When popcorn was a nickel, and Elvis king

GARDNERVILLE, Nev. (AP) - Sondra Condron remembers the days when the latest Elvis Presley movie coming to town was a big deal.

Condron, 68, moved to the Valley in sixth grade and has never thought about living anywhere else.

“I love the way they’ve really cleaned up the town and made it inviting,” she said. “I like it, and wouldn’t want to move anyplace else. I’m really proud to be from here.”

Condron’s father, Virgil, bought the Shell gas station in 1958 on the S-curve in Gardnerville from Dixie Bath.

“He said if you buy this, we’ll build you a new one in 1961,” Condron said. “It was really run down and old.”

The newcomers weren’t greeted with smiles at first.

“At that time there were 2,500 people here,” Condron said. “To be anybody you had to be German, Republican and Lutheran because that’s what the majority of the people were. We didn’t fit that bill.”

Some community members went as far as to tell Condron’s father they wouldn’t buy gas from his station for 10 years.

“He told them that wouldn’t be a problem because he’d get their kids,” Condron said. “So he let every kid work on their car for free as long as they put the tools back.”

The gas station became such a popular place with the high schoolers that many of them worked for Virgil, even Sondra herself.

“When I would check someone’s oil and tell them they were a quart low, they would always say ’Go get your dad,’” Condron said. “They didn’t want me being the one to check it.”

That first year, the family lived in Minden across the street from the old Minden Elementary School, which now houses the school district offices on Mono Avenue.

Condron’s favorite memories are feeding carrots to the donkey on the corner of Sixth Street and County Road, drinking cherry cokes at the drug store, roller skating on the courthouse sidewalks and riding bikes to Dangberg Box, which was located in the current Westwood subdivision, to play in the mud.

“When the whistle blew at 6 p.m., we all knew it was time to go home,” Condron said.

In 1959, the family moved to Gardnerville where Condron attended junior high in the building that houses the museum & cultural center and high school where Carson Valley Middle School is now.

For fun, Condron and her friends would go to the movie theater, down the block from The Golden Bubble.

“They would sell bags of popcorn for 5 cents,” Condron said. “All the kids went there. My dad took us to see Elvis Presley’s first movie that came here. It was a big deal.”

In high school, Condron said the lack of stoplights and traffic lent itself to cruising the town on Friday nights.

“Dragging Main Street was a big deal,” she added. “I had a ’51 Ford.”

Carson Valley Days for Condron consisted of the parade followed by a free barbecue in Minden Park.

“Everybody went to Carson Valley Days,” Condron said. “It was the event of the year. My dad got picked up by the (Soroptimist) jail a couple times, and had to get bailed out.”

As homecoming queen, Condron took great joy in participating in all the homecoming festivities.

Sheriff George Byers would block the road so the students could do a snake dance from the high school, through the Golden Bubble and back to the school.

“He was really good to all of us high school kids,” Condron said of the sheriff.

Condron graduated in 1965, and attended University of Nevada, Reno, and Reno Business College for one year before marrying her high school sweetheart and moving back to the Valley.

Two years later in 1967, the gas station was sold to Jim Fingar.

Condron still has fond memories of the station.

“Dad always knew what was going on,” she said. “He knew I was homecoming queen before I did.”

Condron has two daughters, Rhonda and Cari, who also graduated from Douglas High School.

“I had 44 kids in my graduating class, and they had 400,” she said. “They didn’t have as much of a hometown growing up as I did. The town has grown so much.”

In 1987 Condron went to work for the county as chief deputy clerk. She stayed there for 26 years.

During that time she became involved in the community serving on a task force to build Western Nevada College campus in Douglas County, she was a charter member of the Sierra Nevada Republican Women, charter member of the Boys & Girls Club and became a member of the Kiwanis Club of Carson Valley.

“I felt the community was so good to me growing up that I wanted to give back,” she said.

Condron also threw her hat in the political ring when she ran for recorder in 1994 against Linda Slater. She lost by a narrow margin.

“It’s a lot of work to campaign, but it was a wonderful experience,” she said. “A lot of people I met, I’m still friends with.”

Being retired hasn’t slowed Condron down.

She still enjoys going to high school football games, serving as president of the Kiwanis club and has input in the fate of the former family gas station.

“I was thrilled when they decided to keep the station,” Condron said.

The Class of 1965’s 50th reunion is August 15.

“Some of these people I haven’t seen in 50 years, so I’m hoping to have a big turnout,” Condron said. “It will be a great way to reconnect after all these years.”

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Information from: Gardnerville Record-Courier, https://www.recordcourier.com