We miss our hometown. We miss Benicia, the Benicia we knew. Roberta, my wife and I, have called this small city our home for over 70 years and do not want to live anywhere else. We walk on some of the same sidewalks and see some of the same trees though they are obviously older. It is not the same though, never will be, and never should be. That is part of life. Still we miss our hometown.
Benicia is a great place to live and call home. It has changed greatly through the decades we have shared here. Change is inevitable, and nobody can or should live in the past. We do not. We miss some of what was once part of a much smaller community and appreciate some of what has changed.
There are some things we miss, but also some things which are better:
The redwood water towers are long gone, but the water system is better.
The sewage treatment plant is a blessing for all.
While “Dragging Main,” one no longer sees some sites which were standards of the past.
The three gas stations which once did business on First Street are a long-distant memory to some and unknown enterprises to most. Many a lad got his first taste of employment at one of them.
The buildings for the State and Victory theaters still stand. The former sits idle, and the latter sells items which were once new and now hold a patina of age.
Estey’s Insurance is still located on the southwest corner of First and J streets. The Lundin House still sits diagonally across from it.
The floor of what was once the Black and White Liquor Store has held a number of businesses since that time. Now it holds down a deserted corner.
Neither former site of the Bank of America on First contains banking facilities. One is a restaurant and the other is a real estate facility.
Wolff’s and O’Grady’s drug stores have faded from the memory of most. Where Wolff’s once stood is a real estate office. The O’Grady’s building is still there, but houses a boutique.
The sites of the two hardware stores, Fitzgerald’s and Hayes’, have had multiple businesses since those long-time establishments closed. Those stores were the places to go for anything from nails to paint to a rifle to a baseball glove.
The butcher shop, shoe store, Dr. White’s dental practice, Dr. Reed’s optometry office, the 5 and 10 Cent Store, the barbershops we knew, and the Chinese restaurant have all passed in time.
The bait shop is gone, as is the bus depot. The Chamber of Commerce is housed at the former site, and patrons exercise at the site where green and white buses once departed and arrived.
The Olympic size swimming pool now covers what was once an athletic field for the high school. Our yearly spring physical education track unit was held there along with the yearly inter-class track meet. Also, many pickup games of football were played on that surface on the weekends. At times, when Fitzgerald Field was too wet with rain to allow us to practice baseball there, we practiced on our “track field.” At other times, under the same field conditions, we did the same at Sanborn Field and even played a few games there over the years. The right field fence was a blessing for anybody who could pop a fly ball over it. From the foul line to the first light standard towards center field was a ground rule double. Anything to the left of that standard was a home run.
In many ways Benicia has improved, but it has always loved its children. That is obviously shown in the quality of the school system, the recreation facilities and the athletic facilities. It would have been nice to have played on Fitzgerald Field as it looks today, and the Benicia High School baseball field. Each field had been nothing except scraped dirt for many years. A lot of good teams played on those dirt fields though. I often wonder how many young athletes, and their parents, appreciate the facilities they now use in the City of Benicia.
Unless a person lived in Benicia when the high school football field was Sanborn Field, where the post office is now located, they could not truly know the unity a small town held for high school football on a fall Friday evening.
The portable football bleachers and the announcer’s booth, seemed to almost magically appear yearly on Sanborn Field and just as magically disappear shortly after the season was completed.
The field was the center of the local world for a few hours five times a season. From a city population of approximately 6,000 to today’s population of approximately 30,000, the percentage of interest shown in game attendance at Drolette Stadium compared to Sanborn Field is not close. Often there were 1,500 in attendance at Sanborn Field. That is equal to 25 percent of the population of the city at the time, though fans from surrounding communities were often present at Benicia games. That interest and support should be shown at Benicia High School games in the present time. It would mean 7,500 in attendance. What great support that would be.
I miss Bob Silva’s weekly sports column in the Benicia Herald and his traditional end of the year column which named so many Benicians and their benefit to our small town.
Roberta and I are in favor of change for the better, but not change simply because some “long time Benicians” feel things must change and change to the way they want. Many of those “long time Benicians” through the years have lived here only in the five to 10 year range before pushing for changes. While looking for a better place to live, they bring their positives as well as their negatives, when their negatives should be left behind.

James M. Garrett has lived in Benicia his entire life. He retired after a career of teaching at Benicia High School. He is the author of “one Great season 9-0!,” “Benicia and Letters of Love,” “The Mansion Stories,” and the compiler of “The Golden Era,” a history of Benicia High School football from the 1948 through 1960 seasons. Contact him at Jgstoriesnpoetry@aol.com.

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