By Don Bartletti
SATURDAY AUGUST 22, 2020. VISTA, CALIFORNIA. My daughter Adrienne and I visit the Vista Flag Pavilion where Broadway ends at S. Citrus Avenue. In 1987, when Adrie was 12 years old I donated an amount of money that I’ve since forgotten ($100?) for a personalized brick to help fund construction of this wall, a tall flag pole and the clay tiled pavilion. Like it says, BARTLETTI – SINCE 1961 since I was 13, and ever since I’ve been in same house, and I’m staying.
This next paragraph is for my homies – those who stayed around, moved on or passed on. Some of the 895 names etched on this wall could be the table of contents for my long life in Vista.
First thing Dad and Mom did in 1961 when they bought a not quite finished house from a bankrupt carpenter was to purchase a wringer washer from the Yingst Family appliance store on N. Santa Fe. Ted Araiza paved our long and winding easement in 1962. I did some growing up with Vista High School classmates Tom Gardner, Karl Fields, Lee Eddy, John Raymond, Rich Leak, Toni Minoux, Jack Larimer and Ron Kappes. Downtown, on the other side of the football field it was either Don or Vince who fitted me for my varsity lettermen’s sweater at Don Vincent Store for Men in 1963. My dad bought tickets to the 1965 World’s Fair in NYC from Bernie Rappaport at his travel agency. In 1969 I was married the first time at St. Francis Parish where my little girl Adrienne was married for the first time in 1998. Slick Davis’ liquor store was always on the list for any celebration. Chuy Villasenor founded Pepper Tree Frosty in 1959 and it’s where the cool people still go to get cooler. Vega’s Taylor shop shortened a zillion fancy pants and blue denim jeans that didn’t shrink enough. Epi and Virginia Tapia styled my regrown hippy locks for decades after my tour of duty in Vietnam. In 1972 the Vista Press was the start of a fantastic 45 year newspaper career. Fellars & Tanner Dental painlessly took care of all of our teeth. Vista Copy Service printed my freelance photography invoices (with 2 carbons) and George Waters did our taxes with all the right deductions.
It’s easy to laugh and relax with Adrienne, so we did, when we discovered 3 bricks that made us smile: D Old Buzzard, Mom Loves Twee Twee, and Big Al.
