You Know You're an "Old" Pacifican When...

Since Riptide originally ran this list during its first year (2007), readers have added new Pacifica memories. Now our friends at Pacifica Patch are keeping the ball rolling. Click the link to add your local oldies but goodies:

Add Your Pacifica Memories

1. You call your friends Bro.
2. You know what B.O.V. stands for.
3. You know that Pacifica, not Petaluma, not Pittsburg, is the original P-town
4. You own at least one Log Shop/Nor Cal sweatshirt
5. Your last name is Piccolotti or Hillard or Lange or Shaw.
6. People from the city and Half Moon Bay say you're from "Pathetica," but you really know it's "Terrifica."
7. You walk down the street and know the name of almost every person who drives by.
8. You go to parties and know who is there by their cars parked out front.
9. You have at least one friend who has worked at Round Table, Ace Hardware, or Safeway!
10. You know that Inverness isn't just a street name.
11. You do the three S's: surf, skate, and smoke.
12. Outsiders complain how thick the fog is, but you can see all the way to the Farallon Islands.
13. You've kicked it at the "dump," the gazebo, under the bridge, or the point.
14. The word "dude" is always at the beginning and end of every sentence.
15. Every party in town is like a Terra Nova reunion.
16. Everyone knows everyone, even if you really don't, they've at least heard about you.
17. You've been to "The Breeze."
18. You were proud to represent Linda Mar, Manor, Sharp Park, Fairmont, Westview, or B.O.V.
19. All year long you sport Uggs or Reef sandals. And you've worn Uggs with shorts long before it became stylish.
20. You've stolen wooden pallets from Safeway to make a bonfire at Linda Mar beach.
21. You spend Friday nights partying at the Sea Horse, Winters, or the Octopus Lounge—for the past five years!!!!! (and did karaoke at one of them).
22. You know that Fog Fest is a must!
23. You know what Jeff's Best is (for you old-school P-Towners).
24. You smoked or drank at the wall.
25. You've been in Denny's at all hours and probably used to smoke cigarettes in there.
26. Taco Bell on the beach has many memories for you.
27. You've been drunk on the pier.
28. Channel 8, baby, channel 8.
29. The Tribune is a source for gossip.
30. Your kids (or your friends' kids) are taught by the same teachers who taught you.
31. You were taught by your parents’ teachers.
32. You can come flyin’ down Highway 1 at 80 miles an hour at night in the fog because you know every turn, dip, and pothole without thinking about it.
33. You travel to any nearby city and have to ask, "WOW, has it been sunny here all day??"
34. You can't wait to read the latest POLICE BEAT in the Trib to see if any of your friends made it in this issue.
35. You saw “Jaws,” “Grease,” or “Scarface” at the Seavue Theater.
36. You stood outside of the "U-SAVE LIQUOR" store trying to get someone to "buy up" some beer for you and your friends!
37. You wake up the next day hung over and alone at the beach in "MANOR" wondering when the party ended and where everyone else went YET you AREN’T afraid of what could have happened to you?!?!
38. Part of your morning routine was to go to "THE LIL RED STORE" before school!
39. You can remember that Baja Bugs are remarkably agile at crawling over the hills in "FAIRWAY."
40. You know what "SPINNIN' BRODIES" in the school parking lot means. By the way, who was Brody? No one seems to know.
41. You walked down to Bud's ice cream during lunch to buy sour power.
42. You have traded at least two books at the old used-book store by the Little Brown Church.
43. You remember when half the trailer/mobile home park fell into the ocean.
44. You saw the first midnight showing of “Star Wars: Phantom Menace” at the Seavue, at which, of course, you have snuck in some Taco Bell or McDonald’s.
45. You remember taking the behind-the-scenes tour of the Manor McDonald’s when you were a kid for a field trip or birthday party.
46. You remember the year when they had to bring in fog machines for the Fog Fest parade.
47. You rode on someone’s truck (tow truck, to be specific) in the Fog Fest parade.
48. You were a Pacifica Police Explorer.
49. You hung out at the Wander Inn on Linda Mar beach.
50. You marched in the Fog Fest parade as a grape to the tune of "I heard it through the grapevine."
51. You hung out at the Lutheran Church on Seville in the downstairs Lavender Mushroom on Friday night.
52. You turned right at the stoplight and went to Nick's on the way home from 49er football games on Sunday evening for a pit stop.

(list compiled by a fellow rocket scientist and Mensa member from Sun Valley, who says to keep adding to it)

Comments

[Lionel Emde]

You may (or may not) remember the Colonial bread truck that delivered to your new Linda Mar rancher. Milk delivery was that way, too. The Little Red Bus, school buses and their endless runs that changed every year because of huge enrollment. The flood of '62, which we watched from the living room window as boats maneuvered down Linda Mar Blvd. The trout farm, North Peak parties featuring motorcycles and lots of Red Mountain. The motorcycle shop on Pedro Pt. and motorcycles dirt racing on the headland above Pedro Pt.

[Eric Johnson]

Mamma Romano holding court, with a cigarette in one hand and a glass of Chianti in the other at "her" table by the kitchen door.
From there she could:
Hear what went on in the kitchen
Watch the cash register
Watch the door (make sure everyone paid before they left)
The Rifle Range
4-wheeling on Mori's
Fourth of July Roman candle wars on the beach at the pier
Shoulder-to-shoulder casting all up and down the beach, from the pier to Mori's during the REAL striper runs
The stable on the north side of Mori's

[Karen Waters]

And found out Father Duryea was married and had kids, lived in Russian River?
Tire fires at the beach, which were stolen from Dave's.
Walked to Pedro point to hang out at Shelter Cove.

[Heidi Bohren]

You remember the “Where the hell’s Pacifica” bumper stickers (1970-ish).
You remember Happy Pappy breaking in on your radio (“This is Happy Pappy at Pappas point”) on his CB radio.

[Lydia Toles]

You were baptized at the Catholic Church by Fr. Duryea.

[Big Banker]

The slackers stood at the Adobe Shopping Center and Linda Mar Beach, Holding The Wall Up!

[Peter Loeb]

I've lived next to the quarry for 45 years. I remember they would blast with dynamite in the middle of the night. I was told they did it at night because it was illegal. I don't know if that was true, but I do know they did it late at night because there would be a big *whump* that would shake the bed and wake me up.

[Big Banker]

You remember the Rockaway Quarry was a working quarry, and they would blast dynamite, and every house in Rockaway shook like there was an earthquake. You remember that the Crespi School site was also a working quarry at one time.

[Peter Loeb]

You knew Sweeney before the ridge was named.

[ian butler]

Good job, Alan, you made me spit my coffee!

[Paul and Steve’s mom]

You remember riding with the Indian Guides on a canoe on a truck in the Frontier Parade.

[alan wald]

You gave Portola directions to Sweeney Ridge.

[jay walker]

What brought me to this site was a search for the checkered frog . Very good , Tim Williams .

The lady let kids go in there . She would let us chew on the latest flavored rolling papers and let us trip out in the black lite room listening to beatles , stones , hendrx ... etc .

I'll chime in here ......

You played baseball at white field .
You rode on that goofy blue metal choo choo train on wheels and ate pink popcorn bricks .
You ate at the ' Vagabond villa ' .
You ate at the ' Long Table ' .
You can remember Danman's lodge on the point .
You went to Nick Gust's house trick or treating and he puts a $1.00 bill in your goodie bag .
You can remember Kenny Jones singing the Ajax laundry detergent song ... " ... it's stronger than dirt , stronger than dirt , stronger than dirt . " at a showing of Bruce Lee's enter the dragon when all the karate guys come out together in their white jammies at the sea view theater .
You can remember when the sea view hired twins to work the box office when they went to a twin theater .
You can remember Bob Wilkins public appearance at the fox theater.
You can remember the Duncan yo yo experts doing demos at the variety store in the Linda mar shopping center , with MUSAK playing in the speakers .
You can remember buying walnettos at Ernie's liquors .
Buying 5 scoops on one cone at thrifty drug store .
You remember the navy ship that beached by the golf course and was claimed by salvage guys under maritime law .
You remember judo class at the fire house on the point .
Movie nights at the fire house put on by Dave Campbell .
You remember the Pacifica ham radio club conducting civil defense drills ..... alien invasion .
You can remember the riot at the Linda mar shopping center .
You can remember the filming of the movie Harold and Maude with the car going over the cliff at Mori point and the crews removing the car with a helicopter .
You can remember the Wayne Cochran like rock group that played at the stage they set up at the Butler amusements carnival on Linda mar blvd. and de solo .
The Portola discovery hike that started on the beach by the Wander Inn lead by Don Quixote on his sway back mare .
If you can remember the Chinese new year celebration's at Willie Wing's Central food market with dragon dancers , fire crackers and tong drummers .
you can remember PBRD Saturday afternoon rainy day showing of the movie ' The Blob ' at Pedro Valley school .
The Beau Brummels playing at the muffin mine .
Bob Dylan hanging out at Shelter cove .
You can remember the oil slick .

[sue vaterlaus]

Victor- Rockaway Hotel?

[Mary Jana]

I reread Tim Williams' 7:06 PM comment at least a dozen times and must confess that I couldn't make heads or tails out of it. So on a hunch, I sent it to a good friend of mine who heads the Cryptography Department at MIT. He just emailed me back that likewise he was unable to break Tim's code. However, when he reads it out loud in a somewhat rapid cadence, his dog starts humping the furniture.

[Jay Bird]

Yeah, we weren't so crowded way back when.

[Matt & Ricky's mom]

You remember buying Papa Burgers at the original A&W on Linda Mar Beach BEFORE it was Taco Bell.

[tim williams]

I would be remiss not to add that the Checkered Frog was a very avant garde bookstore/headshop to we pubescent "edgers," the fountainhead of counterculture that we knew we were a part of, just not sure what it was.
And sorry, Butch, I never cared to be called "bro," man. Dig? Tried it out for a year or two (12-13 years old, and "partner" etc. just not coastal hip to me). Pretty standard fare elsewhere, though. Lingers here in Flake County, for instance, in certain downward spirals.

Anyone take a chance to grok "edgers"?

[tim williams]

You bought your first pipe or Eastern philosophy treatise at The Checkered Frog, and the salesman wore a very fine dress.
You remember Linda Mar School, when it was just a row of new homes!
And you helped erect the Ferris wheel for the carnival and were told that you could either get $30 cash or the cashier would do something wonderful that a 14-year-old boy could only dream about. But went home greasier and sorer than you had ever been.
You'd hang out above the bowling alley and try to make out how the word "love" was spelled by the streetlights on Pedro Point.
You remember finding bright-colored red and green cellophane near a depression in the grass back at Mario's, after seeing parachutes come down after midnight.
And helped with a midnight unload from the trimaran on the beach at Sydlers, home from its trip to Mexico.
You remember the Wander Inn (stagger out) when the blue picture window behind the bar turned purple in the sunset and all the tables had red checkered tablecloths and Chianti bottle candleholders. And Maggie and Joe made everyone welcome or chased them off. Reed had a friend collect 25 cents on weekends to park on the north beach end, and the willows -- remember that?
And the north end road used to make it to Rockaway, till the quake of '57. And remember Ben's trading post on the edge of the road and hill, overlooking Rockaway Beach? You could see through the cracks of the huge ancient plank floors.
And 25 cents would also get you a parking spot at Shelter Cove,
etc.
BTW, banning beach fires (under the the phony auspice of state handicap rules was one of the most culturally criminal acts of any city council -- in my humble opinion. It was hard to call it home after that. Let me know if they return. I might, too.

[Victor Spano]

I am wondering...trivia fans...what was the name of the 1920s/1930s motel that once existed at the Police Station site up until the 1980s. And the small motel that used to be on Francisco @ San Jose, and is now an apartment building, what was that called?

[David Nelson]

Your Boy Scout Troop had its own bus and the scoutmaster turned out to be wanted!

[David Nelson]

You played baseball on the fairway next to Fairway Drive. The outfielders had to watch for the golf patrol.

[Butch Larroche]

So many more to add.

You remember that Pacifica had 2 motorcycle clubs, (Coastside and PMA) and a motorcycle shop (D & D).

Pacifica had 3 car dealerships, Miller and Peterson, Yount/Middleton Dodge, and Ed Cordero Chevy.

You remember a school at the top of Fassler: Crespi School.

You caught lizards at Lizard Rock near the Boy Scouts.

You know where the hidden pond is.

So many more to add.