I got to thinking about how much simpler life seemed when I was growing up compared to my grandchildren’s daily living experiences, so I decided to share with them some of my childhood memories of growing up in Davis.
When we moved to Davis in 1946, there were only 3,000 residents and about 1,500 University of California students in town. Davis consisted of what we now call Central Davis. The town ran from First Street on the south to the railroad tracks on the east, to Russell Boulevard on the North to A Street, which bordered UC Davis on the west.
No one had to decide which medical group to belong to; there was only one doctor in town, Dr. Cronin, and one dentist, Dr. Pence. Their offices were side by side in a little building next to the combination fire department and police station on the corner of Third and F Streets.
If we wanted to see a movie, we didn’t have to choose among multiple theaters or countless movies; we went to the only movie theater, the Varsity Theater, which was then located a block down from the police station. It cost a dime to see a movie; often we saw a double feature along with newsreels for that dime.
If we wanted to read a book, we didn’t have to visit all the bookstores because there weren’t any. We just went to the Davis public library, across the street from the movie theater. That library is still in town, only now it sits in central park and houses the Hattie Webber museum.
Shopping was much easier in those days. There were no shopping malls, not even in big cities. No one was concerned about Big Box Stores; there weren’t any. We had two grocery stores, both located on G Street: Bagley’s Market and Cherrie’s Market. If we didn’t have time to go to the store, we called them on the phone and placed our order. They delivered the groceries to the house and often helped put them away.
There was one drug store, the Star Pharmacy; it stocked medications, cosmetics, comic books, magazines and household sundries.
We had a five-and-ten-cent store, which stocked toys, kitchenware, underwear, and other general household items.
We didn’t have a department store until I was in grammar school. It was called Rodger’s Department store and it sold clothes and shoes.
We had many service stations because most everyone had a car and a bicycle.
Most car and bike repair was performed at the service stations or at home.
I remember only two restaurants in my early childhood, The Blue and Gold on G Street and Belenis’ Family Restaurant on Second Street. Going to a restaurant was reserved for special occasions, such as birthdays. Mom cooked most meals; there were neither fast food restaurants nor TV dinners.
Most kids had bicycles and rode them to school. We didn’t have bike locks and I don’t remember anybody having a bike stolen. We all had locks on our house doors, but nobody bothered to lock them, and we never heard of anyone breaking in a house.
We had telephones with a party line, which meant that if we picked up the phone and someone was on it, we hung up and waited until the folks who shared our party line finished with their call. If we wanted to make a long distance call, we called the operator who connected us. Our phone numbers had only four numbers, no prefixes and no area codes. We had no zip codes in our home addresses either.
There were no stop signs in town and no streetlights. Getting around was easy because there wasn’t much traffic. There was no freeway, only a highway; we often rode our bikes across it, as the speed limit was 40 mph and the cars were few and far between.
There was one swimming pool in town, located on the UCD campus; it opened in the summer time for Davis residents to use for ten cents a day. We had no televisions, but we spent many hours listening to our favorite radio programs. There were no tape decks or CD players, but we had phonographs and 78 records.
There were no PDAs but we had a paper calendar in the kitchen where we wrote our appointments. There were no computers or computer games. We had cards and board games, and manual typewriters, paper and pencils and pens.
Yes, life seemed simpler when I was a kid, and we all moved at a slower pace. And we still had fun, too.
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