Monday, September 2, 2013

Johnny's Sports Shop, 1402 N. Lincoln Avenue, Since 1958

 One of our treasures in Pasadena, definitely the Pasadena many of us remember from years ago.

At one time, there was a large Japanese community in Pasadena in this area.  Here is a link to the history:  http://www.japantownatlas.com/map-pasadena.html

              http://californiajapantowns.org/pasadena.html

The interior of Johnny's looks just like the 1950's.  The family owns the NE corner of Lincoln and Washington where they formally operated a Japanese food market and also several bungalows surrounding Johnny's.

Johnny's is one of the few places you can get your rod and reel repaired and their reel rewinding apparatus is something to be seen.

Around the corner is the Pasadena Buddhist Temple http://www.pasadenabuddhisttemple.org/ and the Pasadena Japanese Cultural Institute is down Lincoln, not far away.  http://janet.org/~pjci/

A few doors away is another defunct Japanese food market on North Lincoln; the former Futaba Food Center is just up the way from Johnny's:
http://www.yelp.com/biz/futaba-food-center-pasadena
It's an ever changing world:
http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=1507+north+lincoln+pasadena+ca&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
Here an article from Pasadena Now about Johnny's:
http://www.pasadenanow.com/main/the-happiest-place-in-town
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4 comments:

  1. North of the 210September 4, 2013 at 8:07 AM

    This is a tremendous article. I hope you will allow me to repost it on North of the 210 blog and Facebook page. What you have done with this story is exactly what I intended when I started North of the 210...tell the stories of a community of people who chose to live and or work above Washington and west of Lake.

    My family moved to Pasadena when I was 4 years old. First I attended Washington Elementary School and then Jackson. The student population at both schools had a strong Japanese presence. My sister and I were enthralled by the cultural aspects the Japanese students lived and shared with the rest of us.

    As an adult I took my children to the Festival that the Temple shared with the community.

    Thank you for sharing a vanishing part of our community. As long as the stories are told, that part of the community continues to exist.

    Gloria Mushonga-Roberts

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  2. Petrea BurchardSeptember 5, 2013 at 9:53 PM

    Wonderful as always, Thal. I have never been in there. Time to go.

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  3. Stephen CooperSeptember 19, 2013 at 10:53 AM

    I went there the other day to get a net for my son's pigeons...and was happily surprised by how friendly and helpful they were.

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  4. Randy HeesNovember 25, 2013 at 12:23 AM

    Jonnies was my father's preferred local fishing tackle store, c. 1965... They knew more than others... Lincon Ave Lumber was near by... local lumber yard... the railroad line still was active in '65... not much after... Of course I went to Muir a few years later... It seems like home...

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