1960's anaheim/orange county (Los Angeles, San Francisco: lease, houses, high schools)

[cscher]

I moved to Anaheim in 1956, was there for Disney's grand opening. Graduated Trident Jr. High and Magnolia High Schools. Often went camping at Doheney Beach (when you could walk to Dana Pointe at low tide), and, among others, surfed Doheney and Dana Point before there was a road to the point. Hobie was a kid and used to work out of his garage in Dana Point (I believe). As things grew we used to "freak" that the surfing was going to get ruined. Now there is a huge marina there, beautiful, but no surfing.

It was a great time to grow up in Southern California, cars on the Blvd. in the valley, carhops on roller skates, evenings dancing in Disney, sun, surf, (now skin cancer), playing guitar in coffee houses.

Used to play in coffee houses in the area when Peter Paul & Mary were there and Jose Feliciano was just making it big. Played a little with Mary McCaslin and always knew she would go somewhere with her music. If anyone remembers the name of some of the coffee houses from the 60's I would appreciate it.
Good memories

[Angel Bear]

Sorry I can't help with the names of the coffeehouses, but I just wanted to say that I enjoyed reading your post. I must have lived there in a past life--hee hee!

It must be hard for those who remember it from the 1960's who live there now or have moved due to the incredible changes of Southern California in the past 40 years...

Can I ask a question...Did you ever see Dick Dale play in Newport?

[IloveOC]

Hey Angel Bear - I saw Dick Dale back in the early 60's. We also saw him at a bar in Garden Grove that we went to. He would come in to shoot pool. He was so awesom back then.

And YES, it is sad to remember how things used to be back then.

[bhcompy]

The Parasol in Los Alamitos opened in 1967 and was in business until ~2007, when the Rossmoor Center was redeveloped and the lease was not renewed. It is now a Mel's Diner.

[Lake.Lady]

cscher,

We moved to Buena Park in 1959. Totally surrounded by orange groves and dairy farms. I can remember the cows marching down Valley View (just a dirt road). On Halloween, while trick-or-treating, we would go to the dairy farms and they gave us fudgesicles.
In high school the big thing was cruising Whittier Blvd........just a gigantic conveyer belt of COOL! My high school was JFK (go fighting Irish!) but my ex graduated from Magnolia (1969). Savanaha High was the our big rival and we always tried to paint their rebel green (we got caught too). I (vaguely) remember going to a cool place (?) where the local band was good..........they were called the Doobie Brothers. HA!

That was a very long time ago, but the memories are very good.

[Fontucky]

We moved from Inglewood to Capistrano Beach in 1960. Great place to grow up back then.

I used to go to a small venue in San Clemente called The 4 Muses. Sometime around 1966 this high school kid from Sunny Hills High in Fullerton started coming down to jam and perform. His name was Clyde Jackson Browne. He was good.

[WestFullertonGuy]

I went to Sunny Hills HS with Jackson Browne, '66; the late Chuck Estes, '64; Steve Noonan, '64, and Greg Copeland, '64. By coincidence, those last 2 guys have just released brand new CDs in October 2008. The best music places then were the Paradox in Orange, where these guys began. Harmony Lane was a ballroom in Anaheim, and Retail Clerk's Union Hall in Buena Park -- both used for guitar bands and dancing. Dick Dale, the Ventures and Duane Eddy dominated teen music here until 1963 or so when the Beach Boys became so famous. We'd already liked the Everly Brothers, with Bobby Hatfield from Anaheim Union High School and Bill Medley from Santa Ana HS. There was a swinging place in Newport whose name I've forgotten. In Long Beach we had Mon Ami, owned by Noonan's dad. By 1964 or 1965, we went to the Ash Grove on Melrose in LA, and while it lasted, Pandora's Box in the middle of Sunset Boulevard at Crescent Heights. Of course there were Gazzari's, the Whiskey and other places on the Sunset Strip, just west of there. Most towns then had a little coffee house where music was played and sung. Probably the finest performing musician from Sunny Hills HS in the 1960s is Greg Weisz, '67, a slide guitar and pedal steel player who's recorded with over 100 top bands and artists, and often plays on Garrison Keillor's "Prairie Home Companion". Greg is a friend of Jackson, Steve and Greg, and plays on Greg's new CD. In the 1960s, Jennifer Warne was also performing on the scene in Orange County, as well as Pamela Polland. Jackson left for New York City not too long after graduating, soon met Andy Warhol and his troupe, and soon had the chops and the songs to put out his first album, "Jackson Browne" with the famous old automobile water bag on the cover with the words, Saturate Before Using. He'd begun earlier in Los Angeles -- Echo Park, actually -- with neighbors and friends who would soon become the Eagles, and other musicians and singers. Jackson had spent the summer before his senior year in high school living with his older sister in the Haight Ashbury district of San Francisco. He paid his dues for almost 10 years before achieving national fame and recognition. These days, we SHHS alumni are excited about Steve Noonan's singing. Last night he appeared at the Marine Room Tavern in Laguna Beach, where he comes to sing about every month. Catch him next time.

[ArizonaBear]

My only comment is how lucky you folks were to live in California duirng the 1950's-60's...........although the Phx area was quite comparable (aside from no beach and hotter summers) during the 1970's from what I have been told

[BRinSM]

its almost amazing, the homegrown talent that OC has produced musically. add Social Distortion, No Doubt, Sublime, and The Offspring to the above mentioned artists to cover the more recent acts.

[Dirk Bonner]

Not to mention the great athletes that come from Orange County.