Saturday, February 06, 2010

Blue Note Music in Santa Ana

An anonymous OCThen reader submitted the following memory of a favorite little shop in downtown Santa Ana...

After school in 1967 and 68 I sometimes wandered around downtown Santa Ana, "exploring." There was a marvelous place called The Little Shop, which featured an amazingly random collection of items such as used comic books and 10-cent popcorn. There was also a "psych shop" (on Third or Fourth Street I believe) with an excellent blacklight poster room as well as pipes and papers and where one could meet real Hippies as well as the occasional Hell's Angel....

This jogged my memory of a small music store I used to frequent in my high school days called "Blue Note Music" also in downtown Santa Ana. I haven't been in a long time, so I don't know if it's still there. But it was on Broadway and 3rd street. This would have been the early 1980s.

But it sold musical equipment, all acoustic stuff, as well as old sheet music and old LPs. I still have some old 1930s era sheet music framed and hanging from my office wall from that place. The store was always dark inside and smelled like a musty old attic.

I bought a harmonica from that store too.

The guy that used to mind the store was this old guy who seemed like he had seen it all and done it all and was now content to sit inside this little store, with a cup of coffee, and look through the window and watch the world the pass by.

I wonder if there are still stores like this?

11 comments:

  1. My mother lived in Santa Ana and I thought I saw Blue Note when I was last there in early 2008. According to her I took accordian lessons there when I was a little girl but it may've been a different location. I remember going to the store but not he accordian lessons.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I used to go there as a kid. I bought records there and I knew the owner, a former bassist. I have no idea if it's still there.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I remember the Blue Note from the 60s...at that time they had sound proof booths that you could take an LP or 45 into to listen to before you bought. In those days it wasn't dark and musty and your friends would come and hang out in the booth with you listening to the records. I thought it was on 4th and Broadway at the time.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Blue Note is where my piano teacher purchased all our sheet music for lessons, but then again, her husband was the owner of Hills' Men's Clothiers in downtown Santa Ana.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Ah, Hills, where my mother took me at the end of every summer to buy clothes for the school year. I took guitar lessons at Blue Note, but they didn't take to me....

    ReplyDelete
  6. Jud taught instrument repair at OC College, too. He would throw a clarinet across the room and then proceed to show us how to repair it. Great guy - last of a dying breed.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I remember a couple of places like the one you've described. One was on 3rd street off of sycamore it was near what used to be the greyhound bus depot. It had blacklight posters, hippy love rings, meditation shirts and incense it was fondly called the head shop. I do recall a hole in the wall book store on the northside of 4th street across from what used to be Neils sporting goods. Yes there were comic books there with titles like Herbie Hodpecker I believe along with Archie, Superman, Sgt.Rock and others. The Santa Ana Register was sold their for a dime maybe less at the time I was pretty young its a little dim. Coke, Bubble up, Nessbits, Mothers and Dads Rootbeer was sold there and boys where out front shining shoes with home made shoe shine boxes for a dime. Thrifty Drug store was on the corner of 4th and Spurgeon. Thats just before crusing got heavy on 4th Street between the Jack in the box and French street. I think Issac Curtis was still playing sophomore football under the coaching of Tom Baldwin at Santa Ana High. What a place it was about 1967.

    ReplyDelete
  8. i dont think blue note is still there

    ReplyDelete
  9. I remember the vintage Harp Guitar they had hanging on the wall. It was the owner's pride and joy.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I remember the vintage Harp Guitar they had hanging on the wall. It was the owner's pride and joy.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I remember the vintage Harp Guitar they had hanging on the wall. It was the owner's pride and joy.

    ReplyDelete

Custom Search