Kevinpreston3
Well-known member
- Joined
- Apr 28, 2005
- Messages
- 484
Here is an interesting story.
In about 1959, my parents were in the second year of their first new house in Anaheim. I was not born yet, my two sisters were 2 and 5 years old. Furniture was sparse in their house at the beginning, in fact, lawn chairs served double duty in the living room the first year they were there!
As a few years went by and the finances settled, my parents wanted a new dinette. Interestingly, a guy was going door to door in their still new neighborhood selling "built in" dinettes. What this meant was that they would measure whatever corner wall you had, and would build a dinette in an "L" to fit exactly. My parents bought it.
This same dinette set was part of our kitchen, and various homes, from 1959 to 1970, where it was then used in our finished basement in our Denver home. It was still in perfect condition, and its mate was a huge white smooth topped table with those gold sparkles in it (you know the kind). Both of them were left behind when we moved from our San Diego house in 1979. (yes, I went back there last year on a lark just to see if they had it or know where it went. And was disappointed obviously).
About 5 years ago I visited the warehouse of the vintage store where we bought most of our Heywood-Wakefield. They were refinishing some items for us, when what do I see on its end in the corner? A dinette extremely close to my parents! It had a slightly different seat color on the lower panels, and the opposite side was longer than my parents, but it was ABSOLUTELY the same manufacturer and style, down to the two piece construction and metal trim piece along the bottom. And aside from one small tear that had black tape on it, it was perfect. Not having a place to put it in our old house, I naturally bought it.
Here it is in our present home in the office area, with its admittedly too-small companion table. (although the base of that table is very cool vintage).
The top seat area on my parents' was more of a charcoal, and it had that same pattern as was in the yellow. On this model, the seating area is black and smooth--obviously there was some choice when you ordered this.
This unit was pulled out of a older house in Santa Ana that was getting remodeled.
Interstingly, it still has a badge on the bottom rail area, "Plasti-Chrome", of Pico California. That dates it pretty well, as I believe that Pico became Pico Rivera sometime in the early 60s, as it is named now. Interestingly, I have not been able to find any other information on this manufacturer.
In about 1959, my parents were in the second year of their first new house in Anaheim. I was not born yet, my two sisters were 2 and 5 years old. Furniture was sparse in their house at the beginning, in fact, lawn chairs served double duty in the living room the first year they were there!
As a few years went by and the finances settled, my parents wanted a new dinette. Interestingly, a guy was going door to door in their still new neighborhood selling "built in" dinettes. What this meant was that they would measure whatever corner wall you had, and would build a dinette in an "L" to fit exactly. My parents bought it.
This same dinette set was part of our kitchen, and various homes, from 1959 to 1970, where it was then used in our finished basement in our Denver home. It was still in perfect condition, and its mate was a huge white smooth topped table with those gold sparkles in it (you know the kind). Both of them were left behind when we moved from our San Diego house in 1979. (yes, I went back there last year on a lark just to see if they had it or know where it went. And was disappointed obviously).
About 5 years ago I visited the warehouse of the vintage store where we bought most of our Heywood-Wakefield. They were refinishing some items for us, when what do I see on its end in the corner? A dinette extremely close to my parents! It had a slightly different seat color on the lower panels, and the opposite side was longer than my parents, but it was ABSOLUTELY the same manufacturer and style, down to the two piece construction and metal trim piece along the bottom. And aside from one small tear that had black tape on it, it was perfect. Not having a place to put it in our old house, I naturally bought it.
Here it is in our present home in the office area, with its admittedly too-small companion table. (although the base of that table is very cool vintage).
The top seat area on my parents' was more of a charcoal, and it had that same pattern as was in the yellow. On this model, the seating area is black and smooth--obviously there was some choice when you ordered this.
This unit was pulled out of a older house in Santa Ana that was getting remodeled.
Interstingly, it still has a badge on the bottom rail area, "Plasti-Chrome", of Pico California. That dates it pretty well, as I believe that Pico became Pico Rivera sometime in the early 60s, as it is named now. Interestingly, I have not been able to find any other information on this manufacturer.
