Reader Harold C. "Hap" Rogers writes in reply to a query about Dick Dale's.

In answer to the question by Steve Clow about the bar & restaurant of Dick Dale's on Ventura Blvd in Woodland Hills. I remember it well. When I first remember it back in the '40's it was owned by the Costa family, as I recall. The Costa's were a family that raised and had herds of sheep in the west end of San Fernando Valley. Also as I recall, the restaurant was primarily Italian food. Sometime later, maybe in the 50's the restaurant was sold to friends of ours, Joe & Estelle (Tucker) LaTona and they specialized in very good Mexican food for quite some time. Sometime, maybe in the late 50's Joe & Estelle sold to Dick Dale, as Steve said, of the Lawrence Welk Show. What became of it after that I do not know...

Incidentally, Estelles father, Fred Tucker, was the foreman of the old Warner Bros Ranch in Calabasas for many years. Our families would often go to the big Olympic-size pool for a swim at the Warners Ranch. They also had a pine tree forest there where many of the old westerns were filmed, along with a Mexican town that made you think you were in old Mexico.

If I can help with anymore information please let me know, as we moved to North Los Angeles, now known as Northridge, in 1935. I went to the old Reseda Grammar School in tents before the new school was built after the 1932-1933 earthquake, and then on to Van Nuys High School, class of Winter '44.

Sincerely,
Harold C. "Hap" Rogers
Yerington, Nevada

Thank you for the info.