A Farewell to the Purple House

Sometimes it's not until things change or go away that you realize you had an attachment to them. So it is for me with the purple house on Alvarado, two doors east of Garey. It seems like every city has at least one crazy purple house, except for San Francisco of course, which has hundreds of purple painted ladies. Last month, Pomona's purple house on Alvarado was painted a beigish peach with white trim and brown accents. The only purple left on the property is the purple flowers in front of the home, which serve as a living tribute to the home's purple history. Gone also are the white greekish statues and the black tinted windows, which looked like they came off a muscle car anyway.

Someone told me that the purple house on Alvarado was formerly a mortuary which had been cut in half and moved to it's present location. I think the other half of the home is located across Garey, also on Alvarado (the taupe/green/maroone number that has been undergoing a partial repainting job itself). Apparently the purple house is haunted and has scared many of the tenants away. Oddly enough, the other half of the house is not haunted, at least not by ghosts. Perhaps the new neutral color scheme will be more to the ghosts' liking and the house will make some lucky homeowner a wonderful home (it's for sale by owner). At least us nosey people will be able to see into the windows now. Oh, and in case you need a purple house fix, I found another one on Pasadena Street, just west of Palomares.

Another Pomona landmark which has recently gone by the wayside is the Smiling Moustache Man of the La Favorita Market at Indian Hill and San Bernardino. An otherwise incredibly sleazy corner, the large moustache man painted on the front of the market always made our day as we drove by, whether en route to Montclair or driving aimlessly and desperately around trying to get Mr. Big to take his nap (for some reason driving east does the trick). Recently repainted and perhaps under new management, the La Favorita Market chose to remove the moustache man altogether on the actual market facade in favor of a sun-inspired logo (causing Mr. Big and me to get both mad and sad). For a while a smaller version remained on the street sign, but now that ones gone too. It's just not the same without him. I've heard they have great fish at this market --that is, if you can get past what they did to the smiling moustache man.