Old-Time Melodies Create New Pals

One is a 59-year-old former sheriff’s sergeant who now runs two businesses. His buddy is an 18-year-old high school senior, the son of Mexican immigrants, who dreams of becoming a chef.

The glue for their friendship is a shared love of singing barbershop, that all-male, unaccompanied, four-part-harmony stuff evocative of 1920s--and earlier--America.

It is barbershop that has led Ron Sipes to leave his Torrance real estate office just about every Wednesday evening for the past two years and drive up Hawthorne Boulevard to pick up Jose Vasquez. They head to rehearsals for the South Bay Coastliners, a chapter of the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in America.

Not surprisingly, the Coastliners’ roster of about 80 is largely made up of white, older men who enjoy harmonizing hits of a bygone era: “The Sweetheart of Sigma Chi,” “Sweet Adeline,” “Down by the Old Mill Stream.”

But they are eager to share their hobby with others, especially the young, and it was on an outreach visit to Hawthorne High School that Sipes met Vasquez, a bass-baritone in the school’s choral program.

Vasquez recently recalled his surprise at walking into the music room that day and learning “these four old guys were going to sing for us.”

But then he heard those tingling harmonies.

“I said, ‘Oh, my gosh, I gotta go’” to the Coastliners’ regular rehearsals in Redondo Beach, Vasquez recounted. “I loved the harmony.”

Vasquez and a schoolmate joined the Coastliners’ chorus, traveling to competitions and participating in shows and other events. Vasquez and his family--mother, stepfather and two brothers--live in a one-bedroom apartment in Lennox and do not own a car, so chorus members give him rides to rehearsals and performances.

The Coastliners sponsor an annual a capella contest for young singers and award music scholarships; their Web site is www.coastliners.org. They also sent the high school students to a summer music camp and chipped in to cover their dues and other costs.

Although his schoolmate dropped out of the chorus after leaving for college and a job, Vasquez plans to stay with the group.

“I just like these guys,” he said. “They treat me like one of them, not like a kid, and I like the singing and the kidding around. It’s all pretty cool.”

On the ride to rehearsals, Sipes and Vasquez keep up a steady patter--sometimes in Spanish, so Sipes can keep up the language he learned patrolling the streets of East Los Angeles years ago. They talk casually about Vasquez’s grades, his hopes of attending culinary school this fall, and a music award he will receive at his June 20 graduation.

They tease each other about their costumes--about how Sipes’ pants are too tight and how Vasquez will cut an incongruous figure in the 1920s-style bathing suit he will wear in an upcoming show.

The difference between their ages often seems to disappear, though reminders occasionally pop up, as when Vasquez nimbly ran through a dance routine that required some singers to drop to their knees.

“The hardest part of this,” joked one older singer, “is getting back up.”

The camaraderie among Vasquez and the others was evident one recent evening, as the chorus gathered for one of the last dress rehearsals before their Barbershop Extravaganza, with performances Friday through Sunday at the Hermosa Beach Community Center Auditorium.

Getting out of Sipes’ car, Vasquez spotted two silver-haired chorus members in the parking lot of the Salvation Army complex where the group meets. They were wearing the baggy knee-pants and straw hats they will sport during the show, which includes an original melodrama about a canoe race between two mythical colleges and, according to the show director, “a lot of cornball jokes.”

“Hiya guys! Lookin’ sharp!” Vasquez said. They in turn ribbed him about the sock garters they were lending him and playfully adjusted his bow tie.

Sipes said he befriended Vasquez not only because of his belief that “every kid deserves a chance to succeed in life” but also because of his desire to encourage more people to try barbershopping. “A friend brought me into this when I was at a low point in my life, and it just turned everything around,” Sipes said.

Vasquez said he discovered the fun of singing when he joined a chorus as a high school freshman and also enjoys rock, jazz and, “when I’m in the mood for it, classical.”

Some of his friends gave him a hard time when he joined the Coastliners. “They asked me, ‘What do you want to do that for?’ They think I’m wasting my time,” Vasquez said. “But I’m having a good time--and they’re sitting on their butts, watching TV.”