Irma Bertuccio is a lifelong Hollister resident who has owned
and operated a store on Fifth Street, now called Irma’s Fashions,
for more than 70 years. The 1933 graduate of Hollister High School
opened the downtown store
– also called Fashion Crossroads for a time – after she had
worked for the Hollister Mode O’Day franchise.
See this full story and others in Tuesday’s annual special
section,
”
Pride in Place,
”
featuring many local residents.
Irma Bertuccio is a lifelong Hollister resident who has owned and operated a store on Fifth Street, now called Irma’s Fashions, for more than 70 years. The 1933 graduate of Hollister High School opened the downtown store – also called Fashion Crossroads for a time – after she had worked for the Hollister Mode O’Day franchise.
Before that, she had spent some time working at her father Paul’s grocery store and also at the family orchard ranch, and also attended junior college.
The Free Lance caught up with Bertuccio at the downtown store for a question-and-answer discussion.
Free Lance: What year did you open the store?
Irma Bertuccio: Nineteen-forty. It wasn’t in this location. It was where the park and garage is now.
FL: Was it a similar type of store?
Bertuccio: It was a franchise store. That was something new. We rented it out to a lady that came from San Diego. She was separated from her husband. So she decided to go on her own. We had the vacant building there, which was a grocery store that Rosati’s used to operate. After three months, she decided she’s going to go back to her husband.
When we were showing the place to rent it, she said, ‘Will you help me operate this store?’ Those were the depression days, and you didn’t even go ask for a job … People were really desperate.
I was doing nothing. I was home on the ranch and doing nothing. She asked if I would help her. I said, ‘yes.’ But after three months, she decided to go back to her husband. I was in business. But three months later she came back and she wanted it. Her husband didn’t want her. Unusual story. That’s how it all got started.
FL: What were you doing before that?
Bertuccio: Nothing, because I had just graduated from high school and junior college (in Hollister), and I was home. I was born and raised right off the main drag, right on main street there by the railroad track.
FL: How did things go at the first location?
Bertuccio: Things were OK. We decided the store was too small. (The franchise) people did, because it was their merchandise. We moved here on the corner. My family owned the building there on the corner. And in the meantime, … it went to Fashion Crossroads. There we stayed until the earthquake (in 1989).
We happened to own this building here. The man, he had a photography shop. In the meantime, he was working a little in Oregon, with his family, so he gave it up. We were able to move from there to here.
FL: What happened to your building during the earthquake?
Bertuccio: All the windows broke. I was by the cash drawer. It was at the corner location. … It was condemned.
FL: A lot of people have five careers these days. You’ve had this business for 70 years. What has kept you so interested in having a store like this?
Bertuccio: It was just my lifestyle. We lived on a ranch. It was too boring to stay home. It was very seasonal. I was there a few years when I was out of college because there was nothing to do. The opportunity came that way.
FL: You grew up in the area. What was family life like?
Bertuccio: My father had an Italian grocery store years ago, and my brother was very active in the local activities.
FL: Is anyone still in town?
Bertuccio: I’m the last one left. There were five of us in the family. But one by one … My youngest sister died two and a half years ago, Olga. Are you familiar at all with the Bertuccio food stand?
FL: A little, yeah
Bertuccio: That’s where I lived, the house. That’s our property. Many years, we lived there – my mother, father, we lived there for many years.
See the full interview in the “Pride in Place” section in Tuesday’s Free Lance. To read about Bertuccio being chosen for the Baler Hall of Fame, go here.
