Flood: Van Nuys, CA, originally uploaded by Here in Van Nuys.
“Wow, what a cool picture! That little shop on the corner is my grandfather Frank Preimesberger’s Van Nuys Printing shop. He started the business in 1942 after moving to Van Nuys from Pierz, Minn. The business was passed to my uncle Lee Preimesberger in the 1960s, and he ran it until his death in 1993. Grandpa and Grandma lived on the corner of Hazeltine and Emelita for 40 years, and they both died in 1982.
Forgot to mention that the print shop was located at the southwest corner of Calvert and Tyrone streets. Tyrone was notorious for flooding problems, as you can see here.”
Chris Preimesberger
Redwood City, Calif.
Here in Van Nuys 
This thread has gotten me thinking more about old Van Nuys, and trying to remember things. My first grade teacher was Miss Steenan (spelling ?). Miss Steenan had been the school secretary, but was moved into the teaching job for the duration of the war. My class was her final gig as a teacher. When I returned for the second grade, she had moved back to the school office. I don’t believe having an “uncertified” teacher did me any harm at all. I loved her, as is probably true of all first graders.
Our family did most of ’53, and then most of ’54 in Massachusetts (5th and 6th grades). Then ’54 / ’55 in Buffalo NY. My Dad’s next assignment with Lockheed was an overseas gig, so Mom, my brother and I moved back into the Tiara St. house. I attended Van Nuys Jr. Hi for 8th and most of 9th grades. Don’t remember much about that school, other than the smog. Seeing one kid leading another to the closest drinking fountain to help him wash out his eyes was a common occurance. You haven’t lived until you have had a “smog eye attack” with eyes stinging and tearing so badly that you couldn’t see your way to some convenient source of clean water.
We skated at the Rainbow Roller Rink pretty regularly. And went to the show, both Rivoli and the Van Nuys. I saw “The Thing” with some neighborhood kids at the Van Nuys. It was an afternoon matinee showing, but was dark when we walked out of the theater. Scared the heck out of us and we ran all the way home.
Thanks again for the memories,
Dick
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Great stories. Keep ‘‘em coming.
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Also printed all the league bowling sheets for the bowling alleys in the valley. Had many conversations with “Rhiney” P. as a junior bowler at Van Nuys Bowl from 1956 to 1963.
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Reiny Preimesberger was my dad’s cousin and was REALLY into bowling. Wrote a bowling column for years about all the leagues for the Valley News & Green Sheet. That turned out to help me a lot, because when I graduated in journalism from Pepperdine in 1975 and went job-hunting, I didn’t have to go far, because everybody at the newspaper already knew my family name.
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Hello Chris, With your family’s print shop at the corner of Calvert and Tyrone, I walked right past the shop hundreds of times on my walk to and from Van Nuys Elementary. I lived on Tiara, just west of Tyrone, so the most direct walking route was along Tyrone.
I don’t really remember the print shop. I was 5 when I started in Fall of ’48 and 10 when we moved away from Van Nuys in ’53. Hmmm, at around 200 school days per year, and 5 years walking the route, That means I walked by about 2000 times !
The things that I most remember would be the Union Ice Co, and the pontoon bridges. I was always amazed to see all those bridges appear and disappear so quickly. When I walked by in the morning, there would be no bridges. That afternoon, on the way home, all the bridges would be in place.
One other thing I remember was that one day on the way home I heard an elderly lady calling to me from the east side of Tyrone. When I stopped to listen to her, she said that she had locked herself out of her house. She had a window open, but couldn’t climb up and into the house. She asked me if I could climb through the window, go around to the front door, and let her in. Which I did. She thanked me and asked for my name and telephone number. By the time I got home she had called my mother to ask if it would be OK for her to invite me to stop for milk and cookies the following afternoon. To which my mother agreed. My, was that an age of innocence for us all ! A better time in so many ways.
Dick Fischer
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Dick,
So many things are astonishing about this story, heartwarming and lovely.
An old lady, locked out of her house, asks a kid to climb through the window to open her door, and later asks him for his number so she can properly call his mother to invite the boy back for milk and cookies.
None of this would happen in 2022.
If a child were allowed to walk alone (20m?) from his home on Tiara to the Van Nuys Elementary School today, he would need to cross speeding cars on Oxnard, dodge homeless encampments along Tyrone (and many other places), pass through some of the poorest and most unsafe sections of the San Fernando Valley, again cross the speeding, dangerous, unsightly Victory Blvd. and still more homeless encampments at the Central Lutheran Church, until he made his way onto school grounds. Where he might have to walk through metal detectors to get inside.
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Absolutely. My family’s shop was the go-to place for bizcards, posters, church bulletins, biz stationery, all that stuff for years and years. Uncle Lee was big in the Knights of Columbus and was a very social kind of businessman, very successful. We were all St. Elisabeth School grads — 17 kids alone from both Van Nuys Preimesberger families. Eight kids from my family (Julian and Cecilia P), and 9 from Uncle Lee and Aunt Loretta’s. The May Festival was the biggest deal at SES for generations. Cool memories!
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Double wow! If you went to St. Elizabeth and you needed printing… it was the Preimesberger’s you went to. Remember “May Festival” posters?
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