Grandpa’s trees have deep roots

Andrew Glazer

COSTA MESA -- Great Grandpa Noonan, who has sold Christmas trees on

Newport Boulevard for 53 years, is finding there’s no room for him there

anymore.

“The customers will find me next year,” said 78-year-old Harry Noonan,

wearing a baseball cap mounted with a stuffed panda dressed in a jester’s

hat. “They always do.”

Noonan said a school and church are planning to begin construction on his

lot -- which is between Victoria and Bay streets -- this July. But he

promised that next Christmas he will sell his garlands, wreaths,

poinsettias and 4,000plantation-raised Douglas firs somewhere else in

town.

Noonan, whose gray, Abe Lincoln beard has a slight yellow tint from the

nine Phillies Titan cigars he smokes each day, said he’s not surprised

he’s being squeezed out of his choice tree-peddling spot.

“Development is really moving so fast,” said Noonan, who moved to Nevada

10 years ago. “But I guess each person that has a piece of property is

entitled to do what they see fit.”

In the past, Noonan would greet tree-shopping families in the lot --

until two years ago, when he broke his hip. Since then, he’s left

greeting duties to his two sons and two grandsons while he manages the

shop from inside a cramped trailer.

A bullhorn rests on one corner of his desk, while three of his homemade

caps -- each adorned with a different stuffed animal -- were displayed

around the smoke-filled room. An electronic version of “Jingle Bells”

chirped continuously from a unknown location.

“Now I’m just doing the book work -- answering the phones, doing all the

stuff I don’t enjoy doing,” Noonan whispered. “Occasionally, people come

in and say ‘hi’ to the old man. But I do get to sit back and smoke my old

cigar every day.”

It’s the same brand that comedian George Burns smoked, he added.

Noonan said he’s gathered wisdom in his 78 years, which he is generous in

passing on to his clients, who have included John Wayne and James Cagney:

“Did you know that smoking a pipe or a cigar is not as dangerous as

cigarettes? It’s the cigarette paper, not the tobacco, that causes

cancer.”

“Watch out for nuts and weirdos this year. I don’t know where they’re

coming from, but we get them.”

“Don’t feed your Christmas tree water from the tap. It must be boiled or

bottled, and with each gallon, you should shake in five or six

tablespoons of sugar.”

But Great Grandpa Noonan said he is most certain about life’s

uncertainty. He said he won’t actually know if he will be forced to move

from Newport Boulevard until next Christmas.

“You never know what the future will bring. Anything can happen in 12

months.”