Among the businesses in Lemon Grove is one that, for decades, has preserved treasured memories for tens of thousands of high schoolers. NBC 7’s Joe Little spent a day at Berry’s Athletic Supply, where everyone from varsity football players to the robotics team is fitted for their timeless letterman jackets.
It’s one of the few things from high school you may have kept. Heck, your letterman varsity jacket may even still fit.
And it was always a proud day when you took your daughter or son to design a jacket after they lettered in their sport or club.
Thousands of those jackets originated from Berry’s Athletic Supply in Lemon Grove, where Alma Cortez can be found assembling the keepsakes every Tuesday and Saturday.
“I love sewing,” Alma said with a smile as she hovered over a red jacket.
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The 70-year-old has assembled nearly every jacket and the patches that adorn it for the past decade.
“Oh, patches,” Alma said. “I don't know. You know how many patches for one jacket? Sometimes they have three. But sometimes they have 20.”
“It connects generations of people," said Andy Enright, whose family owns Berry’s, which has been operating in Lemon Grove since 1952, "but it also says who you are and what you do and then it becomes a keepsake,”
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Enright said they must have assembled about 30,000 letterman jackets in those seven decades.
“And we have grandfathers and fathers and sons that come in, or daughters that come in,” Enright said. “We really are a generational business.”
Alma has been a big part of that business for the past decade.
“I can be just doing that. The only thing is, I get tired, you know?” Alma said, laughing and tackling another jacket. “But I keep on going.”
Alma's making the keepsakes for the next generations.
