About this episode

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Hello, my name is Teddy Borja and I was born and have lived in Escondido most of my life. Growing up in Escondido, the summers were always particularly memorable. I lived on the corner of Juniper and Pennsylvania, which was the best place to live because everything was so close like the Ritz Theater, Grape Day Park and the Boy's Club. In fact, I remember "A Perfect Escondido Summer Day in 1957," when I was about 10 years old. In the early morning, I would meet the guys at our bamboo river fort in the Escondido Creek river bed to plan the day. First, we would make bamboo bean shooters, because the city parade down Grand Avenue would start in an hour. We would dart up Juniper Street and turn up Pennsylvania Avenue towards Kalmia. Turning on Kalmia, we would end up at the alley behind Grand Avenue. There, we would find the nearest fire escape and climb up for a bird's eye view of the parade. The best place was above Joe's Barber Shop. Waiting for the high school band, we would make sure we had plenty of beans in our mouths so that when the tuba players came by, we could blow the beans into the tuba. Once we got our thrill and heard, "Hey, you kids," we would climb down and run up behind the Big E Market to scout out cardboard boxes. Out of the cardboard, we would rip apart a piece that would make a good "grass sled." It only took about five minutes to get to the old High School where we would spend the next two hours sliding down the grassy knoll. You couldn't have a better "free ride," even though we would have to dodge the sprinkler heads that could rip our pants or chip our front teeth at any moment. Around noon, we would all rush home to satisfy our appetites. Afterward, we would meet up again at the Boy's Club on Broadway next to Grape Day Park. There we would see our other friends, play pool and ping pong, shoot some baskets, and work on our wood shop projects. Around 2:30 or 3:00 PM in the afternoon, we would set off for The Plunge at Grape Day Park to swim and cool off. During the Depression, the Works Progress Administration (WPA), which was part of President Roosevelt's New Deal Program, built swimming pools. For example, the pool featured in the movie, The Sandlot, was a WPA-built pool. The Plunge in Grape Day Park was also built by the WPA during the Depression. The Plunge used to be where the Railroad Car in Grape Day Park currently is. They later built a new swimming pool where the where Finney Field was once located. After an hour or so, we would take a hike up Broadway to the corner of Grand Avenue. At Ting's Pharmacy, we could always get a great double ice cream cone for a dime at the soda fountain. My favorite was chocolate! Now, it was time to race off for home, making sure you were not late for dinner. It was great to share the adventures of my day with my family. If I were lucky, we would go back to the plunge for night swimming. I always wanted to see my friends. We might have even been lucky enough to catch a softball game at Finney Field after we left the plunge. What lucky kids we were!

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