 Eyes on Longmont, offering a diversity of topics about our community that will inform and entertain you. We invite you to sit back and enjoy this edition of Eyes on Longmont. It's your birth, happy birth. Happy birthday, Longmont. Hi, my name is Diana Lassek. My family moved to Longmont in 1954. I was in third grade. I'm going to do kind of a main street tour of when I was a kid. One thing I remember is Johnson's Corner on the south end of Longmont. It was like a mini-mart would be now. People would get gas there, go in and get pop or beer or coffee or whatever they wanted. Right up the road from that was the Roll Arena. I had a ton of friends, so there was always somebody to do things with. We would go to the Roll Arena or the movies on Friday nights or Saturday afternoons. The Roll Arena was so fun. We would get together, rent our roller skates, do the hokey pokey on roller skates, go under the limbo bar, just have a great time. Going up from the Roll Arena north is downtown. I picked just a couple of things downtown to talk about. There's so many historic, wonderful things. The first thing that came to my mind was the Marleau Shop. It's where Ron's Jewelers is now. It was this skinny little shop. They had gift things. But I'd go in with my mother when she'd have bridge or a garden club. Back in the middle of the store there was this counter and they had mix nuts and mints. That's where she would buy her goodies for her clubs. Next to that was J.C. Pennies. We shopped there. Woolworths was down the street and they had a soda fountain and a sandwich bar. One of the best things in downtown Longmont, which people always remember, is Danny Pastry. Everybody would get their almond coffee cake. It was to die for. We've tried to replicate it forever. Going up from there, the Trojan Theater, which is now the Longmont Theater Company, was one of our favorite places to go. The first time I went to a play there when it was the theater company, I felt like I'd gone back in time over 50 years. The seats were the same. The refreshment counter was the same. The ticket booth. The only thing missing was the big screen. But it brought back so many wonderful memories. Going up from the theater between 8th and 9th and Main is the old Longmont High School. I graduated in 1964 and we were the last class to graduate from that school. So many memorable times. A few years ago there was an all-class reunion and they opened the school for us to just walk through. And it brought back just those halls and looking into the classrooms. Brought back so many memories. Across the street from the high school was Jean's Texas Burgers. And the building is still there, this little tiny brick building. From school we'd go over and get French fries or a burger. My family would go there some nights for supper and it was always a treat. Jean and Georgia were the owners. They were from Texas. Jean wore this white chef's hat. He was like six foot something tall. Georgia was like five foot tall and she made the most wonderful pies ever. Going up the street north from there was cheaper Charlie's. Guys worked on their cars all the time. So that's where they'd go for their parts. There'd always be a bunch of cars there. You'd always see the guys working on their cars around town. On 10th Avenue, this is a personal thing for me. My dad bought the Phillips 66 station when we moved to Longmont. It was called Lang Oil Company. The building is exactly the same minus the gas pumps. Once we started driving, we would go in and usually Jim or Sully would come out, pop the hood of our car, check the oil, wash our windows and pump our gas. A lot of times we had 50 cents for gas and that was it. One of the big things in Longmont was dragging Maine. And at my dad's station, the cool guys with their hot cars would back up their cars up and watch everybody drag Maine. Everybody would honk, wave. That was our pastime. And Friday, Saturday nights, that's where everybody was. Across from the cemetery was the Hamburger Haven. It was the place to be seen. Quite a few of us worked there as car hops, pouring sodas, flipping burgers. The drug Maine would drive through the parking lot just to be seen. And going up Maine Street some more, we're almost out of town here. They built a Shakey's Pizza Parlor. And Shakey's had picnic tables, styles. Pizza was pretty new then, so everybody went there for pizza. Then they'd drive another couple blocks, turn around, drag Maine again. Other things that happened on Maine Street were the Pet and Doll Parade. We would decorate our bikes with crepe paper. We'd weave the crepe paper between the spokes, put it on our handlebars, decorate wagons. That was a big thing in Longmont, the Pet and Doll Parade and the Fair Parade. I am very thankful that I got to grow up in Longmont. I love this town. All the changes hasn't changed my mind. It's a great place to be. Happy birthday, Longmont. I'm glad I live here. Hi, I'm Jenny Rodriguez, and I'm 72 years old. I've been in Longmont since I was about two years old, I think. I mean, that's as far as I can remember. My parents kind of immigrated over here from New Mexico because my grandfather was a farmer in New Mexico and he had a big plantation of bean farming over there. When his wealth went dry, he immigrated over here, he sold his land, and immigrated over here to Longmont to work. And so we all came, my father, too, and my mother. And I was like two years old, my brother was like three, and we've been here ever since. Well, they used to go back and forth, you know, and then just my dad started working for Mount Nelson, and then he started working for the sugar factory, and on and on, and he worked for Seven Up, he worked for, oh, just a lot of places. And then he eventually started working for the city of Longmont. My dad was a farmer, and he used to work out in the farm, as a farmhand, I guess you would call it, and he used to be in irrigation and watching cows and feeding them, the whole bit, you know, him and my grandfather. And then he married my mom after he came out of the war. My parents got married in New Mexico in 1946. After they got married, my mom had my brother in 1947, and he's the oldest one, and then I was the second. And then after I was born, they moved over here. When they lived in the Mount Nelson farms, he provided housing for them because my dad was working for him. My grandfather says they just had to come because there was no work over there in New Mexico. So they came, and they pretty much would go back and forth, and then Mount Nelson didn't want my dad to leave because he was such a good worker, I guess. So we never went anywhere, although we wanted to go to the fair so badly sometimes. I beg Nelson, the farmer, could my dad please have one day off so we could go to the fair? Please? And he goes, OK, Jenny, just for you. OK, I wanted to go to the fair. And so we did go, and it was so much fun. And my dad used to pack us up in his back of his truck because he had a dumpster truck that he used to work in the farm to haul the hay and stuff like that. And he threw us all back in there, you know, in the back. You want to go get ready and hop in there? So we did. And he brought us to the fair here in Longman when he was here in Roosevelt, right here. And so I remember they used to have the fireworks here, and they used to have music here, and the rodeos were here, too. But anyway, we thought that was really exciting. So then we'd go home and we'd be pretty happy, you know, pretty happy. And my dad would take us to help him farm, like spread the hay for the animals because we had to feed them. And we had to pick them up with those hooks and put them on our knees and push them up over the, and we'd feed the animals. And so his boss, Mr. Nelson, he just said, Well, we're just going to keep the whole family because they're all such hard workers. So my dad didn't have very much money for my brother to go to school. So Mel said, He's going to school right behind our house. There was a river. That's where we entertained ourselves there. It was so much fun back in the day. Kids don't do things like that no more. You know, it's just those games and stuff. Pretty sad. I wish there was more things to do like that, like back in the day. So much fun. We used to get on top of the haystacks and play King in the Mountain. And we go up to the top and throw the other person down. And that was the king. Whoever stayed up there was the king. And that was so much fun, too. So then from there on, we just stayed in Langla. Yes. Then as we grew up, you know, we started going to grade school here in Idaho Creek over there by that Rinn Store church that's out there going on that highway, if you ever see it. And then after that I went to school in Erie, high school, and that's where I stayed for a long time. Then I went back to New Mexico because my grandmother was having problems with my grandfather because he had a stroke. So I got sent back there from my dad, mom, so I could help him out. So I was raised with them and I was raised here, too, back and forth. And yeah, where we lived with Mountain Elton and that one farm, the house burned one day. It was a cold, cold day and I remember it was snowing so badly. We all stayed home and my grandfather kept us warm by putting fire, you know, in those little wooden stoves. I don't know how it happened. The flute to the stove came on down a little bit and when the fire was going on, it must have caught fire there. But anyway, that's where the fire started and it went down and smoked the whole house. And so then everything burned, all our pictures, you know. But after the house burned, we just moved to town. The people here in Long Island are so helpful they helped us out a lot. Our house in town was on Collier Street. I think it was 715 Collier Street. I got married in that little house when we worked at the turkey plant. My sisters were working there, too, after that because they were older now. And so I worked there on and off, like I said, just when I had to. We used to hang out at that pizza place in the corner. I remember there were a quarter piece, so we'd go there and everybody would order their own pizza, their own little, you know, slice, a quarter. And I remember that it was such a happy place. It was such a happy place. And that's where we meet after we went shopping. And we got paid weekly at the turkey plant. Well, I should say, what was it called, Long Island Foods? Well, we went to JCPenney's and, you know, you know how you used to shop here in Long Island. You went to every store there was, and we shopped here. Okay, I don't know if you remember that accident that happened in Hoover Street, that bad wreck where all those kids got killed. They were speeding. Nina Urban and some Garcia people and Elsie Lujan, all those people got killed in that accident. But they're in the cemetery. All of them lined up. All the kids that died that day, right there. I was supposed to go with my cousin Nina that day because she used to go pick me up. That day my dad told her, no, you're not going. She's not going to go. He must have had a feeling, my dad. And he didn't let me go that time. He would let me go all the time. But that day he was, my dad saved my life. He called me up when the news came on at 10 and he told me, look, this is what would happen to you. And that's the end of the story. Thank you, Longmont. Happy birthday, Longmont. Hi, my name is Jackie Tonow. My mother's maiden name is Mary Mayetta. She's with the Mayetta family here in Longmont. They were farmers way back in the old days. Kiku Taro Mayetta came to, actually he came to the United States via Mexico because of the Exclusion Act of 1882 he could not come up into the United States. So he went to Mexico. He worked in Mexico for a few years in the coal mines. Swam across the Rio Grande. Then he went to California and worked on the farms in California for a few years. In 1906 he actually eventually came with his brother to Colorado. They ended up renting a farm in Canfield and Canfield is now Erie. So they lived on the farm in Canfield. That's where my parents, well my mother and her brothers and sisters were born. Grandpa actually went back to Japan in 1916 to get a wife, a picture bride. He married Yukino Harano and bought her back at the age of 19. I remember my grandma telling me she was only 19 years old and didn't know English, didn't know anybody. Came to the United States. They had eight kids. They had four boys, Takashi Mayetta, Yushikino, which is Johnny Mayetta, Toshiyuki, which is Robert Mayetta, Hisako, which is Mary Mayetta, who later became a tono, Isau, which is George Mayetta, Sayeko, which is Martha Mayetta, later became a Nishida, Satsuki, which is Mae Yamada, and Akiko, which is Ruby, which later became a Tanaka. So we are related, the Mayettas are related to the Nishidas, which is a Nishida farm on Highway 66 and the Tanakas, which were out off of Highway 52. They farmed, and most of the Japanese who farmed here were vegetable farmers. So the Kanimoto's were here, the Tanakas were here, the Nishidas, the Miyazaki's. They all were vegetable farmers. They farmed corn, sugar beets for the sugar factory. They had onions and barley, so I know my uncle grew barley for cures, and when the state fair was in town, he actually won a couple of contests with his barley. In 1942, when the war broke out, World War II, the Colorado had governor Carr at the time, and he was good enough, I guess, or the Japanese that lived in the inner states did not have to go to the concentration camps. So they didn't have to go to a camp here, but according to my parents and my uncles, it would have been maybe easier for them if they had been in a camp, as opposed to having to deal with the discrimination they had to deal with. The first time Grandma and Grandpa were able to apply for citizenship was in 1956, and I have a picture with all of the, what I call, Ises, which are our first-generation Japanese that came to the United States. They all studied with the gentlemen to get their U.S. citizenship in 1956. Well, I grew up in the big city of Chicago, and in order to get out of the city, my mother bought us back here to the family farm, and we helped babysit our younger cousins, and we helped work on the farm when we could. We actually mainly ate and got in the way. We ate the fresh fruits and got in the way, fresh vegetables. And the best part about being on the farm was we learned how to drive when we were only 13 or 12 years old, so we got to drive the tractors. So we drove the tractors, and that's where I learned how to drive. I learned how to siphon water out of the irrigation pipes. We helped our aunts and uncles pick corn, pick cabbage, and then I know the big event was on Friday night or Saturday night when they would take all of our help to the city to go get their groceries, and then we couldn't actually go in the store, but we would get to go into town to see the town. Some memories I have, I guess, was when the best Mexican restaurant in Longmont at the time, and I guess it was in the 70s, 60s, 70s, was La Casina at 3rd and Main Street, and sometimes we think we had to wait long to get into a restaurant now. Sometimes on a Saturday night or Friday night, it would be an hour wait to get into La Casina because they had such good Mexican food. When I first moved here, after college, I decided I liked the country life, so I moved to Colorado. And I used to, my first job when I moved out here was working at Tanaka Farms. They opened the vegetable market, so I ran the vegetable market for them. I have lots of good memories of playing softball because Longmont had a good recreational program, so we played a lot of softball. I had an apartment in town. Eventually my grandmother got too old or I had to go out, and I did live on the old farmhouse and helped take care of her until she passed away. So the Maedas had to sell their farm, and as they were dispersing all of the farm equipment and everything out, they had this big old red barn. I guess they made an agreement with the city or county for fire training. They agreed to burn down the big old red barn, and so the fire department came out and they set it on fire and they burned down the big red barn and the fire department was out there doing their training for it. Back in the old days, there used to be hot beds, and the hot beds were like frames, I guess you call them raised flower beds now, and then they would have them so that they would do starter plants in them. And I remember my mother telling me they used to go in the fall when the cattails were 10 feet tall and go and cut them down and use all of the reeds from the cattails and build like a straw mattress to cover over the hot beds to protect the seedlings as they were growing. And then in the springtime, maybe in May, maybe April, I'm not sure, they would go and plant all the plants out in the fields, the tomatoes, the peppers, cucumbers, whatever, and they put these little tent caps on them called hot caps. And then they would stay on the plant until it was warm enough and the plants got big enough and they would cut open the top and let the plants grow out of the hot beds and eventually they'd take the hot caps off of them and grow the plants that way. And I remember my mother telling me that they used to have two old mules that did the plowing for them or would pull the wagons so they can load the vegetables onto the wagons and everything. And those mules would know when it was the end of the day and they'd go running back to the farm so that they could eat at the end of the day. So a lot of good memories. And I know, oh, my mother, well, actually all of them went to the schools in Longmont and I remember them talking about Main Street, 9th and Main, used to be the old Longmont High School. And so every time we'd drive by she'd point it out and say, that's where I went to high school at. All my cousins are born and raised here in Colorado and they have went to the New Longmont High School and graduated from there. Some of them have gone on to college at UNC or wherever, CU. And they've grown up here, spent their lives married and nobody else went into the farming business after that. So my grandfather was really big on keeping our religion alive. We are Buddhist. And so since the Japanese community is so small here in Longmont, he actually helped develop and build up the Denver Tri-State Buddhist Temple. But they actually used to meet in Lafayette first. This is about road in 287. There was like a VFW or Elk's Lodge building over there. And I think we rented it, I don't know. And I remember going there and because they're all farmers, we used to have service like on a Saturday night. And then it was a pot lock or something afterwards. And so we would always go there. And eventually the Kanimoto's, they were farmers in town and they started buying up property. And the Kanimoto's ended up donating the Burlington Elementary School in that piece of land, which is at the corner of Pike Road in 287. And they donated that to the Longmont Temple so that we renovated it. And Burlington School was now the Longmont Buddhist Temple. And the Kanimoto's also donated some land, actually to another church and to the city, so you now have Kanimoto Park. And because of that, the city made an exception to their ordinance and they built the Pagoda. So we have the Pagoda at Kanimoto Park that the Kanimoto's donated. If you notice, the names, as I read them, Robert, John, George, Mary, they're all Catholic off of the Bible names because they couldn't speak English. They had people in town who were the friends that would give them names for the kids to use. And they got all these Catholic names, hence John, George, Mary, and also part of it was George and May were born, is it February when George Washington's birthday is? So he was called George. I don't know, it was Martha. Martha was born in February and so she got Martha Washington. So she was given Martha's name. The only name that's different is Ruby and Ruby got her name because my mother named her. Grandma could never say Ruby. She ought to say Ruby Ruby and it could never get the Rs right in Ruby but that's because my mother named her and didn't want to give her a common name like that. So that's how they got their names. And so because the Japanese were such a small community, two of the Kanimoto's, the two brothers, Jimmy and George married two of the Miyazaki sisters and then the Mayetas, two Mayetas married the Nishitas. One Tanaka married Tanaka and then the Tanaka family, two Tanaka's married sisters from another family. So there's always a brother-sister combination that married brother-sister combination in another family. I did my duty and went to college. After college I said, okay, I'm leaving. I'm coming to Colorado and I'm moving to Colorado. And I've never regretted it ever since. I said that was the best part of living here is getting up and seeing the mountains every morning especially when it's fresh snowfall and it's nice and crisp. Happy birthday, Longmont, 150 years. That's awesome. I'm Victor Vela. I was born in Boulder but raised all my life here in Longmont. I'm 77 years old. I'm a veteran, served in the Army from 1960 to 1963, two and a half years overseas. I'm married now. We have five children and a total of between grandkids and great-grandkids. We have a total of 29 and we love them all. I went to Longmont High School, the old high school there on Main Street. I went, of course, to elementary schools here at Columbine and St. John's and Central. The good part about Longmont back then is a small community. So the North Main Street ended on 17th. South Main ended up there just before you get to Highway 119 which I believe now is Gimpratt Boulevard. On each end there was a Johnson's Corner, South Johnson's Corner and a North Johnson's Corner. I know before I was born there was a racial going on as far as colors. I know my parents, when they first moved here there were signs on Main Street there of no Mexicans or dogs allowed in those restaurants. I experienced some going to school but not as much as I know some of my friends did and I think the reason that was is because I was into sports. I played baseball, played football. I wrestled in high school. Matter of fact, up until recently a couple, three years ago I was the only freshman at Longmont High School who qualified for state in wrestling. I remember, I don't know if the year was 1955, I believe it was. A United Airlines airplane coming out of Denver going north all of a sudden we heard a big explosion, a big boom. So we ran outside and barely caught a big ol' firebomb or something coming down from the sky. So we got in the car with my dad and drove up there north of Longmont. There was 55 of them on that United Airlines and all of them, of course, the bodies and parts of it, whatever ended up on that field. Probably further north of where Walmart is now a little further around that area is where all those bodies came down. And what happened was that the son of one of the mothers that was on that airplane he planted a bomb so he could collect her insurance. So he planted that bomb. I'll never forget that time when that happened. Like I said, I've been erasing this town for 77 years, going on 78. I've seen the good, bad and the ugly. And that was probably one of the bad. The ugly, of course, was when those two Latino kids were shot here in Longmont on Main Street by a police officer. That was the ugly. You know, it was tense. I mean, obviously, I recall when we first initially met with the mayor, city council, and Ed camp in the basement at St. John's Catholic Church is where we met. And that, of course, that basement was full of Latinos. Of course, there were some white people, too. And even standing outside, that's when we first addressed them and we were asking for some questions, some answers. Why was so-and-so an officer on the street with heart-related training? Why was he carrying a .357 magnum pistol when he shot the kids with, which was illegal to, you know, and it was so tense. I really felt at that time that if I wasn't getting any progress made with them or I felt like, you know, this isn't going anywhere. To be honest, all I had to do was stand up and say, we're out of here. And I really believed that this place would have town maybe burned or something because that's how mad or upset the Latino community was at that time. But we thought, you know, our problem, it's our town problem, our group, El Comite, we agreed that we're not going to let any outsiders come in. And I did get calls from other groups that wanted to come in and help. We knew that if they came in, it would have gotten a lot worse. And yes, I did get threatening calls, you know, from people, even threatening my wife, my family and me, you know. For example, go back to Mexico even to this day I've never been to Mexico. And they threatened to shoot me, you know. I remember when we marched from St. John's Catholic Church to City Council to make some more demands. I was telling my wife, you know, I can't, don't know what's going to happen. You know, I love you and the kids because all the threatening calls that I got, you know, I was taking a big chance. And of course, some of the other members too, you know, to walk to St. John's Catholic Church, you know, who knows. 22 FOIA. He says, it was on our, initially one of our founding members. He says, you know, Vic, if I feel like writing a letter to, I forget when I was back, I forgot one of those mass shootings that really got out of hand and let them know how we did things here. But, you know, times are different but shootings happen today. Who knows? So I was initially the first president of El Comoté which came into existence 40 years ago. I was shocked by our son who's works for Colorado Public Radio. They thought that maybe the founders of El Comoté which was myself, I'm the one that really founded it, Marta Moreno who was, he just retired. From then on, for 40 years, she was part of El Comoté. She was president for many years. They felt that, be with that anniversary 40 years they should honor us, I guess, for that happening. And of course, I've been active in many different activities. So it was a surprise to me. I got a call and it says, Vic, you know, you've been nominated to be a I mean, I forgot the title already. But yeah, it was a surprise that I was, there was others in that group who initially, with El Comoté, there was a total of eight of us that got it together. I feel that they should have been recognized too because without them working alongside with Marta and I, we wouldn't have accomplished what we did. We did do a lot of work with the city police at that time. The mayor was Mayor Ascii at the time and we were closely with him at camp. He was in charge of the police department and the fire department. So we're closely with him and of course city council members. And we, the ones that initially started the ride along program, we asked for better training because at that time the officer who shot those two boys had only been in training like maybe a month or whatever. He really shouldn't have been on the streets because he didn't go through all the training he should have. So we implemented with the help of the city that to make sure that all new police officers went through some extensive training prior to being on the streets like you could say. So those are some of the things that we implement with the city. And to this day they're still doing so. I worked at the Wetzel cut rate for one and a half years. I started working for them in Boulder and then they moved the company to Longmont. And when initially that shootings happened my boss at the time who was the owner Harvey Plats was a great owner. I mean I enjoyed working for him. He initially says, you know Vic I'm glad you're getting involved. He even donated some money but then about six months into it he called me in his office and says, you know, Vic you know, I don't know how to tell you this but I'm getting some calls from people in the business section I guess or whatever that you're just maybe going a little doing too much and so I hate to say this but you're either going to have to quit working here or quit El Camoté you have to make a choice. And back then in 80s, you know you're looking to have a job I had a decent job I'd run three fourths of that plant I had to put food on the table you know so I just had to quit El Camoté so it was hard for me to do that but yeah, my family came first but it just wasn't me there's some good people in this town that I grew up with that I think is helping keeping this together yes I may be the face of a lot of things but you know I take it as as a football coach okay the head coach gets all the recognition right but what would he do without his assistance the people surrounding him the ones that he gets advice from or whatever and if it wasn't for those people that I surrounded myself with none of this would have happened and then the coaching that I did for 39 years I screw on down I believe me I would enjoy working with those kids I mean I did it from when they were fifth graders all the way up to high school I'd met a lot of parents that are awesome I'll see some kid for example I was at a restaurant the wife and I and we were sitting there having eating breakfast this big guy and walked by our table and he kind of stared at me and I got to see I die all my dollars I mean did I do something wrong so he walked by and he sat down over there in the corner and he was eating and he kept staring at me and I was getting a little what the heck's going on so then he got up and walked up and walked away hey coach you remember me I said no I don't and I forgot his name but anyway he said you coach me for a couple years in youth football I said oh my god that's great it's just a reward to see that you was part of a kid when he was fifth grade sixth grade or one up and then years later he's successful he's done well at least I can say I had a little bit of part to do with that kid that's my reward I enjoyed Longmont to me it was a good city it still is a great city it's kind of expanded now of course happy birthday Longmont hi my name is Arlie Ostrander I was born in Longmont in 1944 and I was born in a midwife house between Bross and Gay on Long's Peak my grandfather started plumbing and heating shop here in 1901 and that was still in business up to the 1980s when my dad and I were still running it the population at that time was about 7,000 people when I was born and by 1960 it was up to 11,000 but what surprised me was between 1960 and 1970 it more than doubled in size and I can see why it did because at that time the FAA came into town IBM came into gun barrel so and we had more and more businesses coming in but that really did surprise me how it doubled in 10 years and now what are we up to 100,000 it just seems unbelievable it can be this big some of my childhood memories are there was a bowling alley where Heffy's Mexican restaurant is now that was a bowling alley at one time I believe it was Lomont Lane's we lived over on Emory Street 500 block and so my dad was a bowler and his dad was a bowler so we'd go bowling and when we got old enough there were only maybe 10 we got to set pins at 10 years old and we'd get like five cents a lane or something then we had a movie theater in the middle of the 300 block on the east side I can't remember the name of it but I remember going there on Saturdays and watching Superman and a lot of other serials Roy Rogers a little hamburger restaurant two doors north of First National Bank called Havasnack it was a real small, narrow restaurant they had bar stools and they had maybe four or five little tables that only two people could sit at a lot of the people that worked at First National Bank went there for lunch there were some bankers in there eating this guy was like if you ever saw the TV show Alice this guy kind of reminded me of the guy on Alice that was the cook he had some tattoos but just a really nice guy but I was just so good the hamburgers were so good so then we had Woolworth's store Five and Dime we had Ben Franklin's Penny's was in the at 460 main and what was unique about that store was it was three levels up above the main floor and then they had a basement and after you picked out what you wanted to buy you came up to the main floor and they had a vacuum system and so you would write your checkout or your cash to the cashier and she would send it up to the office in a vacuum system which I always thought was so cool when I go in there with my mom and watch those tubes go up that vacuum system then we had a lot of filling stations Fifth and Main Sixth and Main Sixth Service was one of them and the drug stores we had the Alomott Drug which was right across from First National Bank and this two doors south of that was Loot's Drug across the street next to Shy's clothing was Sheeter's Rexall Drug and there was another drug store in the 500 block and I can't remember the name of that one but Sullivan's Self Service Drug Store was up on Longs Peak and Main Street next to a filling station used to play softball over at Roosevelt Park in the summer after softball we'd come home and stop there at Sullivan's Drug and get a chocolate Coke or phosphate the Dairy Queen was there where it is now next to the Dairy Queen was a church called the Pillar of Fire on up the street well there's the High School the one and only High School at that time and across the street from the High School was Breelhart's grocery store it was an old A&P store that had the hardwood floors big buckets of peanuts and you go in there groceries and say put it on my bill and they keep track of your groceries for the month or for the week and then you go pay them at the end of the week and then next to the A&P Breelhart's A&P store was a little hamburger shop called Jean's Hamburgers Jean and Georgia left which moved here from Lubbock, Texas and started that little hamburger shop the best chili in town and made chili burgers so open face, you get two patties on two buns chili and onions all over spread all over and oh it was so good they had maybe six or seven stools bar at the counter and I think two four toppers in the front and then in the back she had a bigger table for bigger families that would see maybe six but she made the best pies oh my gosh pies were so good she had the best pecan pies banana cream Texas cream she had a Texas cream pie that was just out of sight and she was just famous for her pies here in Longmont and then on the corner of ninth in Maine there was on the west side north west side there was a poultry I don't know a lot of people knew that but there was a poultry shop they had live chickens and you could buy fresh chickens from them and then across the street there was another little grocery store called the corner pantry and it was kind of like a little specialty grocery store chocolate covered ants things out of the ordinary that you'd find in most stores and then on up the street there was cheaper Charlie Harris auto parts he was very famous person in Longmont his son Gary his oldest son Gary and I were very good friends and we graduated from high school together and he was really the first guy that came into Longmont that really was a Wheeler dealer cheaper Charlie they called him because you could go there and get your auto parts your oil and everything much cheaper than you could from other places so on the east side in about the middle of the block was the A&W drive in that was owned by people were their last name was Willie both ends of Longmont there were Johnson's corner north and south they were both at one time they were both owned by Joe Johnson who was a big stock holder in Husky oil company and he had a house by the north Johnson's corner and I understand according to my dad that there were some pretty wild poker games that Joe Johnson and his cronies had theirs and what was neat about Hamburger Haven was that you could drive in one side go around and come out the other side so you could see everybody so and everybody and I could see you because that was the thing you wanted everybody to see you and the car hops so Valley Farm Dairy was over on just north of the Trojan Theater about in the middle of the block there and we would go to the Valley Farm Dairy and get a quart of orangeade they made this great orangeade in these glass bottles and it was a really quinch thruster after playing football and basketball so I remember oh it was so good and then on the corner of 6th and Maine there on the northwest corner there was an orange Julius so and then I have to mention this Sandy my wife's dad Bob Howlin he raised Black Angus cattle he opened a drive-in in the 1500 block of Maine called the Black Angus so he took his Black Angus and made Baron the Beef Sandwiches is what he called Baron the Beef and oh man they were just, they were and you had the juice with them the odd juice and you could get shakes there you could get the fries and it was really very very good so I'm really surprised at how many restaurants when you come to think about Laumont had there was a Home Cafe at 463 Maine and Williams Cafe was in 313 Maine there was two brothers the one had the cafe here in Laumont the other one had the wayside in in Berthard the best fried chicken you have ever eaten in your life the best iron billet and it would take on a Sunday afternoon you're going to spend most of your time there because it took about 45 minutes to get your meal but oh it was mashed potatoes and gravy and chicken and for dessert chocolate chocolate ice cream wine sundaes yeah the wine sundaes vanilla ice cream with a wine sauce over it yeah it was very famous it was a very famous place if you want to know where Laucasina started Laucasina started in the basement of the Dickens out of there they moved down to south Maine where Swanky Franks was that area and then they built their own building down there off of Pratt Parkway and Swanky Franks anybody remember that one? that was a hot dog place down there where the Santa Fe Grill is now the little Episcopal church on fourth and main on Sunday nights they would have teen dances there that's where I learned to do the stroll and I don't know all kinds of dances and then they have hay rides they would have hay rides and this is when I was in like 7th, 6th, 7th 6th, 7th and 8th grades so I am a native and very proud to be born in Longlock, Colorado Happy Birthday, Loneman Felicidades, Loneman Lo queremos mucho Hola Mi nombre es Miguel Mike Medina Nací en Puerto Rico Soy borincano Nací en el campo Soy campesino y orgulloso de ser campesino yo no tuve no tenía no mucha, mucha cosa fui muy humilde siempre, siempre al vacido y no tuve niñen ni tuve nada, nunca pudo ser niño porque mi mamá y mi papá tuvieron problema y mi mamá me dejó y me crié con otra señora que ya usted puede saber pero a la edad de 13 años a mi abuelto tenía eso a left home so I went to the big city for an adventure I didn't know I was a young kid 13 years old when I got to the city I didn't know where I was going I knew that I had a cousin living in San Juan so I was lucky enough that I found it and he told me that I could stay with him and I stayed there then I wasn't looking for a job but I was afraid to ask for a job I was, I was too shy so I was lucky enough I think when I was born got upon an angel to me so he could help me so I used I stung by the door and I was there you know I couldn't go in but I was lucky enough the owner came out for a job I'll be honest with you I don't know if I say yes or I shake my head but right now I went in he told me that he was going to pay me $7 a week and I got there I was hungry so I asked the guy that was working if he could give me a couple copies so now I'll make my day and then you know I've been really lucky any person that I meet become my friend and then from there in 1954 my father wanted me to bring me to the state so I came to Ohio and then from Ohio I went to Chicago and from Chicago I came to London and this is home I love London beautiful city and the people here are beautiful so it was hard because I had seven kids and it was really really hard my wife and I would struggle a lot and we went through a lot so it was really hard it was hard for the kids going to the school because they were Spanish people with different colors we got black hair brown hair blond hair and everything when I came here for a job the job didn't work out so I started working at K-Mark so they gave me a job in appliances selling appliances and I was lucky enough that the next day the manager quit so my different appliances quit so they didn't give me the job but I got to work overtime and I got to work more and since I speak Spanish a lot of Spanish people were coming in I was camera was making good money there I had a lot of customer coming in so and then one day I went to how did they know and on the entry and on the 3rd avenue over there I think it was the American lingo building they had a sign for rent so I went there and asking how much the rent was and they told me 125 dollars so I said that sounds good to me so I went and rented without telling my mom without telling her anything but when I went to Chicago I had a connection with some people because I always make friends so I knew some people that sell music so I called I called them and asked them what I was going to do and I told them to send me some music so I started my business with 75 LP because there was nothing there at that time and I literally did all this stuff so I opened up the first day I was there I stayed there 12 hours I sold 25 cents and I bought battery and one sent us I had a room maybe 12 by 14 that was the store and then there was a store a 350 main guarantee so I went and rented and like I said I'm being really lucky so I get to meet people so I went to meet the people on the radios and TV and stuff like that so I get to get advertisement and I trade LP for advertisement so I did really good and thanks to the good lord I started growing and I spent 28 years in there and thanks to the good lord I paid my house I raised my kid and I'm here but London has been good to me and I only got 4th grade school I only went to 4th grade and thanks to the good lord and then with the store at the beginning there was nobody speaks Spanish in town no city no policeman no store, no bank so my store was like information center we have people coming asking what can I find a doctor what can I do this when we opened the store there was like 4 or 5 people waiting outside to come in from my wife to help and fit a working application a work application almost every morning there was somebody there and then you know that's when I decided for the Latino chamber because there was a lot of people that didn't know how to go information sometimes they opened without finding they had to get a information from the city you had to get a tax number and I decided to do something and then I started the Latino chamber the version it was going really good but unfortunately my wife got sick so I got a stroke she paralyzed on the left side so she's in the nursing room right now it's pretty hard but she was a good lady she helped a lot a lot of people and I came to London and London was lonely from 17 that way there was nothing just farms and stuff like that I like to raise my kids over here you know so I told my wife that I was going to move here she said if you move you move by yourself but I brought it and she loves here I would never live long I knew some guys from the registration and in 1991 I got connected with them so we used to go to the minor league the surfers, there was the surfers here first so I got there with the radio and like I said I made French music so I met the general manager we became really friends good friends he took me he took me down to the ball players the clubhouse to meet the players and all that stuff and it was good for me it was really good because I love baseball so I was there doing a lot of things for them helping the Spanish people translated and you know I feel like I was home so I got to know him and everything I think it was in 1992 I think 1991 I asked them if I could take some kids down to the ball game and they told me yes you can so I got connected with time calls yeah I got connected with them the Lin family really really good people we took 35 kids to the game one game and then another time I talked to the you know the surfer if I took some people down and time call and now we got connected and we were selling ticket at half a price so I think we talk about 100 some people to a game and some people came after that and they told me thank you this is the first game I've been in you know it was really really really good and then from there when the rocket came I did a lot of campaign from the rockets with Federico Peña and some of the other people and and we got the team in so when they got the team in with the connection with the surfers I got with the rockets and I was translating for the Spanish people André Calarraga, Benicatilla, Armando Reynoso Nersoleriano they were a bit of them and then I used to go to sprint training and I loved that with young kids you know sign up for the first time and some of them one time I went to the apartment and one of them was crying and asking why are you crying I never been away from home I miss my mom I miss my dad you know it was kind of tough because most of the kids they come from the country they're born in a farm they hardly see people so I talked to them I told them this is this is just the beginning it's going to get better this banner was the first game of the Colorado Rocket ever in Colorado it was the inauguration game this banner is a I don't know it's collectible and at that game the biggest crowd they were in the baseball game I remember it was 82,229 and they did a Maya high stadium that's the only place they could do it and I was there with my wife with my kids and it seemed to me like I was in a candy store you know it was really really excited people excited everybody doing good I remember the guy that play second base he hit the first home run Colorado Rocket ever and it was I John I think it was the last name but I tell you that I was excited I was really really really good I really really enjoyed the game and then for like you know I keep going to the games and I go to every game every home game so I was able to get you know have a pass and I could go any place in the stadium so you know it was good you know and meeting the players meeting players from different teams country it was beautiful I really really that that's a memory that I will never forget