Mailbag: Nice letters from everywhere but Florida

It’s been a rare mellow week for our oft-beleaguered Mailbag with the only downer guy being another tiresome Gator Stater, Bill Shaw, from Stuart, Florida, who writes, “According to you we have a horrible goveor because he tried to lure Califoia businesses to Florida.” It’s not just according to us. It’s a well-known fact that Florida has a horrible goveor. It’s look-uppable, and almost all of the mail we received from Floridians agree that they are stuck with an abysmal state boss.

“Apparently, you also hold a snobbishly disdainful view of Florida,” he continues. “I certainly hope that you are not speaking for all Califoians.”

Hopes dashed. We are, in fact, speaking for all Califoians.

Then, he goes on for a while about the glories of Florida being a cheap place to live, as if anyone would live there otherwise, and as if its hapless residents weren’t suffering as a result of getting what they pay for.

Then Shaw, of Stuart, attacks OUR unassailable goveor, Jerry Brown, before trying to lure us to his miserable little state.

Otherwise, things are cool in readersville. Even the generally contentious and cantankerous correspondent Bob Ballack didn’t fire off an antagonistic note. Rather, he reacted to our story about how American Avenue became Long Beach Boulevard in the late 1950s.

“In 1955 I started in the car business at Harbor Lincoln/Mercury at 1633 American Ave., just a block up from Salta Pontiac and Beryl Berry Plymouth and tons of used car dealers. It was truly Automobile Row all the way to Willow Street. Many more car dealers that I don’t remember. Then the night riders rode in from Signal Hill with all of their money incentives and there went the car business in Long Beach.”

We remember some from the late 1960s. Dick Browning Oldsmobile, Ridings Cadillac, Mel Bus Ford, plus C. Bob Autrey and R.O. Gould.

Elaine Bradley wrote about her father who moved to Long Beach in 1938. “He drove on American Avenue every day and called it that until he died in the 1990s. Until I read your column, I never knew why. Thanks for the information.”

Finally, a bit of errata for you: In last week’s Mailbag we tagged reader Barry Bosscher as a “Trump apologist.”

He responds, “Thanks for the shout out, but I am not a Trump apologist. I was a supporter of Marco Rubio and most recently voted for Ben Carson in the Califoia primary. I am unabashedly, however, Anyone But Clinton.” So, we’re guessing, Trump in the general. Our apologies.