Things Are Looking Up in Old Town

Thank you for the recent article on Pasadena’s Old Town (Times, May 28).

In 1973, Old Town was definitely the place to go. Poohbah’s record store was originally there, on Fair Oaks Avenue, down in the basement. There was a leather shop where Loch Ness Monster Pub now stands, and I still wear my “Chromos” T-shirt (from an eatery now closed) when I go into the area nowadays.

The Rose City Diner is so crowded my wife, Jeanne, and I can’t get in, but we have been to Dodsworth’s and to the new United Artists theater. Yes,things seem to be looking up once again. In fact, the Old Town feeling stretches down to Mission Street in South Pasadena, and over to Sierra Madre Boulevard.

I liken it to the Haight-Ashbury district (in San Francisco) when the “Summer of Love” was happening and to Venice or Santa Monica or Marina del Rey or Melrose Avenue. Yes, it’s trendy to visit Pasadena today.

PAUL J. HANSEN JR.

Pasadena