South Pasadena High School
Alumni Association - 1907-2024
*Tiger Talk Forums
| Forum: The 1960's: South Pas Back Then | |||||
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James Tomlin
Class Of '61
 Posts: 37 View Profile |
The Toggery Posted Sunday, November 1, 2009 11:38 AM It would be impossible to write about South Pasadena without writing about Walt Geissler, who hired me for my first real job. I had enough lawn jobs to become a contractor by the time I reached high school, but sports and studies cut into the time I had available during the school year. The Toggery was a men’s clothing store in South Pasadena owned jointly by Bert Peterson and his son-in-law Walt Geissler. Each Christmas season Walt hired about twenty of the most popular high school and college age kids to handle the markedly increased volume of holiday customers. Although I never would have thought I fit into that category, in December of 1960, he hired me too, an honor to be selected. Learning the retail trade wasn’t that difficult, but overcoming the nervousness of dealing with customers was daunting at first. Although South Pasadena was a bedroom community on the edge of a giant metropolitan area, it retained the atmosphere of a small town, so the customers included a lot of people I already knew, as well as friends from school. The Toggery was a meeting place for people home from college, and the whole situation had a kind of family ambiance.
People wondered how Walt could afford to hire so many kids. I suspect it worked something like this. The regulars, Walt, Mr. Pete, Jean Owings and Harold Little did most of the real selling, answered the tough questions [Will this shrink?] and handled returns and the cash register. The rest of us made sure the stock was neat, the floors were clean and the casual customers were served. Of course we all waited on our friends and parents.
Each of the employees at the Toggery received a 20% discount. This meant that in addition to attracting lots of young adult and high school customers [this was especially true of the female sales people] almost all of us, and our families, did the bulk of our Christmas shopping at the Toggery. The sum total of this was to create a happening place where there were numerous “drop ins” as well as a happy cadre of young shoppers. I know for a fact many of the seasonal employees spent more than they earned. I worked the Christmas holidays for Walt every December since that first Christmas, as well as part time during the summer of 1963 and full time the summer of 1964. Until I was 26 there was no “Christmas Vacation” for me at college or when I was first teaching.
At the center of this was Walt, a pillar of the community. Walt knew who you were dating, showed up at your athletic contests and gave you good advice if you asked for it. The Toggery sponsored my youth baseball team, ran advertising in the high school newspaper, and handled the purchase of varsity jackets and their accessories, as well as everything to do with the Boy Scouts. In short, there were lots of reasons for people to drop into the store, and hey, I DO need another sportcoat. When a group of seniors was seriously injured in a late night auto accident after graduation in 1955, Walt took the lead in establishing and sponsoring the first “Grad Night” in Southern California. Grad Night consisted of a special train to San Diego after graduation ceremonies where the grads all were able to stay up all night in a safe environment. The Santa Fe “Super Chief” was our designated driver.
Walt was a tremendous mentor. I was tying a Windsor knot last week and I was reminiscing that he was the one who taught me how to tie a tie. On my first day I arrived my customary fifteen minutes early and Walt saw that my knot really looked like a knot, and in a funny way he asked me whether I was going to hang myself. Then he loosened his own tie and said to come over by the mirror. Like many things, it wasn’t that big a deal once I saw it done properly and practiced it a hundred times, but then again, something like that can make you feel stupid when you can’t do it and it seems like everyone else can. I can still remember working on it that day at the store at lunch in front of the mirror.
There were so many things about working at the Toggery that gave all us “rookies” the confidence and poise to go on and be successful. For me I guess it was the fact that someone like Walt who I respected and admired thought I could do a job, realized that I had a lot to learn and was willing to help me learn it. He taught me so many “Life Lessons’” These included:
Paychecks from The Toggery helped to finance college, and a lot of good times, but the experience there, the good friends, and the home-like atmosphere made it more than a job, a must stop whenever I was home. My mom insisted I develop a "professional wardrobe" but I defeated some of her efforts by growing. She actually bought me a tux for Christmas in 1962 because "you're going to be in a lot of weddings." I was in several weddings, but I never wore the tux except to try it on because each wedding I was in picked some exotic color. I actually still have the coat with the Toggery label.
I remember one day I was home and the huge Christmas wrapping counter was still out. It was a formidable object, hard to push around let alone lift. Walt said something like we forgot to put it away when we were all there after Christmas. Anyway I said well I’m here now and the three of us (Bob Whiteside) horsed it down the stairs into the storage basement. It took us about a half hour to finally get it down because there was a landing on the stairs halfway down. I was glad to have done an “off duty” favor for someone who had done so much for me. The experience also came in handy when Walt put me in charge of bringing it up for Christmas the next year.
I don’t believe I have ever really put into words how much working at the Toggery meant to me. Now that I possess the perspective of advanced age, I can see how vital the experience was to a kid who started school in 1948 at the tender age of 4 ½ and grew up without a father. I am sure many others who worked for Walt also saw him as a mentor and loved him in their way through the years feel the same. He checked out of this life way ahead, and I was proud to be one of the ones to eulogize him.
The Toggery is gone now, the victim of a redevelopment project in the town. The shopping stores on the east side of the main street have become a strip mall now, but sometimes when I am in South Pasadena, I can catch the faint echoes of times past on Fair Oaks Avenue. The Toggery is open; I can visualize the back door and hear the ghosts of Christmas past and I think that if I just move fast enough I might get through and capture a fleeting glimpse of yesterday. Tony the Tailor, Mr. Pete, Van, Harold and most of all Walt will be there, and for a few minutes we can all catch up on the latest. The Toggery is one of my most enduring and cherished memories of growing up. Walt helped us all grow up instead of just older.
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John Howard
Class Of '68
 Posts: 2 View Profile |
RE: The Toggery Posted Wednesday, March 17, 2010 07:19 AM Thanks James for the trip down memory lane. I hadn't thought about the Toggery in years. To this day I live in Levis, and the Toggery was where my Mom would send me to replenish my supply of 501 shrink to fits, with little more than $10.00 in hand (as I recall) and there was still change to stop off at Dolly's record store for a 45 rpm. |
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Thomas L Streeter
Class Of '67
 Posts: 1 View Profile |
RE: The Toggery Posted Wednesday, April 21, 2010 03:15 PM If I remember correctly, and that is debatable, The Toggery was where I went to get my gym clothes and letterman jacket. |
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Steven S Kane
Class Of '66
San Diego, CA Joined: 04/02/09 Posts: 14 View Profile |
RE: The Toggery Posted Monday, May 3, 2010 03:36 PM Jim: My mom bought me my first suit at The Toggery in about 1958. It was great! Unfortunately, I grew about a foot during the next year so I did not get to wear it long. It is entirely possible that you sold me that suit! It was a regular pilgrimage to the Toggery in the Fall for school clothes. I do not believe that my mom went anywhere else for this for about 10 years! Personal attention to customers' needs makes a huge difference. Sadly, stores like The Toggery have almost disappeared - put out of business by Wal Mart, etc.
Steve Kane, '66 |
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