“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:
• BREEZY POINT TAVERN’S LAST HURRAH WON’T BE FORGOTTEN ANYTIME SOON. Some 500 people turned out on an August Saturday evening of this year to watch the razing of the Lake Shetek landmark.
“I was overwhelmed. I couldn’t believe that mane people came,” said owner Charlie Loosbrock.
Three hundred commemorative Breezy Point “hard hats” were given away, and some 650 burgers were grilled.
The Breezy Point Tavern has been a gathering place on Shetek’s east side since the 1930s. Through the decades, the rustic bar became known for its cozy quirkiness. Dollar bills stuck to the ceiling were a permanent part of its décor. Peanut shells, crunching underfoot on wood-plank floors, were an inescapable part of the Breezy Point experience. New owners Charlie and Verna Loosbrock, and Terry and Joann Carlson took over last fall. But with the tavern no longer meeting state code, the partners opted to raze the old tavern and instead improve the nearby Breezy Barn. Although the old Breezy Point Tavern had long become an eyesore, some onlookers had tears in their eyes as heavy equipment leveled the building.
Treasure seekers sifted through the rubble for souvenirs. Sandbar Road residents John and Joyce Visker were among those who witnessed the tavern’s swan song.
“It is really going to be missed. It’s been there a long time,” John Visker said.
His family moved to a farm north of Lake Fremont in 1934 when he was nine-years-old. The Breezy Point Tavern was already there.
• Last week’s answer: Garvin Corner reopened during the winter of 1986.
