Pastime Throwback Thursday

It’s Boo Season! A grand month is here indeed as I hope your October is off to a great start. I have some topics to write about so let’s get started…

Grandpa Throwback – Last week I came across some photos of my grandpa doing what he loved more than anything…managing his restaurant. The Pastime Café was in my mom’s family for more than 80 years and my grandpa personally owned and operated it for 43 years. It was without a doubt the best (and most authentic) Italian food in Walla Walla and I have a treasure trove of memories from eating there and going on Sunday “runs” to the restaurant with grandpa when he would let us fill a brown sack with candy bars from the front counter.

My grandpa, Frank Fazzari, smokes a cigar inside the Pastime Cafe.

Scarywood – Every fall, Silverwood transforms its theme park into Scarywood. Up until this year I had never had the chance to go. That all changed this past Friday when the daughter of my friend Shauna, Elli, who works at Silverwood, scored us opening weekend passes. I am a big fan of haunted houses and Scarywood offered FOUR of them. Of course we went through each one. Although the zombie-themed haunt and the cannibal-themed haunt were both pretty good, my favorite was the 3-D clown funhouse (Chuckle’s 3D Sideshow). If you like a good scare, Scarywood is your jam.

In addition to the haunted houses Scarywood has cast members creeping around the whole park waiting to scare you. Here I am with one of them.

World Teachers’ Day – Although she might be “retired” now, I want to wish a happy World Teachers’ Day to the best educator I know…my wife! Sidney devoted six school years to the profession and was incredible at her craft. I also want to wish extend my best wishes on this day to the teachers of my children, Ms. Lunsford (Sloan’s first grade teacher) and Mrs. Shaurette (Beau’s Pre-K3 teacher), along with the rest of the St. Mary Catholic School staff.

Whether my wife was Miss Mathis or Mrs. Reser, she was a great teacher!

Current Energy Drink of Choice – Over the years I have updated this blog with the energy drink I was consuming at the time. I have switched from Xyience to Joker to Coke’s option to many others. But at this stage in my life I am very much content with Rockstar. It is cheap, the flavor variety is vast, and it packs 240MG of caffeine. As someone who doesn’t consume caffeine besides my once-per-week energy drink, it definitely gets the job done.

I am a big fan of Rockstar energy drinks.

Conceal Your Valuables – This meme shared by my friend Lindsi could also be from an account titled the Dad TruthBomb. Taking my kids to/from school and to their activities has definitely turned the inside of my car into a mini disaster zone. Sometimes grabbing a stray blanket or coat is the perfect way to cover up anything of value.

So true.

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Thanks for spending a few minutes on Don’t Blink. I am looking forward to the weekend and hoping the Cougs can improve to 5-0. Don’t Blink.

A Wedding Clipping to Save

It was almost as if I was reading a recap of the Royal Wedding…

This article was written about my grandparents’ wedding in 1942.

These days when you read the newspaper you might see a paragraph or two about a couple becoming engaged. Unless you are reading a tabloid, you very seldom see any article actually reporting on the intricacies of a wedding ceremony.

This wasn’t the case 76 years ago.

Over the weekend, a distant relative sent me the newspaper clippings of an article written about the wedding of my grandparents. In 1942, my mom’s parents got hitched at St. Francis of Assisi church in Walla Walla, WA. According to the town’s local newspaper, it was “one of the most beautiful weddings of the season.”

I read the article in amazement as the journalist went into thorough detail. Everything was recorded from what the wedding party wore to the gifts my grandma gave her bridesmaids to the amount of people who attended the reception. Information on the people who usually get overlooked at weddings, such as the ringbearer and the musicians, all received their due.

Besides the reporting, the writing itself was just a treat. The bride, a striking brunette, was lovely in her white velveray marquisette gown fashioned with shirred bodice with sweetheart neckline and long sleeves, full at the shoulder, and long train.

I mean come on. When Sid and I tied the knot, I think our local newspaper just carried a sentence on its website declaring that we were now legally married. Not even a quick mention that her gown was white.

Of course, I realize it was a different time back then. Without the internet or a 24-hour news cycle, media coverage was very localized. In a small town like Walla Walla, there was space in the newspaper to write a couple columns about the latest wedding.

Besides the exquisite detail and the glimpse at journalism during a different era, the article made my day because it was a record of the beginning of a very special marriage. My grandparents were married for over 60 years and their relationship bore so much fruit. Although I remember them in my heart as “grandparents,” it was neat to read the article and see them as a young adult couple just starting their lives together.

A newspaper clipping from the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin announcing my grandparents’ 60th anniversary.

What a joy it was to read. It was truly a blessed day when my grandparents stood before the “altar lovely with whit chrysanthemums and ferns and palms” and said I do. Don’t Blink.

A Proper Transition for the Pastime Cafe

I am always intrigued when a business swoops in and sets up shop in an old building. I find it fascinating to see what is done to shoot new life into the structure and, if lucky, what is done to pay tribute to the building’s past. You commonly see businesses transform desolate apartment buildings, deserted movie theaters, and rundown grocery stores all the time. The only thing better than watching the transformation take place is walking inside the remodeled building once the ribbon is cut.

News of an upcoming major transformation project hit close to home yesterday. I learned that the site of some of my best childhood memories would finally get a facelift.

Growing up, I spent a lot of time at the family restaurant. Named the Pastime Café, the place served the best Italian food in Walla Walla, Washington. Don’t think it was a short run. For over 80 years, my mom’s family operated the Pastime. That’s right. For over eight decades, the prominent but blue collar Italian joint on Main Street in the “town so nice they named it twice” thrived. The succession was nothing short of perfect. My great grandpa (Louie Fazzari) opened the place, passed it on to my grandpa (Frank Fazzari) who devoted his whole life to it, who in turn left it to my uncle (Robert Fazzari) who ran the restaurant until the last day of business in 2006.

The Pastime Café, the restaurant I grew up in.

The Pastime Café, the restaurant I grew up in.

My memories inside those Pastime Café walls couldn’t be much sweeter. Whenever we visited our family, we always dined there. My grandpa’s employees treated us like royalty and the regulars would always stare at us as we entered the restaurant and proceeded to a table in the dining room. After dinner we would go up to the front counter staffed by my late Aunt Becky and she would let us pick out a candy bar from underneath the giant glass case that boxed in the antique cash register.

This is my great grandpa at the cash register. As you can barely see, the glass counter case is visible at the very bottom of the picture.

This is my great grandpa at the cash register. As you can barely see, the glass counter case is visible at the very bottom of the picture. This entire setup remained the same up until the restaurant closed in 2006.

Sometimes after dinner and before our candy raid, my grandpa would quickly take us back into the bar. Let me tell you, that was a different world! Shady looking characters and clouds of cigarette smoke filled the dark, long area. It was a 360 degree change when we would return on Sundays. The Pastime was closed on the Lord’s Day but my grandpa would always stop by to check on the place. He would take my siblings and I with him and give us full reign of the restaurant. In the bar we would have a ball picking up loose change on the floor, playing the video games in the back, and scratching off lotto tickets while sitting on the stools. We would run around the lounge and dining room areas, “play restaurant” at the cash register, and follow my grandpa into the kitchen where he would let us step into the gigantic freezer. Beautiful times.

The Pastime staff probably around the mid to late 1940s. My grandpa is in the back row on the far right. His brother (Art), who I also grew up around and who was extremely generous just like my grandpa, is standing right next to him.

The Pastime staff probably around the mid to late 1940s. My grandpa is in the back row on the far right. His brother (Art), who I also grew up around and who was extremely generous just like my grandpa, is standing right next to him.

This past January marked ten full years since the building at 215 Main Street was last operational. After the business closed, my uncle sold the place. In that decade span, ownership of the property shifted hands more than once but nothing ever materialized within those walls. The building that was already a throwback in the first place sat abandoned on a street corner in Walla Walla for far too long.

Yesterday my brother sent me a link to an article in Walla Walla’s local newspaper that said the wait would seen be over. Some visionaries have been hard at work creating Pastime 2.0. Well, to be fair, it won’t be a Pastime replica (there could never be another one anyway). But what is going in at the location is something that will carry on the proud tradition of the space while at the same time capitalzing on what Walla Walla is now known for: Wine.

This summer the Passatempo Taverna will open. The Pastime building will once again be a functioning restaurant and the parking lot in what we used to call “the alley” will be developed into a wine tasting room. Talented people have come together to represent each facet of Passtempto Taverna from the menu to the design to the wine. The project is in good hands. I could rest easy when I read the article and realized that the construction was done with absolute integrity and care. The discoveries made during the renovation fascinated me and the plans to keep around a touch of Pastime nostalgia encouraged me.

A look at the construction of Passatempo Taverna (photo courtesy of the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin).

A look at the construction of Passatempo Taverna (photo courtesy of the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin).

I am very excited to see more progress photos of the construction and then ultimately coverage from the grand opening. Of course one day I hope to visit Passatempo Taverna; it would be a very special moment. The Pastime building deserves to once again be a community gathering center and I am 100% ready for this new chapter to begin. Don’t Blink.