Pancakes and music for all

OUR LAGUNA

Laguna Beach firefighters flipped Monday for the Century Exchange

Club’s annual Pancake Breakfast.

“It’s become a tradition in Laguna,” club member John Hill said.

The turnout for the club’s traditional welcome to summer was huge.

The line was almost as long at 10:45 a.m. as it was at 8:45 a.m.

“We had to go back to Las Brisas four or five times for more

supplies,” Generalisima Sande St. John said.

Jolly Roger donated the pancake batter and Las Brisas restaurant

donated the sausages, orange juice, milk and coffee for the

breakfast, which the club sells for $3 per person. Proceeds are given

to local groups and to the Orange County Center for the Prevention of

Child Abuse.

Volunteers, club members and Laguna Beach Firefighters John Luna

Jr., Gary Zumbo, Alex Landa, Brian Lenahan, Scott Green, Justin

Kasper and Richard Sutherland cooked and served. Battalion Chief Jeff

LaTendresse supervised and his son, Cody, in his usual camouflage,

assisted.

Rock Martin lent a hand where needed. Volunteer Anne Wood

collected cash. Doug Miller fiddled while Laguna ate. Dewar Scott and

Duane Bickel served coffee.

“I’d guess we served more than 600 breakfasts this year,” Bickel

said. “We deposited about $2,100.”

Edgar Hatfield has been flipping flapjacks for at least 10 years,

he said, but that didn’t get his wife, Dorothy, preferential

treatment. She waited her turn with Kathryn Van Velzen. Sunny Budd, a

past president of the Century Club, which split from the Exchange

Club of Laguna Beach, stood in line nearby.

Other late arrivals were paramedics Jeff Priest, Tim McIntyre and

Michael Perkowski; Andrew and Carolyn Wood, the Laguna Beach Woman’s

Club Woman of the Year; and David Schaar.

“I usually get here about this time and zip right through the line

and then head for the Memorial Day ceremony,” Schaar said.

Mayor Toni Iseman, who was scheduled to speak at the ceremony,

looked at the line, looked at her watch and knew she was doomed.

Partner Steve Miller volunteered to get her some take-out to tide her

over.

“This is unreal,” Mary Lou Teschner said.

Police officers Bobby Van Gorder and Matt August were among the

early birds served. Flapjack flipper Green made little teddy bear

pancakes for Firefighter Andrew Hill, who is called the Panda Bear by

his mates.

Noah Rosen arrived in his little truck, which he is rapidly

outgrowing, dressed to the nines.

“He insisted he had to get dressed up for Sande [St. John],” said

his mom, Bree Burgess Rosen, founder of “Lagunatics” and No Square

Theatre.

Since there was no cabernet served, Leon Rosen settled for the

menu offered.

Darrcy Loveland’s Santa Monica houseguest, Rick Riggs, attended

the breakfast for the first time. Regular Annie Quilter was there,

but her husband Charlie is still on duty in Iraq, recording the

history of U. S. Marine fliers in the war.

Also there were Sandy Thornton; Ben Teschner; Bobbi Cox; Charlie

Boyd; Mindy LaTendresse; Doris Shields with grandson, Josh, and his

girlfriend, Kelly; and Fire Department Jill of all trades Carrie

Joyce with her husband, Bill, son, Robert Wallace, his wife, Mitzi,

and their daughters, Brooke and Lexi.

“We go every year,” Joyce said. “We love it because it is a true

community affair.”

AMERICAN BANDSTAND

Laguna doesn’t have a bandstand, but the “1st Amendment

Cobblestones” at Main Beach worked just fine for the Laguna Beach

Community Band Concert Monday.

“This was our second concert this month,” conductor Dennis White

said.

The 42-piece band performed May 18 as the opening act for the

Concert in the Park at the Festival of Arts Grounds. The band also

has an 18-member swing band.

“We hope the exposure will bring us new members,” White said.

“We’d like to have 60 members by this summer.”

The band has scheduled performances at the Art-A-Fair on June 28

and Aug. 9, at the Sawdust Festival on July 4, and at the Festival of

Arts on July 22 and Aug. 19.

“We get a couple of people interested after every performance,”

band member Carol Reynolds said.

Ann Webster, who attended the Memorial Days ceremony at Heisler

Park with Bill and former mayor Kathleen Blackburn, trucked on down

to Main Beach in time to hear a Big Band-era medley.

“I am the widow of a Marine pilot,” Webster said. “He did all the

wars: World War II, Korea twice and Vietnam twice. I was home taking

care of the kids.”

She also has served for a quarter of a century as makeup

supervisor for the Pageant of the Masters and serves with Blackburn

on Festival of Arts Board of Directors.

Festival board member Bob Henry and his wife, Nancy, also attended

the concert. He is an honorary member of the band.

Gary Alstot skipped out early for home, where his wife, Carole,

was recuperating from a stay at the hospital.

“She had water on her lungs,” Gary said. “She’s home now, but

there is more testing coming up.”

Gene Atherton took a snooze on the park lawn during a Military

Medley, but veteran John Gabriels bopped to the music, snazzy in his

straw boater and red, white and blue suspenders.

Bill Sanders was able to identify every song in the Cartoon

Medley, created especially for kids.

“It began with ‘Looney Tunes,’ then the theme songs for the

‘Flintstones,’ the ‘Jetsons,’ ‘Pink Panther,’ ‘Animaniacs’ and ‘Bugs

Bunny,’” Sanders said. “The last song was not exactly for a cartoon

show. It was from ‘The Muppets.’”

Sanders wife, Kathryn, plays flute in the band, but he swears he

knew the songs anyway.

The band is funded by the Irvine Valley Emeritus Music Program and

grants from the city’s business improvement district. Practices are

held Tuesday nights. For more information, visit

www.lagunacommunityband.org or call 494-0986.

* OUR LAGUNA is a regular feature of the Laguna Beach Coastline

Pilot. Contributions are welcome. Write to Barbara Diamond, P.O. Box

248, Laguna Beach, CA 92652, hand-deliver to 384 Forest Ave., Suite

22; call 494-4321 or fax 494-8979.