Mini Christmas Lights

Facebook helps Stocktonians remember when

Were you born in Stockton?

Did you grow up or raise kids here?

Then you perhaps remember going to Gemco - now a Target - and handling many of your shopping needs.

You cherished those - ahem - healthy breakfasts at the Ye Olde Hoosier Inn.

Birthday party for one of the kids?

It was time to choose between Naughty Nicks, Hammer Skate, the water slides and mini golf at West and Hammer lanes or Chuck E. Cheese - the original one, not the one where a movie theater used to be located.

As of Friday, 8,883 people had become members of a Facebook page called "You Know You Grew Up in Stockton When ???????"

They had contributed almost 25,000 posts.

Pages such as this are quite common on Facebook. There's one for my hometown in Michigan.

They're a lot of fun to peruse.

They're a journey back in time, an opportunity to pine for things no longer with us and a history lesson all wrapped into one nice little social media package.

So I spent a couple of hours going through the "You Know You Grew Up in Stockton When ???????" page to catch a glimpse of what was on people's minds.

Gemco was mentioned frequently but certainly wasn't the only business fondly remembered.

Stocktonians got their hair cut as kids at the downtown barber college while "Mom shopped at Kress."

They marveled at the merchandise available at Herb's Surplus Store downtown.

Need a car? There was no auto mall and all of the dealerships were downtown.

You could get a big ride at Don Mann's Hansel and Ortman or anything from a Malibu to a Corvette at Chase Chevrolet. Personally, it was a Mazda 323 at DeRollo Mazda in 1987.

What kid didn't want to go Bruner's, where they had an animated Christmas display? Or if you wanted to marvel at something, Sears had that spinning beach ball floating over a vacuum cleaner ("I could watch it forever," said a Facebook poster).

Hungry? How about when the original Manny's on El Dorado opened in the mid-1950s? Imagine how many Manny burgers have been consumed in a half-century plus.

Christmas Lights Etc: DIY Outdoor Christmas Decorations with Mini ...

We recommend a ½ inch thick plywood to stand up to the elements Map out the color scheme of your design Get enough solid color mini lights for the color scheme Grab a drill and roll up your sleeves Start by sketching your design onto the plywood by either drawing it yourself or by having an artistic friend sketch the design onto. Sketching with a marker ought to do the trick. Just make sure whatever you use is dark enough and thick enough to see. After the design has been completely sketched onto the plywood and you have made any adjustments, you will now begin marking the holes for the mini lights. Take a look at the Christmas lights you will be using and figure out the spacing of the lights on each string. For example, if you are using mini lights strands with bulb spacing of 4 inches, do not mark your lights any more than 4 inches apart. To make things easier, on the back of your plywood design, mark your light positioning with a color marker that matches the color light strand you will be using. This will help you keep track of where each color light strand will go. You can now begin placing your lights into the pre-drilled holes. Remember, because you marked the colors you need with colored markers, you can easily lay out the lights. Work your way from the outside of the design inward using one color light strand at a time making sure to leave enough slack for extension cords and plugs to connect your light strands. Periodically step back to make sure your design looks the way you like. You may need to drill a few more holes to accentuate a curve or start a different colored light strand earlier than anticipated.

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