Remembering “That Guy”

The other day, I saw a couple of videos that someone had just put on the Channel 30 alumni website in Fresno — and they sent me onto a trip down Memory Lane.

Channel 30 Action News was where I got my first TV news job.  I was 23 years old — barely, if at all, qualified to become a  reporter — when I got hired in 1974.  I was the youngest TV reporter in town.

One of the videos was a news open that we used during that time — which showed each of us individually “on the scene” somewhere, covering something or other.  The other was a promo that showed and named every person who was part of the Action News team.

Seeing The Guy I Used to Be in those videos reminded of that wonderful time so long ago — and about the fantasy that I’ve written about earlier, in this space.   In that fantasy, I was walking around downtown Fresno near Courthouse Park when The Guy I Used to Be drove up.

He looked about 25 years old, maybe 150 pounds, with longish light-brown hair, a mustache and gold-rimmed glasses. He was driving the same bright blue ’71 Pinto I’d bought new at that Madera car dealership. My Bank of America student loan had helped pay for it, and I think that beauty cost all of $1900.

The Guy I Used to Be was outfitted the way I used to dress: long-sleeve pinstriped shirt, wide paisley tie and garish plaid pants. “Looking good,” I told young Dennis, and I meant it. He invited me to jump into that Pinto bombshell and take a ride back to the past. “What the heck,” I thought. Sounded like a blast.

Sure enough, we soon found ourselves back in the Fresno of my youth. The Guy I Used to Be drove down Fulton Street, and there they were again – those great department stores I remember from all those decades ago. There was the old Montgomery Ward’s at Fulton and Merced. Down the street a block, Roos/Atkins still stood tall, and catty-corner from that was the lovely Guarantee Savings skyscraper. We drove farther south on Fulton and, at Mariposa, there it was – the Pacific Southwest skyscraper towering over the entire downtown.

Man, we were cruising! A block later, we hit the Tulare intersection with that impressive Bank of America building on one corner, Penney’s on another, Harry Coffee’s stylish men’s clothing store on the third corner and a giant Longs Drugs on the fourth.

As we drove, The Guy I Used to Be kept up a steady stream of patter. “I know this town like the back of my hand,” young Dennis reminded me. “When I was a kid, Mom brought me down here all the time, and I fell in love with downtown. I looked forward to going into the stores with her, and loved being one of the first to ride that scary escalator that Penney’s put in. It was the first escalator in the Valley, and no one had ever seen stairs moving.”

We turned east on Tulare and drove past Hart’s Restaurant. Way back then, it likely was the most famous eating place downtown, and unfortunately, those Harts were not our Harts. “When I was in college,” The Guy I Used to Be reminded me, “I used to come by Hart’s at night and pick up the late edition of that morning’s San Francisco Chronicle — the one with all the sports scores. That was the only place you could get the late edition.”

We whizzed through the green light at Van Ness and looked at the “new,” ugly courthouse that had replaced the lovely domed courthouse that had been built in the 1890’s. That old beauty had been torn down in the 1960’s after “experts” said the dome was too fragile to survive an earthquake. “So, Pops” young Dennis asked, “Do you remember what happened once the new, really hideous building was finished?”

Of course I did. It took the demolition crew more than a day to knock that “unsafe” old dome down because it was so incredibly well-built.

We veered north on N Street and stopped at the old City Hall, where the council happened to be in session. “Let’s take a look,” said The Guy I Used to Be.  “They all know me here, because I cover the council for Channel 30.” As if I needed to be reminded that The Guy I Used to Be often covered the council and police beats.

And sure enough, there was the council, on the second floor. Mayor Ted “Bow Tie” Wills was regally presiding, as always, and there were other familiar faces – including the council member who soon would be indicted on bribery and conspiracy charges. Young Dennis would cover both of that councilman’s trials.

We jumped back into the Pinto and sped to Tulare and R streets, where the Old Fresno Hofbrau stood. “I spend lots of Friday nights there, with the other guys from Channel 30,” The Guy I Used to Be said. “We drink beer, eat the best corn beef sandwiches in town, and boast about how we beat the pants off Channel 24’s news guys. 24’s guys never come here – they know this is OUR place.”

Yeah. I remember. Oh, do I remember those Friday nights. But I wasn’t about to tell The Guy I Used to Be that — eventually — he would go over to 24 — for $25 more a week.  He was having too good a time showing me around, and so was I.

But it was getting late. “Gotta let you out and get to work,” said young Dennis. “ He dropped me off at Van Ness and Fresno Street and headed west, toward Channel 30.

As his gleaming Pinto vanished in the distance, I suddenly realized that every department store and bank and restaurant we had seen is long gone – all of them – and that virtually everyone we had seen at City Hall is also gone. Of course, so is The Guy I Used to Be — except in those videos that someone put up on that Channel 30 website.