Growing Up in Long Beach

How quickly the memories fade of local and favorite hangouts that once helped define Long Beach. In this collection, Tim Grobaty remembers growing up in the fast-growing new neighborhoods of East Long Beach, the beloved places downtown that were part of the city’s mid-twentieth-century fabric and a few obscure spots in the margins. Long Beach’s memory lane includes the dearly departed restaurants the Golden Lantern in Los Altos and Rusty’s in the Wrigley District, the Circle and Los Altos Drive-Ins, great concerts of the 1970s in the arena and auditorium and the shoppers’ paradises of Uncle Al’s Toy Korral in the Plaza and Buffum’s downtown. Join Press-Telegram columnist Tim Grobaty as he records Long Beach residents’ recollections and taps his own boomer-years memories.