A Ramona postscript of sorts - here's U.S. Highway 99 (San Bernardino Freeway) as viewed looking west from the Barranca Ave. overpass, c.1959. I started at Barranca School in Covina for K-6 that same year, only two city blocks to the right from this vantage point.
From "Covina, California," a civil brochure by Wolfer Printing Company, Inc., 416 Wall Street, Los Angeles 13.
To orient current Angelinos, this is I-10 just as you come down out of the San Jose Hills into the San Gabriel Valley from the east. Today, on the left, where that offramp used to be, is an In-N-Out Burger. At right is the landmark Eastland mall, though it looks radically different now than it did 50 years ago (see for yourself below).
Incidentally, behind those palms to the right of center is the googie classic restaurant -
Paul Cummins's "
Huddle." While it was a very fashionable-looking eatery, my mom never liked the place, so we rarely ate there. The service was always slow, and I believe I actually learned the word "mediocre" at this restaurant from Mom, who used it to describe the Huddle's food.
My own postcard.
The Huddle was a local institution, and it was there the whole time I was growing up. It closed in the early '70s after I went off to college. The building was then remodeled beyond recognition into a sporting goods superstore. In the '80s, it was turned into a T.G.I. Fridays, and I think it might still be a Fridays today.
Anyway, here's a nice color view of Eastland from the same time period, which I found just last night. It's appropriately seasonal, too!
http://westcovinalapuentebaldwinpark.blogspot.com/
-Scott