Donated by Awandi Cromwell

This week I want to continue sharing names and facts that came out of my visits with Fay and Fanny Young. You recall, the first café they operated in Yorba Linda was on the west side of Main Street, where Fazzarre Jewelry soon will relocate. Fay and Fanny lived in a three-room apartment in the back of the café.

One of the happiest days of their lives came in 1929 when fanny brought her son, Jack, home from Dr. Olsen's hospital in Fullerton to share their apartment. Jack not only grew up in Yorba Linda, but after he married Elaine, bought a place at the north end of Main Street, where he raised his family, and still makes their home.

Jack worked for Barton's Chevrolet for many years and now is an auto mechanic at Brewster's garage off Imperial on Second Street.

Hmmm - We had a lot of fun trying to remember all of the people who had businesses in the location of this first café, after Fay and Fanny moved to their second location in 1932. If recollections are correct Viola Page and Lillian Braize shared the building next.

Viola operated her beauty shop from 1932 until 1939 and Lillian managed a dress shop from 1932 until 1936, when Helen Zimmerman purchased the dress shop. Then in 1939, Helen took all of the building when Viola closed her shop. Later the Zimmermans moved across the street to open a gift shop, and sold the dress shop to Elsa and Allen Kubach, who operated the dress shop and added a men's shop until Elsa decided to retire. From that time the building has been occupied with jewelry stores.

Let's get back to the café business - Fay admits that the second café, at the corner of Imperial and Yorba Linda Boulevard didn't prove very successful, probably because of the beer license. Anyway in 1935 they moved back to the east side of Main Street, in a new building that Curt Morris built, and opened their third café. This building has since been torn down. The Youngs stayed in this location until 1947, when Ollie and Edna Martin took over the café, followed by Birchie Young, Bonnie and Tom Dollarhide, and Ed Cornett.

My, my - each of these people deserve a column at some later time.

Fay and Fanny enjoyed telling about the third café, because it was a real success. Fanny said she baked and sold a record 25 pies one day. The pies were 10 inches across, and were sliced into six pieces to be sold at 10 cents each.

You could buy a breakfast of ham, eggs, hash browns, toast and all the coffee you wanted for 45 cents! What bargains they had: hamburger 10 cents, cokes, and ice cream for 5 cents, milkshakes 10 cents, malts 15 cents.

I worked in the café one summer, and Fay reminded me that Bob Burnison, Ruby Hile, and Jack Buffner were three more of the many who helped them in the early years.

During the summer the café would be packed at noon with the workers from the packing houses, and Fay recalls that Fred and Ernie Earll, Ben Selover, Sam Gilman, Charley Meeham, Boyd Smoot, Valdo Smith, Lloyd Zimmerman, Ralph McGuire and many others who worked at Barton's Garage next door were good customers.

When the Youngs sold out, they bought a lemon grove on the corner of Imperial and Lemon, where the bowling alley is located, and lived there until 1960. They then moved to their present home on Avolinda. Wow! I've worked up a blister. I'll have to put up my knife until next week for some more whittlin'.