100% Humboldt
Humboldt County CA USA is the home of some of the most iconoclastic, genuine, and interesting folks in the world.
We are getting curious about the movers, shakers, and difference makers in Humboldt County CA-Home of the giant redwoods, 6 Rivers, and the vast Pacific Ocean.
We will discover what makes people live/evolve in the beautiful, diverse, isolated, and ever-changing Northcoast of California 100%!
Listen in and learn what it is to be 100% Humboldt!
100% Humboldt
#67. Dale Warmuth's Automotive Journey: From Humboldt's Family Business to Community Service, Embracing Technological Shifts and Celebrating Local Legacy
Get ready to meet Dale Warmuth from Leon's Car Care as we chat about everything from the much-anticipated crab season to the shifting gears of the automotive world. We kick things off with a spotlight on the Rotary Club of Eureka's crab feed fundraiser, setting the stage for a conversation about Dale's journey in the family-run business. Discover how the roles at Leon's Car Care are evolving with Lucas stepping into the office and Jim Frazier's retirement, as well as Dale's passion for dirt biking and his commitment to the Boys and Girls Club of the Redwoods.
Join us for a nostalgic trip through Dale's life as a lifelong Humboldt resident. From Worthington Elementary to Eureka High, Dale shares memories of strong community ties and the educators who left a lasting impact. Our discussion shifts gears to the future of the automotive industry, focusing on technological advancements like digital vehicle inspections and ADAS systems. Through humorous anecdotes and insightful reflections, we explore customer service excellence in a small business and the broader implications of technology on safety and insurance costs.
As we wrap up, we look at the promising job opportunities brought by the wind power grid and fish farms in Humboldt. We delve into local service projects by the Rotary Club, such as Jefferson Community School and Coats for the Cold, emphasizing the power of collective action. We also reminisce about the iconic eateries and businesses that have shaped Northern California, celebrating the vibrant commercial and cultural landscape of Eureka. Tune in for a heartfelt journey through community, innovation, and nostalgia—a love letter to the place Dale and many others call home.
About 100% Humboldt with Scott Hammond
Humboldt County CA USA is the home of some of the most iconoclastic, genuine, and interesting folks in the world.
We are getting curious about the movers, shakers, and difference makers in Humboldt County CA-Home of the giant redwoods, 6 Rivers, and the vast Pacific Ocean.
We will discover what makes people live/evolve in the beautiful, diverse, isolated, and ever-changing North Coast of California 100%!
Listen in and learn what it is to be 100% Humboldt!
Find us on You Tube, Linked In, Facebook, Instagram, and Tik Tok!
Ladies and gentlemen, friends and neighbors, it's Scott Hammond and 100% Humboldt podcast with my newest bestest friend, dale Wormuth from Leon's Car Care. Hey Dale, how are you Feeling kind of crabby today, huh.
Speaker 2:I'm working it at every angle and I'm all about the props.
Speaker 1:Yes, you are. Is it going to be crab season coming up, you know?
Speaker 2:today they're pulling crab. The crab's showing up at the various retail centers, oh good. But Rotary Club of Eureka, the club that's been in existence for 101 years, is going to do a crab feed on the 15th of February as a fundraiser at the Elks. And they can go online and probably Google good deeds crab feed.
Speaker 1:This is Rotary down in Old Town, the.
Speaker 2:Bundy Club. There's a Southwest, there's Old Town and there's Eureka.
Speaker 1:Eureka is the original club that meets on Monday at the Eagle House, used to be the Good Old.
Speaker 2:Boys the Chick Riding Club.
Speaker 1:Oh, those guys yeah.
Speaker 2:And between they, aged out, passed away. Yeah, covid burned them out. They didn't want to do Zooms, so there's a. There's a new reduction, a more youthful presentation.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I got to come visit a few months ago with Phil Nicholas. Some great people there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah and so I'm doing a crab. I'm the president elect. Some great people there, yeah, yeah, and so I'm doing a crab. I'm the president-elect. Oh, you are Okay cool, and I'm looking forward to raising a few funds for some special projects for my term.
Speaker 1:that starts in June, june. Okay, annalise is the president now.
Speaker 2:Lucky.
Speaker 1:Lucky is.
Speaker 2:Lucky is the current president. Annalise was the outgoing, that's right. He is the current president. Annalise was the outgoing, that's right. Annalise has been a great mentor, very cool. Speak highly of her. Very sweet, and several other long-term Nancy Dean. There's a couple other long-term members that are well-vested in Rotary.
Speaker 1:As a young man at the Tri-City paper. Ron Pelleggi was a big part of that club. Yes, absolutely. They actually had a weekly newsletter he would print. He would freak out man a couple hours before the meeting. He'd have to have that thing ready to go.
Speaker 2:I just read today of the demise yeah, the Tri-City weekly Of the Tri-City.
Speaker 1:So the Tri-City Weekly was a newspaper shopper back in the day. If you folks know what newspapers are, remember those. Did you ever see one? Nick Nick's, pretty younger than I thought. Yeah, I worked there 20 years with Ron and I think essentially what the Times-Standard did is retire the masthead of the Tri-City. It wasn't a viable show. No, understood, understood.
Speaker 2:It was a carrier of Safeway and things expressed that her business that started 20 years ago did not have social media or smartphones in just 20 years. 20 years, the technology twist that that's put on all of our ways of life.
Speaker 1:Let's talk about some of those favorites, but before we do, let's talk about the Dale story. Give us the Dale Warmothoth uh, birds I love.
Speaker 2:Born and raised in in eureka, um, my father and mother started an automotive business, leon's mufflers that has been in existence since 1961, sure, uh, today my sister, myself and my sister's son, lucas, lucas, sams operate. Lucas is working in the office. Now I've been referencing this is the year of change at Leon's. Lucas has moved into the office from master tech service writer now working inside the office. I very proud of the guy.
Speaker 1:Nice.
Speaker 2:And our fifth, our employee of 50 years, jim Frazier, will retire at the end of this year. Frazier, go, jim, excuse me, into this month, into this month. 50 years conclude. 50 years at Leon's Car Care Center Don't hear about that much. I'm married to my wife, jeannie Marie Been, together with her for about 30 years Kind of funny we got. We were together some long period of time. Her mother's health was failing. I made a point to want to have her mother have confidence. Her daughter was cared for. So we got married on some date that I can remember 5-5-0-5 at five, and I still struggle to remember exactly when. Am or PM, all those Cinco de Maya ads. I thought it would help me remember. It's coming up. Haven't triggered that. Yeah, and it was PM, pm.
Speaker 1:Got married on the Matticate.
Speaker 2:That was a way to limit how many people would be at the wedding. Good call, so Leroy was the master of ceremonies there.
Speaker 1:Sure, And— Captains can perform ceremonies. Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:So I discovered dirt bikes early on, and while I wasn't I'm not very coordinated or I didn't have any many personal physical aptitude, I was. I excelled at riding dirt bikes off road, and today I'm still I'm president, for life, I think for the local dirt bike club that's been in existence since 1947. Wow, the Far West Motorcycle Club. I'm president-elect of Rotary, yes, you are.
Speaker 2:I am. My dearest engagement is with Boys and Girls Club of the Redwoods, and I had an epiphany one day watching kids come from a motel up to the school bus line, and it really struck me that those kids deserved all the social elements that middle income kids enjoy, whether it's computers, games, a quiet place to learn. And so I've been intensely engaged in boys and girls club of the Redwoods.
Speaker 1:Big fan.
Speaker 2:I'm all about it. Yep Raised in the boys and girls club down national city, san diego we have a couple of two alumni, two, two people on our board that have been members um a great group of people, a great leader, with monica rose, mm-hmm.
Speaker 1:So that's kind of— Fill the necklaces out there.
Speaker 2:At work. I've embraced, or I'm acknowledged for having taken our business from the muffler business to the auto care, auto maintenance, auto repair, and that's a leap. Muffler business was pretty simple, yeah, and the muffler business has kind of gone the way of horseshoeing or buggy whips. There's still some exhaust work that's done, some old school hot rodders or a catalytic converter here and there, but we'd be idle if all we relied on was exhaust, yeah, so um change I think I made.
Speaker 2:I made an also. Uh, my, uh, uh. One of my favorite adages is to say the only thing that's constant is change. It's change and if you can get comfortable with that manner, I find it makes it much easier for me to interview new employees, to sometimes the redundancy that happens at work, in training that kind of thing. Change is constant. You need to accept it and evolve.
Speaker 1:Evolve. It's coming for you. Something's got to change today. Tell me about. So you went to. What schools did you go to here in town?
Speaker 2:I graduated from Eureka High with a proficiency with, uh, uh, the metal shop, auto shop. I've got some award from bank of america for my that trade skill sets. Um and um. Geez, I never imagined I'd even my father cast, while he was only about five foot tall. He had a very severe scoliosis. He cast a large shadow in my eyes and I suppose two things drive me. One is I'm cognizant that this life is short and I want to leave it better than I found it, or leave some social situations better than I found it. Amen and um. I forget where. The other part of that conversation where I was taken, uh, I guess, to to uh, manage my own reputation. A motorcycles did it for a short time. I broke my ankle or something and dad threatened me with a stick or something. So, yeah, so then I had to work hard at and I own, as it were, that evolution at the shop of auto care and auto repair.
Speaker 1:Sure, not a small thing. Where'd you go to elementary school?
Speaker 2:Worthington. So you're right here in this neighborhood yes, not far, okay, not far grew up in worthington. It was, uh, I think they call it a nuclear neighborhood in that, you know, all the mothers were stay-at-home moms. It was a very stable neighborhood, uh. So I went from kindergarten through high school with the same group of kids Wow, and still in contact with many of those that were a part of that neighborhood. I feel blessed. I recently spoke at a friend's memorial who's 20 years older than I am and we often would reflect on the same joys of marching down into the woods or to the slew, or hiking down Myrtle Avenue with a shotgun over your shoulder. The SWAT team would be out there in a few minutes if you did that today. Yeah, Eric.
Speaker 2:Hollenbeck used to talk about that. We were blessed that way and it was a marvelous place and time to grow up.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no doubt. So junior high was where Zane, zane.
Speaker 2:Okay, zane, my next-door neighbor was Ruth Davis, who had come from the old junior high and a number of the teachers had come from the old junior high or high school at Zane, and so Mrs Gildas guard and Mrs Mace and Wilcox, and there was a whole bunch of these old guards that were probably five years from retirement. Wow, that we got this. I probably as kids we didn't appreciate fully that this was the end of their careers, but there was some great wisdom that all those teachers brought to the room.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no doubt. So tell me more about what are you proud of at Leon's.
Speaker 2:You've taken it to the next level.
Speaker 2:I like to think that we maintain the standard of customer service that all other shops are striving for and we're still working on it every day, starting with communication relaying what the customer's concern was, even maybe the gesture that a customer infers or the high-pitched noise they heard, or that service writers are keeping customers informed timely. We send a digital. Currently we're using, we take a digital photo inspection of each vehicle and share in this order the customer's concern what does the motor oil look like or what would, where that noise was coming from, things we may have observed in the process. We're taking pictures of and want to share the concern. And the third thing is factory scheduled maintenance to help prolong the life of a vehicle. Help prolong the life of a vehicle and so that digital inspection is kind of technology that anybody can have but fewer maintaining, and customers all appreciate being able to have that transparency of what we're talking about.
Speaker 1:I have a quote here in my research. It says that despite challenges that come in running a small business in an ever-evolving automotive landscape, I'll say Dale remains optimistic. Innovation is key, he notes.
Speaker 2:We're always learning, adapting and improving to meet the needs of our customers and demands of modern vehicles, and I think that'd be true for any business I'm sure for any business, but since, like 2015, 2020, the technology of a vehicle is going like this uh, the assisted driving aid, uh, ados they call it. It's built into our car many cars. It will be built into most all cars soon. That for braking, if you're too close to a car, lane changes, keeping you in the lane Many of these cars. Even today, you could drive with hands free if you're on the right road.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I put on my makeup on the way in from McKinleyville. I've seen people brushing their teeth.
Speaker 2:It's a little scary. You must have skipped the makeup this morning, though. Thank you.
Speaker 1:Ow, here we go and we're off. Oh boy, he came at me and here we go. Mine drives really well with the assist. It's got 30 seconds and then it tells you and then it turns off.
Speaker 2:Sonar's in your side mirrors, the little image that there's a car in your blind spot and the beep, beep, beep, All that stuff you know, in any. If you even your grandpa might've gotten a side mirror on his car replaced for about 30 bucks and your dad might've gotten that side mirror replaced, it probably had a motor in it to move the mirror around, maybe a heater. That was probably $300. The side mirror today might be $3,000. No way, and you're going to need to get this ADOS stuff all surveyed and adjusted that they're all pointing in the same direction.
Speaker 1:Maybe that's why insurance is going up. Could it be a correlation? I?
Speaker 2:think it's a profit thing. Oh, that's okay. Sorry, I hit him again. Oh yeah, here we go. I don't think it starts at your desk, though, and without a question. This is being pressed by the insurance companies, and it has to be reducing the per mile incident and making all of our lives safer. In California, our cars last longer than a lot of other areas of the country. Weather, yeah, not the salt on the roads, sure, sure, and so we have cars on the road for a long time, so you could still have somebody beside you looking at their phone, and their car doesn't know what direction to go.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and so it goes into me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, leave your phone down. You can get that call when you pull over to the curb.
Speaker 1:Put the phone down, bro, yeah, or go hands-free or do something. So what do you like about Humboldt? You've lived here your whole life. Could we say that you are truly 100% Humboldt? Yes, okay, yes. What do you like about living here? Still, you've stayed here and you're what To fly in. You're 45 now, or?
Speaker 2:50? You're so kind. I'm 67 years old. I'll be 67 this year. It's amazing how young you can be in your mind.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And how old are you in your mind? 22, 24.
Speaker 1:I'm like 27.
Speaker 2:I'm pretty immature. I'm 12. I still enjoy a good fart joke or something like that.
Speaker 1:Well, who doesn't Come on now?
Speaker 2:Okay, to fly into Humboldt to McKinneyville's airport. What a fantastic place we live, yeah, and to have that overview, admittedly, a lot of the Bay, our Humboldt Bay area is prettier from a mile away, you, when you get down with the microscope, sometimes there's there's a lot of dirt under the fingernails there, Sure, but but from the air, you're right, glorious, you know, and I, my motorcycling takes me to a part of Humboldt that I don't think a lot of people have much familiarity with, and that's out near South Fork Mountain.
Speaker 1:It's not right out that way, it's right on the edge.
Speaker 2:It's on the edge of that. It's right on the very edge because Trinity County comes right on the, but it's about 5,000 feet. Right now it's inaccessible, I would suspect because for snow Is that snow camp up that way?
Speaker 1:Uh, if you're taking it.
Speaker 2:that's one way to get there. Uh, that would be on the West side of the Redwood Creek drainage. Okay, and um, it's on the, it's on the North and further East, and it's on the north and further east, lots of pioneer trails or ATVs, and it's shared with horses and hikers and people that are just walking or running. I've had a lot of fires out there. The landscape's changed a lot. The face of the trails have changed a lot.
Speaker 1:There are a lot of ranches out there cattle ranches.
Speaker 2:That is mainly all Forest Service land. If you're at a snow camp, there are some ranches. There's still some private land. Six service national forest gets to be very narrow right about in this area that we're talking about um, but it is remote, it's.
Speaker 2:Yep, that's the point yep and that, and that it has a vantage point at places where you could see the top of mount shasta, I mean just just the peak. But I was sharing with someone not long ago I had bought a new dirt bike and I, rather illegally, I've often taken the bike to break it in and ridden out Maple Creek Road to the end of where the road you're getting close to Pilot Rock road, to the end of where the road you're getting close to pilot rock and uh, there were about five cowboys I mean cowboying up like uh, with horses, like yellowstone the tv show. Sure, these guys were cowboys with horses getting ready to go gather up some cows and it's like we're only like 15 miles from Humboldt Bay and here's some real serious cowboy action Like on TV. Who?
Speaker 2:would have thunk that those lives exist out there, and so I love, I love Humboldt, no doubt.
Speaker 1:Tell me what you see in terms of from your vantage point being a local guy. What do you, what do you see happening now and what do you see happening in the next five, 10, 15 years, and what you would like to see. What gives you hope or dread? I mean, we had fellas, sit here and go. You know what? I think housing. We're in real trouble and it's probably not going to get good and I thought that was honest, in fact potentially worse.
Speaker 2:To answer your question more directly, I do think the wind power grid will occur. We know there won't be manufacturing here, but there'll be assembly. There'll be barging equipment in, there'll be assembling stuff. There'll forever be maintenance going on those things. I'm less clear what they do with the infrastructure to get the power somewhere. I'm not confident it comes directly to Humboldt. It may well go somewhere else, but there'll still be some great paying jobs related to the maintenance and assembly.
Speaker 1:That's still a go right the whole project seems to be moving forward. And then the fish farm.
Speaker 2:Fish farm's gotten most all of their okays from the various agencies. I don't know what they're waiting for right this second, but they've gotten most all of them passed. Cool, awful lot of water. Yeah, we still, you know, we're not really utilizing that. Maybe the fish farm will be able to. What the pulp mills used to use 80% of the water that came out of the wells of mad river took a lot of water, a lot of water, and so the rate payers are all the rate payers that are left or covering that, and those rates are going up for a couple of reasons, I think. Recently they decided they want to plan not to borrow money when infrastructure starts needing to be replaced. I'm talking about a humboldt community service district. They've decided they don't want to do a bond, they want to start saving money.
Speaker 1:Imagine that.
Speaker 2:It's a great premise. I worry a little bit when the funds look fat and the ability to have more equipment or more raises or more, and of course an equipment's going to have to change. We're we're going back to the automotive business electric cars, hybrid cars. The same holds for equipment. All that equipment that any of the municipalities own are going to need to go to more electric, hydrogen gas. I don't think electric is the end of the world. I really think something. Hydrogen is a more, I think in my ignorance, is a less invasive product to develop. There is ores, there's only so much oil, there's only so much petroleum oil that I would hope that the hydrogen thing could be a more sustainable future.
Speaker 1:They're talking nuclear too, now, aren't they? I've heard, the technology is there.
Speaker 2:I haven't heard that with vehicles. I've certainly heard the Amazons and Microsofts building some miniature, small nuclear plants to power their power needs. Huh.
Speaker 1:On a kind of a micro scale.
Speaker 2:And I don't mean that locally, Right right, but they're looking at ways to create some long-term energy. I wish science would work on a way to de-energize nuclear waste. I'm probably again, I don't know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1:Funny topic, though it's uncomfortable and I don't know why, because I'm not convinced I know anything about nuclear power in terms of you said it, the new tech Is there new nuclear tech? I don't know. Is it worth looking at. Let's get curious.
Speaker 2:It's not good just to store the stuff and say for 100,000 years we're not going to look at it. That's no way to go.
Speaker 1:I don't think there's a hole deep enough anywhere. Yeah, it's tough to negotiate. So what you talked about, you inferred and implied a positive difference. But your committee work, your service work. How would you encourage John Q and Joan Q Citizen to get involved, maybe not on the level you have or can? But what would you say to somebody if they said, hey, how do I start by being part of the solution?
Speaker 2:I think the kind of folks that are of a sort to clear the weeds from the yard or from the gutter or to pick up litter on the trail would be well served to visit one of the service clubs, like one of the Rotaries, kiwanis, kiwanis to invest some time, sir Optimist, if you will, to invest some time and do projects as a group. I'm most familiar with Rotary and to the things that International helps fund, to say nothing of more big projects regionally. Rotary of Eureka recently celebrated 100 years of existence. We funded the Jefferson Community School, the Jefferson Community Center. They have a culinary kitchen. They're working on that. They're going to be skilling up some culinary folks from that, teaching folks how to cook $100,000 we invested there.
Speaker 2:Eureka Room the Eureka or Humboldt Room at the library was $100,000 investment from Eureka Rotary, the Humboldt, the library down the bay, our library, and there's an upstairs room that's a tribute to Humboldt history. Wow, and Rotary had a going on long enough and several members have left bequeaths to the club that they're in a position to often gift throughout the year in small pieces, up to about $50,000 for different projects, whether it's Teen Challenge or Food for People. They're very involved with the Backpacks for Kids, where they provide sustaining foods for a weekend where kids might not have enough sustainable food for the weekend. Sure, so that's one of Rotary Club of Eureka's big projects that they've taken on, and all the local clubs are now actually banding together to help Robert Lawn, who's been doing Coats for the Cold. I know, robert, yeah.
Speaker 1:Shout out to.
Speaker 2:Robert. I've been a big supporter and funder for Robert. The clubs are taking on. Robert's health is slipping a little and the clubs have stepped up and said for each winter we're interested in coordinating the coats for the cold. So we can help and distribute those it's a worthy mission linen helps with cleaning the few that need to be cleaned. Mission linen works with us. We're blessed that we have that corporate support locally.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and and Robert said a good job with that outfit, tremendous. Yeah, sweet guy.
Speaker 2:I helped store stuff for him in the off season, tipped him some fuel here and there, uh, besides some financial stuff that we try to do, um, nice, very nice. I did come away with. Just related to that. I did come away in the last couple of days in a in a frustrated way. I've come to realize all the good deeds that we do, good about the deeds we're doing, that there's, my sense, is very little. I think there's very little that comes back to us as business, because I'm doing all the different things that I'm doing. Sure, if I look at the different organizations I'm involved with, it's not a precursor for them to come running to my door to do business, probably not why you do it.
Speaker 1:No, that's not a precursor for them to come running to my door to do business.
Speaker 2:Probably not why you do it. No, that's not why I do it. You would hope that you would see some sort of something to feel good about, and generally I don't generally see that Day's not over yet. No, I suppose. Yeah, but I know I feel good about the things that I'm involved with. Sure, and it's my turn. I was president of the chamber of commerce 20 years ago. I can remember that 25 years ago.
Speaker 2:Hmm, um, and those are all things that I think are important to. Uh, stuart, work on. Recruit some maybe a fresher mind than yours as the next generation of people.
Speaker 1:Is that what Jay Warren Hockaday back?
Speaker 2:Of course I knew, jay, that was my term that our executive director left. We hired one fella. That didn't work out and Jay started just as I stepped off.
Speaker 1:I remember Jay for a sec. He was always nice to me. I liked him. Yes, yeah, nice enough guy. Sharp dresser, I always had a sport coat Yep, yep, yep, which in Humboldt folks not a lot of sport coats. Maybe Mark Mattioli and John Dalton.
Speaker 2:It's pretty casual. Yeah, I'm also a member of the Ingobar, principally to share it with other people to do tours. It's wonderful. Yeah, it's fun to raise my pinky finger, tip my nose up and use the valet park, but I still wear jeans. I still like steak and potatoes At Anglemore. Yeah, I mean, that's what I like. That's not necessarily what they're producing.
Speaker 1:Does Tim let you wear jeans?
Speaker 2:No, you know, and I always well, not now, but any time after hours I'm wearing flamboyant shoes of various sorts.
Speaker 1:I've seen some of your Hawaiian stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we're going to do something fun here. Usually I do a quiz. This time you get something more fun Memory Lane. You and me are going to hold hands and stroll down business. No, like Nick said, first costume ever. So it works. Yeah, so let's go down Memory Lane and talk about some of the businesses, and we'll start with the olden days for some of the ones that you remember, and I know there'll be Eureka, but we can talk about Arcata too. Arcata had a Bistrons, but Not all the machine shops.
Speaker 2:Okay, there's virtually. I mean that might be a little A niche.
Speaker 1:That's a little too much of a niche. That's super niche. I mean Humboldt Machine Shop up in Arcata. They were World War II.
Speaker 2:Humboldt Auto Parts. Okay, mcgarrigans, sure Walsh's.
Speaker 1:Walsh's Downtown. So before there was a mall. There was this thing called a newspaper. And then there were stores downtown, Heartbreaking. What was this thing called a newspaper? And then there were stores downtown, Heartbreaking. What was this? The Shoes Place by Penny's Trebles, Shoes Trebles.
Speaker 2:I was thinking of Stew's, Not Stew's Shoes. Stew's was out Myrtle Town. There was another shoe across the street, Thorogood Shoes of some kind. So here's how this game is played.
Speaker 1:Okay, I've thought about this a lot, so here we go. I'll name a business and you name another business, an oldie. So I'll start Evie's Evie's Evie's in Beret Center, and you got to give us a location, otherwise you're going to lose the candy bar, which is the prize.
Speaker 2:Okay, well, there's Saki's Saki Chevrolet PC Saki.
Speaker 1:Okay, I got a counter with Isaacson Motors in Arcata, the.
Speaker 2:Ford Garage, which is now 25 dispensaries. Oh gosh, you put me on the spot. This feels tougher, all of a sudden.
Speaker 1:It's okay, richard Miller. Richard Miller was a great friend of mine. Richard Miller Honda. If you were as drunk as Richard was.
Speaker 2:Richard Miller was a great friend of mine.
Speaker 1:Richard Miller Honda.
Speaker 2:If you were, if as drunk as Richard was, you were having a great time.
Speaker 1:We. He was one of our clients. He wasn't ever mine, but it was. Hey, we're taking Richard out to lunch.
Speaker 2:The girls were going.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:The girls Richard liked to see the ladies.
Speaker 1:It was fun and he was always a gent, as best I know, but he was a big client. How about Bob's Army Navy Surplus Store right?
Speaker 2:downtown, how about?
Speaker 1:Redwood Motors. Redwood Motors.
Speaker 2:Volkswagen. It was a Volkswagen dealer, yeah.
Speaker 1:Do you know the guy that ran it? Was it a Bob?
Speaker 2:Bob Schultz Schultz Schultz. He was a professional football player, I think.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, all right, that will. Yeah, yeah, all right, we'll counter with Sierra.
Speaker 2:Motors Subaru. Ooh, the Haley Brothers. Who was that? They were the Dodge Plymouth dealer Prior to John. That was before or after John and Eric.
Speaker 1:Dodge, John and Eric, who was the biggest distributor of police vehicles in the state.
Speaker 2:right they had the contract for the state for five years or so.
Speaker 1:The CHP.
Speaker 2:Yeah, all the state cars, most of the state cars got delivered to Sacramento and they distributed them from Sacramento. They had a crew work just down there.
Speaker 1:His daughter, janet Holmes, I replaced as a State Farm agent, who's a darling. Hi, janet, she's super cool. Do you know Janet and Paul? I don't think so. Yeah, they're at McKinleyville, okay, okay, here we go then. In McKinleyville. I'm going north on you. Oh, I'm going to go way north to Klamath. What's the? What was the place that the grill the barbecue? Still Head Lodge. Still Head Lodge. Very good.
Speaker 2:Fish bowl margaritas. Oh my gosh, if you were stud enough to have a second margarita, you weren't driving home, no, no.
Speaker 1:And then they had the grill outside and I'll never forget the guy. The guy's just pouring beer and spinning this thing and flipping stuff and it was the most delicious Millhead Lodge On your way.
Speaker 2:There was Crivelli's Crivelli's Between the highway and there was where you would turn off to go to Aero Mills. There was a bar called Crivelli's In Klamath, mm-hmm.
Speaker 1:And what about the Big Three in Arcata? Were you around for that Big Four, Big Four. Oh sorry, Ding ding. Wait, it won't even ring. Demerit One point.
Speaker 2:Big Four famous for ravioli and like apple fritters. It was a standing joke with my dad that he never took me to the big four because they were still in business when I was younger, Sure Say, 10, 12 years old before the highway got improved there through Arcata. Yeah, but that was a fun thing to joke with my dad about. He never took me to the big four.
Speaker 1:Never got to go. No, doggone it. What's the other one? Bella Vista Inn, your turn, my dad nearly bought the Bella Vista Inn Really. Six Rivers.
Speaker 2:My father-in-law at the time was a restaurateur from Chicago and dad was looking at just the value of the properties and came all. All was done but signing the paperwork and he finally backed out at the last second. Do you know why? Well, he had mistrust with my father-in-law. Okay, oh, the guy that was well well placed his concerns okay, that's fair.
Speaker 2:Um, what else in arcana? Well, there was the Bazaards, which is the Chicago. They were an outfitter for Miners. Miners that made that evolution to a small department store there on the corner on the plaza that was the Jacobi storehouse. How about Arcata? Muffler? Sure Muff, what's his name? John Peterson? John, is he still around? John's still around. I talk to him once every couple of weeks.
Speaker 1:He's a nice guy, Great guy. He helped me out as a student, though a dummy with no money.
Speaker 2:He talked my dad into buying that property for John. John rented from him for a small amount. He bought most of his product from dad and it was a great mutual thing. And then finally, finally the thing the tax man was killing john. And so they struck a deal where dad sold the property to john and and john still owns it. It's brio breads there now, but john still owns the property he's the guy that's funny and brio is delicious.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, your turn or my turn? Um, I'll go go ahead. Uh, I'm thinking of a place in. I'm making this up now. Saki and Isaacson, opie's Fine Cars, opie, opie. Opie passed away several years ago. Now the lot is empty. Oh, hedrick, he had worked for Isaacson and then had a little dealership down in Fortuna, I think, for a minute, but he always wanted to own a new car line and he got Chevrolet Buick.
Speaker 2:He wanted Ford really bad. I bet he did. There was some kind of grind between him and Harvey. He really wanted Ford bad. He had some bootleg way of getting fairly new Fords on the lot.
Speaker 1:I think he drove Harvey crazy Corning Ford. Yeah, he used to bring trucks in, I think. What do I know? I don't know. So you touched on Fortuna, Patton, Chevrolet, Wow okay, marlottos, now you're only one at a time now. Okay, I got ahead of myself. Save that. You're going to need it because I'll go all night with you. Boy, here we go, fortuna Ford.
Speaker 2:Fortuna Ford's good Ed Tanferrani.
Speaker 1:Tanferrani's been around for a long time.
Speaker 2:Fabulous man.
Speaker 1:Yeah, nice guy.
Speaker 2:It's a recent and I understand it's coming back. But the Ivanhoe? I heard that there's new owners for the Ivanhoe and I understand that's right on the cusp of coming back. So that's exciting. Yeah, I mentioned parlados. Parlados was always like going home to mom's house. It isn't a place you'd send somebody for a fancy meal, but it was as consistent as a sundial.
Speaker 1:Right, I'm going to counter that with OHS townhouse. Oh Heyo, Did you, Nick? Were you around for OHS when you were a kid?
Speaker 2:Steaks New people to town would say you mean that place that's called O's, o's, o's.
Speaker 1:O's. Yeah, we had Virginia on the show and she talked a little bit about it and they had killer steak. You picked out your own steak, Pick your own steak out of the box, out of the cooler?
Speaker 2:Yeah, nice. And who would have thunk in this big metal, big metal building was this great steakhouse.
Speaker 1:Oh, it was delicious Big salad the whole nine. How about Fat Albert's Fat? Oh, you're going way back now, which is now Seagrill, right, that's right, that's right. Okay, I'm going to go back and trump you Excuse the pun With Tommaso's, which is now where Gabriel's is.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, and Pagano did his own sauces, and still, I don't know if he's still a business person there was a time I can recall in my younger term that if you traveled people would say is that there was a Eureka, there was a restaurant right on the waterfront. They processed fish and stuff there. Oh, good one, lazios.
Speaker 1:Lazios Sweet burn. Good one, would you ever know him?
Speaker 2:Yes, laura Lazio. Yes, sweet burn good one. Would you ever know him? Yes, laura lazio. Yes, he was a much older man than he appeared. He was a well-kept, uh sharp individual. It had a lot of influence at the chamber. This was back when the chamber put crab feeds on in sacramento sweet for the legislators. It was probably part of that, actually, and I think it was Lazio that would talk about going to Edmund Brown's office. Because they wanted to. They'd gotten this dam going, but they wanted a bridge go across the bay, so you'd go through a crab. And so they, um, they met with, uh, edmund Brown and, um, and it was a very casual thing where he kind of turned around and looked to his Caltrans guy and says well, do you think there's money in the budget to build this bridge? Well, if you want to, mr Governor, sure and Samoa.
Speaker 1:Bridge. We have a Samoa Bridge. It's like three bridges right.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:That's no small thing.
Speaker 2:But I mean that was networking and a lot of hard work that really went in behind that to make those kind of things happen. Yeah, and it was relationships. Sure, it was relationships.
Speaker 1:Much of life is yeah.
Speaker 2:I wish I don't know if you got to the. I wish Eureka looks great from about a mile away. Eureka looks great from about a mile away. I wish the 101 would hop up over the Bay, like Newport beaches or whatever you call the Newport up the Oregon coast. Oh yeah, and go out the peninsula to intersect at two, 99 or something. Would that be? Um, get the traffic out of town, yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, they tried that 100 years ago. Yep, yep. Caltrans bought up all those houses. They bought lots of it, yep, they finally bailed on it. Well, it's worked for Willits.
Speaker 2:I mean, well, edmund Brown's son got in the house and saw the public transit was in the house and saw the public transit was had needed a heftier share of the tax transportation tax monies, and so Caltrans wasn't getting the same margin of funding for development.
Speaker 1:His name was Jerry.
Speaker 2:What did I say His?
Speaker 1:son. Oh yes, jerry Brown, I thought you were going Moonbeam. Did I say Moonbeam?
Speaker 2:you did not mention that you say that on air moonbeam.
Speaker 1:You say whatever you want, okay uh, I thought you were doing a he shall, that shall go unnamed. We have a few of those now out there, but okay, so you're on. Um, I got one for you. Old Town Bar and Grill, debra Lazio. How about Del?
Speaker 2:Grandis, that was a bar. That was a bar. It's where Sixer Resoler is now, but it was a bar for 20, 30 years called Del Grandis. How about Enrico's?
Speaker 1:Enrico's. That's good Down on the foot of Broadway.
Speaker 2:That's good.
Speaker 1:Is that a good restaurant?
Speaker 2:This is really before my time, but Little Joe's, where's that? That was where Verizon is now, and they moved to where the bar on 14th Street. It's another metal building, that's nondescript. Oh, that joint, and that was Little Joe's Hamburgers. How about that, mike's?
Speaker 1:hamburgers Sorry.
Speaker 2:I did it again. I got two in there. I'm sorry.
Speaker 1:DeMeritt and garlic fries were delicious. His brother, tom, worked at the Tri-City. He was the delivery coordinator. Nice man, really nice guy. So heading back down Broadway, I have one for you. It was just there and you grabbed it when you did Mike's Burgers. Doggone it, it'll come back.
Speaker 2:The Embers? How about the?
Speaker 1:Embers, the Embers. Yeah, I was going to go Volpe's, which was where Tip Top Club is. Ooh, ooh, ooh. Yeah, tip Top's no longer in business, right, I don't see any sign of life. Which I don't get out that late. I don't notice that at all. I don't know what that is. Uh, volpe's was pretty decent food in the day. It was great, beautiful.
Speaker 2:Richard Miller bought that property, that's right. He had a notion of brig uh, coaxing a cattleman's to Eureka Ah, and cattleman's to Eureka, ah. And that never worked out, never. It sat vacant. Then the guys talked about doing the RV sales, mm-hmm, and they got it zoned. And then that fell apart and Razzuli stepped up and started. He rented it from Richard, right, right, right, and Razzuli the county kind of got caught with their pants down, huh, huh. That's a pun Topless bar pants, yes you got thrown.
Speaker 2:And so the county had no ordinances for against or how topless clubs or whatever they call those adult clubs, topless clubs or whatever they call those adult clubs. And while they stonewalled him, he brought a bunch of RVs onto the parking lot and was had girls in the RVs and he was. They were showing the RVs as if to sell them, hilarious, and maybe doing a little dancing while at the same time Creative dude. Yeah, yeah, interesting, weird guy I knew. I often refer to him as scoutmaster tom. It was tom razuli, no, tom harankovich. Then he became, he was in scoutmaster tom, he was in scouting right, honest to god yeah no.
Speaker 2:and then he took on the moniker of uh the razuli, the great razuli, and and then the great, t-great, t-great, and he hosted a sci-fi theater.
Speaker 1:Yes, channel 6 or whatever. Yes, saturday night. Yep, hilarious, yep. All the permeations and all the personalities that we've seen, I have one Sears and Roebuck, ooh, remember that?
Speaker 2:Okay, how? Oh, remember that. Okay, how about Eureka Truck Terminals? Was that down there by Pearson that's where In-N-Out is at now that big building that had been there, that was Eureka Truck Terminals. There was a Scales, there was a little coffee shop inside.
Speaker 1:Are you an In-N-Out guy? Do you like their burgers? Yep, not too shabby.
Speaker 2:It's again consistent, consistent consistent.
Speaker 1:Yes, it is. You know what you're going to get. I think we're running out here, but I don't know. Downtown Eureka had Tommaso, oh, ramone's in the Opera Alley, the first Ramone's restaurant. Yes, I remember Ramone's, come on, that was really good food. Now it's two or three well more bakeries.
Speaker 2:The lights still shine there. The Ritz the Ritz was a fun place to be at the time. The Ritz was good. They had a good.
Speaker 1:Chicken Diane. So in advertising in the day you could trade advertising for food, and so we often got paid in commissions in real Chicken Diane. You mentioned JCPenney's. Jcpenney's Mazzotti's is now a thing of the past. Cress's, downtown Cress's Wow, was that where SN servicing, or was that?
Speaker 2:Woolworth Cress's is the parking lot to Coast Central Credit Union. Okay, and where Coast Central Credit Union is is what was Bank of Lolita? Yeah, but before that it was Fireworkers, a furniture store.
Speaker 1:Oh is that? Wow, you are going back. Okay, on the furniture line. It's on the little old homemakers that had the store oh, everybody's furniture. Yeah, at where the Lost Coast Brewery is Right yeah, they were really nice.
Speaker 2:Yep, bernice, and I don't know what her husband's name was. Yeah, their last name was.
Speaker 1:Valas. Ah, okay, ron Pelleggi would know hey, ron, what's Bernice? And he loved them. They were sweet, they were sweet people. Survivors of World War II, I think, and they were. They just took care of people, yep See, care people, yep See a lot of those guys we knew from the advertising world. So Bob, from Army Navy, you know, oh, king Richard, oh yeah, remember Rich.
Speaker 2:Yes, absolutely. I'm still in contact with Rich Hansen.
Speaker 1:Hansen's over at Reading right, he's still alive. Yep, he was a nice guy, right. Yes, maybe he is a nice guy he is a nice guy.
Speaker 2:All right, your turn. Gene Rowe. I'm going to stick with the car dealers because I know all these car dealer names right, gene Rowe was a Pontiac Buick dealer, who was the other guy that Opie worked for?
Speaker 1:that was Pontiac. That was where Eureka Royce is now. It was before Eureka Toyota. Kay Napik, oh, kb McCarthy McCarthy, kb McCarthy McCarthy.
Speaker 2:KB McCarthy, yep. And then you mentioned John Ert Dodge earlier there.
Speaker 1:And who was down on Broadway? The other guy, the Volvo guy? Or Bob Cravello, North Coast?
Speaker 2:Motors, gary Barker bought him out. What was his name? He was a Volvo dealer. Yep, yep, that's not far from your. A Volvo dealer, yep, yep, I can't quite place it.
Speaker 1:That's not far from your stomping ground, right, right, and I'm not saying Nielsen's gone, but Nielsen's one of the oldest businesses and Hilfiger Pipe. So now we're talking.
Speaker 2:Harpers Eureka Print or not Eureka, but Times Printing. They've been around a long time for Eureka, wow.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's remarkable. I remember the Time Standard newspaper did a thing that had 100, 90, and 80, and they did a whole thing. And you go, man, this town has had a sustained business, weatherby's Seafood where Porter Street is. That's very good. Yeah, I mean it goes right with your costume.
Speaker 2:Don't get crab neon. But yeah, see, there was the Canton Cafe. What was in there was a Chinese restaurant down near Weatherby's that's going to. Oh, how about Arts Gallery? Where was Arts Arts? I remember that they just tore it down. It was next to Sizzler, yeah, and it was kind of like what the double a is they. He did steaks and but it was a bar, bar and grill, I guess have you ever heard of the samoa cookhouse?
Speaker 1:it's out in some. It's in samoa, it rates right up there.
Speaker 2:I mentioned how there's a period of time where I've traveled where they said they mentioned lazios do's. Do you know that place? Lazio's? The other place people mention is does that cookhouse? Is that cookhouse place still open?
Speaker 1:You know the big, yeah, the lumberjack, everything. We used to go there at Sunday mornings after college and tough night, go over there and just take up on carbs and do it. Well, are we exhausting this? Maybe we're exhausting this. You've shocked me with a few of those. Yeah, well, let's get. I think we have.
Speaker 2:Oh, Manora Thai. Ooh ooh, that's good.
Speaker 1:Is it Bev how?
Speaker 2:about.
Speaker 1:Eureka Market, eureka Market, oh yeah, down where the-.
Speaker 2:T-Bones. T-bones was a little diner right next to it. Yeah, that was Okay.
Speaker 1:So Eureka Market is. For those that don't know is where the Eureka. Mission thrift store is, yes, again, your neck of the woods, yep the.
Speaker 2:Stump House was across the street. They did some great sandwiches there. They were kind of an outlet for wood products that were being machined and some buildings back behind.
Speaker 1:Wow behind Wow, ag sales up in Arcata, tobingo Santos, yes, tractors and implements. Copeland Lumber. Ooh, copeland's good. Now I'm going to start heaping them on you here real quick.
Speaker 2:Hogger's a Norse's market. It was a Norse's market, which is Myrtle Avenue market now.
Speaker 1:Where was Hogger Brothers? Was that out? Where On Hubbard Lane? Mckinney's yes, which, which is now something else, I drove by there the other day.
Speaker 2:North Coast Florentile has bought that correct and they're going to make that their go-to place.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they're evolving, jordan yeah, he does a great job. Shout out to you, jason, you're amazing. Yes, he is. He doesn't do social media much, but he, he might just get his name out there. Yeah, he's a friend of mine. We have lunch periodically, he's a good man. He's a solid guy. I love the guy. Well, I think that's about it. We're going to go home now. Actually, we're not. What about your legacy? What do you want us to say? By the way, you win. Here's your Dick Taylor.
Speaker 2:I kept up with you.
Speaker 1:Orange bourbon, pecan, 65% Belize Whoa Belize, navidad Wow.
Speaker 2:This is fine.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you did good, you win.
Speaker 2:What's my legacy?
Speaker 1:My legacy, I have one more place, oh, while you think about your legacy.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:Okay, the market on the hill in Arcata was a Safeway, and then it was Larry's Market and now it's Wildberries Boom, and then Co-op was Safeway, if I remember well I'm not sure about that. Back in the day, united Naturals was another one up there Woolen Mills, what's that?
Speaker 2:The Woolen Mills is where Walgreens is now and they actually dyed wool there. There were times, I'm told, the sloughs actually would turn color with dye the big building it was a big wooden building Big, big wooden building. I remember that and there was one end of it had an army surplus place called Palmerburg who was brother to Jolmerburg. Jolmerburg has a large estate that Jolmer Berg has a large estate that gifts, grants, funds to some good projects in the community. But Palmer had a army surplus store right there.
Speaker 1:And what was the meat packer at the end of town before you left? Eureka, rockin' R, rockin' R You're rockin' our meats.
Speaker 2:Rockin' R is killer. He was highly invested in Crabs baseball.
Speaker 1:Oh, is that right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that whole minor league. He would see to it that kids all got jobs during the summer to be ready for the boys of summer.
Speaker 1:They've launched a lot of guys Tom Seaver and more. And what was the meat place out in Myrtle that just shut? That was Redwood Meats. That was Redwood.
Speaker 2:Meats, redwood Meats. Yeah, jim Walker, the stock car guy, his wife's family, were the pioneers to that business, redwood Meats.
Speaker 1:Which is probably a legacy business, for sure. Yeah, gosh, we could go on all night, ok, and we won't. Sorry, let you all down. So, dale, at some point, as you said, life is short and we get to go home. And so what are we going to say at your funeral, your celebration of life? What's the tombstone reading? How would you like to be thought of?
Speaker 2:There'll be some stories told about how I scared the crap out of them driving here or driving there, but I got them home every time.
Speaker 1:Okay, and you did write your own obit. So I have written my own obit and you're going to get me a copy. It bears mentioning. How about some excerpts real quick for our friends?
Speaker 2:Well, I mentioned, the lead-in is a theft from Steve Martin and the jerk where I pinned that I was born a poor black child In Eureka, in Eureka. Okay, great Ronnie Webb's laughing.
Speaker 1:Is that a friend of yours? Local athlete classmate? Okay gotcha. So on the tombstone. What are we going to say?
Speaker 2:He tried to leave it better and he found it. Okay, he tried to leave it better than he found it.
Speaker 1:I think he's done a great job of that.
Speaker 2:And the other takeaway is believe it better than he found it. I think he's done a great job of that. Um, I and I would. The other takeaway is I often I've enjoyed making people laugh. Yeah, um that, uh, to bring a little lighthearted. If anybody ever was to find me on Facebook, I still do Facebook. I'm old enough, I qualify hey you're not alone, Um that most everything I put on there is very irreverent, Um irreverent. Thank you.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:It's, um, it's making fun of all the things that are wrong in this world. Um and um. I think, most, I think most folks, and I try not, I try to make it a political, it's, it's, it's just stupid stuff, making fun of myself.
Speaker 1:Why not? Um life's too short. I spoke at Rio Dale middle school yesterday's career day. Okay, I brought Jake with state farm with me. Okay, he real, the cutout's real.
Speaker 2:The cutout's real.
Speaker 1:He's fully real. And I said you know, have a sense of humor. That was one of my dad's top 10 rules have some humor. My mom used to say if we didn't laugh we'd be crying. So let's have a little lightheartedness around this thing. It's not that great.
Speaker 2:I don't know that this necessarily holds up for me, but I do believe most people of good humor are have a high measure of intelligence or knowledge. To make fun of whatever's conversation is that? I think you have to be pretty smart to be funny.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I'm hilarious, just for the record, and you too.
Speaker 2:I've taken that home.
Speaker 1:yes, yeah, I'm quite the funny man. Well, folks, hey, thanks for being here. Thank you for having me Hold out the claw of fellowship here.
Speaker 2:Ow ow, Rotary, oh the rotary.
Speaker 1:Oh, do the claw of fellowship here, ow Ow Rotary, rotary, oh the rotary. Oh, do the shout out for that real quick.
Speaker 2:February the 15th at the Elks. You can find it if you go online and put in something about good deeds, crab feed, Rotary Club of Eureka. You're going to find the mechanism to buy tickets for it.
Speaker 1:And Leon's Mufflers. On the corner of Broadway and Washington we say Leon's Car Care Center these days. I'm sorry, car Care, broadway and Washington, you're not alone. Eureka 95501. Thank you, hey. Thanks everybody for being part of the show and please like us, subscribe to us, report us to someone, don't do that. Make some comments. And we would want to just thank Dick Taylor Chocolate for being our chocolate guys and everybody in Humboldt. So 100% Humboldt. Scott Hammond, we'll see you next time, thanks.
Speaker 2:Thank you.
