Pride in a fair showing

OUR LAGUNA

Laguna Beach fared well at the 2003 Orange County Fair. Seventeen

residents came home with ribbons, some with multiple prizes.

Winning prizes is nothing new for Margaret Bell. She has won

prizes in every fair she has entered. This year she took home a first

place; two second places; and three third places in amateur weaving

and a fourth place in hand-knitted articles.

“I am a member of the South Coast Spinners and Weavers Guild, and

we all entered the fair,” Bell said. “It’s important to get the

entries or they might discontinue the category, and we have to keep

this craft alive.”

Vanessa Simpson was a multiple winner also, with three first

places in Monochrome/Self-processed category of the photographic

competition. Other winners included Douglas Landrum, winner of two

firsts in Color Prints, Intermediate/Advanced, one for his photograph

of a moon over Catalina Island. Jody Hoy took a fourth place in the

Black and White Intermediate/Advanced division for her photograph of

a rose in a vase made by Loren Chapman.

Hoy has been an award winner at the fair for three years.

“Last year I took a second place and the first year I took a third

place,” she said.

Linda Grossman and her daughter, Austen, both won prizes.

“People were always telling us that we should enter,” Grossman

said.

She was honored for her black and white photograph of a man and a

little girl in front of the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C.

titled “No More War.” It was selected as the Judges Choice.

Austen, 11, took a first for her portrait of Marilyn Munroe and a

second in textiles, for a quilt she made with her grandmother, Helen

Grossman.

“She is very artistic,” Grossman said of her daughter. “Right now

she is attending Carl St. Clair’s art camp at UCI.”

Verna Glancy won two blue ribbons for her Depression glass,

entered in the antiques category of the Collections and Memorabilia

program. Entries had to be 50 or more years old. Depression glass was

produced in the 1920s and early 1930s.

“My collection is mainly single and double candlesticks, all clear

glass,” Glancy said.

She began collecting in 1989 after receiving a candlestick for her

birthday. Glancy now owns more than 150 pieces.

Glancy, a private art consultant, is a close friend of Donald

Smith, also a winner at the fair for his collection of military

memorabilia.

“We have gone to the fair before and we really enjoyed the

collections, so we decided to enter this year,” Glancy said. “We were

shocked to win”

Smith’s collection of military regimental beer steins began in

1961 when he was a second lieutenant stationed in Germany.

“I found my first regimental stein in a dingy little basement junk

shop in Augsburg.,” Smith said. “I paid $10 for it. It’s probably

worth $1,000 today.”

Smith has 200 steins in his collection, 35 of them regimentals.

“They are hard to find,” he said.

The regimentals were traditionally given to German service men

when they retired from active duty and went into the reserves. The

custom lasted from 1885 to 1918. Each of the steins had the

recipient’s name and the name of the regiment on it.

“They were all one of a kind,” Smith said.

He is especially fond of the artillery regimentals -- his branch

of the service.

Smith entered 10 -- the fair limit -- of them. He valued them at

$600, to $1,500 each.

Youth Department winners included Taylor Pitz, with a first place

and a runner-up in the pre-teen (ages 9 to 12) poetry contest. Cole

and Connor Coscino each took a first in the Youth Department’s

Primary Exhibition Projects category. Marc Friedman, 17, was awarded

one first place, three second places and one third place in the

department’s Monochromatic, Self-Processed category.

“Oh wow,” Friedman said, when he learned about his award-winning

entries.

Friedman only began photography this year, as an elective in

school.

“My photo teacher liked some of my work and said to enter it at

the fair,” Friedman said. “It’s just a hobby, but I like it a lot.”

Diane Cullings won blue ribbons in the Clothing Fashion

Accessories and in the Crocheted Clothing and Lacework categories.

A purple crocheted hat with a purple silk lining, decorated with a

pin, was the number one accessory.

“The winner in clothing was a deep turquoise top crocheted in the

shell pattern,” Culling said. “I have entered the fair for at least

five years, and every year, I enter a quilt in the [Children’s

Hospital of Orange County] program. Last year, I was the division

winner.”

The quilts are donated to the hospital.

Gloria Broming was a winner in the Farm and Garden section. Warren

Aut was awarded third place in Apprentice Wood Turning.

Diane Van Dalfsen won an honorable mention for her lemon sugar

cookies entered in the Home and Hobbies category.

“My husband, Jim, and I enter every year,” Van Dalfsen said. “He

always does his banana bread. My cookies are a family recipe, and I

don’t share it. [Fair officials] always ask for recipes, but I don’t

give it.”

A couple of years ago, her bran muffins won first prize.

Van Dalfsen, an avid collector of bird houses, took a second place

for her counted cross stitch embroidered pillow of bird houses. Mark

T. Yamashiro also took a second in counted cross-stitch embroidery.

Nathan Gibbs won second place in the Professional Painting

category of Fine Arts.

Did we miss anyone? If so, let us know, you deserve recognition.

Winning entries in the 111th fair will be on display through

Sunday. For more information, visit www.ocfair.com or call (714)

708-3247.

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

Pilot. Contributions are welcomed. 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.