Market Memories

I take exception to a statement by Michelle Huneven in “Neighborly Charm: Straight From the Farm” (June 21, 1990). She says, “The Villa Parke Market was only the second such market in Southern California--the first was in Gardena.”

I was born in 1920 in Long Beach. As I remember, our family went to the open-air market every Saturday morning and sometimes on Wednesdays. The market was in what was then Lincoln Park in Downtown Long Beach. Individual stalls were set up all around the edge of the park. We wouldn’t have missed it for anything. My parents made very good friends with some of the vendors. The market was still going strong when I left Long Beach after World War II to move to Santa Ana, which was still mostly bean fields, and boysenberries were still a large crop for Knott’s Berry Farm.

ANNETTE A.

Covina