Thursday, April 23, 2009

Villa Park High School - Barefoot

Anonymous shares memories of walking to Villa Park High School barefoot, walking on the ground and feeling the cow poop squish between his/her toes...

I wonder if anyone remembers being able to go to Villa Park Elementary school, in Orange, bare-footed? My folks had an orange ranch in the Villa Park area and I enjoyed the feel of the dirty old clay and cow poop between my toes. I have class photos showing some of my childhood buddies and I without shoes. That would have been early 1950's.

Also, does anyone remember the floods in the late 60's in Santiago creek that wiped out the bridge running from Santiago Canyon road, now Katella Ave, between the two Sully Miller gravel pits across Santiago creek, north, over to Villa Park? Not the existing road Katella but the road running between the school and nursery now that dead ends where the bridge was.

Anyone out there from the first graduation class from Villa Park High school, 1966?
How about Bruno's market on the corner of Katella and Wanda, near the Villa Park orange packing plant?

Happy memories to everyone.
I would not have wanted to be the guy who polished the floors at Villa Park High.

24 comments:

  1. I remember those floods of '69. I was living in Brea at the time. That summer/fall before, brush fires were everywhere. Then a torrential rainy season hit us creating massive flooding and mudslides.

    All of the dump trucks in Orange County were commandiered to haul fill to fight the erosion. My brother-in-law drove for Strand Excavating at the time and took me along with him one day.

    I remember how frightened I was as Burney backed his truckload of gravel/rip-rap along side the fast moving waters of Santiago Creek. The earth had been washed away from the backyards of houses in Orange. I watched in horror as whole swimming pools, complete with diving boards, were unearthed and floating by us in the rushing waters. Marines were using their helos to drop junk cars into the all consuming waters. I thought it was the end of the world.

    Of the aftermath, I remember one steel bridge, probably the one you're talking about, being up rooted and twisted from its foundation. There was also a large concrete box of storm drain system nearby. I remember it being big enough to drive a semi through, yet it was sitting there, broken in half, in the middle of the creek bed after the flood. I never did find out where it came from. They didn't replace that bridge for years, but instead paved a road down in the normally dry riverbed. A large tile allowed water to pass under the road. Any deluge would've taken out the road again... What a mess!

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  2. My mom was in the first graduating class at Villa Park. She started there her junior year. She said she remembers building benches for the ampitheatre and planting trees.
    I moved in with my grandmother my junior year and began attending VPHS. I think its glory days have come and gone. However I did get a kick out of living in the same room of the same house and attending the same school my mom did at the same age.

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  3. Hi Steve, I sure do remember those floods. It was 1969 and I was in the 9th grade at Cerro Villa Jr. high. We went fishing and caught trout in the creek that overflowed from irvine lake. Those were bad floods, it killes me to see the houses built very near that creek all the way from Villa Park down to Orange, some day they will flood again and those houses will be toast. I sure remeber Brunos Market went there allthe time, Brunno the owner would sell us kids cigarettes as teens. we would tell him we were picking up for parents and I think he believed us. Back then Katella was just 2 lanes at the Wanda intersection all lined with Eucalyptus trees.
    Thanks for sharing your memories steve. I lived in Orange from 1965 until 1976 and graduated from VP in 72'
    Regards,
    George
    ps. do you remember Pepas & Luckys Pizza parlors?

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  4. I live in Villa Park and have a friend who grew up in Orange. Her father attended Villa Park Elementary and she has told me that her dad used to go to school barefoot as well...

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  5. I went to Villa Park Elementary in the late 1960's. We wore shoes but we walked through orchards and my neighbor/friend's dog went with us. He stayed at the school, just outside her classroom all day, every day. He was allowed! He was a lab/mix and his name was George.

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  6. Carla Aufdemberg-KillingsworthDecember 13, 2009 2:52 AM

    Yep, Remember Brunos!!!!I loved getting Cokes out of the machine...sliding the bottle through the maze of the machine until it came out. Then buying bubble gum, going out the slamming screen door, and sitting on the front steps enjoying it all. I actually have a picture of Brunos hanging in my home. Great memories of a simpler time when Orange Groves were our playground and a Coke and penny gum were a treat!

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  7. Villa Park changed so much between 1965 and 1970. When my folks moved into Meredith Acres at Taft and Santiago the orange groves were falling to the encroaching suburbs, but a lot was still there for a kid to explore. Anyone remember the huge mulberry tree on Meats and Santiago? We'd use those leaves to feed our silk worms at Serrano Elementary. At the same corner on the southwest side there was an irrigation channel that was covered by a wood door. We'd tie baloney onto the end of a piece of string and lower it into the water. . . and pull out crawdads! Never ate them, though. . .

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  8. I worked in the Pepa's Pizza building on Katella and Tustin in about 1974-1975. At that time it had become Ernesto's Pizza -- the owner and his wife were Germans!
    We cooked some pretty good pizza, but sometimes when we ran out of large dough, we just rolled the medium out thinner until it was large diameter. Did that once using a small dough too, but the customer didn't like that at all!

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  9. What great recollections. I attended Villa Park Elementary School from 1955 to 1960. Indeed shoes were optional and girls could wear shorts at VP elementary. Not remarkable now but certainly an independent approach at the time. Prior to Bruno's being Bruno's it was "The Villa Park Market" and was owned by Jack Dalton. Jack was a butcher and doubtless you all will remember the meat case in the back. The packing houses were still there, one on Wanda and VP Road and the other on Santiago. The editor for the "Social" section of the Register lived near the corner of Wanda and Villa Park Road her name was Bertha Baron. My Dad, now 90 and still living in Villa Park, went to VP Elementary as well and has some REAL tales to tell.
    Thanks for reminding me of what a gift my childhood was.

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  10. I remember Bruno's market. I remember "bruno".
    I remember the flood that washed out the bridge and Irvine Park. Does anybody remember the Carona,Riverside fire I think it was 1966 or 1967.I lived just below Marywood Highschool area and our neighborhood was evacuated because of the fire. I went to Ernie Pyle elementory and I would have graduated from Villa Park High school in 1969 but moved to Newport Beach in February of 1968.

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  11. I went to villa park elementary in 64-65 and then to cerro villa Jr. High. I went to school barefooted and it wasn't because we couldn't afford shoes, it just fit the layed back, country environment. You've never had real orange juice until it has been fresh squeezed from ripe valencia oranges. Those were the good old days. I live in Eureka, northern ca. I went back to our home on Meads Ave. and I was lost. It looks nothing like it did in the 60's.

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  12. I was in 6th grade at St. Paul's Lutheran in when the floods came. I remember my mom coming and picking me up early from school that day. If I remember right, the fires were one year and then the floods the next. I remember my mom saying the floods were bad because the vegetation was gone in the hills. We lived near Wanda and Collins and evacuated for both.
    On a lighter note....Did any of you go to Villa Park Elementary (I think it was VP Elementary) at watch movies on Saturdays. I remember watching Danny Kay movies.

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  13. Lynn ShackelfordJuly 15, 2011 5:46 PM

    Ah-you bring back good memories of me and my brother (class 0f 75 and 70). Yes the fires and floods. The old farm house that stood were Briley way now goes through. The Peacocks and chickens. The flood were our driver drove on the bridge, under water, in the AM but it was washed out by the afternoon. The smell of all the orange trees in bloom. What am I doing here in New Hampshire?

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  14. I remember the floods of the late sixties. The Silverado fire dept was lost in a mudslide. My friends and me would float on a raft in the pond where the bridge washed out on Santiago Cnyn rd. I attended Cerro Villa Jr. high also. Bruno's -I lived right off of Wanda Rd. so I went into Brunos a lot. Remember that it turned into Reubens after Bruno had died but the store eventually burned down. Reuben also had a bar out in Needles,Ca.

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  15. I remember the floods of the late sixties. The Silverado Cnyn fire station got hit by a mudslide and it was sad news for us that knew Robert Hendricks at Cerro Villa Jr. high. My friends and me went rafting on the pond by the fallen bridge on Santiago Cnyn rd. I lived a few streets over from Brunos on Wanda rd. so I was at Brunos a lot. After Bruno died the store turned into Reubens. Reuben reminded me of W.C. Fields for some reason - Reuben had owned a bar out in Needles ,Ca. before taking over Brunos.

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  16. I graduated VPHS in 1968 after attending all three years there. Having moved to Oregon decades ago, I hadn't seen the school until a visit in 1998. How small the whole school looked, with one stairwell replaced by a elevator. I'd forgotten about building the benches until I read about here. The trees were great, they provided no shade when new. This visit was right when the day ended and I noted how many of the students were of Asian decent. When attending school the only Asian there was a Korean exchange student, we were all Anglos and Latinos. I saw that the Quonset huts on the east side are long gone and so was the Orange grove we fled through (to avoid assemblies. David C. class of '68

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  17. http://www.flickr.com/photos/ocarchives/2967059789/

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  18. Bruno's Market!

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/ocarchives/2967059789/

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  19. I graduated from VPHS in 1966. That was the first graduating class, the school opened in 1964 with only sophmores and juniors. So all of us juniors graduated in 66. My sophmore year was at OHS. Those of us who were going to to go VPHS went in the afternoon, the regular OHS students went in the morning. I would really like to hear from people who were there back then. I live in Idaho now and haven't been back to OC in years. I bet it's a changed just a little?

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  20. WOW! Takes me back a few years... I worked at Bruno's when I was 12 sweeping floors, stocking the refer and staking bottles. Bruno had sold the store to another couple so I worked for them. I lived right around the corner. I remember the night it caught on fire from electrical wiring and that was the end of Bruno's. I still have great memories of that time. I went to Cerro Villa and Graduated form Villa Park in 72. I remember well the fires and floods. Lots of freinds lost their homes back then.

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  21. wow I found this blog by accident. I went to Cerro Villa middle school,helped sand bag the river in 69 and had to evacuate from the fire earlier. Drag racing down Bond Street and hanging out at pepa's on friday nites. Went to robert's funeral and remember Bruno's and the Orange Packing Plant......good times

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  22. Went to katella elementary,handy elementary and cerro villa. I have found a few pictures of Brunos

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  23. I Went to Villa Park High and was one of the first graduation class.
    I remember the benches, we had to choose as a student body which ones were the best and the Mascot as well. It was decided on Spartans, man that was a really long time ago. Really long. Hope everyone has a
    Blessed New Year..

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  24. I went to Cerro Villa Jr high for 3 years and VP for only 1 year(1973) The Orange groves on Taft where the nursery is now, behind Serrano elementary and on Santiago is where my playground was. The trains at the packing house would dispose of ice. Brunos had an old swinging screendoor I think, probably got Big Hunk candy and soda there. Yes, I too jumped off large dirt cliffs into the water that ran where the bridge washed out; there those small swallows made their home up on the cement walls of the fallen bridge. Not every kid, I guess wanted to ride their sting-ray bike all over creation, but it sure suited me just fine. Thanks for all the great comments and memories everybody.

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