Hi Jae,

I'm glad the Playmate made it there safely!  I'm sure the people who put it out on their porch for free would be really surprised to know it ended up in Kansas!  Sea Coral sounds exactly right -- I was calling it salmon or persimmon.

I think your biggest challenge will be finding the 45 RPM adapter for this thing. 

Looking forward to seeing it brought back to life, and I'm glad it ended up with someone for whom it has special meaning.

Ralph

That was very nice of Ralph to go to the trouble of sending you that very cool phonograph. If this were the 1960's and you told someone a friend sent you a "Playmate" they'd get an entirely different idea. 

Ralph, an update on your new vintage home would be welcome. That entire area has so much San Jose history...so much more than just Andy's Pet Shop.

The original Falstaff Brewery around the corner from the pet shop. One of the bookkeepers at Western Appliance had a husband who was a manager at Falstaff (the newer remodeled building). She was always getting my dad "deals" on cases of beer...not something my mom was a fan of. 

Joe, I'll take some pix of the new place even though the interior isn't where I want it to be yet.

The brewmeister at Falstaff in the '60s was Mr. Schleifer, the dad of one of my sister's classmates at St. Leo's, which was only a couple of blocks away from the brewery.  The smell of hops would often hang in the air over that whole neighborhood during the school day.  I'd smell it in my "new" 'hood if Falstaff was still there.  Instead, I get the occasional waft of baking cinnamon swirl bread from Greenlee's bakery.

In that newer section of the brewery, which was architecturally significant in its own right with the large diamond pattern in its facade, way up on what was probably the fourth or fifth floor just off the production area was a small place to sit -- nothing at all fancy, with a bench under a tiny window that overlooked the main drag below, and a refrigerator chest stocked with bottles of beer.  I remember sitting up there gazing at the busy intersection below as my dad enjoyed a cold one, presumably while discussing some sort of Dads' Club business related to school or church.

Oh, and Falstaff's 5 PM steam whistle was used by moms over a mile away as a signal that it was time to come in for dinner.  Neighborhood kids were trained to stop everything and scatter.

But it's good to know Greenlee's Bakery is still there and not replaced by condos. One thing I noticed right away after moving to the Desert was the absence of bakeries. For the most part they are all located in grocery stores here. Dick's Bakery at Meridian and Hamilton Avenues in San Jose is still there and does a booming business with cakes, especially their burnt almond cake. Dick's was within walking distance of our house and my mom was always sending me there to get a chocolate cake for desert. The ladies got to know me and would give me a cookie, although I really wanted a brownie. I can still hear my mom telling me to keep the box straight so the cake would be in one piece for dinner. Way back then they had a very cool lunch counter too.

I'm sure San Jose is full of people who love "Dick's", I certainly knew quite a few...

Greenlee's cinnamon swirl bread is in stores all over town, including Costco.  Word on the street is that those loaves are baked off site, and that the loaves baked on Greenlee's premises are better, and are only sold at the bakery with one exception:  Zanotto's market, which is nearby.  My main beef with Greenlee's is that they no longer bake other bread or rolls.  My mom always got dinner rolls at Greenlee's but now it's all sweets.

It may come as news to you Joe that Schurra's confectionery on The Alameda closed earlier this year.  It had come down to a one-man operation and it became too much to manage.  The candy lives on through an outlet in the Willow Glen district where it has dedicated space, though.  I'm more of a See's fan, but it was still sad to see such an iconic store shuttered.

Additionally, and to the great dismay of many, Dick's bakery had a fire over a year ago and hasn't yet reopened.  Burnt almond cakes are coming from Peter's bakery on the east side for the time being.  One story goes that Peter's had the recipe first, and a relative who opened Dick's co-opted it.  I'm sure there's an opposing version of this same legend.

I too know a number of people who like, and are even obsessed with Dicks, and that circles us back around the the topic of Playmates, sort of.

So sad to hear about Dick's Bakery. Maybe it's a good thing that I don't live in San Jose anymore and witness all these changes, but things never stay the same. I'm expecting some ugly news in a month or two concerning my health which may necessitate my moving back to be near my brothers. I can always sell my home here in Palm Springs and buy a nice cardboard box in San Jose to live in, something with room to entertain in like a Sub Zero carton.

Suitable for under the overpass.