Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Saddleback Inn Station Wagon

OCThen reader Mike Herrick was reading my previous article on Saddleback Inn, and submits the following photograph of Saddleback Inn's station wagon, dated in 1981...

Saddleback Inn Santa Ana

He says...

I was reading about the Saddleback Inn and remembered I had this photo of the Saddleback Inn company station wagon I used to drive to pick up guest from the Orange County Airport.

I also have a napkin in a old photo album from the bar.

We met alot of nice people and a few movie stars and music artist.

I can remeber that the movie Coal Miners Daughter was released in 1980 and Loretta Lynne was very popular at the time. She stayed at the Saddleback with all her family for about 5 days and I would deliver meals to their rooms.

Lots of stories to tell. This was a very popular place in it's time.

I was a bell boy, my brother was a cook in the kitchen and his wife was a maid. We have great memories working at the Inn.

Kind Regards,
Mike (KIWI)

8 comments:

  1. I had my wedding reception at the S.I. in 1985.

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  2. It was in September 1980, when my aunt and I stayed overnight at the Saddleback Inn after a one hour bus drive from LA Int'l airport. It was our first stay in the United States and we loved the typical motel atmosphere. It also was my first restaurant experience in the USA: wait to be seated and pay at the cashier's desk - both things which were absolutely unknown in Switzerland by then. We got our motorhome the other day somehwere in Orange County and had great 3 weeks of driving through California, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah and Nevada.

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  3. I remember Mom and Dad dropping Sis and her kids off to catch the bus to the airport in front of the Saddleback Inn. I worked in their travel agency across the street for one quarter of "work experience" in my senior year at SAHS in '71 and in the late '70's and early '80's lived over in Tustin on Main Street next to the freeways so I used to drive by Saddleback Inn every morning to catch the freeway to go to work. Always thought it looked like a cool place to stay in.

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  4. I remember there was a very nice restaurant there and my Mom used to take my little sister and I there for dinner all the time...a friend of hers was an entertainer there, we felt so grown-up...I remember there was a very nice hostess named Margrit (I remember her name because it was the same as my Mom's name Margaret but spelled differently because she was Swedish I think!) she was very sweet to us and I have so many nice memories as a child from there...it was a special treat to get fried shrimp & a shirley temple!

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  5. So sad to watch the old Inn burning down live on TV last night. Apparently it's not giving in without a fight. This is a landmark, and it will be sad to see it go. It sure was something back in the day. Too bad it turned into a place where drug dealers and homeless people trashed it.

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  6. I was saddened to hear about the old Inn burning down. My husband and I were married there on 08/15/1987. The wedding was in the garden on the gazebo and our reception followed in the wine cellar. Hard to beleive it was almost 25 years ago and how the property was left to deteriorate.

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  7. This was my dad's first job ever. He worked for years here! He started as a bus boy and eventually moved up to a bartender and then manager. He credits the saddleback inn along with the Revere House as his learning places. Too sad to know that it's gone. :(

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  8. I was a Marine staioned at El Toro and wondered into the Inn in early Jan 1970. Met a perky red head there. We will be married 42 years this sept. really sad to hear of it's demise.
    the whole scene is played out in my book.

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