1980: Monster Weed, Disappointing Meringue, and a Movie Classic

A look back at Lemon Grove, 32 years ago this week.

Dandelion Dwarfs Grandma: Maggie Eppick, 91, had an “omigod” moment when she was weeding in her son's yard and suddenly realized she was next to a five-foot four-inch dandelion. The night before she had watched "It Came From Outer Space" on television, making the über weed even more startling to the five-foot two-inch great-grandmother.

It gets better. Maggie was visiting her son, James, at his home in the Lake Jennings Trailer Park in Lakeside when she spotted the dandelion. James told her he'd taken a truckload of Lemon Grove soil to his new home to give his fruit and vegetable garden a good start.

The best soil on earth worked. His navel oranges were as big as dinner plates, his Chinese snow peas toppled their stems, and that dandelion prompted botanist Reid Moran of the Natural History Museum to say he'd never heard of species Agoseris glauca (mountain dandelion) growing taller than a foot.

Hey, dear readers, that's why you still have citrus trees in your yards! Those early ranchers knew a good thing when they saw it.

Colossal Cable Clogs B'way: For a week, SDG&E workers had wrestled an electrical cable "as big around as a strong man's arm" underground to replace the forest of telephone poles and overhead wires. Motorists endured traffic snarls as two lanes merged into one to allow room for crews and street repairs.

Big List in a Small Town:  Lemon Grove had been an incorporated city for barely three years, but already 10 candidates were vying for city council seats. Five incumbents ran including Jim Dorman, Dell Lake, Dr. Robert Burns, Dale Bailey and Jack Doherty. Opposing them were Lois Heiserman, Bob Holaday, Robert Swanson, Louis Padilla and Ranger Dick Whitmore. The council election was set for April 8.

Hottest issue: The content of the city's first General Plan.

Flood Tide of Tosspots: The bad news was in. In the preceding holiday season, 688 citations and accidents in Lemon Grove showed that drunk driving accounted for one-third as celebrants took to the streets while in their cups.  

Sgt. George Kneeshaw said the largest group involved speeding and stop sign violations, while motorcycle officer Rusty Burkett noted the capture of a dozen speeding motorcyclists on side streets alone where "they have a low profile and squad cars aren't around to spot them."  

Ten Bucks a Ton: And what do you get? Another math problem and deeper in debt.

County landfill use had risen 150 percent. EDCO's landfill use cost had risen from $1 to $10 a ton since it began serving Lemon Grove. By 1980, it was $27 a ton.  

The Board of Supervisors recommended $56.25 a ton effective July 1, 1980. But this translated into just $1 more a month per dwelling unit. 

"Not too bad," said Mayor James Dorman.  

We will not attempt to describe the byzantine structure of parking tickets in 1980 save to note that the cost of living riseth ever.

Mountain of Meringue: Ruth McDaniel's Common Sense Cooking column said you could try this at home:

Whip 15 egg whites to stiff peaks. Blend with water, corn starch, vanilla and a dash of salt. Heap on two lemon pies. Remove all of the racks from your oven and sit two clumps of crushed foil on the oven floor. Place the pies on the foil. Bake at 500 degrees for five to eight minutes. Meringue should be firm and slightly golden.  

We tried this and our meringue looked like Etna after the volcano mainly because the phone rang and only the smoke alarm alerted us to the charred remains.

Lacto-Ovo Rising: Dietician Rose Ludlow said the majority of American vegetarians were lacto-ovo, in other words hey could consume dairy and eggs as well as plant foods. In a hilarious sequence of typos in her column, Ludlow urged hostesses to "meat" vegetarian guests with delicious "entrails" of peanut-lentil loaf and walnut-stuffed peppers, and offer dessert "livers" fresh fruit and cheese. She also noted that "too many eggs" could prompt some women to "clog their ovaries." 

"There are endless possibilities with the four food groups," advised Ludlow.

Now we know.

Heavyweights at the Ace: A-List stars weighed in at the Ace Drive-In on a double bill at $3.50 per carload (formerly $2.50).  Al Pacino, Lee Strasberg, Christine Lahti, Jack Warden and Sam Levene starred in And Justice For All directed by Norman Jewison. The film's title is the last four words of the Pledge of Allegiance.

Nominated for Oscars and Golden Globes, the film ended with a sensational trial scene in which Pacino repeatedly screamed, "You're out of order," a phrase that cropped up in conversation forever after.  

The other film playing was Hardcore with George C. Scott about which the less said the better.

Shown in the media box this week is an image from the Lemon Grove Historical Society's archives. It is a December, 1979, photograph of Billy Dean Danielson, the IATSE & MPO union projectionist at the Ace Drive-In from 1955 until it closed in 1986.

Danielson is alive and well in Lemon Grove today and we are indebted to his daughter, Jan Recktenwald, for sharing his story (about which there is more to come).