Harry Bogue sat in a comfortable leather recliner in the living room of his home on Diamond Street, where he has lived since 1938. He glanced occasionally out the big picture window across the street at the Pacific Beach Recreation Center.
“I just love to look out the window and watch the kids go by, especially the ones in strollers or when they’re just beginning to walk,” he said.
Preparing to celebrate his 95th birthday tomorrow, Bogue likes to look out his picture window at the present. He also remembers the past through hundreds of photos that help tell the story of his long life.
Bogue was born in his parents’ home in downtown San Diego in 1912. Then the young family moved to Imperial Valley when Bogue was six months old. A photo showed the group heading east in a wagon to the family homestead. “I don’t remember it, of course, but I’ve been told about it enough,” he said.
Another photo captured Bogue as a toddler, sitting on a horse with his three older sisters, Mildred, Lucille and Florence. Other photos showed sibling groupings, including younger brother Willard and the youngest child, Irene. “We were always on horses,” Bogue said.
Many photos pictured Bogue with his wife Laura, who passed away in 1993. The couple was together for more than 60 years and didn’t have to go far for introductions.
“She was visiting her sister who lived across the street from us, and I went over there, and, well”¦,” Bogue said with a smile.
According to Bogue, Laura liked to dance, and he found several snapshots of the couple kicking up their heels at the dance hall that was formerly on Crystal Pier.
Bogue and his younger brother Willard moved west in 1938 to start life with their young families. “We were going to come to San Diego and get a job, no matter what,” he said. Armed with a letter of recommendation from a lumberyard in El Centro, Bogue applied at Pacific Beach Lumber Company at the corner of Garnet Avenue and Dawes Street, the current site of McDonald’s.
“I got that job when things were pretty tough,” he said. Capitalizing on his initial luck, he remained there more than 40 years, never missing a week’s work. A healthy stack of retirement party photos featured longtime coworkers who had all become close friends.
In another photo, Bogue stood in front of a home under construction at 1404 Diamond Street. “I wanted a home in the center of everything, and this looked like a good place,” he said.
In the early days at Pacific Beach Lumber, there was so much open space in the neighborhood that Bogue’s wife could look out the window of their home on Diamond Avenue and watch him walk to work at Garnet and Dawes.
“It was all wild oats,” Bogue said.
Numerous photos showed Bogue with members of the Lions Club, where Bogue has been a charter member since 1944. He has had perfect attendance for more than 60 years and has held every club office and chaired every committee.
One of Bogue’s favorite Lions projects was planting trees along Pacific Beach’s main streets. Bogue said he was fond of trees because he credits one with saving his life. He was four years old and living in Lakeside when the 1916 flood struck.
“The river changed its course overnight, and dad got us out of the house and shoved us all in a big oak tree.”
In addition to the Lions Club, Bogue served on the board of directors of the Pacific Beach Town Council and served as chairman for the Pacific Beach Recreation Center. He was also a member of the Pacific Beach Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, and was charter president of the Pacific Beach Exchange Club and the Pacific Beach PTA for many years. He also helped pour the cement for the cross on Mount Soledad.
“When we’re driving around the neighborhood, he can still remember all kinds of interesting things that I didn’t know about,” said his granddaughter Lindy Martinet.
The daily adventures of Bogue, his wife and their children, Suzanne and Gary, are captured in dozens of photos. In one, a young Gary played on a slide in the back yard, with no other house in sight to the north. “I’m over to the left, planting a victory garden,” Bogue said.
Four grandchildren and six great-grandchildren were well represented in Bogue’s photos. Opening his wallet, Bogue slid out a 1969 photo of his daughter Suzanne’s children, Lori, Leah and Lindy, with their dog.
“I’ve had that one in there forever, but I still like it.”
Right inside the front door was the photo of great grandson Daniel Pitt wearing a tuxedo for his senior picture from Mission Bay High School. Bogue quickly found a shot of himself and Daniel at two years old, walking on the beach. “We’d always take breadcrumbs for the birds.”
Bogue keeps making memories, either with his family or friends Woody Ogden, Roy Thomason and Dave Lundstrom. As Bogue’s neighbor for 50 years, Lundstrom said his friend has always been a pillar of the community.
“He is very fond of this community,” Lundstrom said. “He was always sponsoring adult and youth sports teams but was never one to toot his own horn.”
Blowing his horn or not, Bogue can be seen around Pacific Beach on his motorized scooter, headed to the grocery or the butcher shop.
“I go to the boardwalk and watch girls, too.”
Bogue said he’s looking forward to his 95th birthday but is shooting for 100 years. For his early birthday celebration last weekend, he enjoyed lunch in Old Town with his family.
On the actual birthday, he’ll be off to see his brother Willard, who still lives in Imperial Valley.
“I feel so good, sitting here and enjoying everything,” Bogue said. “My brother looks out his window and watches his dog chase rabbits. I’d rather be here, watching the people go by.”