Dick Bale wrote:
The store described in the blog as being on the southwest corner of Fair Oaks and Mendocino, was actually just south of Harriet. It was owned and operated by the McQuown family in the late 1930s through the ‘40s – perhaps later. Our home was just a few doors from the store and as a nine year old I liked to hang out with the man who operated the produce department. I’d help trim a crate of lettuce, pulling off any damaged leaves and rinsing the head in an outdoor sink behind the store. The McQuown’s also operated another modest grocery store on the east side of Altadena. I’m not certain but I believe it was on Altadena Drive near New York Drive or Washington St. Sometimes I’d go there with the produce man who let me ride on top of crates of vegetables in the back of his small stake truck. In the spring of 1942, when Roosevelt ordered all people of Japanese descent incarcerated, the Japanese produce manager signed everything, including his bank accounts and home, over to Mr. McQuown. When the war was over McQuown turned everything back to the returning Japanese family.
