Moment in Time (originally submitted to ThisWeek News for publication August 1, 2006)

Biase Ciccone and his wife Maria opened their grocery store in a building on the corner of Westwood and Third Avenue in 1933. The building formerly housed a Kroger grocery store, then a shoe repair and barber shop. Two years later, Biase opened a tap room in the west half of the building, leaving the market to be operated by Maria on the east side. For reasons that are obvious in this photo, he called it the Knotty Pine. Biase (inset) operated it until his death in 1958 with help from his son Gildo in his final years, and it was later purchased by his son-in-law Carl Scartz, who renamed it Carl's Knotty Pine. This 1937 photo shows waiter Albert Rosetti and waitress Mary Dello, with Maria standing behind the customers, and her daughter Louise in the back at the cash register.