Remembering the Clown

Thank you to Lynell George for her terrific article regarding Jack in the Box (“My Life With the Clown,” March 28). I felt like she must have lived my childhood! I think “Jack in the Box” were the first words I learned to spell as I had a Grandma who would take me to Jack’s, but to keep it a secret, she would spell it out to my mom. Thank you for a Thursday morning walk down memory lane.

--KELLEE McCRORY

Santa Ana

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While reading “My Life With the Clown,” I thought I could actually smell the wafting aroma of childhood memory. A hamburger, French fries and a vanilla shake would cost a whopping 77 cents. But coming from a poor family, I had to earn all that money myself. So a skinny 8-year-old kid would work all day cutting back ivy, pulling weeds, pruning trees or catching snails in my neighbor’s garden. But at day’s end, I would clean up (maybe), get on my bike and fly to the Jack in the Box at the corner of Hawthorne and Compton boulevards in Lawndale. That simple pleasure of ordering and paying with my own hard-earned money made it all worthwhile.

--JOE MORENO

Dana Point

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Russ Parsons’ tale of his experience in a fast food joint (“Dog Days,” March 28) brought back memories. I am another of those legions of adults who look back fondly at their adolescent stints in fast food joints. While in high school, I spent two summers working the hot dog stand at the now-defunct Marineland of the Pacific amuseument park, happily dishing out pungent krautdogs and greasy chilidogs to endless lines of hungry tourists. The chili for our hot dogs came in huge, industrial-sized cans; before heating and serving the chili, we’d always remove the two-inch layer of hard orange grease at the top. I’ll never forget how we got in trouble one day after the new manager caught us and declared it wasteful, stating that we could make at least 15 extra chili dogs per can if we kept the grease in.

--DONNA COLIN

Los Angeles

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I just wanted to drop you a line to let you know how much I enjoyed Lynell George’s article. It brought back memories of singing the Jack in the Box theme to the clown in the box. Fortunately, unlike Homer Simpson, I was not arrested for teasing the clown.

--RANDALL H. STONER

San Francisco