You Know you’re from Brentwood when you remember:

Driving down Balfour (two lanes) at 5:00 am to go for coffee and breakfast at the Truck Stop (now Bill Brandt Ford) and when it became Pat’s Truck Stop

Waving at 2 out of three cars you passed getting to the Truck Stop because you knew all the drivers

John Fereira was THE blacksmith in town

Earline Chapman owned the Ford Dealership

John Deere (Diablo Equipment) was on HWY 4 where the there is a used car concern now.

When Diablo Equipment moved to where the Dodge dealer was across from Brandt Ford

When Highway 4 Rooms was the Greyhound Depot

When Pat and his dad opened Berg’s Jeweler on 1^st Street

When Warren Geddes had the only hardware store in Brentwood on 1^st Street; when Kit Carpenter bought it; sold it to Steve Burgess to become The Old Hardware Store (now CoCoCounty Wine Store) while Kit built the Ace Hardware Store at the West end of Oak Street

Ridge’s Pharmacy and soda shop on Oak Street

Ken’s Bad Boy Market

Sweeny's was the Diablo Club

Lingane’s Dry Goods on 1^st Street

Jack’s Barber shop before he moved

Cap's was the Masonic Lodge building

The veterinary clinic before it became 1/4 Pound Big Burger

Lion’s Den and 19 cent hamburgers

The train station

The bakery at 313 Oak Street

The Continental Club in the Brentwood Hotel (now a Standard Station on Oak and Highway 4, was Shank’s Chevron after the hotel came down)

King’s Cross (the Continental Club after the Hotel was torn down)

When the only police in town was Hugh Armstrong, the Constable

When Bob Abney was the Chief of Police with maybe one other officer

When Allen Jensen was Mayor

When Judge Blair Rixon was the Justice of the Peace and listened to your excuses on traffic fines in the court on Walnut where Dukelis Real Estate and the frame shop is now

When Warren Wristen became Fire Chief, succeeding Elmer Gauger

When H.P.Garin, Interharvest, and Mapes grew lettuce in Brentwood

When celery was a big commercial winter crop

When Don Christensen was the only corn grower and had armed guards with shotguns patrolling the ripening corn

When there was only one U-Pick Cherry orchard (where Chan's Strawberries is now on Walnut). Now there's 23 that belong to Harvest Time in Brentwood's farm trail system

When we had an A&W drive-in with carside service

When Liberty and Brentwood Elementary were across from each other and Edna Hill was the newest school in town

When Knightsen School only had eight classrooms and bus service for all (me, included)

Bill Bristow was my teacher at Knightsen (1958)

When Dick Havens taught vocational agriculture at Liberty and ran the FFA program

When Jerry Clayburn was the metal shop teacher and then Dean of Men

When Jerry Clayburn was the first victim of a drive-by shooting in Brentwood (his house, now mine, was strafed with bullets by some dissatisfied students, never caught; he quit shortly thereafter and moved to Washington to build houses and then start a hardware store)

Ken Forlow was the drafting and wood shop teacher

B.J. Callahan was the Principal at Liberty

Herman Urenda was THE best football player in the league

When Apricot Way actually had lots of apricot orchards

When Los Vaqueros Reservoir was the Ordway Ranch

When there were no stop lights

The only speed-limiting devices were potholes

When there were Fireman’s’ Balls

The Lion’s Carnique on 4^th of July and the car raffle

When there were two Pippo Streets, not connected

When the newest houses were built by Ray Nebergall and Ben Peterson on West Oak Street

When the Zocci family built the next newest houses that connected the two Pippos via McClarren Road

When the main building at Liberty burned down

When the NAPA store was at the corner of Highway 4 and Oak Street

When there were two packing sheds for produce on Highway 4 downtown North of the train station and one South of the station

Blue Goose Packing Co. and dry yards (had their own rail spur) where the Police Station is now

Cutting apricots, peaches and nectarines for the drying trays was a summer job for school kids

Apricot drying yards at Sexton Ranch

When the only firehouse was on 1^st Street; when the next one was on the corner of Walnut and Dainty, converted from an auto repair shop

When Dainty Avenue connected directly to Fairview; there was no Central Blvd.

The Sycamore Trees along Highway 4 from the shopping center to Sunset

The Mt. View Market on Highway 4 next to Norman’s Nursery

Harry Fertado, Bill Cox, and Jack Hernandez’s Real Estate office was at the corner of Highway 4 and Village Drive, later to become the first Chamber of Commerce office

When the Bank of America was where the Brentwood Press is now

Bockman & Womble Electric on 1^st Street next to the current Bank of America

When the City had only one water storage, the water tower on Walnut just North of Dainty

Carpenter’s Feed Store on Oak at the railroad tracks

When the only park in town was next to the current City Hall (there are 56 now)

When Highway 4 went through town on Oak and 2^nd Street before being re-routed

The Byron Airport was a dirt strip owned by a guy from Oakland who made parachutes and used that for an in-the-field test area (strip also designated an emergency strip by FAA)

The Hotel at the Byron Hot Springs was pretty much intact, unlike today (used to play there with the kids of the caretakers)

The Romeria, the first fund-raising event to raise money to save the Marsh House

The Copeland Lumber yard on Dainty Ave. at the railroad Tracks

When Dainty Avenue crossed the railroad tracks