I remember when
After nine years in Chico, I’m ready to start playing the “I remember when” game.
I remember the Senator Theatre when it had a slightly leaning tower. I was there the day tower was taken down, and I was there the day a rebuilt version of it was put back up.
Here’s a photo of the theater I took in 1998 from City Plaza. The tower, of course, looks pretty much the same. It’s the plaza that has changed.
I remember the Volpato building at the Junction, where Broadway stops being a main street and heads into the Barber neighborhood. I took a photo of the building just before it was torn down. When I came to Chico, Foster’s Freeze, just across the street from the Volpato building, the drinking fountain underneath the sign “cold water” still worked. It was one of Chico’s minor landmarks.
Another minor landmark, the Bob Marley tribute decorating a telephone pole on Orient between Third and Fourth streets, has gradually faded away in the last nine years.
I remember when the building that stood where Chipotle is now was torn down. The spot stood vacant for several years. I remember when Rite Aid on Mangrove was where Safeway is now. I remember when the building where Rite Aid is now was empty.
I remember McDonalds before the retro version was built. I remember a Cassidy’s Family Restaurant was across the street from McDonald’s. It’s now a Butte Community Bank branch. I remember Hubb’s Stationery when it was in the Almond Orchard before it moved to the shopping center on the northeast corner of Mangrove and Palmetto avenues.
I remember when there were few houses north of the Safeway store on E. First Avenue. I remember when there were few buildings along Bruce Road between Highway 32 and W. Ninth St. I remember when North Valley Plaza was still a mall and when Troutman’s was one of the anchor stores at Chico Mall.
I remember the two movie theater complexes that became churches, but I have already forgotten their names. I remember when Chico had two Indian restaurants, then one, then none, then one again. It now has two, once again.
I remember the warehouse on Orange Street that spanned the block between First and Second streets. I took a photo of it just before it was torn down. Several warehouses have been torn down since I came to Chico. All of them were historically significant, but they failed to inspire anyone to try to save them from the wrecking ball.
I’d like to say I remember how when I first came to Chico, the summers were hotter than they are now. That would be a lie. Summers are as miserable as ever.