Larry Bergquist

Larry Bergquist was a racing legend, a desert racing legend.  He lived for a time on Conata Street one block north of where I grew up on Elda in Duarte.  He was a great man.  A great competitor, maybe none better.  Here is a 1959 clip I found on YouTube of Larry Bergquist at the 6:06-mark.  He is eating the chicken leg and you can see his name Larry scrolled across his leather jacket just above the pocket.  I found the clip from a search I was doing on Gil Stratton, the unmistakable radio voice of USC Trojan football, their baseball team, as well as for the Rams radio before the Dick Enberg years.  Gil was a legend in our ears.  He still is.  To learn more about who Larry Bergquist was and what a tenacious competitor he was, please go to the Duarte Heroes section on the Home page and open up Eric Bergquist's RavenWest Guitars, and once there find the "Desert Fox" and enjoy reading about a Duarte legend.

You can see Larry Bergquist at the 6:05 mark.  Part of the course involved riding through Boron, CA, located about 20 miles east of Mojave.   Jawbone Canyon is just south of Red Rock Canyon where 395 and the 14 meet.  Jawbone is just north of Mojave, CA.

I should have started this blog years ago.  But I am starting today after seeing a Facebook post by my friend Eric Bergquist.  Eric is a rare man whose sense of adventure is infectious and burning.  Eric Bergquist's dad is the legendary Larry Bergquist who won all kinds of desert races throughout Southern California, Nevada, and Baja California.  Here is a 1959 clip I found on YouTube of Larry Bergquist at the 6:06 minute mark.  He is eating the chicken leg and you can see his name Larry scrolled across his leather jacket just above the pocket.  I found the clip from a search I was doing on Gil Stratton, the unmistakable radio voice of USC Trojan football, their baseball team, as well as for the Rams radio before the Dick Enberg years.  Gil was a legend in our ears.  He still is.

210 Freeway

Chuck Burger, 2007

The name of this place, at least when I was in high school, was Chuck Burger.  I used to come here during lunch with Al, Bill, Bart, and Ernie.  I think that I was one of the few in the group who actually liked Chuck Burger.  I did like their fish sandwiches.  And come to think of it I should really appreciate and thank Bart Dikes for driving me there as much as he did.  He was a senior.  I was a freshman.  He could have easily gone with one of his senior friends, but he invited me.  He used to drive his Rambler with the gear shift on the wheel shaft.  Those were pretty good days.  Thanks, Bart!

The lot that that restaurant sits on has an interesting history.  There used to be several entertaining items here.  There used to be a miniature golf, which someone said closed in 1975.  Also, there used to be one of the giant Paul Bunyan plastic golf man, standing 20 or 30 feet in the sky.  There was a terrific arcade where I used to take photo booth snapshots of myself, sweaty after jumping on the trampolines.  So, they had an arcade with all of the popular games at the time, like PacMan, DonkeyGong, Street Fighter, Frogger,  Q*bert, Asteroids, Galaga, pin-ball, and many others. etc.

There were trampolines.  There was miniature golf.  At one point they used to have bumper cars made with diesel inner tubes, which was kind of cool.

The San Gabriel River in Duarte

The photo above and below were shot by "the foto files."







 This picture belongs to the CityProjectCa.org who've performed a multi-city coordination effort to celebrate communities through which or by which the San Gabriel River flows.  Here is an additional photo that is stunning.

                 This shot was taken on the southern rim of the Santa Fe Dam in Irwindale.

Santa Fe Recreational Dam


      
Morris Dam Fire, Wednesday, 8/26/09
The above photo belongs to Gabrielle Baader as does this brief video clip of the fire's plume.



I ate here a couple of times; I think once with Eric and my brothers.  Both times I had chili.

LeRoy's Diner, Monrovia

My great friend, Ron Palige, used to live in a studio apartment behind LeRoy's.  Folks from Duarte Fellowhip used to stop here after church on Sundays.  It was fun, lively, and the portions were generous.  So I was able to convince my dad to invite Marilyn out to breakfast.  She ordered a plate with eggs and bacon.  Her plate arrived, but wanted her bacon cooked a little more.  I think that she referred to it as trucker's stop, which it is kind of is--truck-stop food.  But it was still good.

 
 October, 2002.

 
 October, 2006.

Old Gas Station Across the Street from Immaculate Conception

I should make a few comments about this station.  I attended Immaculate Conception from 1st to the middle of the 3rd grade.  On my first day of school, my sisters Sally and Mary would walk me across the street to this station and the little mom-and-pop store that is just out of sight behind and to the left of that red pump on the left and under the cover.  We used to buy those Chunky chocolate cubes wrapped in tin foil.  They were such a treat, not only to eat but to unwrap.  It always felt special.  And we'd buy hot chocolate there too.  Was a nice memory.

A few recent shots . . . .

The Sacred Heart of Mary's Alcove, March 2011

The pic above was taken on Saturday, April 23, 2022.

I loved this shrine when I went to school here, and I've loved it through the years as my mother would take me here to pray with her.

1955

This boy's name is Daniel Rivera.  I don't know him.  The year is 1955.  You can find this photo at the LAPL photo collection.  My brother, Dan, told me that he knew Daniel while attending Immaculate Conception briefly, and then continued to keep in touch with him a couple of years afterwards.

                                              

I took the following pics of Immaculate Conception in September 2021 after returning from Denver that August.  It's interesting to return to some of the holiest, peaceful, and dedicated hours I'd had as a kid both in my own life and observing dedication in others.  My mother used to in her quiet demeanor pray the Stations of the Cross here. 

Ralph's Store #5 on Huntington Drive in Duarte

Ralph's store.  My mom loved to do her grocery shopping here.

The Big Sky Drive-In Theater, 1981

O, the good ol' double-billed movies playing at the Big Sky.  The drive-in must have been torn down in 1984, for the city began building the Gemco in April of 1985.  Lunchwagon Girls was released in 1981, and Cheerleaders, or The Cheerleaders, was originally released in 1973; it's re-released here as a double-biller.  In 1977, I saw the movie The Other Side of Midnight here.  Before that I saw in 1972 everybody's favorite for that year, Deliverance.

I found this old advertisement for the Big Sky Drive-In.  The resolution is not great; the small print is blurred but readable.  One of the movies the outdoor theater featured was Under Ten Flags with Van Heflin and Charles Laughton.  Never saw it, but you can see it now for free at home.  That's what disturbs me about technology--it has a way of keeping people indoors, such a contrast from my days of growing up in Duarte.

Azusa Nearby

A terrific view of the foothills at the intersection of Foothill Boulevard and Azusa, 1954.

Azusa Avenue southbound at Foothill.  The view is southeast.  The year is 1954.  I remember the old Sears distribution and repair center there.  Bill's Sporting Goods, which is not visible, was farther down on the left-hand side of the street. 

This photograph must have been taken from the Wells Fargo office on the top floor or maybe from the roof.  The date is 1961 and is part of the Herald Examiner Collection.

Azusa Dairy, 1937, located on Azusa Avenue or what everybody in the neighborhood referred to as Highway 39.

Fish Canyon, 1988

That girl is walking west at the northwest corner of Conata and Markwood in the Timarron section of Fish Canyon in Duarte, 1988.  The photograph was taken by Mike Mullen and is part of the Herald Examiner Collection, which ceased publication in 1989.  Here is a brief second-hand report from a retired Realtor in the area, "I know that I have heard the name Timarrons sometime in the past, but really do not have any idea when it originated.  I believe it was a name that the developer picked and used in the advertising of the tract when the homes were originally sold but then fell by the wayside.  I believe it referred to the Upper Fish Canyon tract which it how it was referred, during my real estate years.  Like Royal Oaks Estates for our Hearthstone homes [and] next to us . . . the Emblem Homes above the Upper Fish Canyon homes." 

My reply is here:  My suspicion was the same, that the developers sold the tract as the Timarrons in an effort to sell the properties.  I did do a brief search on the developer to confirm this, but haven't found anyone online.  There are no woods up in that canyon where Encanto Parkway ran to the SGV Gun Club.  But it was a smart decision, I think, for the developers to associate that tract of land with the woods or forests nestled farther back in the canyon where the falls are or even farther up Highway 39.  The suggestion was enough to make the image of a dense cluster of trees and gurgling creeks and mountain ranges stick. 

Alpha Beta in Duarte, 1964

Duarte Shopping Center at the southeast side of Huntington and Buena Vista.  This photo is dated April 10, 1964.  The source of this photo is the LAPL.  Mom loved the five-and-dime store, Coronet, with its two levels in military green, where you could get so much for a dime.  I don't want to get started on the old days, but one feature of them was that our money went a lot further.  I used to buy the tiny translucent waxed bottles with fruit juice in them; those, and the candied cigarettes that puffed out powdered sugar as smoke; and then there were the those terrific wax mustaches with wonderful clove flavor that you could chew til your jaw got worn out.  My mom loved the Coronet, and therefore, we did too.

 
My dad loved Alpha Beta.  He asserted that he is responsible for the original design of the character "Alphie."  Here is a little more on shopping centers.  On those page advertisements above, see here at pages 9, 14, and 20.
 

 Now the source on this photograph says that it is 1960.  Maybe.  The cars in this picture are older.  Notice how empty the sidewalk is here compared to the current one today that is lined with trees.


Some of the great stores used to be in Duarte.  There the Coronet, the Pantry, and Alpha Beta, the store for which Dad claimed that he drew the character Alphie with lasso.  Go to pages 9, 14, and 20 to find ads from these stores.  The Pantry advertised Blue Chip stamps.  Ooh!