Colton is one of the two cities located between Riverside and San Bernardino on I-215.  My family moved there in May 1966 when my dad was transferred from Oceanside to San Bernardino for his job with the Santa Fe Railroad.  I attended U.S. Grant and Paul J.Rogers Elementary Schools (Paul J., as we called it, was built in 1967), Colton Junior High School, and Colton High School.  At one time, Colton was one of the busiest business communities in Southern California.  Then came the Downtown Redevelopment Project which began in 1967.  With the removal of so many buildings, Colton lost much of its identity.  Even though I arrived in Colton in the last few days of its "glory period," I experienced enough of it  that there was enough for me to miss.  By the time the project was "finished" in the mid '70s, only a handful of businesses were left.  My family left Colton in 1976 to live in the neighboring city of Rialto to the northwest.

Remember when. . .

   •     Colton was known as the Hub City!  It was at the junction of east-west U.S. Highways 70 and 99 and north-south U.S. Highways 91 and 395 and State Highway 18.  The junction was at the intersection of Eighth Street (now La Cadena Drive) and I Street (now Valley Boulevard).  Old pictures of Colton show multistory office buildings and stores.  When the freeways were built in the early 1960s, most folks thought where the highways came together was San Bernardino but it was still in Colton.  The Hub City designation wasn't changed when U.S. 70-99 became Interstate 10 and Highways 91 and 18 were dropped from U.S. 395.  Interstate 15 now began at the freeway interchange.  Eventually I-15 would be routed to the south via U.S. 395 to San Diego, where it would then follow Murphy Canyon Road.  In the mid 1980s I-15 was rerouted westward to Ontario, following State Highway 31.  The former U.S. 395 became Interstate 215, a secondary interstate!  Now most north-south cross country travelers take the newer I-15 and don't go through Colton.  It is still an important stop on I-10.  Interstate 15 diverts drivers from such unpleasant places as Sun City, Perris, Moreno Valley (formerly Edgemont), Riverside, Grand Terrace, Colton, and San Bernardino to have them drive through such exciting places as Lake Elsinore, Wildomar, Horse Thief Canyon, Corona, Norco, Mira Loma, Ontario, Rancho Cucamonga (formerly Etiwanda), and Fontana!

   •     The San Bernardino County Museum was housed in an old school in Bloomington.  It wasn't always housed at its nice facility in Redlands!  There was something about the school that triggered a sense of nostalgia which is lacking in the newer building!

    •    Cruising on E Street in San Bernardino and Magnolia Avenue in Riverside (it is now illegal to drive back and forth along those streets for pleasure at certain hours.)

    •    It was a local call from Corona to Riverside, but to call from Riverside to Corona was long distance...

    •    The post office considered Grand Terrace part of Colton and it was a long distance telephone call between Colton and Grand Terrace!

    •    Streaking (I was accused of it, but never did it!)

    •    Our big field trips for both school and Cub Scouts were to ALL FIVE (5) of the local soda pop bottling plants (Canada Dry, Coca-Cola, Pepsi-Cola, and 7Up in San Bernardino and Royal Crown Cola in Riverside!)

    •    The Colton High School Band went to Europe in 1973.  Under direction of Colton High alumnus Harold Warman ('62), the band beat the odds and everyone had a wonderful tour.  Later on, another director, Larry Roberson, would also take the band to Europe (on more than one trip), but his career was shattered by moral indiscretion (and this is the only place you see his name on this website!)  The band (and the school) had to work hard to break from the stigma he caused.

   •    Bryant Gumbel came to Colton High School to interview the Girls Varsity Field Hockey Team (he worked at KNBC in Burbank at the time).

    •    We ate our Colton High School lunches at the A&W Root Beer Stand or the Big G (at the corner of Third Street & "I" Street, now Valley Boulevard).  For some reason, even though the school had well over 2,400 students, the cafeteria could only feed about 300.  The school was completely barrier free.  The only fences were around the boys' athletic area.  About 15 years after my graduation, an independent study student from Washington High School (independent study is a program for students who do not fare well in traditional education, usually because of delinquency) in Colton came on to campus and another Washington High student was murdered.  Fences sprang up around the school immediately.  No more off-campus lunches.  No more sneaking into class from the side.  Colton became just as closed as any other high school in the nation!   (An aside to my students: Kids, don't ask me anything about the corner malt shoppe.  I'm not that old!)

    •    Roy Phillips Truck Stop (and IllicitPsychedelicDrugEmporium).  Colton had SEVERAL truck stops, but the Roy Phillips Truck Stop (which I first remember as a Flying A station, then Flying A became Phillips 66, then it was a Texaco station) was across the street from Colton High School at the corner of Rancho Avenue and I Street (now Valley Boulevard).  The Roy Phillips Truck Stop was where I received my first real exposure to drugs, which were sold right there in the middle of the truck lot!  Those guys who used that stuff were so messed up I never consiered drugs as an option!  Next to the truck stop was Zandy's Coffee Shop, which had the same owner.  I have as many memories from Zandy's as anywhere else.  It was the best meeting place in town!  (An aside to anyone who has the idea that anyone who remembers this period wasn't there because everyone was on drugs: I resent that thought.  There were plenty of us who did not use drugs and we weren't thought of as goody-two-shoes, either!  Drugs simply were not as popular as the media would have you believe!)

    •    When, in 1973 because of the "energy crisis," we went on daylight savings time the first week of January and it was figured more electricity was used by schools because it was completely dark until 8:00 am.  (We started school at 7:43.)  I hope the legislators take this into account if they ever decide to save money because of a power problem again.

    •    The geeks used slide rules (I never figured them out!)  For anyone who is under 25 and wants to know what a slide rule is, I'm sorry but I can't answer that question!

    •    When girls had no choice but to wear a dress or a skirt to school.  Pants were forbidden, period!

    •    After this, we had NO DRESS CODE (about the time I started high school).  Unless something REALLY caused a problem in the classroom (and I seem to remember you practically had to be naked to be considered a problem), anything was OK for school wear.

    •    Jay's Country Boy Market.  At one time there were two Country Boy Markets, making it a chain.  One was on Blaine Street in Riverside.  That was sold off and became an Alpha Beta.  The other store at the corner of C Street and Rancho Avenue was the best alternative to Stater Brothers (and I like Stater's) in Colton.  It was an old-fashioned grocery store; very tiny, but it sold a tremendous amount of off-beat brands (or was that off-brand meats?)

    •    It was cheap enough to visit Disneyland once a month.  Since most of the rides required separate tickets, we could stockpile these at home and go to Disneyland for just the admission rate (something like five bucks!)  This link takes you to Yesterland, a website which describes Disneyland's defunct past (the first thing listed is the parking lot!)

    •    Before Amtrak there were so many passenger trains!  (Santa Fe had about 5 or 6, Union Pacific had maybe 4, and Southern Pacific had maybe 4 or 5, going each way between Los Angeles and points east!)

    •     The Blue Mountain Dairy , located near the corner of Valley Boulevard and Cypress Avenue in Colton.  This was the site of a miniature pasture, with not so miniature odors.  They provided milk for the Colton schools until they got outbid by bigger outfits (like the Quality Dairy on the other end of town on Fairway Drive east of Mount Vernon Avenue!)   I seem to remember that Blue Mountain shut down while I was in junior high school.  The Quality Dairy lingered on for another decade; the cows were soon sent away and other milk sources were used.  Incidentally, Blue Mountain is a prominent landmark in the area.  It is the highest point in the City of Grand Terrace.

    •    All adults smoked (just like Eddie down below).  Didn't every Kindergarten class make ceramic ashtrays for Christmas gifts?  When I taught school in Indonesia, no one there would believe me that most Americans don't smoke.  Maybe most American MOVIE STARS smoke, but the rest of us can't even stand the look or smell of tobacco.  I think the decline began in the 1980s.  With all my friends and relatives who have died from tobacco, alcohol, and drug usage, I am so happy to be free of these nuissances!

Last updated August 5, 2001