Odds & Ends Around the Valley

Soaring Antelopian

Hugh Ehrlich has always been fond of things full of hot air.

He is amused by politicians.

He enjoys what comes out of a pizza oven.

Most of all, he likes balloons of the type first flown in 1783 by Pilatre de Rozier and the Marquis D’Arlandes in Annonay, France.

“Man first lifted himself from the Earth by a hot-air balloon more than 120 years before the Wright Brothers’ hop,” Ehrlich said.

He knows this because he is not only the pilot, owner and major enthusiast of The Ballooning Co. of Lake Elizabeth, but he is also a ballooning historian of sorts.

He said the first balloon, designed and built in France, was made of paper and fueled by burning straw. Sort of an airborne bonfire.

Today, the balloons are made of synthetic material and fueled by stainless steel heaters that burn liquid propane, but the baskets, according to Ehrlich, are still made of rattan.

He has two beauties in which he takes people joy riding, commercially. One holds four people and the pilot, the other six and the pilot.

Ehrlich said he almost always takes off in the morning when the air and thermals are just right. He meets his passengers at the Meadowlark Golf Course just west of Lancaster, puts them in the basket, and they’re off on an airborne adventure that costs from $70 to $125 per person, depending on the length of the ride. He said children can ride for half-price.

Most of the business around this time of year comes from gift certificates for Valentine’s Day, he said, but there is also a good business in families who want to reach the heights.

Pooled Resources

In this uncertain economy, when layoffs are becoming common, many people are looking for a business of their own. At least that way, they reason, your fate is more or less in your own hands.

Franchising is one way to go, but it isn’t a free lunch.

“Some people think you buy into a franchise and the money just starts rolling in,” said Jean Poole of Woodland Hills. “That’s a little naive.”

Poole, 47, and her husband, Ed Poole, 49, direct the Los Angeles County regional headquarters of something called the Decorating Den, a national franchise operation that teaches people who want to go into business for themselves how to do it with style--in other people’s homes.

Poole said her company was listed as one of the 10 top franchises in the country, along with McDonald’s, by Money magazine. People who buy Decorating Den franchises--the price depends on the territory and other factors--get schooling in interior design, a van filled with samples to be taken to the client’s home, and the buying power that a $50-million company can bring to bear, among other things.

The Pooles screen franchise applicants for compatibility, explain the business realities to them and help set up a new territory.

She thinks a franchise is a good opportunity for an entrepreneur who wants to limit his or her risks.

“We provide training, and marketing and sales backup,” she said. “That is really important.” They aid and abet, providing encouragement and advice.

Jean Poole described herself as the Decorating Den mother, and said most new franchisees see her, and her husband, as the resource Pooles. She likes that. “It’s like being a Little League mother,” Jean said. “It’s great to see people get up and running.”

Doing the Stroll

People who walked in Southern California used to be put in the same category as Ponzi scheme originators and Brooklyn Bridge salespeople.

They were suspect.

In some places, like Beverly Hills, they were not only considered guilty of something until proven innocent, they were arrested.

This, after all, is the quintessential motorized society, and, if the rest of us could get in our cars to go to the mailbox, so could they.

Well, not any more, according to Ruth Heald, a program coordinator at Pierce College’s department of community services.

She said that people are now paying money--to walk.

Those who want company turn to Don Newman’s power walking class, which is being offered for $40 for 12 evening sessions beginning Tuesday.

Why would anyone pay to walk when now--in this age of enlightenment--you can do it for free without reprisal?

“Because people just don’t,” Heald said. “Paying money is their way of getting themselves motivated.”

So, should we expect to see Heald out there doing the old heel and toe?

“Certainly not,” she said emphatically. “When the sun goes down, so do I.”

Drawing a Bead

If you’re wandering around Studio City and happen into a shop called Medieval Fantasies, you will think you’ve stumbled onto a period costumer.

Too wrong.

This shop, full of very old-fashioned clothing, weaponry and other Arthurian-age doodads, takes things medieval seriously, as do its customers.

Many of them belong to something called the Society for Creative Anachronism, which divides the United States, as we have come to think of it, into fiefdoms and baronies.

Each one fields an army.

Occasionally, they all get together somewhere--like the middle of an Arizona desert--and have jousts and sometimes wars.

On a less aggressive note, Maid Marion Held teaches people how to do beadwork on Tuesday night.

Overheard

“My neighbor thinks recycling means turning his used wife in for a new one.”

--Woman at Nordstrom in Canoga Park