El Morro's fond yesteryears

Considering my age (80 in two weeks), it's not surprising my memories of the El Morro beach are more detailed than the recent residents who have reveled there for some years. Now, I have nothing against reveling, having done my share in times past.

Coming from Long Beach as a young child on Sundays, I remembered my family driving down the two-lane Coast Highway and always pulling off the road to the El Morro beach, deserted by people but framed with beach grasses and a good many different types of bird life.

The first repast after the early and substantial breakfast at home was unpacked and the fragrance inhaled seemed so different than lunch at home. My mother believed in food. As she unwrapped the waxed paper-covered sandwiches and special picnic treasures, she always remarked that a hard-boiled egg wasn't really good unless it had a bit of sand on it.

Old people usually start a sentence with, "back in those days." I'm no different as the memories of the olive shop on the corner of Thalia and Coast (I think) with many kinds of olives, the first and best purchase of the day, was followed with many others. The Carpenter's Shop with its wooden boardwalk was my next favorite as it had everything one could ever want to my young eyes. But all was wonderful then.

We moved here in 1966 and have built many memories, first in Three Arch Bay, then Laguna proper on Dunning Drive and now here on Cypress Drive. Our "goat hill" days are finished and flat walks here seem to work for us.

Everyone has to give up days past for what some call progress, the important thing being not to whine about it but look to the future with a hopeful grin