Howard Johnson's

Howard Johnson's . . . I like seeing my Grandpa's name - this chain doesn't have anything to do with him but it's still fun.
Classic Americana Summer - road tripping and delight upon seeing the "Host of the Highway" /  "Landmark for Hungry Americans". Or just piling the kids in the station wagon and heading to the local Orange Roof for ice cream, "The Wonderful World of 28 Flavors".  I saw a post on Go Retro about the last remaining free-standing HoJo restaurant and wanted to share these retro ads.


May 9, 1955 Life Magazine


May 30, 1955 Life Magazine


June 13, 1955 Life Magazine


June 27, 1955 Life Magazine


July 18, 1955 Life Magazine


August 8, 1955 Life Magazine


July 2, 1956 Life Magazine


May 26, 1958 Life Magazine


June 29, 1959 Life Magazine

Trip to Victoria

I was asked yesterday if I was Canadian because of the way I say "bag".  I said, "No, but my Mother is".
My Mom and I have been messaging back and forth about a trip from Seattle to Victoria aboard the Princess Marguerite that she didn't even get to go on but her parents took my sister and me when we were very little.
I don't remember very much about it except for being in a little stateroom and my Grandma making up a fizzy, fruity softdrink for us by dropping a pastel colored tablet in a glass of water.

"The Princess Marguerite" Photo by J. Barnard "Cruising the 115.2 km (72 miles) between Victoria, B. C. and Seattle, Washington, the turbo-electric vessel Princess Marguerite carries 50 cars and 1800 passengers on her 4 1/2 hour journey across the Juan de Fuca Strait and Puget Sound."

I only have three photos of the trip - I don't know if there are any more but my Grandma isn't in any of them.  Victoria was Grandpa's stomping grounds.  I don't think my Grandpa was shy but he appears camera shy.


Howard Johnson started his lifelong hotel industry career as a page boy at the Empress Hotel when he was a teenager. When he left that job, he got his younger brother, Thomas Johnson a job there who then went on to be their first (only?) 50 year employee.



"EMPRESS HOTEL Victoria, B.C. The stately Empress Hotel, a well known landmark in Victoria, as seen from the lawn of the Parliament Buildings." AVT-1031 Color Photo by W. J. L. Gibbons, AMPA


This is my Great Grandmother Ida Bookhout Johnson (1885-1968).  I think this might be the only photo I have of her and me together.  The other thing I remember about this trip is the matching pink and white tops my mom had sewn for my sister and me.  The inset at the neck could snap in and out.


I wish I remembered more about the trip I took with my Grandparents and being exposed to my family history there. I'm certainly glad I have a few photos.

The One Where Grandma Dropped My Cake

My fourth birthday was a party at my Grandma and Grandpa Johnson's apartment across from Woodland Park Zoo.  It was both sets of grandparents, my parents, my two year old sister and me.  I don't know that I actually remember it happening (but I think I do!) but Grandma Johnson dropped my cake in the kitchen.  My memory is that it was while she was carrying it from the kitchen into the dining room singing but I look at this picture and notice her finger all bandaged up and a towel under her hand like something had just happened so now I don't remember the circumstances.  This is one of those events that she was reminded of for years.  I'm not sure I actually remember the cake-tastrophe or just the reminders she always got.
The missing frosting and decorations are evidence.  I'm sure we ate it. And lived to tell the tale. My sister looks a little concerned.





Grandpa Johnson showing us a Polaroid while we play with "Mr. Potato Head" and "Pete the Pepper"

A new slinky and I see "Cooky the Cucumber" behind me - I really don't have any recollection of Mr. Potato Head's friends!




My sister got a bulldozer! (We always both got a little something on each other's birthday)


New gigantic piggy banks for both of us!




My mom and more Polaroids


Grandpa Hawes


Grandma Hawes blowing out a candle - My Grandparent's wedding anniversary was in January so Grandma Johnson had a cake for them, too!  (I think all the frosting got used on my cake so theirs is a little lacking on the side - I really don't think Grandma Johnson dropped two cakes!)

Grandma and Grandpa Johnson (I wish the exposure was a little better)


Thank you for sharing with me my birthday of yesteryear on my birthday week!

My Fifth Birthday
My Eleventh Birthday

We Gather Together

Happy Thanksgiving!
Thanksgiving 1967. My Dad's Mom, Stella Frederickson Hawes, on the left is holding the hand of my Mom's Dad, Howard Johnson. On the right, My Dad's Dad, Bill Hawes is holding the hand of my Mom's Mom, Lucy Andrew Johnson. My Mom, my (middle) sister and I are in the photo as well - my Dad took the photo.

Looking back I realize how special it was to have us all gathered around the same table. My youngest sister was born more than 10 years after this photo and after Howard had died. But this was my entire family at the time.

A favorite traditional hymn at Thanksgiving "We Gather Together"

We gather together to ask the Lord’s blessing;
He chastens and hastens His will to make known.
The wicked oppressing now cease from distressing.
Sing praises to His Name; He forgets not His own.

Beside us to guide us, our God with us joining,
Ordaining, maintaining His kingdom divine;
So from the beginning the fight we were winning;
Thou, Lord, were at our side, all glory be Thine!

We all do extol Thee, Thou Leader triumphant,
And pray that Thou still our Defender will be.
Let Thy congregation escape tribulation;
Thy Name be ever praised! O Lord, make us free!

I hope you will be able to gather together and spend Thanksgiving with your loved ones.

Seattle World's Fair and my Grandparents

I've mentioned my Grandfather whose career was in the hospitality industry before - Howard Johnson worked in hotels since he was a child starting as a page boy at the Empress Hotel in Victoria, BC.  My Grandmother, Lucy (Andrew) Johnson was in the hospitality industry as well and waitressed all her life (when I called her at age 16 to tell her I got my first job waitressing at Pizza Haven she advised me to always bring a second pair of shoes to switch into during the middle of long shifts because the different feel would make aching feet feel better - she also told me not to waitress my whole life). They moved from British Columbia to Seattle in 1951 and by 1962 they were working hard welcoming Century 21 Seattle World's Fairgoers.

My beautiful Grandmother waitressing in the Space Needle's revolving restaurant:

Thank you to Dean Syltebo for restoring this photo!!
We think this photo is 1963 - many of the waitresses suffered from motion sickness but my Grandmother was unaffected so she stuck around and worked there even after The Fair closed.

Processed July 1962

My Grandfather worked at several different hotels in 1962 - my Mother told me The Edgewater Inn hired him to work on the MS Dominion Monarch which was docked in Seattle to host guests as a hotel since the Edgewater Inn wasn't finished in time for the start of the World's Fair


But before that he worked at Century House Motor Hotel and he wrote me my all-time very favorite letter when I was four months old on stationery from there.  My Dad was stationed at Fort Hood, Texas so we lived in Killeen, Texas and I don't think he had met me, yet.

April 2/62
Dearest Jana:
This is just a note honey to say hello and to say how nice it was to hear your voice on the telephone. Your mother kept interrupting and it was a little difficult to understand you but I think I got the message. Parents are such a problem these days but try to understand them. Ask you Mother about it because I too was a problem parent.
Now that your Mother is caught up in this mad dizzy social whirl, cooking, dusting pamlum, diapers, feeding, ironing, washing and her golf and tennis guess she doesn't have time to write. I know you must be busy with your dates and school work but tell your Mother the enclosed stamps are just in case she gets a moment. If your Mother and Dad can't get away in June you come anyhow it will be a good chance for you and I to see the Fair.
Tell your Mother that we went to Dave Schwatz's wedding Saturday nite and both the bride and he looked fine.
Seattle is just busting out all over now only nineteen days to opening and everyone holding their breath. Biggest thing to hit Seattle. Lots of old buildings being torn down and everybody painting and getting ready. This place where I am working is putting in a new restaurant and cocktail bar. Carpenters, painters, plumbers, noise, dust and confusion trying to get ready for the Fair.
Grandmaw and I are going down tomorrow to ride on the monorail and see the Wax Works. The Observation Tower on the Space Needle and the Monorail are doing a rushing business already.
On Thursday we are going up to Vancouver to see your Great Grandmother. Has your Dad been teaching you to drive yet? I don't think Father's make the best teachers ask your Mother. Do all you homework and don't play the Hi-Fi too much. Be a good girl and say hello to your Mother and Dad. A big hug and kiss for you and tell your mother I didn't have to wipe my chin.
All My Love
Grandpaw
P.S. It will be okay to let your Mother read this letter.

Is that an awesome letter or what?! Family history, humor, Seattle World's Fair tidbits all on one page!

The front and back of the envelope it came in:


By the end of 1962, The Edgewater Inn was completed and Howard worked there for several years.


The Edgewater 2011:

Seattle.Gov's Historic Preservation Program tells me that The Edgewater is Category 4

"These buildings have been identified as ones that have been so altered that they would not qualify as Seattle landmarks."

I can't really blame The Edgewater for altering the hotel to stay competitive in the industry but I'll always consider it a Seattle landmark.


My Grandfather died forty two years ago today on July 25, 1970 when I was eight years old.  He was only 58.  I don't have many memories of him but I will always treasure the letter he wrote me when I was an infant.  Thinking about you, Grandpaw!!

(taken at the Mayflower Hotel - probably late 1950s)

Grandma and Grandpa and me November 1963


Grandma, Grandpa and me about 1964

Thanksgiving & the Mayflower (Park Hotel)

I recently mentioned my grandfather, Howard Johnson when I posted about a paint-by-number clown he painted for me.

Howard was born 1912 in British Columbia. He began his hospitality career at the Empress Hotel in Victoria, BC as a boy (pageboy standing on the left)

From Johnson Family

Somewhere in the family collection of photographs is a picture of an even younger Howard in a velvet suit carrying in the boar's head for a Christmas feast at the grand hotel.

Grandpa worked at other hotels in British Columbia before immigrating to Washington in 1951 with my grandmother and my pre-teen mother.  I thought he moved to The States to take a job at the Mayflower Park Hotel in Seattle - which seems charmingly quaint to me - the Mayflower is what brought my mom's family to America!  However in a conversation over at Vintage Seattle about the Carousel Room, the Mayflower Park Hotel historian mentions my grandfather was General Manager there from 1955-1959.  Perhaps he worked another position at the Mayflower before being promoted to General Manager and I can still think the Mayflower brought my family to America. . . .

Mayflower Park Hotel postcard before my grandfather's era

From Visiting Vintage

From Visiting Vintage

Forward another decade after working at the Mayflower and through several other hotels (he went on to work at the Edgewater Inn - he was employed there when the Beatles fished from the window!) and here we are celebrating (quite seriously) Thanksgiving in 1969 with my grandpa and grandma.  Another of his paint-by-numbers is hanging on the wall.

From Visiting Vintage

That was my grandfather's last Thanksgiving.  He passed away July 1970 at age 58.

Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of memories of him but  two of them include hotels - I remember sharing a bowl of ice cream just me and him at the Edgewater and I remember watching a Seafair parade from a window of the Mayflower (he no longer worked there) .  At this Thanksgiving time, among a plethora of my many, MANY blessings, I am grateful that Howard Johnson created a life for his family which in turn contributed hugely to my very fortunate existence.

Very happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.

Patches Pal and Gampa

Matt's blog and request led to this post. Puget Sound natives of a certain age all remember our beloved TV clown J. P. Patches. And they probably also heard on the news, Facebook or Twitter that J. P. Patches had his final public appearance last Saturday at at the Fishermen's Fall Festival at Seattle's Fishermen's Terminal.

Matt's blog post brought to my mind when I was in fourth grade and entered a poster contest. I was very proud of my crayon drawing of Esmerelda, J. P.'s rag doll. I had my own Raggedy Ann doll that I hadn't given up still in fourth grade so I loved drawing Esmerelda. My poster won "Honorable Mention" - I believe this was the first time I'd ever heard that term. I was thrilled to go up on stage and recieve a Patches Pal iron-on transfer from J. P. Patches himself. I don't have a photo of my poster nor of me on stage but I mentioned to Matt that I thought I still had my sweatshirt that I ironed it on to somewhere. So, Matt, here it is!

From Visiting Vintage

The shirt is stained and the transfer crackled but as you can see I never could part with it.

In a way, J. P. Patches connects me to my Grandpa, too.  My Grandfather, Howard Johnson died when I was eight.  I don't have a lot of memories of him but he enjoyed paint-by-numbers in his free time.  He painted a clown for me.  I actually never really understood sad clowns but this is the one painted just for me - he signed it Gampa which is apparently what I called him when I was two.  So despite the frown on this clown, it resembles J. P. Patches to me.

From Visiting Vintage

So, J. P. and Gampa - thank you for the smiles and the fond memories from childhood!

Kristi's third birthday

I'm still scanning and collecting old photos for my parent's Golden Anniversary celebration in August. My mom sent me these and they make me smile so I wanted to share them.

From Kristi's third birthday

From Kristi's third birthday

From Kristi's third birthday

From Kristi's third birthday