Treasured memories found

Lolita Harper

It was the summer of 1978 and 14-year-old Mark Howard was curious. He

had just moved into a new house on Loren Lane and was anxious to explore

every corner of his new domain. Especially intriguing was the trap door

right outside of his bedroom door that led to the attic.

With a ladder and a flashlight, Howard discovered a treasure that

would not reveal its true worth until nearly 24 years later.

What Howard found was a Costa Mesa High School yearbook from 1969.

Inside the name Joe Broderick was scribbled, along with a dozen personal

notes from classmates, wishing Broderick well.

Howard, who would start as a freshman at the school in the fall, was

intrigued by the unexpected archive and studied it from cover to cover.

“I thought, ‘Wow, this looks pretty ancient,”’ said Howard, who is now

38. “I thought it was weird that all the girls were wearing dresses.”

Unable to locate Broderick, Howard held onto the book through 17

moves, a wedding and a handful of jobs. He let go of it Wednesday, when

he was finally able to return it to its rightful owner.

“I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw that e-mail,” said Broderick,

now 49, who received a message from Howard through his account on

Classmates.com.

Not three hours had passed from the moment Broderick opened the e-mail

and he was driving to Howard’s house to pick up the book.

“That is the only memory I have from high school. Everything else was

lost in a fire,” Broderick said.

The elder Costa Mesa High graduate thumbed through thepages, recalling

memories and pointing out high school buddies and sweethearts.

“I never expected to see this again. I thought it was gone, and now

just seeing it again brings back a rush of memories,” Broderick said.

When Broderick graduated from Costa Mesa High School in 1970, his

family decided to move to the East Coast. Broderick was going to attend

UC Santa Barbara in the fall and divided his possessions into three

categories: things he would take to college, things his family would take

to Virginia and things he would store at a neighbor’s house that he might

need access to.

As time went on, Broderick emptied his stuff from his neighbor’s attic

until most of it was back East. A few years later, there was a fire and

most of his stuff was lost.

Apparently, the yearbook had fallen out of a box and remained just at

the edge of the entrance to the attic, until Howard stumbled upon it.

Finally meeting face to face, the two men flipped through the book

together, pointing out the major differences in fashion and Costa Mesa’s

geography. In the front of the yearbook, an aerial picture of the city

was spread across two pages showing numerous patches of open space that

have since been filled with shopping centers and homes.

From reading the book before, Howard knew he and Broderick had

something in common -- both ran track at the high school. But it wasn’t

until the men met that Howard had a chance to ask him questions that had

lingered for nearly a quarter of a century.

“What event did you run?”

“Who was your favorite teacher?”

“When did you move away?”

“When did you come back?”

Broderick answered the questions, saying he moved back to Orange

County after graduating from college in 1980 and started his own business

in Costa Mesa in 1985. Howard graduated from Costa Mesa High in 1982,

went off to college and also ended up working in the city. He now coaches

seventh- and eight-graders in track and field at Costa Mesa High School.

The men discussed their differences and similarities; what it was like

to grow up in Costa Mesa and the memories they had from living on Loren

Lane. The entire time, Broderick would interject, saying he couldn’t

believe he was standing in the heart of his childhood neighborhood,

thumbing through a treasure he thought he had lost.

“This is surreal. I still can’t believe I have this piece of history

back,” he said. “I wonder if my letterman’s jacket is still up there

too.”

* Lolita Harper covers Costa Mesa. She may be reached at (949)

574-4275 or by e-mail at o7 lolita.harper@latimes.comf7 .