Rosamond Review – Part 2

In my last column I discussed the news reported in a Rosamond Review from 1959 that I found in my mother, Marion Deaver’s files.

This week I want to “review” the many ads that appeared in this 1959 “Progress Edition”. It was the first printing of the publication and was actually printed in Rosamond, with a new press located in a new building for the newspaper.

The publication was printed Jan. 8, 1959 and was full of articles and a ton of ads. The paper was 32 pages long – I discovered by hand counting the pages – no page numbers were provided. Apparently this was a big paper because, as I noted in my last column, the printing was late since the staff kept adding more articles and ads at the last minute.

The first inside page offered a letter to someone named John who wrote to the paper and asked if Rosamond had grown since he left “a few years ago.” Dee (probably Dorothy Gridley, editor) answered his letter in a column and noted the community had grown. Natural gas had arrived, the phone company had a new building and direct dial was soon to come, and….all the streets had been named and each home was now numbered. Progress indeed!

I was nine in 1959 and I remember that all the streets in Mojave had names and the houses all had numbers. Ours was 205 “0” Street, but later that year the county came through and gave everyone new “universal” numbering for homes and businesses. Ours was now 15743 “0” Street.

My mother was furious, and thought the new five-number system was stupid and we did not need the old numbers changed. My mother DID NOT like change, and those of you who still remember her could attest to that. Some of my business owners objected because they had to print new stationery and cards.

Progress to some is not always loved.

Now let’s take a look at Rosamond in 1959 through its ads. There were many, and, if the amount of ads were any indication the town seemed to be thriving, Flo’s Desert Tropical offered tropical fish, parakeets, and canaries.

Beyer Metal Products Co. would fabricate anything you needed in metal and even had a blacksmith shop.

K.E. Hunter’s shop sold and serviced radios and televisions. Does anyone remember when the TV guy came over when your TV was broken and changed some tubes and it was fine? Having your only TV out was horrible because no one owned two TVs in 1959!

Rosamond Cleaners, whose staff had 125 years of combined service, promised to use U-Sano soap, with a built in deodorant, to combat odors.

The town also boasted the Gardena Club and Steak House, located at Willow Springs and 90th Street,and served fish and chips every Friday for 90 cents. I think there was a card room in the back, but I might be thinking of another club there. And no one can forget the County Line Club, offering music every weekend.

The community needed gas and propane and Ole Knudson owned the local Chevron Station, back when you got full service and your windshield washed. Lucky ran the Texaco station.

Everyone has to eat, no matter what the year. There was the Rosamond Food Locker, where locals took their meat to be processed after butchering. In the 1970s some of us bought a half of cow or pig and they would cut it up and wrap it for our freezers.

Vial’s Market sold everything residents would need to eat. They offered 15 years of service owning the market.

There was an ad for Burton’s Tropico Mine, who offered Gold Mine and Mill tours, and a collection of “mining relics and antiques” in the building and yard. This was before Burton-Settles began bringing in old buildings to preserve them and offered tours of the mine and the “mining camp.” My mother was the first one to report on the camp and help the Settles with publicity.

There were many more ads, but there is not enough room to list them all, and there has been much more progress on Rosamond since then.