SteveC wrote:

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Paul, I too loved the little Henry-J ..... and all your dialogue with your pics.

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Thanks. Sometimes I wonder what's more fun for me - putting up the pics or making my wiseacre comments.

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I used to frequent the record department at Value World and have been hoping to see a pic of the place for decades, so thanks so much for that shot you shared.

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It's odd how some things stick with you through the years, and you never forget the time or the place. A friend of mine and I, both Redwood High students, used to peruse the records there, and in the classical section we happened upon an album titled "A Bouquet of Tartini and Nardini." We cackled like a couple of hyenas at the time, and to this day we can still crack each other up with it. One other time one of us was fiddling with a radio or tape deck in the hi-fi department and accidentally set it off blaring throughout the store. We switched it off quickly, but it got one of the sales guys marching over to us. He glanced at us standing there looking guilty, then at the radio, and with an exasperated tone said merely, "Well, I see you've managed..." We've used that one on each other countless times over the past forty years when one of us has committed some mechanical faux pas. And all thanks to Value World.

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Some of us went to a slot car track in downtown Larkspur. Do you know which store front that was?

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Once again, I have to plead hazy memory syndrome. It rings a bell, but that's all.

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Also my friend's dad had a gas station at the corner of Corte Madera Ave and Redwood Ave
where the 7-Eleven and now Twin Cities Market is but lost all pics. I wondered if you had any pics of that corner in the 40's, 50's, or early 60's. He also said there was a Chinese restaurant next door on Redwood (where the new karate blg.is.)

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I remember all of that, especially the gas station, but no pics, unfortunately.

Paul wrote:

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Hil Probert also sold those German Aphicars , " Das Bootcar " . I heard they
never were any good as a car or a boat , but when I was an 8 year old kid , I wanted
one . Think about how you could " egg the cherry " of officer George Numan's police
car and then lead him to the water and escape.

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Yes! I remember those now. I thought they were weird-looking, but cool. Mr. Probert was kind enough to indulge me during my car-obsessed childhood (well after all, we were neighbors - we lived across the street and up the hill, and my brother and his daughter were in the same grade at school) when I'd wander into the showroom to pick up new car brochures or take pictures of some mega-finned Plymouth. I also have a 1960 shot my brother staged of me, aged 14, his pipe in my mouth, sitting in the driver's seat of one of Probert's shiny new fire-engine red Toyotas. My favorite of the cars Probert sold, though, had to be the Henry-J.

George Numan - that name almost rings a bell. The only other Larkspur policeman I remember by name, besides Chief Howard Clark, was Lou Volk, who later quit and opened a car repair business in town. My father had him work on our Rambler from time to time.

Great pics Paul ! do you remember the spot up Madrone Canyon called 'Toyota Road' by locals? I recall somebody telling me it was named that because it was cut straight up the hill from the canyon to Fire Road 10 to film a Toyota Landcruiser commercial in the early 1960's, we used to hike it as a shortcut to get to Mt Tam. Another question for you, in the movie 'Impact' was the scene where the 2 stars are picnicing by the water a local scene? I watched the film with some Larkspur natives who thought it was 'Silver Forest' in Madrone Canyon before the swimming hole dam was dynamited after the drowning there.

Remember the Toyopet Tiara , the main model that was predecessor to the Toyota
Corona. Hil Probert also sold those German Aphicars , " Das Bootcar " . I heard they
never were any good as a car or a boat , but when I was an 8 year old kid , I wanted
one . Think about how you could " egg the cherry " of officer George Numan's police
car and then lead him to the water and escape.

Another great one Paul, Thanks. I'm trying to make out the corner we were talking about before where you last saw the raw food restaurant and laundramat. The much loved Java coffee house was there before, but what about the 40's thru 70's ? I'll bet you remember.
Can you tell us what's there in this pic ?

It was actually one of the first Toyota dealerships in the entire country. Hil Probert, who in 1945-6 built the building and gas station that now comprise most of the Lark Creek complex, had first been a Kaiser/Frazer dealer, then DeSoto/Plymouth, started selling what were then called "Toyopets" there in the late 50s. You can see the sign on a 1962 pic here.

You can see it in the background of this picture taken during the 1967 July 4th parade.

Yep, the Land Cruiser usually red or green with a white top. I believe the regular cars they were selling went for about $1800 new. If not, it wasn't much more. It did look vertical.