When Land was Really Cheap

There was an anonymous comment posted on our Knott's Berry Farm article today, about how land was so cheap, it was being given away...

There is a story in my family, that a Great Uncle, Homer Clemons, owned an orange grove in the area. He got the land when it was so cheap, they gave you an acre if you subscribed to the local farm newspaper for a year. Two years subscription got you two acres. The story goes that he left his land to two brothers, who sold it to a man named Knotts. I don't have any proof of this story, but he and wife Belle are on the 1920 & 1930 census. Both are buried at Fairhaven Memorial Park.

I'm not sure how a newspaper would buy up land, just to give it away, or maybe perhaps they were giving away land they didn't need anymore. But imagine owning a couple acres of land in the middle of Buena Park right now?

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Jungle Palms Restaurant and Zoo

Last July, an OCThen reader named Cindy asked if anyone remembers a little zoo in Fullerton, featuring a gorilla with a head wound...

Does anyone else remember the little zoo in Fullerton on Raymond and Orangethorpe? I remember going there last around 1970. It was next to the old Laura Scudders plant and the Akua Lodge Motel. They had a chimp that sometimes the zookeeper would let me hold and a big, sad old gorilla. The last time I saw the gorilla he had a head wound that was bleeding. I guess it is just as well it's no longer there as I don't think they took such great care of the animals.

By Cindy

We received the following response from "Eve"...

Re: Old Zoo on Raymond and Orangethorpe
I believe that was the private zoo of the Palms restaurant. Next to the restaurant they had some sad primates stuck in small cages. I think one day the gorilla escaped and went into the restaurant and ate the patron's food. At least, that is what my mom told me when we ate there and I was always hoping to have an escaped gorilla eat my dinner.

By Eve,

The Jungle Palms Restaurant was the creation of Jack Dutton, who also owned a nursery called "Jungle Nursery" in Anaheim. There's an interesting story of how Dutton turned a chimpanzee named "Jerry" into a pet, and "humanized" it. Then later, when he could no longer manage the chimp, he had it shot in the head.

Read the sad story about it here...
http://www.charlesphoenix.com/2006/08/the-jungle-anaheim-ca-1959/

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Irvine in the 1970's

An anonymous (or somewhat anonymous) person submits memories of living in Irvine during the 1970's...

Steve,

I love your website, it made me think of things I hadn't thought about in some time. I'll have to dig through some of the family pictures for old shots of The OC, like Old MacDonald's Farm where the Kaliedoscope Shopping Center is now located in Mission Viejo.

I still remember the first time I visited my In-Laws after they moved to Irvine (we moved down the next year). My father-in-law said we were going to go down and pick up Kentucky Fried Chicken for dinner and he and I piled in the car.

We drove down from Turtle Rock, took Culver Drive back to University Drive and pulled in to the parking lot where Alpha Beta was (remember Alpha Beta's). We parked where years later a Carl's Jr was placed.

We sat there and I asked my father-in-law where the Kentucky Fried Chicken was and he said just wait a minute. I figured he didn't feel well and we'd drive on in a little while.

While we were sitting there a delivery van pulled up with Kentucky Fried Chicken written on the side and the guy stopped and opened up a window and started selling chicken right out of the van.

That's my first memory of Irvine in 1971. That spot later became the busiest Carl's Junior in the entire chain, after McDonald's turned down the location because the Irvine Company wanted too much money for the location. I bet McDonalds kicked themselves a few times for that mistake.

At that time there was Chevron Gas station on the corner there and that was the only gas station in Irvine as well as Alpha Beta being the only market. I think there was a liquor store and that was about it.

Culver and University. If you want to see how things change check what's in University Park Center now with the link below:
http://orangecountyshopping.com/Irv-SC-University-Park-Ctr.html

webmaster@OrangeCountyShopping.com

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Watching Disneyland Fireworks in the Old Days

Mike Baldwin shares his memories of watching Disneyland Fireworks...

I grew up living in Santa Ana from 1952 till my family moved to Costa Mesa in 1963. My fondest memory is during the summers when before bed time, Mom and Dad would walk with my sisters and I up to the Santa Ana river bank to watch the fireworks at Disneyland each evening. During thoses days there were no obstructions to sight across the county to see the nightly display from Disneyland. It was a great way to end each day as the walk back home was a great time to share the the show of that night with each other and to think of Peter Pan and Tinkerbell before going to bed.

By Mike Baldwin

I lived in Santa Ana from 1978 to 1988, before moving to El Toro. But we lived on Richland Ave, out by Bristol St, and couldn't see the fireworks, but you could always hear them, and you always knew what time it was once you started hearing the "boom boom" in the distance.

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Dreger Clock of Knott's Berry Farm

Glenn Frank submitted the follwing article to us about his efforts to restore the Dreger Clock at Knott's Berry Farm...

You may remember it as "that big clock with all the dials at Knott's Berry Farm". But I remember it as my great-grandfather's legacy.

The "Dreger Clock" was built by my great-grandfather Andrew Dreger Sr., an early pioneer of the Long Beach, Buena Park and Anaheim area. He was a watchmaker in his later years and built this amazing clock for the enjoyment of his community.

After His death the clock made its way to Knott's Berry Farm where it was enjoyed by thousands of visitors to Buena Park for over 50 years. But in the past year, you may not have noticed that it was missing from its home in front of the ticket booths. It fell into disrepair and was removed, hidden from the public in a warehouse.

The Buena Park Historical Society wants to return it to the public view. We want to put it back in front of the eyes of the community! The clock has been purchased and awaits restoration cleaning and a new home.

My dream is to see the clock restored, running and being enjoyed by visitors to the county along Beach Blvd in the city's historical park, across from the Buena Park City Hall.

But, we need the community's help to bring this symbol of Buena Park and Orange County back so the public can once again enjoy it. I hope you enjoy learning about the clock at our project website and consider donating toward its restoration costs.

Site: http://www.dregerclock.org

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Now You Can Search OCThen

I added a search engine to OCThen. You can find it on the left-most column "Search OCThen".

The search engine is powered by Google, and will display Google ads. But then again, Google isn't charging me anything to use it. Actually, they're paying me to use it!

I had the search engine there a long time ago, but when I implemented the current page design, I forgot to include it.

A couple of OCThen readers have asked me about it.

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Glenn L. Martin Elementary School

An anonymous person wants to know if any readers here attended Glenn L. Martin Elementary School in Santa Ana...

Did anyone out there go to Glenn L. Martin Elementary school in the 60's?
It was a simplier time and I remember it being a fun school.
From there Smedely Jr. High...not so fun.
And Mater Dei...cultural shock.
. I remember riding my bike to explore the new shopping center, south coast plaza, just bean fields around then, it just turned 40!
anonymous

I didn't go there, but my brother did during the mid-1980's. We lived only a few blocks up on Wilshire & Garnsey street.

If you remember Glenn L. Martin Elementary School, click on "Post a Comment" below and share your thoughts.

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Torana Art League

David wants to ask OCThen readers if anyone can comment about the Torana Art League, which he describes as an annex to Bower's Museum in Santa Ana...

Back in the '60's I went to art classes at the Torana Art League. I have come to find out that it was an annex to Bower's Museum. It was a large Spanish style house that functioned as a multi-roomed craft studio space. It was almost like an open studio for kids. I learned ceramics, batik, linoleum block printing, enamelling, watercolors, oil painting, and other art/craft mediums.

I live in San Francisco now and have been thinking of trying to open something like that up here. As we all know, art has pretty much been cut out of the general curriculum in public schools. My mom believed in art as an essential part of learning and working with your hands was a good skill. If anyone knows anymore about this let me know.

David sezdu@aol.com

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Garden Grove & Westminster in the 1950's and 1960's

Carol Kennedy submits her memories of growing up in Garden Grove, and going to school in Westminster. She also talks about the stores and restaurants she remembers...

What memories this site brings back! We moved to Garden Grove in 1954, and my parents bought a brand-new tract house the next year, on Florence Lane. There were still orange groves around us. Because we were the end house on a cul-de-sac, we had 1/3 acre. My dad fenced in a huge backyard, but that still left a triangular-shaped piece in back that stayed "wild." We used to build tumbleweed forts out there. We caught lizards and "horny toads" (horned lizards), and jackrabbits would leap across the lot.

My brother and I went to Blessed Sacrament grade school in Westminster, but all our neighbors went to public school: Marie L. Hare, which was a grade school at the time. Later we went to Mater Dei, and the neighbors went to Rancho.

I remember, just for starters: the A&W and the Pink Spot on Chapman; a truck farm where a number of Japanese-American families lived at Magnolia and Garden Grove Blvd.; the Gem Theater (in downtown); the Hiway 39 drive-in; a trampoline place where you could pay to jump by the half-hour or hour, on Chapman east of Gilbert; the polo grounds on Garden Grove Blvd. east of Magnolia.

I remember when the Sav-on was built on the southwest corner of Chapman and Brookhurst--ice cream cones there were 5 cents for a scoop, with a choice of about ten flavors, and candy bars were three for 10 cents; when the plaza on the northwest corner of that intersection was built, and my folks shopped at the Thriftimart; when St. Columban's school was built, and later St. Polycarp's; when the Grove Theater was built, and we started going there instead of the old Gem.

So many memories came flooding back as I read comments here! I wish your site had a "search" feature, but it's great as it is. Thanks!

If anyone thinks they remember me, they can email me at bigred_56@hotmail.com.

Carol Kennedy

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UFOs Over Orange County

I don't think I've ever witnessed an "unidentified flying object" while living or working in Orange County; it seems like everything I saw flying in the air was something I could recognize.

Though I'm sure others are convinced they've seen alien spacecraft flying over Orange County.

If you're passionate about beings from outer space visiting Orange County, then you might want to check out a website called, "Footnote.com". They have the complete Project Blue Book online, with scanned images of records, and OCR'ed so that you can search by keyword.

Here's a link to their Project Blue Book start page...

http://www.footnote.com/documents/6283401/project-blue-book-ufo-investigations

Notice the search box on the far right dubbed, "Search this Title". Enter "anaheim", and you'll get hit several hits. Note that a single sighting of a UFO will encompass several pages, thus each hit that shows from a search may be for the same sighting.

Try entering other names of cities, like tustin or westminster. For cities with two names, use quotation marks, such as "santa ana".

There was even a report of a UFO sighting over Disneyland on November 6, 1957, that was determined to be a hoax.

Below is a photo of a UFO dated August, 1965, taken in Santa Ana, which I found in these files...


Whether or not you believe intelligent life exists elsewhere in the Universe, it's still interesting to peruse Project Blue Book, and see some weird stuff.

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