 Clare
B. Richardson1 ,
2 , 3,
4, 5,
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17, 18
| My son, Brian was a Cub Scout in Chino
Hills, California for several years until 2003. Meetings of Pack 220 were held
at a couple of local elementary schools over the years on most Monday nights.
It became a tradition to stop by the Dairy Queen located in a strip mall, located
between a Quiznos Sandwich Shop and a Rubios Mexican Food Restaurant, to enjoy
our favorite ice cream treat after every meeting. There we met Jack Lu, the owner,
who was born in Taiwan and was a Boy's Scout many years ago in his native country.
He would always salute Brian and ask him scout questions to refresh his own memory
of his own experience. On the west wall of his establishment, the wall shared
with Quiznos, is a huge 6' x 16' spectacular black and white mural made from an
original high resolution photograph featuring an old time Dairy Queen. The three
cars in the picture are no newer than 1939 and the clothes the people are wearing
are definitely from a day gone by. The picture is unusually clear for such a large
size. It was obviously summer and there was a large crowd formed to see a master
of ceremonies with a clown on a platform. My first guess was it was a Sunday and
some sort of grand opening. I was later to learn that I was wrong on both counts.
I asked when I first saw that mural, where it was taken and I was told "New Jersey"
from one of the college-aged employees during one of my visits. It didn't look
quite like New Jersey to me, possible but not likely. In fact because of the brick
fire station and nearby hills in the background, I envisioned maybe West Virginia
with a two lane road winding out of a hill down in front of the fire station and
the local Dairy Queen on into town. |
|
One day back in late 2001 a clipping from the August, 2001 issue of the Dairy
Queen franchise magazine World of DQ was photocopied and attached to the glass
near the entryway of the Chino Hills establishment. The title of the clipping
was "Do You Recognize This Photo?" There was a short article with Dairy Queen
actually asking where this photo used to create the mural was taken. They also
wanted to know who owned the store and when the photo was taken. A phone number
to Janna Rider, Visual Merchandiser at International Dairy Queen in Edina, Minnesota
was provided along with her e-mail address. You see Dairy Queen had no idea where,
when, or why the picture was taken either and franchise owners of the 75 or so
outlets had been relentlessly asked by many patrons where it was and when. No
one could provide an answer and often owners made up best guesses to pacify. So
it was not uncommon to hear "New Jersey" or "Massachusetts." The same thing happened
for the year of the picture, and because of the older cars in the mural, the date
was often guessed to be in the early 1940's. Dairy Queen was absolutely clueless
about time or place. |
| Only weeks
before I saw the mural for the first time, I had bought a book of license plates
in color through the years for my nostalgic collection of Route 66. I am a big
Route 66 enthusiast and travel all parts of that highway frequently as well as
attend annual Route 66 conventions in one of the eight states in which the highway
passes through. This 1994 book I found was called "License Plates of the United
States, A Pictorial History, 1903 To The Present" by James K. Fox and published
by Interstate Directory Publishing Company, Inc. New York. The book is a $29.95
book containing 176 pages and is now out of print selling upwards of $200 on eBay.
Anyway I decided to bring my book to the Dairy Queen and match the license plates
on the cars to a year and a state. The license plates in the black and white mural
were relatively clear with the license plate number on two of the cars are very
easy to read at that size. But the smaller wording above and below the numbers
was impossible to read. It appeared to say "Land of _________" under the plate
number and the state and year were too obscure to read above the plate number.
Could this be Illinois "Land of Lincoln?" But a look through Mr. Fox's book clearly
indicated the state was Arkansas and the year seemed to match the 1953 plate shown
as an example. Just like the example in the book, all cars had six digit plates
separated by a dash in the middle. All had a light background with dark numbers.
The license plate motto at the bottom was therefore "Land of Opportunity." I looked
at formats from all states to be absolutely sure it could be no other. Only 5
states in various years could qualify for having a similar format (i.e. wording
above and below the plate number) but of those five, it was clearly Arkansas and
I was hooked on the 1953 year as it appeared to match the sample in Mr. Fox's
book so well. I was taken back to now realize the picture was newer than everyone
was thinking. The old cars had a way of making everyone think it was in the early
1940's. But a closer look at the clothes revealed some early 50's styling in the
print pattern on one of the ladies dresses. I later learned that it was common
for people to keep their older cars because they became more scarce during the
war years. |
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