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!