Businesswoman Discovers a Way to Keep From Getting Saddled With a Nagging Problem

For the last couple of months, Sharron Stockman of La Habra has had a nagging problem.

What to do with a life-size, fiberglass bucking bronco.

It was a rooftop landmark on the old Longhorn Western Wear store on La Habra Boulevard for 20 years. Locals would give directions to strangers by saying “Well, when you see the bucking bronco on the roof, you . . . “

But no more.

Stockman acquired the weather-worn statue in July when she and her business partners bought the store and converted it to a real estate office, but a new local sign law forced the removal of the bronco.

“At first I thought of putting it in my living room,” said Stockman, a horse lover with two real ones of her own. But so many people called, asking her what she planned to do with the animal, that she changed her mind.

“There was a lot of pressure from the local folks,” Stockman said. “Everybody knew about the horse, and they wanted to keep it in town. I didn’t realize the townspeople had such an affection toward it.”

Jan Bendis, a partner with Stockman in the real estate office and the adjacent Hungry Horse Feed & Western Wear store, said he thought of holding an auction to see if someone locally would buy it as a keepsake.

“You know strangers would come to the store wanting to know what happened to the landmark,” said Bendis, a professional horse trainer. “People in this town really don’t want things to change. People here want to slow down and smell the roses.”

Instead of the auction, they decided to sell the horse “at a minimal charge” to Cinderella’s Carriage Pumpkins in La Habra.

“We have a barnyard on the lot with animals, and we thought the horse would fit in as an attraction for children and curious adults,” said Janice Ericson, the bronco’s new owner and operator of the pumpkin lot on Whittier Boulevard. “We’re planning on putting a saddle on him.”

Stockman added: “It keeps the horse in town, and that puts us in good standing with the community.”

Club L is the newest “in” place in Fullerton for senior citizens, says club hostess Pat Trotter. Besides free entertainment and hors d’oeuvres at the Fullerton Senior Citizens Center, seniors can get “mocktails.” That’s a booze-free drink.

For years, John Hanssen, 42, of Costa Mesa was aware he was related to a signer of the U.S. Constitution.

But he didn’t know he was a direct descendant of one of the more famous ones.

Hanssen recently learned through a lineage search that he is a great, great, great, great, great, great-grandson of Daniel Carroll, regarded by historians as one of the top five framers of the Constitution, along with Benjamin Franklin, James Madison, Charles Pinckney and William Livingston.

“Our family thought he was just one of the 39 signers,” said Hanssen, a real estate investor. “He was really important and was also one of the commissioners who helped plan Washington, D.C.”

“I’m just so excited to learn that I’m a direct descendant of such a famous person,” said Hanssen, who will wear a wig and 200-year-old clothes when he and others re-enact the signing of the Constitution at 1 p.m. Thursday at Mariners Park in Newport Beach.

He’ll also recite the preamble to the Constitution as part of a public celebration for the bicentennial of the signing.

Chris Jensen of Costa Mesa and her team of “T.S.L. Inc. (True Spaghetti Lovers)” won $1,000 for concocting the best sauce in the recent American Red Cross spaghetti cook-off.

But they should have given a prize for the best team name, which included such entries as “Saucy Ladies,” “Tall N Sauce-E,” “Unlimited Pastabilities,” “Saucy Wenches,” “Linguini and Loan Gang” and “Pasgetti’s.” And then there was “Italian Luau.”

Acknowledgments--Former teachers Dixie and Gordon Shaw of Placentia are the first joint recipients of the Volunteer of the Year title at Cal State Fullerton. They have been active in several university support and fund-raising groups that span the arts, athletics and scholarships.