Gertrudes son Mike is still around, he contacted me out of the blue last year and still had some 'smalls' from the
shop and was doing well. I was fortunate to shop at all the locations including the first shop in Newport Beach. Amazing how chocked
full of goodies it was. The only thing that came close was the early Memory Lane Perrysburg location before the inventory
went to 90% reproduction stuff. I clearly remember what was hot and 'trendy' in these parts back then, lots of people wanting
straight bar or DX Schwinns usually powder coated bright red or yellow or some other bright color, often no fenders or accessories, just truss
rods etc. I can remember riding my plain jane Straight bar Hornet, rusty maroon original paint on the "strand" our beach
bike path here in LA, and people would flip out on that simple plane jane bike. They just stood out from everything
rolling down the bike paths back then in an era of ten speeds and eventually the new Schwinn Cruisers. Now thanks to Retro-hell
as I call it, no one really notices the vintage ballooners around here as the vintage / retro look saturated the bike industry
with tons of variations of the balloon tank bikes looking 'old'.. I can remember clearly when literally a crowd would gather when
you rode your original ballooner down at the beach.
Sadly the last owner of the Pedal Pusher chain Larry Kiel was killed tragically a year or so ago in an automobile accident.
Charlie Churchill is doing well and living in So Cal also. Ahhh The good ol' days of swap meets in the late 70s in So Cal where most of what showed up
was NOS original inventory stuff from shops around the area and US. Whizz-in, Balloonaitc, and Gary H's Huntington beach Main St. mega swaps!