THE VERDICT -- judge gardner

Having spent my youth in Balboa, I assumed I would spend my adult years

in Balboa as well. Then I married and, horror of horrors, my wife didn’t

like Balboa.

So we moved to Balboa Island where, for several years, I enjoyed the

rental of a bayfront house for $50 a month. Then our greedy landlord

raised our rent to $150 a month. I would not tolerate such rent gouging,

so I bought a tax lot in Corona del Mar and built a house on it for

$15,000.

I had completed the house and was planting red and white geraniums in the

frontyard when Izzy Pease, our local, self-appointed Johnny Appleseed,

came striding down the sidewalk.

She stopped in front of my house, hands on hips, hair standing on end

like Ruggedo the Gnome King in the Oz stories.

“What kind of a tree are you going to plant?” she asked.

She didn’t ask “Are you planning on planting a tree?” That was a given.

I, by God, was going to plant a tree.

I was a little nettled and answered, “A giant Sequoia redwood.”

She said, “I’m not kidding.”

I said, “Neither am I.”

My frontyard was 20 feet square. Part of that was taken up by a white

picket fence. Quite a bit more was consumed by a brick walkway from the

street to the front door. There was hardly room for the red and white

geraniums.

And so Izzy Pease and I just stood there glaring at each other like a

couple of school kids with chips on our respective shoulders.

Finally, Izzy decided I was a tree hater and stalked off down the street

with her well-known hairdo standing on end.

Chalk up one for the tree haters. There never was a tree in that tiny

yard, and Izzy and I became good friends. But we never mentioned the tree

versus no tree issue again.

As for the house, with Bill Blurock as architect and Ed Rogers as the

builder, I went first class. I sold the house a few years later for

$19,000 and thought, “What a smart boy am I.” A few years later, the

house was sold for $375,000, and in today’s hot market it’s probably

worth twice that.

* JUDGE GARDNER is a Corona del Mar resident and former judge. His column

runs Tuesdays.