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Watching in the dark
Seen & heard
Fair maidens
They don't have queens of the Alameda County Fair anymore, but two early queens recall the honor they won by selling the most tickets to the fair.
Mavis Williams, of Pleasanton, the 1948 winner, recalls winning a watch, riding on a parade float and having photographers asking her to pose while chewing on a strand of hay.
Elvamae Borghi, of Union City, recalls her 1949 win and being treated to a plane trip to Southern California to be in the audience for the "Queen for a Day" TV show.
The contest had another payoff for Borghi. While selling fair tickets, Elvamae met a young man on a dairy farm who would later become her husband, Frank Borghi.
-- Denis Cuff, staff
Past times
Top stories of the Pleasanton Times
Headline: Robert Finch Here For Park Deed Transfer?"
Pleasanton will be on the center stage of national news coverage when a top representative of the Nixon cabinet comes here to present the city with the deed for 105 acres of federal land, now in use as a community park.
While the White House offered no clear detail as to who, when or even why, this much appears certain: Alameda County Fair officials have been asked to provide time and space "for a representative of the president" who will use that occasion to present city officials with the deed to that Hopyard Road recreation field.
Because the deed transfer is the first such shift of federal land to a community under President Nixon's new program, the White House would apparently like to focus regional and national news coverage on the event, including television.
The tentative report is that Robert Finch, close adviser and friend of the president, and a former lieutenant governor for California, will be chosen to head up the White House team ....
Headline: "In June We Remember Things Like Fresh Milk From Real Cows"
Pleasanton's Meadowlark Dairy has come a long way with this community. Founded in 1919, its cows grazed in lush meadows off Foothill Road until three years ago. The cows now graze in Tracy, but James and Janna Takens, operators of the dairy since 1957, still consider it a Pleasanton concern.
The Takens came to the valley in 1950. Pleasantonites know the dairy best through its drive-in outlet at the corner of Neal Street and Railroad Avenue.
The Takens have a milking herd of about 300 which produce an average of 1,200 gallons of milk a day. They and their three children, Bob, Winnie and Bruce, still live in a rambling stucco home on Foothill Road ....
Groceries: Meadowlark Drive-In Dairy offers a gallon of milk (regular or chocolate) for $1.05. Large eggs are 40 cents a dozen, 90 cents a flat.
-- Compiled by Louise Hartman, staff
