Additional Information on Historical Photos

This page has been created to host the comments and identifications I receive on the historical photos I run in the column. New ones are added at the top, and more information is always welcome. Email photo@brattononline.com please!
-Bruce

CLASSIC MYSTERY PHOTO. I'm guessing that this photo was taken at the corner of Pacific Avenue and Cathcart Street. But that's all the info I have. Who is this woman? When was it taken? Most importantly, why doesn't she have her popcorn wagon on Pacific Avenue now? It's a circus down there anyway. photo credit: Unknown, click for bigger version. Additional information always welcome: email photo@brattononline.com

From Len Klempnauer

First off, below is a comment on the popcorn wagon. It doesn't contain the date the photo was taken or who took it but it does have the name of the manufacturer. The information was provided by Rod Jensen of Aptos, Calif., whose post-1954 biography is on page 146 of our 50th Reunion book. Rod also wrote a piece, titled "My Son," that is on page 31. By coincidence, Rod and I had a late lunch Wednesday with another '54 classmate, Hylan Lyon, of Plano, Texas. Hylan recently was appointed to the dean's advisory council of UCSC's Baskin School of Engineering. His bio is on page 158. He also wrote a separate piece for me, titled "A Navy Nomad," which is on page 24.

Popcorn Wagon Info from Rod Jensen:
"I remember the Cretor's popcorn wagon very well. Cretor had manufactured popcorn wagons since the 1880s, eventually mounting them on car and truck chassis, and this particular one was located on Pacific Avenue across from JC Penney Store. It was on the northwest corner of Pacific and Cathcart Street, with the Sears catalog store just north and the Farmer's Elbow Room directly in back and facing Cathcart.

In 1946 my good friend Don Kirby (SCHS Class of '55) and I were fortunate enough to stop by this wagon the day that they received their first postwar shipment of "DOUBLE BUBBLE" bubble gum, complete with a small set of cartoons wrapped around this huge hunk of bright pink gum, which, according to my older sisters, was capable of being blown into bubbles of magnificent proportions. Our purchase was limited to two pieces each, but we did get a lot of bubbles out of them.

This wagon was there into the early 1950s, but I can't recall what happened to it."