Builders Emporium Reseda Store #618

My collection of Builders Emporium pictures is thin so I think this is the last photo I have. Of course it was Halloween 1977 which accounts for my fellow paint department employee (Sam) being dressed up as some sort of elf. Thankfully I had left Builders the previous August so I didn't have to dress up at work. I did dress up that night when we all got together. I wore my oriental pajama bottoms and a black vinyl jacket. I wanted to be comfortable. Whenever we had parties I would dress up as Hawkeye from M*A*S*H in a bathrobe and a cowboy hat.

I was just talking to Radio Rat about his previous BE post. It has received quite a few comments which we are grateful for. So far we have only heard from one fellow employee (Jeff)from our Reseda store #618. Radio rat reminded about the Thriftymart that was across the parking lot and how he used to go get a coffee cake for the 10:15 am break. I had forgotten about the Thriftymart stores. He also mention a place called Zig's that had a great bullet sandwich. Does anyone remember it. He said it is still there.

When I read the last comment on the previous BE post I wrote back wondering if anyone had started a BE group on Facebook. I know we just started one for our Demolay days. We look forward to hearing from anyone who worked in the BE organization.

Farmers Market Free Live Music

Every Thursday and Friday night this summer at Farmers Market you can experience live music on the Market's west patio. Not to mention food from the vendors in that section of the market. For years my wife and I used to go on Friday night eat drink, smoke and listen to the music. I'm guessing the PC people don't allow smoking anymore but its still a great time. Most of the bands that play were Jazz oriented but yo also had the Blues, Swing music and a bit of rock. Our favorite back then was a group called Red & the Red Hots. Red Young led the group and they played Jazz, Swing and Boogie for the most part.

My wife worked in Hollywood at the time at a post production company so after the concert we would go back to her work for awhile. The company did all the artwork for Arnold Schwarzenegger's movies. I used to kill time by playing a pinball machine in the lobby for one of Arnold's movies.

Here is a link to the website where you can view the concert schedule:

http://www.farmersmarketla.com/newsandevents/index.asp


Thankfully the market still retains most of its original flavor. I have been to the Grove only once and it seemed well done. The changes were inevitable but they seem to have done as good a job as possible. They did remove one section of the market that had rows of independent shops. I remember going to the market as a kid with my parents. We always had to have a corned beef sandwich. At the end of this row of shops was a place that had little plastic models of sports figures. I would always go to check out the new figures. Only once was I able to buy one, it was the great Chicago White Sox shortstop Luis Aparicio. I no longer have the figure. At the time I also had models of all the Universal Studio Monsters. Naturally being a boy Mr. Aparicio had many battles with the Wolfman and Frankenstein. Once GI Joe came along no one stood a chance in a fight. All the figures are now gone but I still have my original GI Joe foot locker, though I painted it black and it now holds some small stereo equipment such as microphones, jacks and 45 inserts.