Ed Cardoza, 87, who was first known as a TV repairman in downtown, grew his business concerns in tandem with Manteca’s growth.
After starting as a TV repairman he went on to become the owner of three shopping centers, an FM radio station and countless acres of almonds.
The man who has always believed in sealing sales deals with only a handshake like his dad Joe did still is involved daily in all of the operations that encompass Cardoza Enterprises.
Ed continues to drive tractors, operates almond shakers as well as a back hoe, and still gets out and splits wood. He says he has no plans to retire any time soon.
Ed and his wife Dolores were married August 28, 1955 at St. Anthony’s Catholic Church in Manteca some 63 years ago by Father Hawker.
Ed and his parents moved to the Manteca area when he was only six weeks old. Their first Manteca home had the address of Route 1, Box 305 on Airport Way in 1931.
Both Ed and Dolores went through elementary school at Lindbergh on East North Street with his bride to be some three years behind him in age.
“I sat behind her in study hall at Manteca High and I think I may have dipped her curls into the ink well on my desk,” Ed said with a chuckle.
While attending the old Golden West School he was chosen one year to hold the photographer’s chalk board that identified the class levels in the photo which included his sister Dorothy later to become the wife of Vince Indelicato.
Ed grew up on his parents’ dairy on Airport Way and milked his share of dairy cows every morning and night. He also shocked loose hay and let sun and nature do its part in drying it out before loading it onto horse-driven wagons and putting it in the barn in stacks. He said they would then feed the hay to the cows, waiting for the “poo-poo” to come out the backside and then spread it back into the fields as fertilizer starting the cycle all over again.
They would milk 1,000 gallons of milk a day, he remembered, sending it to the Manteca Creamery where it was considered to be Grade B and used to make butter.
“I hated to milk cows 365 days a year,” he said, “from the time I was 10 to 12 years old, milking until I went into the military.”
The Manteca couple said they started dating after attending a fireman’s ball. She was working at the Bank of Manteca during her senior year where she went through several different assignments including vault teller. Dolores said she and Ed’s sister Dorothy had applied for the same position but her mailing address was in Manteca while Dorothy’s at the time was Lathrop, just across the city limit line.
Ed graduated in 1949 and played left guard on the Buffaloes football team. Manteca High’s competitors in his final year scored less than 20 points combined on them all season while Manteca High scored a total of 173 points.
“We had a really tough team,” he said.
One of his top memorable keepsakes from high school was the large red toolbox he was given as the top Ag Mechanic student in school that was presented by the Holt Brothers in Stockton. It is still kept with pride in his back shop.
Ed said he was never one to cruise Yosemite Avenue from Ed’s Patio to the Foster Freeze on the other end of town like so many of his friends. Reason: “I didn’t have anything to drag with.”
He spent two years in college and graduated as an electronics engineer. He went into the Air Force and was put into an electronics section in the Korean Conflict and took care of transmitters in Yakota, Japan.
Ed gave Dolores an engagement ring on Christmas Eve of 1954 at Ed’s parents’ home on Airport Way just north of Lathrop Road. Dolores said she had missed seeing it in the box that a friend pushed toward her as she was unwrapping another present – not having seen the small ring case.
Cardoza opened a television repair shop in 1954 known as “Ed’s TV” in downtown Manteca on Main Street. He moved into another location at 211 West Yosemite Avenue and then to 183 North Main just south of what is now the parking lot of Wells Fargo Bank.
The Cardozas also owned Show Place Furniture Store that is now a beauty shop in the 200 block of North Main Street that was across from the old South San Joaquin Irrigation District headquarters. Ed was a member of the SSJID board some 40 years ago until he and Dolores moved their residence out of his irrigation district division residency and had to give up his seat.
He had served as president of the Manteca Kiwanis Club at the infancy of the Pumpkin Festival when he and his fellow club members sold small packs of pumpkin seeds in pill bottles from Ray Honodel who owned Honodel Pharmacy and who was also a Kiwanis member. Those pill bottles sold for a dollar donation. He noted that the attraction to pumpkins and its importance in the valley kept getting bigger and bigger.
When he became president of the Kiwanis Club, Ed said they had some 80 members. They met in the Masonic Hall’s meeting room and said they had a lot of fun at their meetings. He and Ed Torres had sold Coke bottles as a fund raiser for their annual parade at $1 each. Altogether there were 5,000 bottles. Not selling all of them, Ed said he had to buy the rest, still having cases left over in the warehouse.
“It was my turn to take all the hell from the others,” he said noting that Dick Cross of Manteca Bowl and his brother-in-law Vince Indelicato were there with him to stir up the meetings that he had to try and control.
Dolores was president of the newly formed Kiwanianns – wives of the members – where the men were asking the women to become involved in their service club since they were not allowed membership at that time.
Dolores is one of two members of the Manteca Soroptimist Club that have a 50-year tenure in that women’s service club.
Ed’s next adventure were his shopping centers with the first being on North Main Street just south of Louise Avenue in 1978. He booked Safeway Market and Value Giant on just over eight acres. There was also Sprouse Ritz, Carl’s Junior, Winchell’s Donuts, Pietro’s Italian Restaurant and a laundromat.
The next move was taking over a furniture store building just south of Center Street on North Main Street in 1980. Son Eddie managed the store for nearly 10 years and closed it down in 1989. They made many deals in their growth spurt in Manteca, using only a hand shake with the trust they had developed, eventually calling their business Cardoza Enterprises which includes a smaller shopping center in Copperopolis.
In that community they developed a grocery store, bank, hardware store and a number of small store fronts.
“We’ve just had a lot of opportunities,” Cardoza, Sr. said Monday afternoon, “and we were in a position where we could take advantage of those opportunities.”
Their second Manteca shopping center was on North Main Street at Louise Avenue known as Cardoza West where eight pieces of property were put together with the first store to be leased being Little Caesar’s Pizza restaurant.
Also on North Main Street, just south of Joseph Road was a commercial building known as Electronic Control with Bob Arwine as its president and Ed Cardoza as secretary of the board. The firm was heavily involved in electronics.
An FM radio station was part of Cardoza Enterprises was KEJC-FM at 93.9 FM and its 420-foot transmission tower erected in Modesto, where it took 10 years of work to get it up and running and on the air in 2000.
The Cardoza fondly remembered his dad Joe.
“He was a nice man – whatever he said was his bond,” he said.
The Cardozas have two children, Linda and Ed, Jr. Linda has given them four grandchildren, three boys and one girl. Ed Jr. and his wife Belinda have given them two more boys and one girls. There is a total of seven grandkids and 11 great grandchildren.
Son Ed is charged with the management of all the shopping centers and Ed III takes care of the bookkeeping. Grandson Ryan is charged with the outdoor overseer duties of the company. Daughter-in-law Belinda Cardoza is in charge of all the property management.
One of his best memories was the comradery between him and furniture store owner Ken Hafer. While competitors they were the best of friends, he said.
And Dolores, well, she was left charged with paying the bills, Ed chuckled.
To contact Glenn Kahl, email gkahl@mantecabulletin.com.
GROWING WITH MANTECA
Cardoza Enterprises grew from repairing TVs


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