Years ago, my sister and I used to get hand-me-downs from our grandma’s neighbor’s granddaughters. (Was that confunsing? 🙂 It was like Christmas, and we’d dig into those black garbage bags with gusto. There was a shirt that had metallic/glittery wording that said “Turlock, someplace special”. Turlock is where my sister and I grew up. Our grandparents lived here and were a big part of our lives. Mama’s job was near downtown. Albert and I got married here. Brodee was dedicated to God by one of our favorite pastor’s here. It’s special because it’s home.
But Turlock was never one of our official stops. However, our schedule ended up with some extra time, and we were passing through on our way to the next stop, so we stayed awhile so I could try to catch up on the blog and spent the night.
With morning comes something extremely special in Turlock. It means Olde Tyme Pastries has opened for business. They make unequivocally and absolutely the best pastries, cookies, and sweets in town. Most likely the valley. And quite possibly California. Maybe even nationally. They could hang world-wide. It’s just yummy. Our wedding cake was made here.

I asked the counter girls how early in the morning the bakers start baking. They said 10pm — the night before!! Then a shift comes in at 4am. These girls have to be in by 5am to start loading the display cases. Wow! All these years, I had noooo idea!!

It’s OK if you wish you could climb inside and gobble these goodies up. You wouldn’t be sorry!

For close to forty years, our family has been enjoying one of their classics, a pineapple cream cheese danish ring. The best time to get it is fresh and first thing in the morning. So we did. And some of the items on the day-old rack – always at a discount!
If you’re in Olde Tyme in the morning, you’ll not only get to enjoy the delicious aromas, but you’ll also see many regulars. Groups of people who get together to enjoy some coffee and a muffin or pastry.
We met one such group. I asked these precious ladies if I could take their picture. They graciously agreed, and told us the history of their gathering. For thirty years now, these dear friends have met every Monday morning. (This was another God gift – that we were in Olde Tyme on Monday morning, just at the right time to meet the ladies.) At the time, they were all attending the same church and had been friends, and thought this would be a fun thing to do. Thirty years later, their group has gone from twelve to five. They’ve had to say good-bye due to illness and death, but they continue together with such cheerful, fun attitudes. They even shared their ages, all of them being between eighty and eight-seven. Really amazing. They wanted me to refer to them as the Oldies, but later came up with Silver Saints. I’d like to think of them as precious friends who made our day. Our short time visiting with them was simply lovely. May God give them many more Mondays.
Our next stop was breakfast at Latif’s. This restaurant has been in town for decades. There have been oodles of regulars that go there to eat. We thought it’d be fun for the boys to experience some “essential Turlock”.

It’s not every day you get to sit in a chair that a former President sat in. We’re not necessarily Bush fans (we prefer presidents who revere the Constitution…those are hard to come by in the last few decades…). Barbara’s chair was marked to the left.

Latif’s has maintained its retro look flawlessly since before it was retro!

Latifs is not far from downtown. Vintage Market is in the photo on the right.

After breakfast, the guys took off for haircuts, and Mama and I went to our favorite shopping spot in town, Vintage Market. The store is full of rare or fun finds from different vendors. It was fun to browse again and feast my eyeballs. The lady running the shop that day was so fun to talk to and it turned out, the few things Mama and I bought were all from her stall. That made me happy becasue she was so nice.
We met up with the guys again and said good-bye to Grandpa and Nana.
We have four days left to our trip. We’ve been a lot of places and met a lot of people. It would’ve been fun to get to know even more, but there are a lot of folks who keep to themselves. They don’t care to make any connection. We’ve experienced that a lot. I’m happy to say, not in Turlock. It was so nice to talk to the ladies in Olde Tyme and the girls behind the counter. To talk to the vendor at Vintage Market. The boys got to know their barber, and our waitress at Latif’s. Life is more beautiful and rich when we’re willing to open up and reach out…to connect and invest in one another, and share life, even if it’s for just a little bit. I’m proud to say Turlock is someplace special. And always will be.

Before leaving town, Dayne wanted to measure to see if he’s passed up Nana. You be the judge…