First came the the Pay-n-Save, next door. Over the years, an entire shopping center popped up: Radio Shack, Red Boy Pizza, Arthur’s Toy Town, Happy Steak, a liquor store, an ice cream parlor, a health food store. I remember riding my bicycle to the Square on hot summer days to spend my allowance on candy or ice cream. As a teenager, I spent many afterschool afternoons loitering in the Radio Shack and the toy store. My friends and I would often get thrown out after pestering the managers endlessly and programming obscene messages to flash on the TRS-80 Personal Computers' screens.
With the 80’s came a building boom. It seems that there was an unwritten rule that one should not have to travel more than a mile to find a shopping center. San Marin Plaza was built, with its upscale Petrini’s Market, now Harvest. The founding fathers’ names were the first to go. No longer “Novak Square” or “Tresch Triangle,” they became simply “The Square,” and “The Triangle.” Adolescent troublemakers hanging out in the lot became known as the “Square Rats.” The Pay-n-Save became Bill's Drugs, then Longs Drugs, even though there was already another Longs within walking distance.
I suppose it’s only a matter of time before Novak’s Square is just a pile of rubble, and after that, just another neighborhood. Every time I drive by though, I’ll know, that's where the Roger Wilco used to be.
05Mar2013 UPDATE / CORRECTIONS: I've edited the original text to correct various inaccuracies: The original tenant of the pharmacy/drug store was Pay-n-Save, not Longs Drugs. I also added the various later tenants of the market building, and corrected several other minor errors.