LOOKING BACK

Young Chang

True Value is now in the spot Kerm Rima’s Hardware Store occupied

until the mid-1980s.

A different business ran the show before True Value stepped in.

“So it’s been two other things since it’s been Kerm Rima’s, but we

still call it Kerm Rima’s,� said Mary Ellen Goddard, a former patron of

the business and volunteer at the Costa Mesa Historical Society.

From 1951 through the mid-’80s, Kerm Rima’s was a Costa Mesa hangout

almost by default because anyone who was anyone went there to buy basic

necessities for the home.

After a while, patrons got to visiting Kerm Rima’s not only to buy

hardware, but to hang out with the other people -- city leaders, longtime

residents -- who were also just hanging out.

“When you needed [various] little tiny things, they had them,� Goddard

said.

Kerm Rima, a native of Grand Rapids, Mich., owned the store. He was

active locally, according to three different Daily Pilot stories from the

‘80s, serving as everything from Kiwanis Club president to director of

Costa Mesa’s Chamber of Commerce.

Alvin Pinkley, who ran his own hot-spot called Pink’s Drugstore, is

quoted in one story saying Rima was an honest, reliable guy.

Other known details about Rima include that he had trained, in his

earlier years, to be a dentist but chose to open a bait and tackle shop

on Pacific Coast Highway instead. His brother Keith, also ran a

commercial fishing business in Newport Beach.

But in 1951, Rima started his hardware store in Costa Mesa. First he

set up shop at the intersection of Newport Boulevard and Broadway Street.

Then he moved to the 2000 block of Harbor Boulevard.

In addition to selling kitchenware like pots and tools like wrenches,

Rima also ran a coffee bar in the back of the store.

For more than three decades, his sons helped him manage the store.

After Rima died in 1982, at the age of 69, the sons continued to run

the shop, but only for a couple years.

* Do you know of a person, place or event that deserves a historical

Look Back? Let us know. Contact Young Chang by fax at (949) 646-4170;

e-mail at [email protected]; or mail her at c/o Daily Pilot, 330 W.

Bay St., Costa Mesa, CA 92627.