Like clockwork, every other Monday, my reminiscences of the old days in Napa have been running in the Register for over a year. To date, the details of every piece have been totally from memory.

I still have a lot of memories that I can put into words, but for this offering I decided to do a little research at two wonderful local facilities — the Napa County Historical Society in the old Goodman Library Building on First Street and the Napa City-County Library at Fifth and Coombs streets.

I spent several hours perusing the 1940s editions of the Polk City Directory for Napa. It was fun and triggered a lot of memories.

The Polk directories are an unbelievable wealth of information. I looked up names of people, addresses, telephone numbers and local businesses.

In the 1947 edition, I not only found listing for all of my relatives that lived in Napa, but I also found myself in there: “Ford, James W., employee Moffitt Motors, 1445 East Avenue.” (As a 16-year-old, I worked as a parts runner for Moffitt Motors during the summer of 1946.)

It is interesting to note that in 1947 Napa had more listings in the categories of liquor-retail dealers (27) and gas and oil service stations (30) than it did physicians and surgeons (15) and lawyers (14). There must be a message there somewhere.

In the foreword to the directory, N.S. Coombs, the descendant of an influential pioneer family and then-secretary and manager of the Napa Chamber of Commerce, touted the benefits of the area and cited a few pertinent facts. These are his words:

• Total population: 14,000 (estimated), total white population: 99 percent plus

• Area: 1,550 acres

• Three banks and one savings and loan association

• 14 church buildings

• Hospital: One with 58 beds (Parks Victory Hospital at Jefferson and G streets)

• Amusements: Two theaters with total seating capacity of 3,250 people

• Education: Eight public schools, including one high school and one junior college, three parochial schools, 3,300 pupils in public schools and 460 in parochial schools, total teachers 143

• Fire department employs 15 men with one hook and ladder truck, one water job, one rescue squad truck, five engines and one car in one station house.

• Police Department has 15 men, one station, three cars and four motorcycles, radio equipped.

Here are the names of many of the businesses and professional people here in 1947. I bet at least a few will be familiar:

Druggists: Arighi & Ballerini, 949 Brown St.; Dell’s Cut Rate Drugs, 1006 First St.; Levinson’s Pharmacy, Main at First; Lovejoy’s Pharmacy, 947 Main St.; Maggetti’s Pharmacy, 902 Brown St.; Miller’s Drug Store, 1201 First St.; Nielsen’s Drug, 1146 First St.

Furniture dealers: Ammons & Murdock, 1021 Main St.; Charlup Furniture, 1128 Second St.; Chase’s, 821 Coombs St.; Helsley Furniture Company, 1327 Main St.; Houck, L.J., 1119 and 1139 Main St.; Napa Furniture Company, 1139 Coombs St.; Ratto & Crandall Furniture, 1114 Main St.; Western Home Furnishers, 1104 Main St.

Hardware stores: Castner’s, 2400 Jefferson St.; Dayton Hall Hardware, 1646 Main St.; Hardware Center, 1122 Second St.; Napa Hardware Company, 1326 Main St.; Sampson-Rossi Hardware, 1015 Main St.; Schwartz Hardware Company, 918 Main St.

Jewelers: Gensler-Lee, 1019 First St.; Meyer’s Jewelers, 1129 First St.; Prouty’s 1138 First St.; Rothschild Jewelry, 930 Coombs St.; Watson Jewelers, 1117 First St.

Hotels: Conner Hotel, 810 Main St.; Hotel Major, 1038 Main St.; Hotel Senate, 1343 First St.; Plaza Hotel, 840 Brown St.

Motion picture theaters: Fox Theatre, 1242 First St.; Uptown Theatre, 1350 Third St.

Clothes pressers and ironers: Block’s Cleaners, 1121 Third St.; Greene’s Cleaners, 603 Brown St.; High School Cleaners, 1231 Lincoln St.; Money’s Dry Cleaners, 826 Brown St.; Napa Steam Laundry, 1307 Main St.; Service Cleaners & Hatters, 935 Main St.; Shelton’s Cleaners, 1311 First St.

Lawyers: Blanckenburg, W.L., 1110 First St.; Coombs, N.F., 1110 First St.; Dunlap, D.C., 1110 First St.; Dunlap, F.L., 1110 First St.; Frisch, Francis, 1110 First St.; Ghidella, R.E., 919 Brown St.; Graves, F.B., 1110 First St.; King, Percy Jr., 919 Brown St.; Riggins, Clarence N., 1110 First St.; Robinson, Elizabeth King, 919 Brown St.; Rutherford, Sheldon, 1130 First St.; Rutherford, Wesley, 1130 First St.; Trower, Ralph, 1110 First St.

Physicians and surgeons: Baker, H.V., 1405 First St.; Barber, D.E., 1110 First St.; Boehm, Marie L. 845 Jefferson St.; Burkett, R.C., 919 Brown St.; Dawson, George I 1130 First St.; Hauser, A.E., 1930 Jefferson St.; Heegler, F., 1110 First St.; Kirkle, O.L., 845 Jefferson St.; Kittle, D.B., 1333 Jefferson St.; Marchus, Donald B., 1130 First St.; Murray, Dwight 1110 First St.; Northrop, Robert S., 1580 First St.; Peterson, W.W., 937 Coombs St.; Rees, William A., 1024 Coombs St.; Sooy, J.W., 2045 Jefferson St.; Welti, Laurence, 1130 First St.