Remembering Old Reno, Fond Memories & Grampa Pete

Happy June 2nd, y’all! Today we are taking a tour around Old Reno searching for areas and any homes which my inlaws lived in 60+ years ago. A freeway rises over where one rental home once stood, a new building on the site of another. Still, it was enjoyable reminiscing and just driving around the city with Gramma Gini, my mother-in-love, seeing these places and jogging her memories…

Our lead photo shows the Reno Courthouse, a gorgeous building with ornate Corinthian capitals set above simple columns which hold up its front portico. It is the place where Gini went to buy their marriage license back in 1961 while Pete was busy working all day at nearby Stead Air Force Base.

This is the statue of Maj. General Jesse Lee Reno, Union officer during both the Mexican-American and Civil Wars, for whom the city of Reno, Nevada, is so named.

According to Google AI,

In 1868, railroad magnate Charles Crocker named the brand-new townsite after his late friend [General Reno] to honor his legacy.

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Gini and Pete lived here together from 1961-1963, when they moved back to Berryville, West Virginia to be near his parents, cousins and other family. Later, they would move to the Sacramento, California, area to be nearer her parents and one of Pete’s brothers.

Today as we drive were driving about, I am remembering my father-in-love Pete Chapman. Today would have been his 86th birthday.

He passed during the 2020 Covid outbreak, just five days short of his 80th birthday (story linked in the accompanying photographs above) but not from Covid itself.

He had kidney and heart issues most of his life, actually somewhat because of where he grew up in the mining town of Berryville, Virginia, but also because of the type of foam chemicals used to fight fires back in the early 1960s. He had been a fireman in the United States Air Force.

Pete decided not to go on dialysis in 2020, which would have given him more time, but it just wasn’t for him. He had been through a number of big surgeries and just said enough to all of it.

He would have been 86 this year. 🙂

Gini and Pete lived in quite a few apartments and smaller homes in Old Reno during the years they lived there. Gini had graduated from Truckee High School in California in 1959 and immediately moved up to Reno to find work and to attend a beauty college downtown.

Pete had joined the Air Force and his first assignment was to Stead AFB in Reno, Nevada. Later, he would be stationed up in Alaska during the middle 1960s supporting the Vietnam Conflict/War.

They met at a USO party and were married literally 56 days later!

Crazy to think, but then again, Charles and I started dating in late January/early February and were married in October of our year ~ 7 months later. I’ve known other people who married the same way, really quick after beginning to date, and stayed together all their lives. It does happen and can last!

She ended up working at a nearby bank for a couple of years until she was “let go” when the bank found out that she was pregnant with my husband Charles. Those were the days in the 1960s before there were protections in place for women and unborn children.

One of the streets Gini and Pete lived on still has this lovely house-turned-business. It is a good representation of the type of houses which used line the streets in this area. This house had been built in the 1920s or 1930s ~ American Craftsmen style.

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Lunch at Black Bear Diner

Gramma and I had a whole afternoon on Saturday to ourselves, as the morning Assembly was over and the Installation of Officers wasn’t until the evening. So, as we were reminiscing about days gone by in Reno, we decided to try out the Black Bear Diner for lunch. ;)’

I’m always catching Gini when she is eating, sorry Gini! Lunch was good. I was stuffed so I saved half of my sandwich to eat later. Sadly, I ended up tossing it because we had no way to keep it cool until dinner time. Bummer!

Pete liked living up here and was happy to visit again when our son Peter was competing in pole vault. Gramma and Grampa would come up to watch Peter vault at the Reno Summit held at the Reno Fairgrounds during the years he was competing (towards the end of high school and a couple of years during college).

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The Hospital where my husband was born

After lunch, we went by the hospital where Mr. Ethereal was born. It is much larger now with extra wings added to it since he was born. The maternity wing used to be in the oldest part of the hospital, on the far left.

A better photo showing the old maternity ward with a/c units in its windows (upper left in the photograph above). A woman just coming back from lunch offered to tour us around, if we had time, but we had to get going.

The Installation for incoming officers for the California IOOF was to be starting soon.

One last look ~ The gardens around St. Mary’s Hospital are quite lovely! Partly pine trees and partly shade garden. I hadn’t thought about it much but Reno sits at 4500′ above sea level, which is about where pine forests will trees will start growing in the Sierra Nevada mountain range. Reno is more of a grasslands area but the soil will still support pine trees naturally.

Just a couple of last photos in Old Town Reno… Gini was telling me what used to be where this building stands (white structure below). What old department store was located where, etc.

I didn’t have a pen nor paper to write any of this information down, no way to take notes.

I hoped I would remember some of these places to share with you. Or that I could Google them, which I have! 🙂

I hope you have enjoyed this tour around Old Reno, Nevada! A little history along the way, a few places where my inlaws used to lived but which like most of the places I ever lived, no longer are there.

But, good memories nevertheless!

Thanks for coming along on this journey with Gini and myself today! I will have a final Reno upcoming post sharing the hotel-casino we stayed at and its history ~ the Silver Legacy ~ and its French antiques, which are the real McCoys! (Shared just prior to this post. Originally, I was going to post that afterwards.) Oh, and the post about the Tramway in Albuquerque later this week. THEN, it’s onto California afterwards ~ in my travel series ~ woven in with things going on at home.

Also a little snippet of the IOOF Assembly we attended with a few pics (over on Facebook, probably).

Let me know what your favorite part of this post was down in the comments, would you? Hope this wandering around Reno has been fun for you! <3 Happy heavenly 86th, Grampa!

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Happy trails,