“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:
• THE COAST-TO-COAST STORE IN DOWNTOWN TRACY CLOSED IN MARCH OF THIS YEAR.
“We lost everything,” said former owner Gary Victor. He said he tried to sell the store since the end of last year without any luck.
“The economic and historical forces seem to be against smalltown businesses,” said Victor. “The people in the community supported our business, but there just wasn’t enough for us to make a profit. We lost our original investment and all of the money we stuck into the business to try and make improvements above that.”
Gary and Cindy Victor assumed ownership of the Tracy Coast-to-Coast Store four years ago, buying the business from Marlowe and Betty Lindstrom.
The Victors came to Tracy from California, although both had roots in the Midwest, Cindy grew up in Duluth and Bemidji. Gary had taught school in the Rapid City, SD, area.
Their son, Frank, a graduate of Humbolt State University, joined also joined the family Coast-to-Coast operation. Cindy, a published fiction writer, continued to work for a California advertising agency.
The Victors are trying to sell their Tracy house. “We will be moving to the Metro area by the end of the month or sooner,” Gary Victor said. He hasn’t found work yet but said he has lined up some good prospects.
Victor said that the remaining store inventory has been turned over to Tracy State Bank.
• Last week’s answer: Stassen Photography was sold in February 1986.
