There's a new restaurant coming soon in Folsom called Mas
Taco Bar at Palladio in Folsom. Mas Taco Bar will be at... "Wait, wait, wait, wait. Wait till next
week to do this one", says Hayden. "Why?", says mom. "We
are planning on going somewhere fun tonight." "What is that?", says my mom. "Let's go to Fork Lift in Cameron Park",
says Hayden. "Why would you want to
go to Fork Lift", says Mom. "There's
something I want to show you at Fork Lift", says Hayden.
Why are we at Fork Lift again, says Caleb, my brother. There is something I want to show you. Do you see this Sam Town plaque. This is a plaque of the old place called
Sam's Town. Then we started to head back
to the car to head back home. Is this why we are not doing a blogpost today,
says Caleb, because this would only take a few minutes to look at and then head
back. No, no, no. There's more to this. Much more.
Then my family and I headed back to Fork Lift and then I
showed the new photo booth looking thing outside Fork Lift like they have at
the mall. This is the new Time machine which takes you back in time to the past
or it can take you to the future, says Hayden. Just push this lever thing and
it takes you back in time.
Where are we? We're in March 25th, 1982 at Sam's Town in Cameron Park. What is this place, here? Shoot, you're at Sam's Town, the cutest little restaurant in Cameron Park, says the front door host at Sam's Town. I have never heard of this place, says Caleb. You are obviously not from here, are you? They have a restaurant which serves some really delicious steak. "That sounds really good because we are both very hungry", says Hayden. Plus, we have an arcade where you can play all the fun new arcade games such as Donkey Kong, Pac Man, and other fun games you might want to play on your visit. You will have a blast playing here!!, says the host. Oh my!, says Hayden, Check this out, they have Galaga. I love to play that! Space Invaders too!! This is awesome!! Why haven't I ever heard of this place before. You said you lived out of town didn't you. Where exactly do you live anyway?, says the host. I live in Cameron Park, says Hayden. I actually live in the year of 2019, and I wasn't even born until 2001.
Where are we going,
says Caleb. Today, you (Caleb) and I
(Hayden) will be spending five days in the past visiting different places in
Placerville in the year 1982. I want to go back because I just
received a 1982 Pacific Telephone phonebook of the Amador, El Dorado, and
Placer Counties area which I really love to look at. In the phone book, I have
found many different businesses that were there in 1982, some of which are
still in business to this day such as Raley's, Safeway (in a different
location, at the Fair Lane shopping center in 1982), True Value, Placerville
Hardware, McDonald's, Jimboy's Tacos, and others."
Then, the lightning strikes in the time machine and zaps us
into the past.
The city of Placerville
in the year 1982
Where are we? We're in March 25th, 1982 at Sam's Town in Cameron Park. What is this place, here? Shoot, you're at Sam's Town, the cutest little restaurant in Cameron Park, says the front door host at Sam's Town. I have never heard of this place, says Caleb. You are obviously not from here, are you? They have a restaurant which serves some really delicious steak. "That sounds really good because we are both very hungry", says Hayden. Plus, we have an arcade where you can play all the fun new arcade games such as Donkey Kong, Pac Man, and other fun games you might want to play on your visit. You will have a blast playing here!!, says the host. Oh my!, says Hayden, Check this out, they have Galaga. I love to play that! Space Invaders too!! This is awesome!! Why haven't I ever heard of this place before. You said you lived out of town didn't you. Where exactly do you live anyway?, says the host. I live in Cameron Park, says Hayden. I actually live in the year of 2019, and I wasn't even born until 2001.
"What!!!!"
You are saying you aren't even born yet. Are you saying you are from the
future?, says the host. I guess you could say that too, says Hayden. Yikes!!
Can you tell us what is in the future?
I would rather prefer not to, but I when I get back home, I could take
you with me so you could see it yourself, says Hayden. I would love to. Are there flying cars and
hover boards and other interesting things. I would love to try one of them out,
says the Sam's town employee. "I am
actually going to be in the area for this week." For what? I am actually
going to do some sightseeing of Placerville and visiting Main Street.
Thank you for
the delicious steak that you cooked for me and for the fun games at the arcade
of this restaurant, says Hayden. Make sure you come back and visit Sam's Town
again. You know we have an antique store which you can find some fun souvenirs
and plus we have more arcade games you would like to play. I'll make sure I come back when I am in
Cameron Park.
On the
second day of my adventure, I took the bus and headed to Placerville. In
Placerville, our first stores we went to were Payless Drug (now Rite Aid),
Safeway (now Big Lots, Safeway moved to Missouri Flat Road in 2004, 22 years
into the future) where I bought some food for our trip. In the same center, I
visited the record store Nancie's
Records where I looked for different records, cassettes, and tapes for
me to buy so I could listen to them on the trip. At Nancie's Records, I bought
the Rush Moving Pictures cassette and an ELO Cassette and I bought a cassette player
so I could listen to them.
After we left Nancie's Records, we ate lunch at Carl's Jr
(still in business serving customers in 2019 as they did in 1982) next door
where we ate a hamburger with fries.
After we ate, I saw the Harrell Ford dealership (now
Thompson's Dodge Chrysler Jeep Ram in 2019) outside across the freeway, Denny's next door(still in business in 2019) and
natural forest. As I saw the area, I pondered.
Where I live, I would see In N Out Burger, OfficeMax, an ARCO station,
Health and Human Services, and Thompson Toyota across the freeway. Then I thought. Where I live is in the
future, they haven't been built yet, not until 1999(17 years from 1982).
Then we headed back to the Payless Drug area to Placerville
Drive where I saw the Family Chevrolet dealership (now Thompson's Buick GMC
dealership), Weber Creek Inn (now Century 21 Real Estate) where I would
eventually stay 4 nights at, Big O Tires (still in business in 2019), the
Placerville Fairgrounds (still there), Raley's Supermarket (still in business
in 2019), and Tinker's Cove (now Durango's Mexican Restaurant in 2019).
Then I headed on the bus and visited Main Street in Placerville where I was stopped on the bus. While I was there, I visited Ben Franklin's
Five and Dime (most recently was Candy Strike Emporium), Cary House Hotel (was closed in 1982, but it
is open and serving customers in 2019), the Round Tent Store (the Cascada in
2019), Dillinger Furniture (now Bonker's Toys and an Aveda salon), Placerville News Company (still in business
in 2019) where I looked at some different gifts that I was interested in,
Placerville Hardware (still in business and is currently the oldest hardware
store west of the Mississippi), Arian's Sporting Goods (still in business in
2019), and visited the Placerville Courthouse.
After that, I headed down to East Main Street where I visited the
Montgomery Ward Catalog Store (now the Independent restaurant) where I saw some
different tools and appliances, then I
saw the Stancil's Toyota (the Toyota dealership in Placerville before they
moved to where they are at currently in 2019 and became Thompson's Toyota, the old dealership is now Sierra Nevada Tire
and Wheel) where I headed to the Midtown Mall to visit Windborn Christian
Bookstore. At Windborn Christian
bookstore, we browsed through the bibles, cards, gifts, records and cassettes,
and the video tapes. I ended up buying
the Christian rock band Petra's record Never Say Die, the New Gaither Vocal
Band record, and nice cards for my Grandma Laura and Grandpa Darryl who lived
on Green Valley Road(moved to Diamond Springs in 1983 where they live today),
and Grandma Teddy and Grandpa Al who
live in El Dorado (still living in the same house in 2019 as they did back in
1982).
Placerville for 36 more years until
January of 2019 and awaits a new tenant, but that doesn't matter in 1982
because they were doing a fine business being the largest store in town. It
almost felt like the Wal-Mart stores in the South), Lucky Grocery Store (still
operating under the Save Mart Supermarket name), Long's Drugs (still operating
now under the CVS Pharmacy name) , Bank of America, Judy's Hallmark, Kragen
Auto Supply( still operating under the O Reily Auto Parts name), Straw Hat
Pizza (now Anytime Fitness), and other stores.
Then we headed back to the Payless Drug area to Placerville
Drive where I saw the Family Chevrolet dealership (now Thompson's Buick GMC
dealership), Weber Creek Inn (now Century 21 Real Estate) where I would
eventually stay 4 nights at, Big O Tires (still in business in 2019), the
Placerville Fairgrounds (still there), Raley's Supermarket (still in business
in 2019), and Tinker's Cove (now Durango's Mexican Restaurant in 2019). 
Then I headed on the bus and visited Main Street in Placerville where I was stopped on the bus. While I was there, I visited Ben Franklin's
Five and Dime (most recently was Candy Strike Emporium), Cary House Hotel (was closed in 1982, but it
is open and serving customers in 2019), the Round Tent Store (the Cascada in
2019), Dillinger Furniture (now Bonker's Toys and an Aveda salon), Placerville News Company (still in business
in 2019) where I looked at some different gifts that I was interested in,
Placerville Hardware (still in business and is currently the oldest hardware
store west of the Mississippi), Arian's Sporting Goods (still in business in
2019), and visited the Placerville Courthouse.
After that, I headed down to East Main Street where I visited the
Montgomery Ward Catalog Store (now the Independent restaurant) where I saw some
different tools and appliances, then I
saw the Stancil's Toyota (the Toyota dealership in Placerville before they
moved to where they are at currently in 2019 and became Thompson's Toyota, the old dealership is now Sierra Nevada Tire
and Wheel) where I headed to the Midtown Mall to visit Windborn Christian
Bookstore. At Windborn Christian
bookstore, we browsed through the bibles, cards, gifts, records and cassettes,
and the video tapes. I ended up buying
the Christian rock band Petra's record Never Say Die, the New Gaither Vocal
Band record, and nice cards for my Grandma Laura and Grandpa Darryl who lived
on Green Valley Road(moved to Diamond Springs in 1983 where they live today),
and Grandma Teddy and Grandpa Al who
live in El Dorado (still living in the same house in 2019 as they did back in
1982).
On the fourth day of my adventure, We went to Church at
Placer Heights Baptist Church where I saw Grandma Laura and Grandpa Darryl and
my mom Kimberly as a eight year old girl, and my Great Grandma Hazel (who is still living in 2019 in
Diamond Springs). At church, we heard Reverend Harley Weldin preach about Jesus
Christ dying on the cross to save me from my sin and rising from the dead the
third day. Then we sang hymns before and
after the service, one of which was On Christ the Solid Rock I stand, all other
ground is sinking sand.
Then after church, me, my brother, Grandma Laura, Grandpa
Darryl, Kimberly as an 8 year old, and Melinda as a 3 year old, ate lunch at
A&W Root Beer (now Weinerschnitzel) on Broadway in Placerville. At A&W Root Beer, we ate a delicious
American meal of Burgers with French Fries with a good sip of root beer. That
was some good root beer!! That almost rivaled Big A's Root Beer up in Grass
Valley
(they have some tasty burgers and fries with some really good root beer), I thought. But then I thought, Big A's Root Beer is in the future. It is A&W Root Beer in Grass Valley.
(they have some tasty burgers and fries with some really good root beer), I thought. But then I thought, Big A's Root Beer is in the future. It is A&W Root Beer in Grass Valley.
After lunch, we all visited the Beno's Department Store (now
Grocery Outlet) where we went shopping for clothes ( not my favorite thing to
do), but it was fun because I found some different sporting goods things on
sale which I bought with my money. We
also visited the fabric store Prange's Fabrics in the same shopping center
where we look at different fabrics to buy.
 |
| Picture of Kmart in 1981 (from Romleys on Flickr). |
The next day, we decided to head to the new Prospector's
Plaza center with Kmart(would operate in
 |
| Picture of Lucky's in 1981 (from Romleys on Flickr) |
For dinner, we all ate at King Richard's Pizza (now the
Placerville Food Co-op) on Placerville Drive where Dad loved to play arcade
games and to eat pizza, and where I ate a little salad because that's what I
could eat because of my gluten allergy.
Then we went back to Main Street and for a treat, watched a
movie at the Empire Theater with Grandma Freda and Grandpa Lee (both have gone
to be with the Lord), Grandma Laura, Grandpa Darryl, Kimberly, Melinda, and I
invited Grandma Teddy, Grandpa Al, my father Matthew (only 12 years old), and
Michelle to come with us to see the movie. The movie was entertaining and we
all thought that it was a fun movie.
The final day of our trip, we went back to Cameron Park and
visited the Safeway center before we headed back to Sam's Town. At the shopping center, we visited the Radio
Shack store, Cameron Park Health Foods (still in business in 2019), and Safeway
(still in business, but renovated and expanded in a different spot, in 2019).
Then, we went back to Sam's Town. Before we went back in the time travel
machine to go back to the present, I played Pac Man and Donkey Kong at the
arcade which I had a really fun time playing and was also really good at
playing. Then, to enjoy Sam's Town one last time before I go back to the
present, I visited the antique shop with
Grandma Freda and Grandpa Lee, who loved looking at all the different antiques
they had. While I was there, they told
me that Grandpa Lee's dad David Cleveland Beaver who died in 1973, 9 years ago
in 1982, used to be a blacksmith which Grandma Mary (who has gone to be with
the Lord) also told me at her house.
After three hours of being at Sam's Town, it was time to go
home, Back to the Present. I really
loved this fun trip of mine back in the past with my brother and I hope to go
back in the past again sometime soon!!
Back to the
Present
At Five o clock on Friday March 29th, I headed back to Fork Lift. While I was there, we went into
my brother's Ford Mustang which took me back home. Back home, while we were eating dinner, I
told my parents that I had a blast in the past. I told them about all the
different business I visited and my time with my mom and dad when they were
little kids with their parents which are my grandparents. It was so cool!! I told them that I want to go back to the
past again!!
 |
| Me (Hayden) with my 1982 Phonebook after my visit into the past |
 |
| Caleb with his mustang before we headed into the past |
Back to what we were saying about Mas Taco Bar. We will tell
you next week about the new restaurant!!
Make sure you check it out when it is posted on my blog!!
The LORD
changes times and seasons. He removes kings and sets up kings. He gives wisdom
to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding. Daniel 4:14
Thank you for
reading my blogpost and God bless!!
