Community Corner

1957: Take a Memo, Miss Dundas: Stop Picking Pockets!

News from the Aug. 1, 1957 edition of the Lemon Grove Review.

A look at the way we were, 54 years ago this week.

Caught Green-Handed: Pinkerton detectives nabbed comely, 20-year-old Jane Dundas, stopping her purse pilfering in its tracks. The Grossmont Hospital secretary had swiped a gold watch from a patient's purse—but inside was a decoy $5 bill chemically treated with indelible green stain.

Dundas's emerald pinkies, sudden sick leave and daily access to patients' valuables sent the intrepid gumshoes to her abode where they found cash, watches and drivers' licenses. She was arrested, booked and incarcerated, all while pleading, “But I only borrowed them.”

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Case closed.

The New Diplomacy: Dr. Robert Rosen was ticket chair for Helix High School's Grand Fiesta Ball at the El Cortez Hotel. Alvino Ray and his orchestra played for dancing, the floor show ran an hour and piñatas were smashed hourly. Fiesta attire was de rigueur. All proceeds benefited scholarships for students entering the U.S. diplomatic service.

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The ticket price? $2.50.

Family Ties: Lemon Grove's Johnson twins, who had emigrated to the U.S. in 1900, were reunited after a 50-year separation. In 1907, Otto Johnson went west to the gold fields, then to France in World War I. Brother Martin trekked to Omaha, then San Francisco, then Lemon Grove.

Despite many postcards, they lost track of each other. But Martin, by then 72 and living on Barton Drive, found Otto in Columbia Falls, MT. He rushed to Lemon Grove and into the arms of Martin, his wife and five children.

Lemon meringue pie was served at the reunion.

Pub Crawl: Michael's Pub, 7828 Broadway, long the haunt of the politically connected, offered porterhouse steak, baked potato, vegetable, hot biscuits with butter and honey, and a drink of your choice for $1.95. Never has there been steak so rare, nor martini so chilled since Michael's bit the dust.

Swell Duds: The Highlander Men's Store, 7865 Broadway, ran its annual August sale offering name-brand shirts for $2.50, snazzy sharkskin suits for $31, and a white sport coat for $29.

“Just say charge it,” advised the ad.

Diaper Derby: Lemon Grove led the county birth rate in July by six—five girls and a boy, with a combined weight of 46 pounds and all born within a day or so of each other.

And Baby Makes ... Six: Mrs. Mary Lou Brumbaugh and spouse, Lemon Grove's own Dr. Simon Brumbaugh (actually, a party of three, as Mrs. B. was expecting), took a 10-day vacation by sea, land and air to Marineland, Catalina, Carmel, Yosemite and San Francisco. The little stranger's three siblings stayed home while Mom and Dad took that last romp through the Golden State.

The Envelope Please: Max Goodwin, editor of the Lemon Grove Review, offered two all-expense paid trips to Disneyland to any youngster who wrote the best “I want to go to Disneyland because...” in 50 words or less, and to the kid who sold five new subscriptions to the Review.

Compiled by Helen Ofield, president of the Lemon Grove Historical Society, from newspapers archived at the H. Lee House Cultural Center.


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