Remember When?

Take a look around Pasadena and you might not notice any monumental changes, but longtime residents may remember a different way of life.

In the 1940s and 1950s, James Brown sang for families who brought their children to ride the Ferris wheel at Beachwood Park. From 1954 to 1978, Pasadena had a drive-in movie theater, and a cinema occupied Jumpers Hole Road from 1974 to 2005. Over the years, the peninsula grew, reaching a total of 12 public schools, four fire companies, and many local businesses and civic groups that are entrenched in the community.

Join us in a walk down memory lane. Even if you weren’t born during the years when some of these photos were snapped, chances are that you can still spot these local landmarks.

Last month, we featured Kurtz’s Pleasure, opened as a bathing beach by brothers Sam and Gustav Kurtz in 1933. For just a quarter a day for adults and a nickel for children, families enjoyed parking, swimming, and use of the 750 picnic tables that dotted fields and shady locust tree groves. Shortly after opening the beach, the Kurtz family erected picnic pavilions and a bathhouse for guests to enjoy.

With more children swimming in pools and with families taking long-distance vacations, John Mason and his cousin Bonnie Kurtz reinvented the beach as a catering and event-hosting business in 1990.

This month, there is no guessing game to win because the location name is in the photo. The pictured shop is Pastore’s Italian Deli, which opened in 1966 under the leadership of Les and Marge Rizzo. For more than 40 years, the deli stood at the corner of Mountain and Hog Neck roads, providing great food and personal service.