“Name that Year” is designed to put your knowledge of Tracy and its newsmakers of the past to the test. Each week, we will publish a news item that ran in a past edition — maybe it was a major event, or a story about a Tracy resident — it’s up to you to determine in what year that particular news item hit the pages of the paper:
• LONGTIME RED ROOSTER OWNERS CAROLYN AND DON ENGELKES SERVED UP THEIR LAST ROAST BEEF COMMERCIAL and said goodbye to a way of life that’s been theirs for three decades.
The couple sold the longtime Tracy restaurant to Robert and Donna Caron in the summer of this year.
“It’s been long enough,” said Carolyn, of their decision to sell. “We had a good year, and now we’d like to take a little time for ourselves and spend more time with friends and family. Maybe I’ll have some time to clean my house and work in the garden, and Don’s going to take time to golf.”
They will miss their customers and employees, she stressed.
“I’ve really enjoyed the work and being around people. You really get to know people.” Some diners were such regular customers, she said, “you’d wonder what had happened to them if you didn’t see them.”
Her employees, she considers like family. “We’ve grown up together. We couldn’t have done this without them.”
Long-time Red Rooster employees include Linda Pope and Florence Phillips, who were at the Red Rooster at the start of the Engelkes era. Except for brief interludes elsewhere, both have worked at the Red Rooster throughout the Engelkes years. Joyce Osland has been a Red Rooster waitress for 25 years. Betty Payne has worked for 18 years. Arlene Fastenau, Millie Hay, and Kathy Hohler are other long-time employees. Elda Giese and Gladys Koppi, who are now retired, also worked many years at the cafe.
Running a restaurant has been pretty much a seven-day-a-week commitment. Except for a couple of 1970s trips to Las Vegas, the couple hasn’t really taken an extended vacation since taking over the Red Rooster.
• Last week’s answer: The year was 2010 when owners of the former 21st Century bank building planned to open a bar and supper club to be known as Thelma & Louise’s.
