Lunch Counter Is Taste of Nostalgia

When the Alhambra Woolworth store opened on Main Street in October, 1945, it had two floors, 126 employees, a big curved-glass entry and a lunch counter that stretched almost the length of the building. It stood like a beacon that identified the heart of a bustling downtown.

Forty years later almost everything in downtown Alhambra has changed, but 1945 lives on at the Woolworth lunch counter.

For more than three decades, people walked in from Penney’s and Lieberg’s Department Store down the street, from hardware and furniture stores, and from a big telephone company building.

In the pre-plastic, pre-takeout era, they lined up at the lunch counter where waitresses called them “Hon.” They were given metal forks and spoons to eat food that was served on china plates.

Penney’s and Lieberg’s closed long ago, as did most of the nearby furniture and hardware stores. Telephone company employees were transferred from the big building when it was converted to house electronic equipment.

All the stores a block away were razed and replaced by a shopping mall. More than a dozen takeout food stands and coffee shops line Main Street.

But Woolworth’s, although down to one floor and 16 employees, looks the same, with its quaint “luncheonette” sign. It also sounds the same, with the clank of silverware, glasses and dishes and waitresses calling customers “Hon.”