Monday, December 29, 2008

Pasadena at New Years


I drove down to San Marino, California today to visit my mother and aunt Katie and to see my sister Linda who was down from Santa Barbara for a few days.

As is my habit, I took a peek at today's Pasadena Star News sports section to see what they had to say about this Thursday's "Grandaddy of Them All", the 95th Rose Bowl game between 11-1 Big Ten Champion Penn State and 11-1 PAC-10 Champion Southern California.

There was indeed an article about a Penn State cornerback, Lydell Sargeant, who played his high football at Cabrillo H.S. in Lompoc about 90 minutes north of Rio Mesa H.S. 

SURPRISE!

Who is that reporter in the front row with the striped shirt?  Why none other than one of this blog's faithful readers and resident soccer/calcio/futbol expert, David P. Lassen!

David is seen here gathering valuable information for his employer, The Ventura County Star.

The 120th Pasadena Rose Parade

We went out to lunch in Old Town Pasadena and I saw this banner that reminded me that they do have a rather large parade in Pasadena on New Year's Day as well as playing the football game. 

From The Travel Channel's Food Paradise Website
The Fair Oaks Pharmacy and Soda Fountain
1526 Mission Street at Fair Oaks Blvd.
South Pasadena, California

While driving into Old Town Pasadena on Fair Oaks Blvd., my sister relayed a story about how great the malts are at the Fair Oaks Pharmacy which opened in 1915.  As I began my trek home, I stopped to fill up with gasoline at a station about one block from this wondrous throwback to 1940's Americana.  The obvious decision was to not pass on a treat when I was so close.

The Fair Oaks Pharmacy's Soda Fountain 

As a lad growing up in the Pasadena area we would frequent the Cal Tech Pharmacy on the corner of Lake and California almost daily and it looked a lot like this.  The Cal Tech Pharmacy is long gone but the memory of their non-alcoholic Lime Rickeys on a hot summer afternoon still lingers in my memory.

The Signature Fair Oaks Chocolate Malt

It cost a whopping $6.44 but it was as thicker and richer than you can imagine.

Great call Linda!!!

What a GREAT Venue EVERY January 1st!

The USC Trojans are heavily favored.

Since I picked the Trojans in my Bowl Pool, you might want to get some money down on the Nittany Lions.

My overall Bowl Pool record has improved only slightly to 3-11 as I correctly picked both games today, Rutgers over North Carolina State in the Birmingham, Alabama Papa John's Bowl and Missouri over Northwestern, in overtime, in the San Antonio, Texas Alamo Bowl.

2 comments:

DPLassen said...

That photo is currently being seen by a slightly larger audience, since it accompanies a Lydell Sargeant story on the L.A. Times website. Sadly, they also neglected to identify me in the caption.

George said...

BASTARDOS!!!