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Community Corner

1979: On the Road Again--But at Home

News from the June, 1979 issues of the Lemon Grove Review.

 In 1979 long lines at the pump for rationed gas drove many Americans to vacation in local parks, start hiking or biking, or, better, sit in the back yard under an umbrella, libation at hand, whilst Fido and moppets romped in the pool. Here's a little snapshot of what the locals did.

Pack Up All Our Cares 'n Woe: Suddenly, it was summer. In the best climate on earth, Lemon Grovians didn't have far to go to make the point. Take Joan Van Zele, Golden Avenue. She was on an Eastern Airines flight when she saw the ad for an exact replica of a 1930s Model A Ford roadster replete with canvas top, rumble seat, running boards, plastic rear window and curtains.

 Just the thing for tooling around town. Especially since the car had a 5.0 litre, 8-cylinder Ford engine, 3-speed automatic transmission, rack-and-pinion steering, stereo, A/C -- in other words, loaded.

 After parting with $18,000 and taking delivery from West Palm Beach, Joan took off through the neighborhood, vowing to drive her Model A in future Lemon Grove Old Time Days parades and "any parade that'll have me."

 Maintaining that her car ran on a "tablespoon of gas," she was unfazed by the news that Detroit was unprepared for the rise in fuel prices and that auto imports were becoming more widely available in North America. Foreign cars used fuel-saving technologies like fuel injection and multi-valve engines instead of common carburetors.

GM's Cadillac division attempted a fuel-efficient engine, but fizzled. Nevertheless, the 1979 oil crisis spurred the development of more efficient American cars. In turn, that led to the 1980s oil glut. Never a dull.

 High Priestess of Summer Camp: Lemon Grove was barely two years old when it hired raven-haired Nancy Legnard McCadam as its first Recreation Supervisor at $12,000 a year.

 She shot out of the starting gate with games and activities at San Miguel, San Altos, Golden Avenue and Monterey Heights Schools, swimming lessons in the Mt. Miguel High School pool, hiking trips all over, belly and ballroom dancing, tennis, and a big two-year-old birthday party for the City in Lemon Grove Park. Enrollment went through the roof.

 Wild at Heart: Local women Susan Ross, Noreen Stratton, and Laura Sozzani trudged through the Cleveland National Forest, toting 30-pound backpacks, sensible boots and bug spray, in search of adventure.

They found it during 12 hours of hard slog on slippery slopes inhabited by all manner of wild creatures. But neither sweat, nor blisters, nor hunger and thirst kept them from the physical challenge of hiking up hill and down dale in order to "get away from it all."

 Twins Two-Time Tots: Identical twins Randy and Ronnie Riley celebrated their fourth birthday with a look-alike contest ("Guess who looks like Ronnie?") that left guests cross-eyed as they peered through the flames of double birthday cakes at such party favors as two dollar bills and two-leaf clover cookies.

 The twins' dad, Rob Riley, offered bifocals to pint-size bons vivants, the better to see you with, my dear, but the twins would have none of it. They hopped from side to side, the better to confuse you, my dear, until one moppet leapt into the fray and seized a twin -- who knew which one -- and shrieked "Ronnie! Randy! Ronnie! Randy!" before retiring sobbing to his mother's arms.

 Upshot: Riley père distributed party favors to everyone except the twins, who fell to pushing each other's faces into the cakes. Plastered in two-tone blue icing, nobody knew who was who, or even whom.

 Wish we'd been there.

 When L.A. Beckoned: Just take the bus. If you were born to shop and needed no excuse flimsier than a microscopically frayed cuff to send you on a wardrobe expansion binge exceeding even that of Imelda Marcos, then the Bad Girl of the Philippines, you called 268-TOUR, proffered $29 and joined Lemon Grove Seniors on a day-long shopping spree in L.A.'s garment district.

 Designer duds, fancy hats, lingerie, and shoes, shoes, shoes all at 70 per cent off, followed by cheesecake and other diet-defying goodies lured the bus bacchantes. They were home by 7 penniless but gorgeous.

 The Travelogue Circuit: Remember when the East County Performing Arts Center (ECPAC) had a regular travelogue series? Globe trotters would show slides and tell you what great deals they found in downtown Paris -- deals that you, natch, missed while perambulating by the Arc de Triomphe.

 ECPAC habitués, Frank and Ethel Mackey, Queenie and Ben Johnston, Loubelle and Andy Hathaway and Arnie and Gina Rollins heeded the siren song of the travelogue peddlers. Wanderlust seized them. They saw rucksacks in their future.

 "Not if I can help it," quoth Arnie recumbent in a scarlet hammock hard by the wet bar. "Let others camp in summer, the fools. Give me a jacuzzi or give me death."

 "By July I'll have him trudging through the ruins of Pompeii," beamed Gina. "I have the flight tickets right here."

 After the crash (Arnie from the hammock), caterwauling was heard from the Rollins' abode.

 But the Hathaways adored rucksacks and tramped anywhere, stopping just short of Mt. Everest. Standing in the ECPAC lobby, clutching sheaves of travel folders, they vowed to steer clear of Venice.

 "We drank the water, ate the pasta with pesto, rode with a gondolier who insisted on singing, and walked hand in hand through the pigeon poop in front of the ducal palace. Only the picture of Dorian Grey looked worse than we did after that trip," confided Loubelle in a burst of literary eloquence.

 And so it went in the Big Lemon in June, 1979 when 'Grovians recalled that when the chips were down, they'd have plenty of firewood.

 About this column:  Compiled by Helen Ofield, president of the Lemon Grove Historical Society, from newspapers archived at the H. Lee House Cultural Center.  Each week, we take a peek at the past with some news and advertising highlights from a randomly chosen edition of the Lemon Grove Review.  In 2012 Ofield was awarded second place in non-daily reporting and writing from the Society of Professional Journalists for the column.

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