Won’s Coffee Shop, 14440 Gilmore Street, is a delightful find with its “American-Chinese” sign. It is indicative of a time, 50 years ago, when daring white people in search of adventure, beyond burgers and fries, ate such exotic foods as chopped suey and egg rolls… reassured that they would also have “American” choices on the menu.

Much of Gilmore and the surrounding area has a feeling of a small town in the 1950s. There is Kovac’s Pharmacy, with its tile sign and air of single proprietorship, the kind of place where the pharmacist knows your name and a bow-tied “Mr. Wilson”, in wire rimmed glasses, hands out free cherry lollipops to kids with sore throats.

The Van Nuys School is a beautiful, pre-war building constructed when the Golden State really was first among the states in education, well being and progressive experimentation.

An alabaster Bible Church stands like a sturdy beacon of righteousness ready to administer to the hungry faithful.

Eating, walking, praying, learning …..what a strange section of the city this is!