Fifty years ago, Don and Janey Giessinger made the move to Atascadero from Burbank and solidified themselves in the city that they have called home ever since. As fans, past participants, and members of the crowd at the Colony Days Parade since its inception, Don and Janey were extremely honored to find out that this year they will be an esteemed part of the parade themselves when The Colony Days Committee announced that they will be the 2024 Colony Days King and Queen.

“I thought when Kent Kenny called me that it was quite an honor, to say the least,” Don said. “I said, ‘What? We’re not that old yet, are we?'”

“I was surprised,” Janey added.

Before they made their way to Atascadero, Don and Janey were raising their two children down south in Burbank.However, it was Lake Nacimiento that brought them to the North County. They would make their way to the lake through the Central Coast with their boat so they could go water skiing. And that’s when a love for the area started to grow in the family.

“There was all this acreage. The town [Atascadero] was very small then, but on the sides of the roads, you could see all these cows and horses,” Janey said. “I said, ‘I wouldn’t mind living up here, Don,’ and he said, ‘Well, we could, I guess.’ He was doing retail wholesale furniture [at the time].”

Aside from their drives to the lake, Don would also travel all the way to San Luis Obispo to sell furniture, but he never ventured further north for that purpose. Along the way, Don was invited to play golf with a client, and he brought Janey along to go shopping. On the way home from that trip, they had their first official conversation about how great it would be to live here.

“The rest is history. I went down, and I had my furniture business too, down there, a retail business. Basically, I wound up putting it up for sale. Ran a big sale and sold the building, and about, I think, in three or four months, we were moving,” stated Don.

They moved themselves and their young kids, Darin and Jeanna, onto a few acres in Atascadero, where they built their first house. Later, they would buy a larger piece of property, where they also built a home for Janey’s parents.

Since their move here, Don and Janey have owned three different successful businesses in Atascadero. Town and Country Fashions, the A&W that used to be on Morro Road, and the much-loved 76 gas station and convenience store that still stands next to it.

“When the opportunity came, and I saw fast food was for sale in town, I thought maybe this could be a perfect fit for my wife. Something she’d like to do,” Don said. “Most people thought we were crazy because it was not a good, successful business at the time. It had been open as an A&W for less than a year.” 

They took the A&W business over in 1991 and ran it until 2006 when it switched hands to Darin and his wife until 2022 when they moved to Texas.

“If it wasn’t for A&W, I never would have had the 76,” Don continued. “They were right next door, and that was available, sitting there empty for 10 years, as a lot, growing weeds, and I decided I said, ‘What do I’ve got to lose? I’m right next door. It maybe could work?’ It turned out to be a good location.”

Both Don and Janey reminisced about what it was like to move to Atascadero 50 years ago, and Janey talked about how there was only one stop light at the time and the post office used to be tiny. They also stated how they’ve been to every single Colony Days Parade from the start, or at least every one they could make it to.

“Right off the bat,” Janey says of attending the first parade. “My parents were there [Burbank], and they moved up much later. All of our friends from high school were down there. We were just up here by ourselves thinking we’ve got to find some stuff to do. We can’t take the boat to the lake every day. The kids have got to go to school, and then all the sudden, it came up in the paper, and it says, The First Colony Days Parade.”

They used to go to the Rose Parade in Pasadena every year, so they didn’t know what to expect when they showed up at the first-ever Colony Days Parade.

“I said, ‘but Janey, we’ve got to go. It’s gonna be the first one.’ They had two or three floats, something like that,” added Don. “We had a great time because we were kind of laughing compared to the Rose Parade, asking if this is really a parade. Well, I guess you could call it that. There’s a band.”

“Three bands, San Luis, Paso, and Atascadero,” continued Janey.

And their participation in the parade itself grew as their kids got older. The kids would ride on floats they helped make, and Darin marched in the band playing saxophone. Janey, a horsewoman, which is one of the many reasons that brought them to Atascadero, also rode in the parades after she joined the Vaqueras Del Camino Horse Club. But their excitement about sitting in the classic Cadillac and waving to the crowd as this year’s royalty has yet to be matched.

Janey, who was a drama major at Burbank High School, where she and Don met, was also drawn into the world of Pioneer Players when they got here. She said that she was in so many musicals and plays that the now defunct community theatre company put on that she couldn’t even remember them all.

“I used to go to all of them even after I wasn’t in it anymore. We did so many musicals and shows, I can’t even begin to name them all,” continued Janey. “We did a lot of big shows up there. Big numbers, costumes, scenery, I mean, I was in the show, doing the scenery, everything.”

Don also got excited about the nonprofit side of things in the North County and belongs to a bunch of different groups, including the Rotary Club, Elks Lodge, El Camino Homeless Organization (ECHO), Friends of the Lake, Atascadero Printery Foundation, and LIGHTHOUSE Atascadero.

Together, Don and Janey enjoy golfing at Chalk Mountain Golf Course, and during the summer, they head to courses in Los Osos and Morro Bay. Janey pointed out that she also enjoys the Paso Golf Course because that’s where she broke 90, and she’ll never forget that.

On top of their two children, Don and Janey are grandparents to four grandsons and one great-granddaughter, with a great-grandson on the way.

“We love it here. It’s the best move we ever made from Burbank,” concluded Janey.

Feature Image by Rick Evans

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