|
Bringing Back the Diner:
Group Wants to Save Former Cross Roads BBQ from the Wrecking Ball
The following article was published on page 1 of the Santa Cruz Sentinel on Jan. 16, 2002. It is on-line at:
http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/archive/2002/January/16/local/stories/02local.htm
by Dan White, Sentinel Staff WriterSanta Cruz -- In this spot, carhops brought burgers and shakes to kids in Chevrolets. Now a man behind the counter sells bottles of Thunderbird.Lighthouse Liquors on Washington Street is not a place most people associate with innocent teen nostalgia. To most people, it's a mess of bricks and wood with vandalized murals and a "No Loitering" sign. But about 50 senior citizens -- all Santa Cruz High School grads -- want the city to save and restore what was once the Cross Roads Bar-B-Q, the hottest teen hangout on the Westside. Some visualize a museum. Others want the burger joint reopened. The city plans to demolish the building to make way for an expanded natural history museum, part of a planned new city park on the old train depot site. News of the planned demolition led to dozens of letters to city officials. Bob Sherbourne of Brookings, Ore., wrote that he once "sat in a foxhole in Korea eating a C-ration can of lima beans, trying to imagine I was at the Cross Roads having a Coke, fries and a hamburger." Until last year, few people paid much attention to the city-owned building, which is near the West Cliff trestle. The building went up in 1951. When it closed as a drive-in in 1962, it was known as "Danny's Drive In." In its heyday, teens would hang out there before or after "cruising the drag" on Pacific Avenue. Diners could sit inside or wait in their cars. Most teens chose the car option, and waitresses hooked food trays up to rolled-down windows. These were the days when movies like Kon Tiki were playing, when Live Oak was the sticks and no one locked their bikes or cars. The building has been a liquor store for decades now. Another local joint, Spivey's Five Spot at Ocean and Water streets, is also long gone, and most of the old crowd has moved away. Some that remain roll their eyes at the "hippies and liberals" who took their place. One former Cross Roads waitress considers the opening of UC Santa Cruz 35 years ago "a cataclysm" on par with an earthquake. A Cross Roads demolition date has yet to be set, but Lighthouse Liquors owner George Cherukara, who leases the building from the city, must shut down next month so a branch of the nonprofit Homeless Garden Project can move in. It's unclear how much time is left.The building does not have historic protection, said local historian Ross Eric Gibson. Most of the seniors found out about the demolition plan because a classmate, Len Klempnauer, son of Cross Roads founder Leonard Klempnauer Sr., e-mailed them. Councilman Keith Sugar said he understands the Cross Roads nostalgia but believes a natural history museum benefits the public "more than Mel's Diner." Mayor Christopher Krohn said he is open to preserving Cross Roads if supporters fund an endowment to maintain it. The natural history museum staff say they urgently need to move to the new spot. They have been in a converted library in Seabright since the early 1960s. "We outgrew this building a long time ago," museum director Greg Moyce said. The new building would quadruple their space. Most Cross Roads preservationists don't want to stop the natural history museum, just want it built elsewhere in the 6-acre depot site. A former diner customer, Ruth Yoder, 64, said a 1950s museum would remind people of "the era of the poodle skirt, when everybody went to their football game." Times are different now, she said, recounting when someone tried to sell her drugs on Pacific Avenue, in front of her husband. "I just had to laugh," she said. Daisy Stehlick Gandolfi, 68, said the Cross Roads reminds her of a time when pop songs were intelligible, and when you could tell a boy that "I'm not that kind of girl," and he'd respect that. "He'd drive you home," she said. "Then he'd go looking for 'that' kind of girl. And he knew where to find them."
|
| |
Responses to City Officials' Comments
Dear Editor:
I read your Jan. 16 on-line article, Bringing back the Diner, with much interest because my wife and I are both 1954 graduates of Santa Cruz High and close friends of Len Klempnauer, whose parents owned the Cross Roads. Len and I were best friends in high school (we lived across the street from each other on King Street), double-dated while in high school, and were college roommates, both at Hartnell Junior College in Salinas and at San Jose State.
I'd like to tell you some anecdotes about the '50s in Santa Cruz but first I'd like to inform Councilman Keith Sugar that the Cross Roads was not a Mel's Drive-In. I know that as fact because there was a Mel's in Salinas, which was popular with teens and JC students in that city. But Mel's was part of a chain and the Cross Roads was family-owned. With Santa Cruz's anti-chain store bias, the comment could only be meant to polarize readers.
That's unfair!
As the many previous letter-writers have probably told you, Santa Cruz was a unique place to grow up in during the '50s. Unlike most small towns that had only one drive-in, we had two -- the Cross Roads and the 5-Spot, equally popular among teens of that decade. After formal dances in those days, we all headed to one or the other; after we spent a half-hour or so at the first, we'd cruise the drag to the other. The objective after formal dances was not to show off our cars but for our dates to display their formal gowns.
The dances were held in somewhat dimly lighted facilities (but not too dim). In order for the girls to really show off their beautiful gown for everyone to see, we would go to the drive-ins. To get to the bathrooms, which were inside the drive-ins, the girls would have walk out in front of all the cars and into the bright lights of the buildings.
More unnecessary trips to the restrooms were probably made after the girl-ask-boy Snow Follies Formal in December, the Hi Tow Tong Valentine's Formal in February, the Junior Prom in April and the Senior Ball in May than were made all other Saturday nights combined the rest of the school year.
In those days boys never wore tuxes. We wore a sport coat and one of the two pairs of slacks that comprised our entire formal wardrobe. There were no limos, either. Most of us had never seen a limo except in the movies. What we were allowed to drive on those very special occasions were our parents' cars, and that was a treat. Most of the cars teens owned then predated World War II.
Here's another little anecdote that has absolutely nothing to do with the drive-ins but tells a lot about the times.
The City of Santa Cruz had an 11 p.m. curfew on weekdays in the mid-1950s for anyone under the age of 18. (On weekends it was midnight or 1 a.m.)
One school night in the spring of 1954, Len and I, both 17, went to the Del Mar Theater and we parked on Soquel Avenue between Pacific and Front. There was a cigar store on that short stretch that had some pinball machines, one of which I had learned to beat consistently. After the movie was over, we popped into the cigar store to play pinball.
At 11:10, police officer Tor Spindler sauntered in, informed us we were breaking curfew and took us in his squad car to the police station. He called our parents and informed them we were at the police station after being picked up on "skid row." That's the truth, he actually said "skid row."
My father wanted to know exactly where "skid row" was in Santa Cruz because he didn't know there was one. (Apparently what made that one block skid row was the fact there was a tavern across the street from the cigar store.)
Len's dad asked what he was supposed to do. When the officer said he wanted our parents to come get us, Len's dad replied, "You picked them up, you bring them home."
Officer Spindler eventually drove us back to my car, after sternly warning us to not stay out after curfew, and we drove home.
Officer Spindler was well known in Santa Cruz and was the first 300-pound man any of us had ever seen. We also knew that his bark was much worse than his bite.
In closing, I'd like to add that my wife, the former Ada Bushnell, also endorses preserving the Cross Roads, restoring it and turning it into a 1950s' museum.
-- Bob Branstetter, SCHS Class of 1954, Santa Rosa, Calif. (Spouse Ada also was in the SCHS Class of '54)
Dear Editor:
As mid-1950s' graduates of Santa Cruz High School, we want to comment on the remarks by Santa Cruz Councilman Keith Sugar against the proposal to preserve the Cross Roads Drive-in as a 1950s' museum in Depot Park. In the Jan. 16, 2002, page 1 Sentinel article titled, Bringing back the Diner, Mr. Sugar states that he "understands the Cross Roads nostalgia but believes a natural history museum benefits the public 'more than a Mel's'."
That's analogous to saying he "understands the Bookshop Santa Cruz nostalgia but believes a natural history museum benefits the public 'more than a Borders'."
Like Borders, Mel's Drive-in was a chain. Like Bookshop Santa Cruz, the Cross Roads was a locally owned and operated business. And also like Bookshop Santa Cruz, the Cross Roads in its day served as a popular gathering place for young people.
The city doesn't have to make it an either-or situation, that is, a natural history museum will benefit the people more than a 1950s' museum. Here's a rare opportunity for the city to have it both ways. Keep the Cross Roads AND build a new natural history museum. There's room for both in Depot Park.
Incidentally, our dictionary defines "nostalgia" as "a bittersweet longing for things, persons, or situations of the past." The '50s weren't "bittersweet" by any means. We remember them with fondness and joy. Sweetness, yes; but bitterness, no. We wish the youth of today could have experienced a teen society in which there was virtually no polarization and when almost everyone liked everyone else. We doubt if anyone could really "understand" that period of time unless they lived it -- and we did.
-- Art and Dee (Cochrane) Weybright, Bonny Doon, Calif., SCHS Classes of 1954 and 1956 respectively
Dear Editor:
I was one of the former Cross Roads carhops pictured in your page 1 feature article on Jan. 16 who want to save the drive-in building from the city's wrecking ball. (The 1948 Cadillac in the photo is mine.)
I think Councilman Keith Sugar was way off base when he compared the Cross Roads to a Mel's Diner. The Cross Roads was owned and operated by the Klempnauer family while Mel's, made famous in the movie "American Graffiti," was a chain. Spivey's 5-Spot, the other drive-in popular with 1950s' teens in Santa Cruz, also was a chain.
There was nothing distinctive in the appearance of the 5-Spot, and the Mel's Drive-ins looked pretty much the same everywhere (there was one in Salinas, I think), but the Cross Roads is really unusual. I can think of no other building in Santa Cruz that is so definitely '50s looking and can be identified as strictly '50s. Therefore, it's not just unusual. It's unique!
I'm also not sure if Mr. Sugar can understand the Cross Roads nostalgia as he declared in the article. Is he aware of the popularity of the classic car shows that are held locally? I displayed my Caddie for the first time in last October's show and attached my drive-in tray with its simulated food items to the window. It was one of the big hits of the show.
The '50s were a wonderful time to grow up in Santa Cruz. Maybe Santa Cruz was unique in that respect, too. Most of the kids of that day were very close, perhaps because there was only one high school and we all got to know each other, from Aptos and Soquel and Capitola to Felton and Scotts Valley. (High school lasted only three years then because our freshman year was spent at one of the two Santa Cruz junior highs -- Branciforte and Mission Hill.)
If Mr. Sugar needs further evidence of just how much we enjoyed growing up in Santa Cruz, I suggest he check the April 28 edition of the Sentinel's report on the 50th anniversary of the opening of the "new" Branciforte Jr. High. Principal Dave Bilardello expected maybe five or six members of the 1951 graduating class to show up but 23 came from all parts of California and even one from Oregon. Two were in wheelchairs as we re-enacted a walk we made from the "old" junior high, which is now Branciforte Elementary, to the current school. Even one of our former teachers participated -- Roy Bergazzi, who later became Branciforte Jr. High's principal. Also attending was State Senator Bruce McPherson, whose children graduated from Branciforte. The web address is:
http://www.santa-cruz.com/archive/2001/April/28/local/stories/1local.htm
The entire student body greeted us as we walked onto the campus and cheered each one of us as we were introduced individually at an assembly. If Mr. Sugar has any doubts about the youth of today being interested in the decade of the 1950s, he should take a look at the photos of the anniversary event on the Branciforte web site at: http://www.b40jr.santacruz.k12.ca.us/B4050TH.html
Mr. Editor, this letter is probably much longer than allowed under your editorial policy but I don't think the message is getting across: The Fifties were unique and will never be repeated. All of the local soda fountains (such as the Pep Creamery and Coast Creamery), the diners and the drive-ins of that era are gone, and today we have nothing but fast food chains.
The Cross Roads building deserves to be preserved for future generations. If the city tears it down, it's gone forever.
-- Nancy (Cummings) Jellison, Santa Cruz, Calif., Class of '54
|
The Cross Roads started in this building in April 1947. |
| |
Other Letters to Bringing back the Diner
Dear Editor:
In your Jan. 16 Bringing back the Diner article about Santa Cruz High students of the 1950s trying to save the Cross Roads Drive-In from extinction in the Depot Park project, local historian Ross Eric Gibson is quoted as saying "the building does not have historic protection."
On the contrary, Mr. Editor, once a structure reaches age 50, it must be considered in a historical context under the California Environmental Quality Act; consequently, it cannot be demolished or even altered indiscriminately. The Cross Roads building, which housed Lighthouse Liquors for about 30 years, turned 50 in 2001.
The city unveiled the overall Depot Park plan in a March 18, 2001, Sentinel story but admitted in a March 23 follow-up that it still had "to complete an environmental impact report." Kind of like the cart getting way ahead of the horse.
Reportedly no one at City Hall knew of the building's origin as a drive-in until the planning department discovered it while doing the catch-up work on the aforementioned EIR. If you believe that, Mr. Editor, we have a bridge to sell you in Brooklyn.
The truth is that John Filice, owner of the Lighthouse Liquors/Cross Roads property, informed the city at the onset of negotiations that the liquor store started as a drive-in and he had worked there in his youth. Mr. Filice also has said he was told at the time he was selling the property to the city that the building was going to be torn down. In other words, the city wasn't going to let any future EIR eventually stand in its way.
Furthermore, a task force member reportedly did his own research early in the park-planning stage and found the liquor store had been a drive-in. But he allegedly decided -- also on his own -- that it was too trivial a point to mention publicly. Yeah, right!
One doesn't need to be a political pundit to understand why the city failed to acknowledge publicly until your Jan. 16 story that the liquor store had been a drive-in: No one would complain about razing a dilapidated old liquor store to make way for a new history museum. But destroying a drive-in popular with teens and tourists of the '50s? That might be a different story, and it has been!
Had the planners been assigned to perform the EIR before plans for the park were so advanced, the city not only would have learned that the liquor store had served as a drive-in in its earlier life but also that many long-time Santa Cruzans believe it should be registered as a local historical landmark and preserved for future generations.
-- Nick Pagnini, Zayante, Calif., SCHS Class of 1954
Dear Editor:
May I add another little anecdote to your growing list of stories about the 1950s and the teenage cruisin'-the-drag, drive-in culture of that decade? My classmate Rose (Wall) Reynolds of Aptos started working as a carhop at Spivey's 5-Spot when she was 15 years old. Everybody knew Rose and Rose knew everyone. We knew we could go to Rose and find out who was cruisin' the drag that evening and also who was out with whom that night. She kept tabs on everyone's boyfriend and girlfriend who came in there. If you were cheating on your boyfriend or girlfriend, you wouldn't dare show up at Spivey's when Rose was working.
Of course it was easier to keep track of people then because Santa Cruz County wasn't so heavy populated as it is now. I can remember when there were no traffic jams, no parking meters and only one stop signal.
Santa Cruz wasn't living in the Dark Ages before the university arrived, however. I had to laugh after reading an article last December about Santa Cruz opening its "first" teen center.
Believe it or not, Santa Cruz had a teen center back in the '50s. We called it "The Snafu" -- a place where we could hang out with our friends and have a good time. It was opened in the 1952-53 school year on the Santa Cruz High campus -- also by the city recreation department.
But when the main Santa Cruz High building was closed because of seismic concerns in the spring of 1953, all available on-campus buildings had to be used for classrooms and "The Snafu" was closed. I have a newspaper clipping with photos of some teens playing ping-pong at the center from the Sentinel to prove it existed. I guess neither the city nor the Sentinel did its research homework about the real "first" teen center.
That seems to be the case with the Cross Roads Drive-In, too. It's difficult to believe that no one at City Hall knew that Lighthouse Liquors had once been a drive-in restaurant, especially since John Filice, who owned the liquor store property when the city bought it, had once been a dishwasher at the Cross Roads during his youth. I bet John -- we knew him as "Punky" -- told someone!
Perhaps if the city had done its homework before putting together the plans for Depot Park, it would have learned that the liquor store had an interesting past, worthy of saving for future generations as a symbol of a never-to-be-repeated era.
Yes, Santa Cruz was a small, tight-knit community in the 1950s. You might be interested in knowing that John Filice's older brother, Chuck, is also a member of the class of '54 as is Chuck's wife, Shirley Nunes. The Filices reside in Salinas.
-- Lorraine (Folk) Voight, Santa Cruz, Calif., Class of '54
Dear Editor:
In reading your Jan. 16, 2002, page 1 article, Bringing back the Diner, I was struck by the quote taken from a letter to the city written by Bob Sherbourne of Brookings, Ore., who in 1951 "sat in a foxhole in Korea...trying to imagine I was at the Cross Roads." I've read excerpts from many of the letters to the editor supporting preservation of the drive-in building, but one group of customers seems to be missing -- the veteran.
Back in the '50s, every young man was liable for the draft up to age 26 under the Universal Military Training act. Many of us fulfilled our military obligation right after high school. The two local drive-ins -- the Cross Roads and Spivey's 5-Spot -- served as gathering places after we were discharged and were becoming reacquainted with civilian life. It was like starting over in many cases since so many high school buddies had gone off to college, had married or had moved away because of a lack of decent jobs.
There always has been a closeness among those who grew up in the '50s. My class -- the Santa Cruz High Class of 1954 -- has its own private web site with over 110 participating classmates. And in 2002 we started our third straight year of monthly get-togethers in Santa Cruz. As of our January 2002 get-together, 73 members of the Class of '54 have attended one or more of our alternating lunches and dinners -- 36 from Santa Cruz County, 27 from the rest of California, and 10 from other states.
We usually get 15 to 25 attendees, and at last September's dinner, after the horrible 9-11 events, I looked around our table and realized that every male there from the Class of '54 had served in the military, representing every branch -- the Marines, Army, Navy and Air Force. (Except for the few career military types, none of us particularly wanted to go into the service but we did because it was our duty.)
My wife (the former Carole Scofield, SCHS Class of 1956) and I hope you preserve the Cross Roads as a memorial to a wonderful era in which to grow up in Santa Cruz.
-- Paul Heaney, SCHS Class of 1954, Lodi, Calif.
|
From 1949/50-52, the drive-in was in the VFW Clubhouse. |
| |
City Planner Contests Consultant's Ruling
That Cross Roads Has No Historical Value
The Santa Cruz city planner who first "discovered" that Lighthouse Liquors was birthed as the Cross Roads is contesting the findings of a consultant hired by the city who ruled in the draft Environmental Impact Report that the drive-in has no significant historical value*. The planner has filed a challenge with the city, asking for further consideration of the announced intent to raze the building. Click on the News 3 link above to read her comments.
Also on the News 3 page, San Jose Mercury writer Leigh Weimers highlighted the Cross Roads situation as the lead to his May 8, 2002, column, titled, Is Drive-in Historically Significant, or Just Old?"
*Keep in mind that unless a consultant on retainer provides the kinds of answers that its hiring agency wants, the consultant doesn't stay on retainer very long. |
The Cross Roads became Danny's Drive-In in 1960. |
|
