We turned back the clock for a brief time Saturday afternoon.

The occasion was the anniversary party celebrating 40 years of Bashas’ and The Times doing business in Fountain Hills.

There were lots of faces I haven’t seen in a number of years. And It was good seeing every one of them.

There was Leonard Borsuk, who was the longtime manager of the Fountain Hills Bashas’. He has been in poor health for the last year but he certainly brightened up when he saw the smiling faces of a lot of his former customers.

He retired in 1996. He wasn’t the original store manager but he came to Fountain Hills at the end of the original store’s first year in late 1974 replacing Dean Seamans.

Also there, was Donna Westbrook. She was the first manager of the Deli in the larger Bashas’ that was opened in 1986. Prior to that, she owned and operated the Fountain Restaurant in the Village Bazaar at Fountain Park.

She was also known as the “Duck Lady” as she would feed them each morning before opening her restaurant.

There were people that came Saturday that were also at the pre-opening party for the first store held on June 18, 1974. Among them were Marsha and Jeff Mowry and their daughter, Jenn (She was just one year old at that time and she came Saturday with her two sons), Ruth Strickler, Jane Haynes, Lois Grate and Kay Kinder. There may have been others, but no one approached me about who they were. I saw a lot of familiar faces throughout the afternoon.

Also among the attendees were Bashas’ officials including Trey Basha, the company CEO; Johnny Basha, vice president of real estate and the person who was responsible for building the bigger Bashas’ stores; Ralph Woodward, who is a former meat manager at the Fountain Hills store and is now in charge of Auditing and Compliance in the corporate office; and Don Adams, was a former district manager, who worked in the Fountain Hills store and is now the Human Resources and Training Manager for corporate.

A lot of people asked me why I had a party with Bashas’. The Bashas’ firm has been good to me and my company. As I said Saturday, my first job was with Bashas’. I worked as a carryout and stocker in the store at 7th Avenue and Osborn Road in Phoenix when I was in high school.

We started The Times when we did primarily to coincide with Bashas’ opening, mainly because someone told me that we had to get a grocery ad in order to stay in business.

We got our first Bashas‘ ad three years later. But, they have been in our paper ever since, either with a display ad or an insert.

And they have had more single copy sales than any other outlet over the years.

It’s been a great partnership. I’d say we both have benefited from each other’s business.

Thanks to local Store Director Ken Fett for all of his help in putting together the party.

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On a sad note in closing this week, I need to mention the passing of a former Times employee, Daren Krupa. Daren worked for us in the 1970s.

He was an excellent photographer and writer.

I met him in college. We had a common friend who shared a dorm room with him.

I have heard he passed away in Phoenix after a battle with throat cancer.