An OCThen reader named "Tol Bert" submitted his memories of growing in Fullerton during the 1950's and 60's...
I moved to Fullerton with my parents in 1955 and still live in Orange County.
I remember going to Disneyland the first summer it was open on perhaps the hottest day of the year. The only place to escape the heat was in the movie theater on Main St. which I have forgotten the name of. I still have some of those 85 cent "E" tickets.
In the 60's cruising up and down Harbor Blvd was popular - from Hillside Drive in ( now a parking lot) to Taco Villa and back. Gas was 30 cents a gallon. You'd pass under the Welcome to Fullerton bridge where Berkeley street now intersects Harbor. I'd like to find a photo of that bridge. Sunny Hills High School would open soon.
Drag racing was popular both on and off the streets in the 60's . Lions Drag strip in Long Beach was great for Saturday night and then Pomona on Sunday. The eastern edge of the 91 freeway ended and began at Lemon street in Fullerton so it was a good place to start a short street race with no traffic behind you. I don't recall any accidents that occur ed from street racing. Perhaps that was because then everyone had to take drivers education in high school.
The Model Market was on the western side of Harbor Blvd off Valencia Mesa in Fullerton. It was an old wood floor place with hitching posts outside. Before Bastanchury road was built connecting Harbor and Euclid there were horse trails through the orange groves.
Going east on Yorba Linda Blvd you were out in the country by the time you got to the old Nixon House. Driving west on Artesia past Buena Park would take you through Dairy Valley and its aromatic cow pastures. To get to Newport Beach you had to snake along Newport Blvd and right by the old blimp hangars at the Tustin Marine base. Jamboree Road near the Santa Ana freeway could be a little slow at times when farmers were taking their sheep across the road.
Orange County was a nice semi-rural area then. Great to grow up in, but you knew it would change. Nothing that nice could avoid the inevitable urban growth.
I'm a blogger and internet marketer, motorcycle rider, and craft beer lover.
There's a picture of a "Welcome to Fullerton" bridge on the Fullerton Heritage website. Here's a link to the walking tour that shows the picture. I'm not sure it's the bridge that used to be on Harbor or if it's the one on Lemon.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.fullertonheritage.org/Views_Tours/Downtown%20Walking%20Tour.pdf
Does anyone remember the Escimal? i think i spelt it right it was the lunch and after school hang out had good food too.that was stupid anyone who went to valley knew about this spot.
ReplyDeleteI heard in college that the first year that Disneyland opened up it was a disaster. Specifically, there was a heat wave and teh asphalt in hte parking lot melted and stuck to the shoes of the visitors. Way before my time, but I wonder if anyone recalls the melted asphalt?
ReplyDeleteI remember the asphalt. I moved to Fullerton in 1954 when I was 10. Our housing tract off Euclid(then Nicholas) and Valencia was surrounded by orange groves where my friends and I rode our bikes all day and nobody worried about us. Harbor was then named Spadra. We used to walk from our house to the Market Basket market on Nicolas and Commenwealth and also to the Fullerton High School pool to swim during the summer. We were frequent visitors at the Fox fullerton theater for first run movies then later to the old Wilshire theater for 25 cents. We saw all of Elvis's movies in those theaters.I attended Orangethorpe school, then Golden Hills, then Nicolas and then freshman year at Fullerton High School. Then Sunny Hills High opened and we were upper classmen for three years and named them the Lancers, wrote the school song and picked the school colors.We used to eat at Hillside Drive in and Oscars and necked in Hillcrest park.Taco Villa was the first fast-food taco place that I remember.
ReplyDeleteAs for Disneyland, for the price of a ticket book we could ride the rides all day and dance all night at Date Night at Disneyland at the still existing Carnation dance pavillion. If we were broke, we could go to Knotts Berry Farm and wander around Ghost Town for free. We drove Beach Blvd all the way to the beach. I could go on forever!