c.1940 ^    Robert, [neighbor girl], Teruko, Benji    (in background: new Sakoguchi grocery store under construction)      

"My sister always looked out for me, even after I grew up."    [ben sakoguchi]

Ben Sakoguchi   acrylic on canvas   1999 ^

c.1948 ^  Horace & Benji 'sparring' in Sakoguchi front yard  

"Don't know why Horace and I clicked, but we did...he was from Oklahoma, or Arkansas, I think...wore overalls a lot...'Hey Benji, ya know what THIS is?' and he took a piece of skin about the size of a silver dollar out of his pocket. 'It's a PIG'S TEAT!'    [ben sakoguchi]

c. 1952 ^    Helen & Judy  (camera:  looking north on Allen street)

"Judy was one of Beto Ybarra's daughters.  She died...probably not too long after that picture was taken.  She was accidentally scalded with tea that caused really bad burns.  I remember how sad it was."    [ben sakoguchi]

c. 1962 ^   Kid Brother with his best bud on Easter Sunday (camera:  looking north on Allen street, after pepper trees were gone

• EL BARRIO CHINO •

1940's-50's ^  Institutions & businesses in the "Barrio Chino" area, south and east of Meadowbrook Park(called Barrio Chino because San Bernardino's Chinatown had once lined Third Street, along the section where the Division of Highways was located now).

"There was nothing much beyond Waterman, just open fields.  There were houses on the other side of Rialto, then it got thinner and semi-rural as you headed south to Mill street.  Above Rialto, the neighborhood was more compact."    [ben sakoguchi]

• NEIGHBORS •

^ A selection of neighbors who were listed as "Head of Household" on the Sixteenth Census of the United States in 1940 (map detail shows the northeastern part of Meadowbrook neighborhood, near the Sakoguchi grocery, located at Allen & King streets)

"Most of our closest neighbors–they were also customers in our store–were Mexican American.  (There were a handful of African Americans, and the white neighbors that I can recall were the Chovicks, who had the grocery store on the next corner...and Horace, who lived a couple doors down.)

"I wasn't exactly a 'homie'...but when this aggressive kid messed with me in shop class at Sturges [junior high] the guys from Meadowbrook were right on it...they had my back."    [ben sakoguchi]

• EAST THIRD STREET •

APRIL 2012 ^    Google street views    (camera:  looking west, toward Meadowbrook Park)  &  (camera:  looking south, near Waterman ave)

"Before the National Guard building went up, that side of Third street was a wide open field...with these thick reeds along the creek.  We liked to explore down there, but one time we got shot at with BB-guns from the Waterman overpass...we had to run for cover."    [ben sakoguchi]

APRIL 2012 ^    Google street view

APRIL 2012 ^    Google street view

• ALLEN STREET •

APRIL 2012 ^    Google street views    (camera:  looking east, near corner of Bryant street)  &  (camera:  looking north, toward Third street)

"I guess Allen street used to be a main road to Redlands, and pretty busy.  But by the time I got there, it wasn't as much of a thoroughfare...still only paved down the middle, and got really dusty, and a truck would come and spray oil on the sides.  I remember when they put in asphalt all the way to the curbs."    [ben sakoguchi]

• BRYANT STREET •

APRIL 2012 ^    Google street views    (camera:  looking west, toward Meadowbrook Park)  &  (camera: looking north, near corner of Allen street)

"Houses on Bryant street seemed a little nicer than most of Meadowbrook...in the 'forties some older two-story Victorian places got replaced with smaller ones."    [ben sakoguchi]

c.1920 ^    Bryant street (camera:  looking northeast, near corner of Allen street)

James Gerogeou would eventually become Principal of Citrus High School in Azusa California.  When his innovative program for teen-age mothers at Citrus (featured in an April 2, 1971 Life Magazine article) met with resistance from members of the school board, Georgeou argued, "We should treat the problem not as a social disease, but as a fact of life."

• SECOND STREET •

APRIL 2012 ^    Google street views    (camera:  looking west, towards south edge of Meadowbrook Park)  &  (camera:  looking south, near Waterman ave)

• KING STREET •

APRIL 2012 ^    Google street views    (camera:  looking south, near Waterman ave)  &  (camera:  looking east, toward Waterman ave)

"King street wasn't paved at all...just dirt, with big cactus down on the east end.  Some of the poorest people lived in little back houses, shacks, really...Stephen was just a kid, living there on his own, and you could see light between the boards in his place."    [ben sakoguchi]

• RIALTO AVENUE •

APRIL 2012 ^    Google street views    (camera:  looking north, near Irwin st)  &  (camera:   looking east, toward Waterman ave)

APRIL 2012 ^    Google street view    (camera:  looking east on Rialto from corner of Arrowhead ave)    The former 10-acre site of the Hanford Foundry

"We never walked down on that end of Rialto.  The Foundry was huge...sinister looking...the buildings and smokestacks were all black, covered with soot...just like Pittsburgh in the movies.  There were people's houses on the other side of the street."    [ben sakoguchi]