Bob takes a long stroll down memory lane
Hey lottie ding dong, ya-lang-a-lang-a-lang sh-boom bod Oh a
dobbie dobbie do, life could be a dream, sh-boom.
They don’t write lyrics like that any more. But life was a dream
for teens in Hollister in 1958. This Saturday at Paine’s is our
50th Hollister High reunion. In 1958 I was the luckiest guy in the
world. I was a two-term student body president of the best high
school class ever. I got married to my high school sweetheart,
Nancy Sue Coyle, in 1958. But more eventful than that, we beat
Gilroy.
Bob takes a long stroll down memory lane
Hey lottie ding dong, ya-lang-a-lang-a-lang sh-boom bod Oh a dobbie dobbie do, life could be a dream, sh-boom.
They don’t write lyrics like that any more. But life was a dream for teens in Hollister in 1958. This Saturday at Paine’s is our 50th Hollister High reunion. In 1958 I was the luckiest guy in the world. I was a two-term student body president of the best high school class ever. I got married to my high school sweetheart, Nancy Sue Coyle, in 1958. But more eventful than that, we beat Gilroy.
After home games we’d go to the after-game dance in the only gym we had and semi-rock to the dulcet tones of Evaristo Cravea and his “orchestra:” some old guy on the drums, an even older guy on trumpet or sax and Evaristo on the accordion. Yes, folks, an accordion. As a matter of fact, I don’t believe I ever saw Evaristo without his accordion. He was buried with it and if you walk the San Juan Bautista Cemetery late at night you can hear “Lady of Spain.”
Most of us, believe it or not, would leave the dances early and head to Foster’s Old-Fashioned Frostee Freeze which took up an entire half block corner of fourth and Line streets. We could put a nickel in the jukebox and really rock. If we were broke we would even ask the nuns from Sacred Heart for a nickel. Even nuns couldn’t resist the temptation of a hot fudge sundae with whipped cream and a cherry on top.
Thank goodness nothing else at Foster’s was cherry with the exception of some cars. Foster Freeze was the only place in the world that I had ever known to put its entire jukebox on the outside of the building. “Sh-Boom” would be blaring as loud as an old Wurlitzer juke box with no stereo, no Hi or Fi could.
No matter because we were with our friends and girls at our side splurging on 19-cent hamburgers and green river drinks. Life was, indeed, a dream.
Great floor show, too, as Hollister motorcycle cop Eddie Martin would chase down kids from Gilroy who were not familiar with the speed limit. We would all clap and cheer as Eddie Martin was one Hollister cop who enjoyed his job, especially if it meant giving tickets to kids who had the misfortune of going to Gilroy High.
As teens we were lucky enough to live in Hollister as we had Foster’s, one of the most unique teen hangouts, a downtown bowling alley where high schoolers set pins as the alleys were not automated, and three movie theaters which included one of the largest drive-in theaters in the state. On Friday night the drive-in was packed as were the trunks of cars as we snuck in as many as possible. Families parked up front with their pickups facing away from the screen so everyone sat on the bed of the truck with blankets if needed and refreshments, while watching their kids play on the slides and swings. The last rows were Hollister High students with windows all fogged up and apparently from the rocking and swaying they were checking their shock absorbers. Aye chee waa waa.
Spare a dollar?
But for a small town, teen pregnancy was kept in check with no thanks to the Catholic church and its laughable “just say no to sex” or warnings against birth control. A local gas station owner sold rubbers. We called them silver dollars as they were round and covered with that new-fangled aluminum. You couldn’t keep them in your wallets very long as aluminum in those days would crack easily. So we had to use them fast and often.
For those who watched the movie, this week 50 years ago the drive-in was showing “Legend of the Lost” with John Wayne and some gal from Italy: Sophia Loren. On the double bill was “The Delinquent” with Tommy Laughlin who later became famous as “Billy Jack.” “The Delinquents,” had it been about Hollister, could just as well have starred Hollister High’s “Rod Knockers.” Don’t ask don’t tell.
Some of our parents were at Vic’s Club in downtown Hollister dancing to a local “orchestra” or at the Boardwalk at Santa Cruz, where the world-famous Coconut Grove featured Karl (you vill have fun) Bruhn and his big – and I mean big – band.
The next day the huge Art Deco State Theater with its giant curved CinemaScope screen was having Bingo night where you could win $5 or more! I never saw anyone win the “or more” but it beat the hell out of dish night.
At the Granada they were showing two peliculas en Español. It was the only theater in Hollister that popped its own popcorn. You could smell it all over downtown Hollister, especially if you were at the library across the street. Yes, the library was where the City Council now meets. The Granada would serve the fresh popcorn in little brown bags for a dime and passersby would walk in just to buy the best popcorn I ever tasted. The State and Drive-In would buy popcorn in huge bags shipped from who-knows-where and reheat it and then charge you a dime extra for their delicious butter “flavoring.” Yuck!
We were also lucky to live in Hollister during the birth of rock ‘n’ roll as short rides to Watsonville or the Armory in Salinas got you in at the very beginning of Little Richard, Chuck Berry, The Platters, Fats Domino and not for dumb overpriced concerts but for cheap up front and close dancing. Even the State Theater in Hollister booked The Champs of “Tequila” fame when the likes of Glen Campbell was a rocker before he was a “Rhinestone Cowboy,” or is that rhinestoned?
The cops in Hollister in 1958 were much more into taking care of, rather than punishing. Many a time they would stop us, confiscate our beer and let us go. Wait a minute! That is why there were so many Lucky Lager, Bergermeister, Falstaff and Regal Pale empties in the garbage cans behind the police department. Aye chee waa waa! We waz robbed by the fuzz!
Seeing red – and green
Park Hill was a great makeout place but you always had to come up with a good excuse to get a sweet little old thing up there. Thank goodness when in the 1950s Hollister got its traffic light. “Want to go to Park Hill and see the traffic light?” Sh-Boom, life could be a dream if you would let me into paradise above.
Next day I hit the service station where the owner would wash my window, check the oil and tire pressure, sell me more “silver dollars” and put in two bucks worth of 25-cent-a-gallon gas. Pick up Nancy in San Juan, come back to the State Theater and for 65 cents sit upstairs and neck while watching Esther Williams in “Raw Wind in Eden.”
Little did I know in later years when I moved to Hollywood that Williams would get off her chair and come stroke me. She said I had the most beautiful beard and said I was beautiful, too. How could I disagree with MGM’s biggest musical star?
Actually, in just that short week of movies playing in Hollister I have met most of the stars – Esther Williams, Jeffrey Hunter, Johnny Mathis, Sophia Loren and Academy Award winner Joan Fontaine, whose sister, also an Academy Award winner, Olivia de Havilland, I did not ask about.
Bob’s quick quiz for this week: Why didn’t I ask Joan Fontaine about her sister? Last week’s quick quiz question, a two-parter: What was Ed Begley Jr.’s father’s name and what movie did he win an Oscar for? Answer: Ed Begley won his Oscar for “Sweet Bird of Youth.”
Also playing at the State was “Once Upon a Horse” with the new comedy team that was supposed to make us forget Martin and Lewis. Now remember, this is 1958. The new comedy team was Rowan and Martin. The same pair who, decades later, became huge hits with “Laugh In.” They even had Richard Nixon, whose hand I shook when he came to Hollister, say “sock it to me,” and we did.
After the movie we went to the New China Cafe, the best restaurant value in new or old China. The older waitress would come up and say, “what can I get you, Honey” as you sat in one of their dozens of booths. The hamburgers, especially their deluxe with real cheddar cheese were great but it was their chop suey that was better than any I have ever tasted and oh-so-reasonable. They also had the best soft drinks: R.C. Cola, Nesbitt’s Real Orange, Nehi Grape, Mr. Limey, Dad’s Old Fashioned Root Beer and fountain drinks that would make your eyes snap faster than Uncle Louie Picetti, the vice principal at the high school, whenever you tried to cut class.
And I may as well continue dropping names, but Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower was president and it was, indeed, a kinder gentler country. To me, he was one of the greatest presidents but the historians say he didn’t do anything. Is that so bad? He didn’t go out and look for wars or trouble. He didn’t have sex with his intern. He didn’t try to cover up the few scandals that managed to pop up and fired those immediately who were involved. And I was so proud when I was in the Army and he toured Okinawa and I got to see him. A do-nothing president? I’ll take that any time over any president who thinks we are the policeman to the world.
Hollister in 1958 was like a Norman Rockwell painting if Norman just would have used a few more shades of brown. Hell, some of my best friends were Mexicans. Actually, no they weren’t.
