Visiting Downey, Exotical and Bionicos Natural

            In 1977, when I was 14, I thought my family had arrived. We moved from Bell, which was definitely on a downward spiral, to Downey.

            At the time, Downey was the home of white, middle class, suburbia, a marked difference from Bell, and the idea of going to Downey High School excited me to no end. I liked living in Downey and what it meant.

            Still, when my parents divorced and moved away in about 1985, I didn’t go back into Downey very much. Most of my friends had moved away, and without my parents there I had no place to stay. I almost got a job teaching at Downey High in 1995, but had already accepted one in San Gabriel before Downey came through. And again, Downey is a suburb, not really a destination, a place passed on the freeway.

            Tonight, though, I was back in Downey for the Oxnard/Downey football game. I arrived early to look around the city and see how it had changed. Now Downey is crowded, lots of cars, lots of stores, a growing suburb of Los Angeles. The ethnicity has changed as well, with only a handful of white people around. I remember white flight beginning as my brown family moved in, and now it seems fully in effect. The size of Downey High’s enrollment has almost tripled since I was attended, to 4400 students, a huge school population.

            It was interesting to see what was still around, too. A random hair salon would trigger a memory, as did Golf ‘n’ Stuff or the liquor store that was around the corner from my old house.

            I actually went into Exotical, which I remember as kind of a tacky Hawaiian store. It had Hawaiian shirts and bamboo furniture and took up several store-fronts back in the 70’s, but now had shrunk and carried mostly Hawaiian clothing, shirts, dresses, skirts, and hula dancing supplies.

            Looking at the rack, I found not one but several “Go Barefoot” brand Primo Beer Hawaiian shirts that looked exactly like I remember them in the 70’s! They were brand new and only $49! Generally, that would be more than I would be willing to spend, but I’ve been eyeballing the Primo shirts when they come up on eBay, and used ones are going for that price.

            The kid at the counter, (a Warren High graduate, but still nice enough) who had greeted me with a hearty “Aloha,” when I walked in, came over and asked how I was doing, and I told him that I remembered the shop when I lived in Downey 30 years ago, and I thought the Primo shirts were out of print.

            He said that they were, and his grandfather, who had owned the shop, would buy dead stock when it was available and so they had several new old stock shirts. We chatted about the shop and how Downey had changed and how excited I was to get the shirt. With a little nudge from the kid I went with the brightest color they had, a chartreuse over the blue, (which I still might buy at some future date), and left the store a happy camper, with the sound of "mahalo" ringing in my ears.

            If you’re in Downey and need a Primo Beer shirt-or some other Hawaiian shirt that isn’t one you’d find at Macy’s, swing by.

             Across the street from Exotical is Bionicos Natural, a Mexican juice bar. I wasn't going to get anything, but when I paused to take the above picture across the street from Exotical, I noticed they were open. It was very hot in Downey, and the idea of a fresh smoothie suddenly was very appealing.  I had the coconut-pineapple smoothie that was just fresh coconut, fresh pineapple (not canned), ice and cream, I think. The woman who was running the place didn’t seem to speak much English, and my Spanish is hit and miss. She said cream, but it could have been yogurt. It was $3.50 and delicious, cold and fresh on a very warm night.

             A nostalgic night in Downey; too bad Oxnard lost.