Mike Read/Pages From The Past
100 Years Ago
March 1922
– Mr. and Mrs. Lowry and family recent newcomers to Novato, are building a new home out on the flat which they expect to occupy very shortly. The Lowry’s at the present time are occupying the old Maas house on Railroad Avenue.
– Mr. Parkinson who has leased part of the Hill ranch for the purpose of running turkeys has placed some 65 or 70 birds on the place and is hoping to secure more. He expects to have quite a few “Xmas Dinners” on his place by next Christmas.
– We hear that John DeRosa, driver of the Geo. S. Jones Co. auto stage is to take upon himself a life partner in June. Congratulations John.
75 Years Ago
March 1947
– The Novato firemen, who are sponsoring a baseball team, have arranged for a diamond on the Frank Valm property at Olive and railroad Avenues. Novato Grove of Druids has donated the lumber from the grandstand from its old diamond at Diablo Road and Redwood Highway where night baseball was a feature. The old grandstand had to be razed to make way for the widening of the highway. Work at the new baseball diamond will go forward to another big season of their favorite sport.
– NOVATO IN CLUTCHES OF ‘OLD MAN FLU’ – A number of Novatoans seem to be in the clutches of ‘Old Man Flu’ or just fighting off the effects of same. To name just a few who have been ill during the past week: Emil and Paul Renati, Jid Baccaglio, Wm. Johnson, Carole Jansen, Billy and Louise Gnoss, George and Joe Gnoss and Mrs. Wm. Gnoss, Mrs. L. D’ Ambrogio and Johnny D ‘Ambrogio.
– Charles B. Jansen announces the opening tomorrow of his appliance store at the corner of Grant Avenue and Second St. The concern, to be housed in a unit of a new building at the above address will carry a complete line of household’s appliances. The Jansen plumbing company will operate from the same location. There will be a surprise for first day visitors, the details of which are more particularly related in an advertisement on another page of this paper.
– Announcement was made this week that Fred W. Morrow, connected with Morrow Drive-in Restaurants, Inc., has purchased a tract of land, located on highway 101, just north of Novato, from Andrew Watt of San Francisco, and proposes the construction of a modern drive-in restaurant comparable with the one between San Rafael and San Anselmo
50 Years Ago
March 1972
– Promotional examinations are in the cooker for jobs of lieutenant and sergeant in the Novato police department. The lieutenant’s job has a pay’ range of $1090 to $1325 per month and the sergeant’s pay range is $1013 to $1172 per month. The lieutenant’s opening developed because Lt. Mike Lafferty moved to Tiburon as police chief.
– Plans for the construction of 105 apartment units in the Diablo Triangle will be considered by the city plan review committee tonight. Horst Hanf and Edward Ghirardo propose to build the apartments on the north side of Center Road, east of the 7-11 Market. The planning commission has given conditional okay to the plans and the architectural concepts of the precise plans are similar to those in the master plan. The buildings are a combination of stucco, wood shingle panels and wood shingle roofs.
– Novato High’s auto shop has got the whole car. The car, a 1972 Dodge Custom Coronet four-door sedan, was donated as a permanent gift to the school by Dodge Division of Chrysler Corporation Service Division. The gift of a complete automobile is unique, according to Bob White, the auto shop instructor who pointed out that an engine or other automobile parts are commonly given to schools.
– Wilson L. “Buck” Bailey is the new owner of Mac’s Saw Service II at 707 Grant Avenue and will continue to offer sales and service on McCulloch and Homelite power equipment, on Toro and Lawnboy Mowers and repair or sharpening of saws and lawn mowers. Jack W. McNemey, who opened the Novato store four years ago, following establishment of the initial store in San Rafael 15 years ago, will remain associated with the company, concentrating on stump removal and outside sales. As Buck Bailey puts it, “I’m taking over the day-to-day details of the operation as new owner, but Jack will be part of the business in the expanded stump removal and outside sales activities.” Bailey and his wife, Alvina, have two children. Carol, 20, is married and attending college in Virginia. Mark, 17, is a student at Novato High School.
25 Years Ago
March 1997
– Back in 1964, when Al Mendoza joined the Novato Police Department, Miranda rights were a thing of the future and Novato’s biggest public safety problem was bicycle accidents. Times have changed. “Young people are my first love,” said Mendoza, a father of five who in his 32 years as a Novato cop has spent thousands of hours in Novato classrooms and in leading the Boy Scout police Explorers. In that time, he’s never fired his gun in the line of duty, never had call to use pepper spray, never had to use a billy club on anybody. He was named Novato Citizen of the Year in 1985. In 1993, he was named Police Officer of the Year by the Novato Elks Lodge and the Novato post of the Veterans of Foreign Wars.
– A new Soroptimist International club now meets Wednesday mornings at 7:30 p.m. at the Garden Court Restaurant. Charter members of the new club, are Janet Champion, Elizabeth Chiara, Danila Combs, Phyllis Cope, Suzanne Dunwell, Sylvia Edwards, Pat Eklund, Nancy Fabian, Dale Faust, Lisa Fenner, Elisa Fill, Julie Foster, Deanna Hanks, Hilda Hattar, Sidney Henricks, Judi Joseph, Susan Joyce, Jan Price Lewis, Cheryl Lind, Derinda Lindstrom, Arlene Miller, Patti Nolan, Fran O’Brien, Sandy Opsomer, Carl Pace, Janet Page, Kaye Porter, Donna Scuitto, Noreen Smith, Irene Strahm, Lin Waller, Reggie Winner, Gail Wood and Bobbi Laurene.
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