BajaNomad

Went For A Circus & Greeted A Friend. Hussong's.

bajacalifornian - 8-10-2013 at 07:44 PM

Don't remember Ensenada entry as pretty as yesterday. Waterfront in the afternoon light was stylin'. Brilliant, with blues. Clear.


We missed a circus by 24 hours, but found Hussong's within minutes.



Came through the parking lot door to the smell of urine, then shoe polish and sawdust changed the air.



The short round waiter from the 70's wasn't there. This waiter took orders, regardless of noise. Curiously, hearing every word.


Deaf as a doorpost his secret was simple.



The picture of my old friend is gone from the wall. Learned limericks while feeding him swill.



Ride home was clear as that in. Just a silver crescent, along Venus's side.


















Six of 'em belting out Cu Cu Ru Cu Cu Paloma.



Ya shoulda felt the overtones from these walls, in this cathedral.

BornFisher - 8-10-2013 at 08:18 PM

Aye, aye, aye, Jeff you is styling it these days!!
Can`t join you tomorrow, have a great one amigo, and thanks for the pics of Hussongs!!

BajaRun - 8-10-2013 at 09:16 PM

Does Hussongs still do the buy one beer get one free on Tuesdays ?

bajacalifornian - 8-10-2013 at 09:22 PM

Signs were up 2X1 Tuesdays & Thursdays . . .

You'll see the 2X1 to the right of the ceiling fan above.

[Edited on 8-11-2013 by bajacalifornian]

bajajudy - 8-11-2013 at 09:28 AM

Jeez
Talk about a step back in time.
I havent been in Hussong's in decades but right here by my computer I have a poster by an artist named Vildez who autographed my copy. The place has not changed since 1986, the date on the poster. I also have a post card.
As Jimmy Buffet would say....oh the stories we could tell.

Barry A. - 8-11-2013 at 10:03 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by bajajudy
Jeez
Talk about a step back in time.
I havent been in Hussong's in decades but right here by my computer I have a poster by an artist named Vildez who autographed my copy. The place has not changed since 1986, the date on the poster. I also have a post card.
As Jimmy Buffet would say....oh the stories we could tell.


I went there pretty often in the late '50's early '60's, and it looked pretty much like that then!!!

Barry

shari - 8-11-2013 at 11:15 AM

that's what I love about the place...it really has stayed much the same and one feels that historic flavor....in the margaritas! it is a classic that everyone should visit.

mulegejim - 8-11-2013 at 11:30 AM

If you look close at the '57 Chevy in the first picture you will notice it is a 4 door hardtop convertible....rather rare car. I had one in the early '60s....mine was red and cream colored. Nice ride....sure wish I had it today. Jim

Paulina - 8-11-2013 at 05:45 PM

I haven't been inside for quite a while.

I dug out some photos to compare them to Jeff's. It looks like they've cleaned up the walls a bit, when compared to these two from 1980.

Jeff, when you wrote that the picture of your old friend was gone from the wall, are you referring to the penciled drawings that you can see from behind my head in this photo?



In this second photo, my best friend Denise is on the shoulders of a young man who helped lift her up to place our business card "The Heritage Sisters" on the top of this animals head. From the looks of Jeff's photos, the business cards may have been cleaned up as well.



Those were fun times. Pinesol, pee, spilled beer and wood shavings. Hussong's.

P>*)))>{

[Edited on 12-8-2013 by Paulina]

[Edited on 12-8-2013 by Paulina]

bajacalifornian - 8-11-2013 at 09:24 PM

Hey Paulina . . . yes. Similar time period, same drawings. My friend's picture had been up for some time in those days.

Thanks for pulling up your pictures. Crazy great times.

dean miller - 8-12-2013 at 02:41 PM

I first visited Hussongs 6 decades ago.....Hussongs was almost at the edge of town, there were few if any building surrounding it

Hussongs and Baja have changed

For some of you new comers to Baja....A reflection from a post some years ago:

"DIVING- HUSSONG- COLUMBIA- TREASURE-HISTORY



It no secret to most "vintage" divers that Hussong's was once a divers hang out. In the 1950 & the early 1960s it was a place that was "Muy Tranquillo." The music was Strauss Viennese waltzes played by a group of locals in the corner.

***The Maggies were huge, served with a glass and the container they were mixed in (at least to the divers) -a few sips and the Cantina was transformed into another time and another place.
****
Walter Hussong who was Percy's son was a very knowledgeable experienced pioneer diver and a darn good one. It was only natural that divers of the 1950s and early 1960s would check in on the way south to check on conditions or on the way back to the states to report on the diving.

Walter and Bill Hogan who owned the Underwater Sports shop in Long Beach, California, teamed up in 1956 to salvage what silver remained in the Columbia which was in 200 plus feet of water in or near the La Paz harbor. (To place this in perspective self contained (aka SCUBA) diving was only five (5) years old in the US, equipment was rudimentary crude and dangerous use and unheard of in most of Mexico)

They dove it every day for a month returning with nothing but the ships bell which Bill located 50 feet from the wreck. They "did not find the silver" = and "were poverty stricken."

HOWEVER, There is an epilog to this tale..

With in a year of returning Bill managed to purchase two large lots at the base of the Belmont pier in Long Beach and establish a huge dive operation including one of the first training pools. He then divorced his wife, concurrently losing the dive operation in the process to her. Next he established a "Divers Bar" called "Hogans" which he gave away more than he sold, In about 1960-1 (?) he packed up and moved to Costa Rica where he remarried, raised a daughter and lived the life of a gentleman famer for most of the remainder of his years, departing to to the big reef in the sky about three years ago--But--- He "never found the treasure of the Columbia."

Walter on the other hand was living the good life in Ensenada. He was away at the bar always available to drop every thing if he recognized you to "talk diving." However, the good life caused his demise-- He opened Hussongs on the mainland and was shot by an irate husband
--but Walter also maintained -- "never found the treasure of the Columbia."

That was the way it was six decades ago..

SDM

willardguy - 8-12-2013 at 03:35 PM

the original hussongs sat across the street on the corner that is now papas and beer. thats it, thats all I got!:spingrin:

and the margies aren't the same, the original margarita was tequila,lime and damiana!;D

[Edited on 8-12-2013 by willardguy]

bajacalifornian - 8-12-2013 at 08:43 PM

GREAT post Mr. Miller!

My wife's grandmother was a cook for the Hussong family. Heard stories about rides to Ensenada in a Chrysler Airflow, as a beginning.

DENNIS - 8-13-2013 at 07:00 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by willardguy
the original hussongs sat across the street on the corner that is now papas and beer. thats it, thats all I got!:spingrin:




I've never heard that. :?:
Quote:

and the margies aren't the same, the original margarita was tequila,lime and damiana!;D




I'll just file that one with the other "Who really knows" trivia. :light: