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Community Corner

1964: Midsummer Night's Dream

News from the late July editions of the Lemon Grove Review 49 years ago.

It was summer in the Big Lemon.  They sang, they robbed, they wed, they danced, they shopped, they fumed, they swam.  Even the dogs got into the act.

Fido Finds Fame:  Big Lemon veterinarian Dr. Robert Burns (later, Mayor Burns) secured Fido's lasting affection by installing a rescued fire hydrant outside the veterinary hospital, 7572 North Avenue.

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Dubbed "Old Point Comfort," the fireplug had once graced the facade of the defunct fire department.  As everyone knows, firemen hooked their hoses to yellow hydrants.  So, Dr. Bob painted the repurposed hydrant fire engine red and summoned a hospital inmate, one, Fang, a Pomeranian of indeterminate age, to pose sedately on the curb.

Fang won instant fame, not only for his dignity and restraint -- your average mutt would have gleefully baptized the hydrant while cameras rolled -- but for his tenor baritone bark, unusual in a Pomeranian whose pipes normally ran north of High C.

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"He sounds like Robert Merrill in La Traviata," opined Dr. Bob, always a theater fan.

You remember Robert Merrill, dear readers.  He was big at the Metropolitan Opera for decades, then won the hearts of all America with his performance of Figaro in The Marriage of Figaro when TV entered the nation's living rooms in the 1950s.  

She Brought Home the Bacon:  Ken Slauth, manager of Bradshaw's Discount Super Market, Massachusetts at Imperial (near modern Canton and Lemon Grove Avenue), proved his slogan "Costs Less at Bradshaw's" by sending loyal shopper, Mrs. Charles Blackburn, to buy her week's groceries at a local competitor.

Mrs. Blackburn had spent $45.54 at Bradshaw's.  But she spent $51.98 at "X Market" for exactly the same items.  In 1964, the extra $6.44 meant something. She gave Slauth her shopping receipt and he reimbursed her the $51.98.  Stunned at the windfall, she and son Jim posed for a photo that ran in an exultant full page ad in the Lemon Grove Review.

"I love Bradshaw's," said Mrs. B.  "Cleanliness, customer service, nice staff and I can feed my family for a week for under $50."

Today, a family of four spends an average of $1,000 a month, or $250 a week.

Free Lunch (Almost):  Bill's Coffee Shop, 3307 Imperial, offered local merchants a 96 cent lunch and the "biggest cup of coffee in town" for 10 cents. If you promoted Bill's in your store, you got the almost-free lunch for 25 cents.  Cute.

Cubs for JFK:  Bobby Bethel and Mike Davis of Cub Scout Den 4, Nina Road, penned a letter to Jacqueline Kennedy and enclosed $7.12 in support of the Kennedy Memorial Library Fund.  

"Den 4, Pack 318, put on a puppet show on Summer Safety.  We charged 10 cents a ticket and also charged for refreshments.  We know this isn't much money but we did our best to help," wrote the boys.

Big Lemon Lassie Sweeps Awards:  Karen West, 16, Massachusetts Avenue, donned her ghillies and bested 50 competitors at the county fair to bring home first and second prize trophies in Seann Triubhas and Sword Dance and Highland Fling.

Our lassie also danced for the Helix High School Bagpipe Band, sporting the familiar Gordon tartan and Scotty dog logo, the latter a throwback to 14th century warriors, who performed combative sword dances and flings to demonstrate military prowess, while their Scottish terriers ("the diehards") stood guard.

Bored Burglar's Putdown: Somebody got in a rear window at Hoy & Muhleman Attorneys, 7615 Broadway, and ransacked a filing cabinet.  When deputies arrived the next morning, they found file folders neatly arranged on a desk and adorned with these messages in pencil:

"Boring."   "More boring."  "Really boring."  "I'm bored."

Apparently the intruder left empty-handed, leaving in his/her wake a literary critique that cut to the quick.

Broadway Confidential:  In his 12th year of service, Sheriff's Deputy Hal Johnston became indispensable for the confidential dossiers he compiled on every business in the 'Grove, the better to contact them speedily during nighttime emergencies.

In 1964 local crime against businesses was booming.  Businesses paid half of Deputy Johnston's salary to be on file, while the county paid the other half.

"We're giving personalized police service," said Johnston, "so we can stop these perpetrators in their tracks."

Little Champs:  The Carlson kids, Lesley, 9; John, 10; and Don, 12, Dayton Drive, swam to glory on the La Mesa Swim Association's 60-member team to bring home the team's first trophy since 1951 for best overall performance.  La Mesa had a pool, while Lemon Grove was still trying to raise money for one.

Fulminators Fume:  The old pro, Max Goodwin, editor of the Review, regularly ran excerpts from readers' letters, especially those excoriating either side of the political spectrum:

"I'm en route through Orange and Fullerton.  Good, substantial people here.  We've got to protect them from subversives."

"I will stop at nothing to promote free love, free spirit, free anything.  Give me freedom or give me death."

"I am once again ready to sacrifice myself for the Grand Old Party."

"When I see a fire hose I feel better."

"I yearn only for peace in our time and no more criticism from anybody."

"Very profitable evening.  Toured campus.  Caught some professors teaching, not indoctrinating.  Set traps.  Caught some beatniks and other you-know-whats.  Dangerous, dangerous."

Whoa.  Really.

Nups and Babes:  In the Big Lemon in late July there were 11 weddings and 17 children were born, 12 of them boys and two of them twin girls.  Local emporia outdid themselves with bridal and newlywed deals:

"Brides -- get 50 per cent off our chenille oval rugs!" declared McMahan's Furniture.  You could buy the 12-foot hall runner for $12.

"Engaged?  Show us your ring and get free dessert!" trilled The Bronze Room, 8998 La Mesa Blvd., "where a gay and festive atmosphere reigns nightly!"

"New husbands, check out our shock absorbers," urged B.F. Goodrich, 7285 Broadway, in an unconscious bit of hilarity.

"All questions answered.  Newlyweds a specialty."  This from the Spiritualist Reader on Highland Avenue, National City.  You took the V bus to her door, no appointment needed, no questions asked. 

And so it went in midsummer, 1964 when society was changing, yet the dream of America went on.

About this column:  Compiled by Helen Ofield, president of the Lemon Grove Historical Society, from newspapers archived at the H. Lee House Cultural Center.  Each week, we take a peek at the past with some news and advertising highlights from a randomly chosen edition of the Lemon Grove Review.  Ofield was awarded first place in 2013 and second place in 2012 in non-daily column writing from the Society of Professional Journalists.

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