NOSTALGIA - JUST A PART OF OUR HISTORY

2010   THE YEAR OF VALLEY ADVENTURES

Your Museum collects information and artifacts about everyday life in the San Fernando Valley at different eras. Do you recall FedCo Membership Department Stores?  By selling to its "members" at wholesale, such big-box stores helped undermine traditional family owned retail stores such as the respected Hughes Markets grocery stores.

 Grocery store memorabilia courtesy of Mark and Meredith Davis of Chatsworth - Archives of The Museum of the San Fernando Valley - December 2010

WAVING AT COMRADE KRUSCHEV IN GRANDA HILLS

Richard Hilton, Director of The Museum's Tours and Conservation Matters, asked me recount this event for the Museum Community.

On a Saturday morning in 1959, I went to my job as a liquor clerk at Hughes Market (Number 4) on the corner of Balboa and Devonshire in Granada Hills. At the time I was a student at Los Angeles Valley College, working evenings and on weekends. (I both liked and disliked working on Saturday, since I had to be at work before the market opened, but got off early enough to party with my fraternity.)
I arrived at Hughes about 7:30 am, and according to Fred Vogt's (the store manager) rules, positioned my sad old '53 Chevy at the far end of the parking lot.
As I locked my car, in the illusion that it was worth something, a bunch of motorcycle officers, with sirens blaring, roared ahead of a procession of half dozen big black limousines. The parade was going north on Balboa Boulevard.
I still recall my combined sense of fear and amazement on seeing the little red flag with a hammer and sickle on the hood of the middle car. Then, I saw the face of Nikita Khruschev looking through a window at me. For some reason, despite my two years in the Naval Reserve, I waved at my mortal enemy, the leader of the Soviet Union. He smiled and waved back.
Later, during the showdown between Khruschev and President Kennedy during the Cuban Missile Crisis, Hughes Market's aisles were stripped bare by frantic customers, and my Navy Air Reserve Unit was activated.

JOLICOEUR DONATION TO MUSEUM LIBRARY

Leather bound copy of The San Fernando Valley by Dr. Jackson Mayers - Gift to The Museum of the San Fernando Valley by James Jolicoeur December 2009.
In 1956, a new Hughes Market had just opened on the corner of Balboa and Devonshire in Granda Hills. Hughes #4 was considered one of the most efficient and beautiful grocery stores in the United States. A buddy of mine from the Naval Reserve in North Hollywood, Fred Balen (I may have misspelled his name), was not only a football star at Van Nuys High School, but the head-box boy at the market. Fred knew that I was working for work to pay off my Chevy, and helped me get a job there.
The manager was Fred Vodt (again I may have the spelling wrong) and he worked us hard, but fairly.
One of the box boys was a great young fellow by the name of Lee Jolicour. We used to joke about his name meaning Happy Hearted.
Years later, when I was teaching at Moorpark College, I encountered a student by the name of James Jolicoeur, who turned out to be the grandson of Fred Vodt and the son of Lee Jolicoeur. No one is better named than the happy-hearted James Jolicoeur.
One of my favorite memories of Europe is of James Jolicoeur looking down on a running track in the ancient Temple of Apollo at Delphi in Greece. He quickly organized his fellow students, boys and girls, to secure sticks and run a relay race at the sacred stadium.
Today, your Museum received a beautiful copy of Dr. Jackson Mayers, 1976 book called The San Fernando Valley. It is a gift of the happy hearted James Jolicoeur in Claremont, California. Thanks James from all of us working to bring about a great Museum of history and culture for the Valley.