Much information about Phillips Bakery is located within the website maintained by the January 1958 class: http://jahngrad.tripod.com/   Willie Phillips and I were best friends throughout our 8 years at Jahn.  My mother worked there and I had the pleasure of selling my classmates tarts, nut slices and other treats from 1953 to 1958.  In 1962 I married a Burley School class of 1953/Lane Tech class of 1957 fellow, Dennis Brennan.  Shortly after our marriage, we moved to California, went to college, worked at our careers and had a 36 year marriage before his death in March 2000.  My own career in advertising and marketing ended in 2002 and retirement has offered me an opportunity to become a very active volunteer (Musical Theatre West, Friends of Long Beach Animals, Non-Profit Volunteer Coordinators of Long Beach (California), The Zachery Foundation, Los Angeles Turners, American Turners, German-American League of Southern California).  I’ve also started a small second career writing a monthly column for Long Beach Magazine.  Somehow, there is also time for travel and I’ve cruised the old neighborhood several times during the past few years and through its many different incarnations. 

One memory that stays strong in my mind is visiting the shoe repair shop in the middle of the block, Belmont between Damen and Hoyne.  Large leather belts ran the various machines, and the smell of leather polish and glue were wonderful.  Joe the Shoemaker was ahead of his time, being the king of recycling.  Not only did he make shoes last for years, but the paper tickets he used to identify the shoes with their owners were used over and over again until they were soft and almost illegible.