Hussongs Bar

From the Log . . .

I cannot remember exactly the first year that I came to Ensenada, but I would say that it was probably in or near 1919. At that time, there were only a few buildings on the main street. I can remember the bar known as Hussongs, was there and I can remember the Commercial Hotel that was either built or in the process of being built. The large Hotel Playa de Ensenada came in the 30’s and I can remember the building of that with the gambling casino and the various parties that went on in that hotel. From the first remembrance of Ensenada, I must say that it has undergone a remarkable transformation. At the present time, there are beautiful hotels along the beach. The Play de Ensenada is now called the Pacifico and although the gambling casino is musty and closed up, the beauty of that original architecture and tile still remains. It is said to see a beautiful hotel with only a few guests.

We were in, yesterday, to the Impardor Bar, which has a very interesting painting in back of the bar and has its glassware spotless and clean.

I think all bartenders are pleasant people, on the whole, and yet the Mexican bar tender seems to have a charm about him and a pleasantness that is unusual. They talk to you kindly, are helpful in trying to show you a new type of drink, and on the whole make a very pleasant afternoon, when you walk around a foreign town seeing things.

Hussongs Bar looks exactly as it did 40 years ago. I am told that it looks exactly as it did 80 years ago. As a matter of fact, the Hussong family is one of the oldest families in lower California and are most influential in every way, not only from a social, but from a financial standpoint as well. I understand that they have very large holdings including a number of motels. Some of the family resides in San Diego, but on the whole, they are still very large holder in lower California equities.

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I’m going to make this post short.

hmmm, I can hear a sigh of relief, ahhh, what's that about?

Can it be that Hussongs bar looks exactly like it did in 1953?

Several years ago, I went by my grandfather’s house. Not the one my mother remembers from her childhood, but the one Grandfather and Marilyn lived in. The one I remember from my childhood. It no longer has the magic that it had when I was young, and my grandfather was living in it.

Where is the magic in Hussongs bar?

I’ve decided to keep a list of the months of 2006, 2007 and 2008 in a spreadsheet.

There will be a column for Tillerman and another for EVK4. I’ll mark each off as I read the archives. That way perhaps I’ll avoid the convolutions that occurred when I tried to read Tillerman from beginning to present. I’ll take the months in no particular order, and just read when I feel like it, instead of trying to do it book fashion.

This also calls in question what I’m doing with my Grandfather’s log, or journal. If it is so hard to read a blog from beginning to end, then the order in which the log entries appear is going to make it tough for a blog reader to read them until I figure out how to edit the home page sidebar of Ayala Sandbox to list the entries there in chapter form.

Thankfully, Chapman is a book.

I know how to read a book.