in our back room since all the D-D had for public seating was on a patio out front.. I graduated from Bolsa Grande H.S. in 1965..

By Anonymous, at September 11, 2006 3:06 PM
I'll never forget Ed Tunks or Reds Ranch Market. One of them had sawdust or hay on the ground. My Dad shopped at both all the time.

By Anonymous, at December 27, 2006 6:40 PM
I thought there was a Gene Tunk's on Magnolia and Westminster and an Ed Tunk's on chapman and Hwy 39. I surmised they were brothers. Both had sawdust on the floor and mud in the parking lot when it rained. How about Pepa's Pizza at Hwy 39 and Katella?

By S Gurley, GG, at January 08, 2007 5:29 AM
Ed Tunk was the father... Gene Tunk was the son...Gene's wife also worked at Tunk's as a cashier.. All three worked at Tunk's on the corner of Magnolia and Westminster Blvd... I cooked their food for them and they ate it in the back (storeroom) of the Dari-Delite located on Westminster Blvd right next door to Tunk's... That was in 1966-67..

By Anonymous, at January 14, 2007 8:57 PM
Whatever happened to Pepa's Pizza? That was the giant place with "Ye Public House" painted on the front, correct? A big, cavernous interior. Is the building still there?

By Dugan, at March 12, 2007 10:39 AM
Unfortunatly Pepa's turned into a parking lot. Many great family dinners sitting at the long wooden tables and watching the cooks thru the big picture window. And then off to the Highway 39 drive-in with the mural of the sailboats sailing along the coast painted behind the big screen.

By Anonymous, at March 16, 2007 6:51 AM
Does anyone recall a building in Westminster that housed a couple of clothing stores? When I was very small my mom would take us over for school clothes. They sold Levi jeans and cords. They had a Buster Brown or Mother Goose kid's shoe store. And the biggest rack of gumball machines lined up in the lobby. I think it was on the south side of Westminster Blvd at Knott.

By Anonymous, at March 17, 2007 10:59 AM
I've wondered whatever happened to Ed Tunks. My Dad was a very close friend of Ed's. I remember Ed coming over to the house often. Dad (Ray Rhoads)passed away in 1984. Ed always remembered my Mom's love of lobster and because money was scarce he enjoyed treating her to lobster on her birthdays. Would love to hear from any of Ed's family. My email is irhoads@cox.net. My Dad was Ray Rhoads, Lily Rhoads, Kenny Rhoads, Ingrid Rhoads (me), Randy Rhoads and Claudia Rhoads. We loved Ed!

By Ingrid Rhoads, at July 20, 2007 10:22 PM
Yea. I worked as a box boy there in "66. I was 15 and my dad (Ray Rhoads) was his friend. I wasn't old enough but dad pulled some strings.One day a women asked me how old I was. I told her the truth. Gone the next day. Miss Ed. Miss my Dad. Glad I got fired.
Ken Rhoads

By ken rhoads, at July 21, 2007 9:04 PM
Yes I remember Ed Tunks, I would go there as a kid with my mom. I also remember going there in 1983 as a K9 handler for a local police department. I was called to assist the Westminster police department and conduct a K9 search in the middle of the night due to a burglary at the store. That brought back memories.

By Anonymous, at August 18, 2007 2:24 PM
I can still smell the produce and the sawdust. good memories. Re: one of the previous posts, wasn't Ray Rhoads a politician? I recall seeing his name in the paper alot in the 70's.

By Anonymous, at September 06, 2007 7:44 AM
I remember it being called Gene Tunks too. Yea we lived in Anaheim and my mom liked to drive there and it seemed as a kid it took forever to get there. I remember sliding on the floor on the sawdust and they had a huge pickle barrel by the meat department and I would always get a jumbo pickle. I also remember taking my paper route money and buying a huge bag of sunflower seeds for only $1.00 and eating sunflower seeds for weeks.

By Mike, at September 25, 2007 10:57 AM
I can't believe no one mentioned that Ed tunks was on the corner of Westminster and Canary. You youngsters don't recall that Magnolia was originally called Canary! I was the local area paperboy for the Garden Grove News and Ed Tunks was at the end of my route. They did have good pickles right out of the barrel. But just passed Ed Tunks was a little old white farm house owned by a lady named Tracey. She sold dolls she made herself and served countertop hot dogs, hamburgers, sodas from what used to be her living room. It was always my last stop on the paper route, and I can still taste her burgers and the ice cold soda. (I saved Foster Freeze for after school from Bolsa Grande High.)Tracey had a neat secret that she made me swear not to tell anyone. It's been so long now I guess I'll spill the beans! Her cousin would often come to visit her and check up to see if she was all right. She wanted to keep his visits secret for her own reasons and I respected that. Her cousin was the actor, Ward Bond.

By Anonymous, at September 28, 2007 4:38 PM
I grew up about 4 blocks from Ed Tunk's country store. It was on the corner of Westminster and Magnolia. When I first moved there Magnolia was called Canery St! (Because of the chili canery across the street from Tunk's.) Tunk's was a big produce market with the whole front opened up. They in deed had saw dust on the floors. A friend of mine, Donny Richardson's father worked at the store for years. They had a meat section at the rear of the store. Some time in the early 70's the store was taken over by Gene and renamed Gene Tunk's. When we first moved into the area in 1961 the store next to it on the right was a 5 and 10 cent store (remember them) called J.C. Finley's. (I bought a lot of model airplanes from them!) Some time in the mid 60's that turned into a dry cleaners. Tunk's disappeared in the early 80's when the flood of folks from Vietnam came over after the war. Some else mentioned Foster's Freeze. My mom worked there for a couple of years in the 60's. I too graduated from Bolsa Grande. That was a neat time and great place to grow up. (Anyone out there remember "Build and Save" hardware store or Blinky's Pizza, or the old Mayfare market? (All on the corner of Westminster Ave.(the old 17th st.) and Brookhurst.)

By Bob Barna, at December 22, 2007 8:11 AM
Some friends of mine in the VERY early 70s were in a dixieland band that played on weekends at Pepa's Pizza, so I know (knew) it well. Used to go out there pretty often (from Long Beach, where we lived)...

By Anonymous, at April 17, 2008 7:05 PM
I remember that place from when I was a kid. In the mid to late 70's, my mom used to take me to the beach about three times a week and we used to always stop at that store on the way home. Didn't they have big sign that looked like a cowboy? That sorta rings a bell. I also remember there was a chili factory just across the street from there. Remember always smelling the chili powder when we drove by there!

By Anonymous, at May 24, 2008 2:32 AM
I remember Ed Tunks too. I lived in Westminster and used to go there alot with my dad i also remember the sawdust.I think before it was closed they changed the name to Gene tunks.What a great memory.

By Anonymous, at August 25, 2008 12:18 PM

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Ed Tunk's Country Store

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