C.C. Brown’s Ice Cream Parlor Closes

Re “Saturday’s Sundaes to be Parlor’s Last,” June 7: Reading of the closing of C.C. Brown’s ice cream parlor in Hollywood was like reading of the unexpected death of a dear, dear friend.

I cannot imagine my Los Angeles without the legendary birthplace of the hot fudge sundae and I am not coping with such tragic news very well. There are many memories of that wonderful place I grew up with: My first wide-eyed visit as an 8-year-old with my mother; an hour spent sequestered in one of its high-backed booths with my first date in junior high; a rowdy stop with a group of friends after my high school prom; a quick call to the place with my wife on our wedding day--she in her wedding gown, me in my tux; and my 5-year-old daughter’s first wide-eyed visit there last year. All recollections are now shrouded in the knowledge that there will be no new ones to add to them.

WILLIAM CAMPBELL

Encino

*

A Bittersweet memory passes with C.C. Brown’s closing. The year was 1946--the end of February--and I had been discharged from the Army Air Corps only 23 days before. The only acquaintance I knew in Los Angeles, a cousin, cajoled me into a blind date with a friend of his girlfriend.

Having no civilian clothes, except for a pair of prewar trousers and a prized tennis sweater I had cherished since college days, I escorted my date to an informal evening--movie and a trip to the soda fountain afterward.

Happily, the evening was pleasantly successful, until the last hot chocolate was consumed. As I leaned across the wire-legged table to pick up the check, my date also reached for it and--you’re ahead of me--splash went the residue of hot chocolate on my single prized remnant of prewar memories!

C.C. Brown’s is closing but Cheri and I are still married, reaching for 50 years!

HAROLD FAULK

CHERI KELSON FAULK

Bel-Air