New Book To Chronicle Newark's Past

During his childhood summers, William Fagan would play in the morning sun until he heard a loud whistle.

The sound came every day at noon from an air raid siren that once was located atop a pole at the corner of Cherry Street and Mayhews Landing Road.

When that whistle sounded, Fagan – like the other children of those times – would head into their Newark homes for lunch.

This is just one vivid memory Fagan recently recalled and is one of many he plans to include in a book about Newark.

And the memories he plans to memorialize in his upcoming book are vast.

Fagan and other Baby Boomers remember a different kind of Newark – from Newark’s dairy farms and the cow pastures that once populated the land where now stands to the former Newark Skate, Lido Lanes and Foster’s Freeze locations that have since closed.

“It was very quiet. You look at the streets now and when people are home at night, it’s just packed with cars,” Fagan said. “Back then, your car was just parked in the driveway or just out in front. Everybody knew everybody. Everybody was polite.”

And Fagan, now a Redding resident, didn’t know about how much Newark had changed since the 1950s until he visited Newark in 2009 for a high school reunion.

“I was floored at what was gone and what had happened to it. That got me really curious,” Fagan said. “A lot of us Boomers are curious as to what happened to it.”

Fagan, who graduated from Memorial High School in 1979, started researching. He read other books about Newark, including Bruce MacGregor’s “Centennial History of Newark.”

But Fagan wanted to know when and why various shops closed in town and the progression of the development of the townd. He decided that revealing what has changed in Newark since the 1950s would be the focus of his work.

Fagan, whose mother was the cafeteria manager at Newark Memorial High, even plans to unveil the recipes of treats served at Newark schools, including Peanut Butter Crispies and cinnamon rolls.

“They were about the size of your foot!” Fagan said as he described the cinnamon rolls. “These things were huge.”

The 51-year-old hasn’t just keyed in his own memories, though. Fagan said he’s received a lot of help from fellow Newark residents – both present and former – who lived in the area between the 1950s and 1990s.

A lot of the assistance even came from the Facebook group “You Know You’re from Newark, Ca if …”.

Fagan has no timeline as of yet on when he plans to complete his book. He continues to gather information to include in his book and invites individuals to contact him at wdf60radiers@yahoo.com or through Facebook.

The support from Newark residents is one aspect that Fagan said he found refreshing.

“It’s like old Newark. That’s how helpful everybody was back then. That is exactly how they are even now at an older age,” Fagan said. “It’s amazing. Newark was a lot of fun. It was a great place to be raised.”