J.C. Penney, Youngster Shoppe, and Fike's
About the photo
This is a view looking northeast on the 100 block of N. Glassell St. circa 1970, with Fike's Burgers and Root Beer, Orange Cleaners, Sherman-Williams Orange Paint Store, Orange Camera, J.C. Penney Co., and Youngster Shoppe. Photo courtesy of the Local History Collection, Orange Public Library, Orange, CA.
The Buster Brown Shoe Store
About the photo
This is a view looking northeast on the 100 block of S. Glassell St. in 1982, with the Army-Navy Store, Muff's Antiques, Buster Brown Shoes, and Higgins Furniture Shops. As of May 2020, Army-Navy Store and Muff's Antiques are the only stores that remain. Photo courtesy of the Local History Collection, Orange Public Library, Orange, CA.
By Sister Dee
For some reason, I have always remembered the evening my parents took us to the Buster Brown Shoe Store at 141 S. Glassell Street in Downtown Orange. It was just before I started my fourth grade year at school, at a time I became more acutely aware of my surroundings and started writing stories in my free time.
The shoe store, in operation from about 1960 to 1988, was located inside a building constructed in 1905, within the same suite occupied today by Gabbi’s Mexican Kitchen. We went there after dinner one evening in August, as the street lamps slowly turned on and the electric fountain lit up in the Plaza. I felt such excitement knowing I would be getting a new pair of shoes as I started my year in the upper classroom section of the school. The popular song “Downtown” sung by Petula Clark played in my mind as I viewed the sites of the Old Towne Orange Plaza. I felt happy and carefree in the night air as we made our way past the Army-Navy Store and walked beneath the Buster Brown Shoe Store signage bearing the image of Buster Brown and his dog.
We entered the shop, which was long and narrow inside, with rows of shoe boxes stacked high upon shelves inside the three interior walls. The high ceiling made the interior look larger than it was.
After measuring my feet, the young, male, store clerk suggested a few pairs of shoes in my size that I might want to try on. With the help of my parents and the clerk, I was soon the proud owner of a shiny pair of leather, saddle oxford shoes named the “Gold Monster.” They were dark brown in color, with some amber-colored hues on the saddle area.
I walked to school each day in that pair of shoes, wearing them with my white bobby socks. They were sturdy and comfortable, and lasted throughout the entire school year, in the classroom and on the “big kids’” playground area.
I don’t recall if my next pair of shoes was from the Buster Brown store on Glassell St., but the visit we paid to the store that summer night was not the first time we shopped there, and was likely not the last.
Many decades later, as an older adult, I began thinking about Buster Brown, long after the Gold Monster was long gone from my life. Funny how memory can be very selective, and how things come back in your life, but I ended up researching Buster Brown and then wrote an article that became a speech I presented at my Toastmasters Club (see link to "The Marketing of Buster Brown for More Than a Century" below). Up until then, I never knew Buster Brown was a comic strip character along with his sidekick dog named Tige, and that they had been created in the early 1900s.
What I learned from my research made me realize how special Buster and Tige had been to the American public for many decades, and made me even fonder of my simple memories of the Buster Brown Shoe Store in Old Towne Orange.
Wearing the "Gold Monster" shoes on September 8, 1969, before the school year began.