LOOKING BACK

Young Chang

Guess where city officials used to go to make all the big and

important decisions?

Nope, not council chambers.

Not the Mayor’s office, not elsewhere in City Hall.

The place to be for kids and adults and executives and housewives and

anyone who was anyone was the soda fountain at Pink’s Drugstore in Costa

Mesa.

“It really was a meeting place, and there probably were more deals

made at the soda fountain there than at any other place in town, in

regards to the city,” said Gladys Refakes, a Costa Mesa resident since

1952.

Alvin and Lucy Pinkley owned the drugstore, which was Costa Mesa’s

only one for awhile, from 1933 through 1979.

The couple moved to Costa Mesa from San Bernardino the same year they

started their business. They took a chance with the last $500 they had,

Refakes said, and made it for more than 40 years.

Alvin Pinkley was a six-term council member from 1954 to 1978, elected

several times even as mayor, and served also on the school and water

boards.

At the onset of the Depression, he would fill prescriptions for a

dozen eggs, a sack of potatoes, stewing chicken or whatever his customers

could offer him in place of money.

He had a rack of magazines and comic books where kids would hang out

for hours, read and, ultimately, stay out of trouble.

And he had the kind of personality that drew the community to him not

only as a pharmacist, but as a friend, said Refakes, also a volunteer at

the Costa Mesa Historical Society.

“Everybody liked them. They were friendly people and had a great

interest in the community,” she added.

The store had a coffee bar, a soda fountain, a pharmacy and, later,

sold a sundry of everyday necessities that make up today’s drugstores.

Pinkley even sold penny candy for the kids.

“We used to have candy that cost a penny,” Refakes laughed.

Alvin Pinkley died about two years ago, and Lucy Pinkley died five

months later.

* Do you know of a person, place or event that deserves a historical

Look Back? Let us know. Contact Young Chang by fax at (949) 646-4170;

e-mail at young.chang@latimes.com; or mail her at c/o Daily Pilot, 330 W.

Bay St., Costa Mesa, CA 92627.