Earle Richmond –water balloon and other stories

July 1, 2008

I thought all of you would like to see this story.  It is just another one of the many stories that shows how times have changed in Laguna.  I don't think this would ever happen today.  Earle is about my age so this probably happened in the late 50's.

Hi Dale - I like reading your E-mails.  They are interesting and well written.  Maybe you should write a book.  I am serious about that.

No one knows better than you what a harmful weapon water balloons can be.  And, the real danger is that people perceive of them as harmless.

However, I have a good water balloon story that happened when I was a senior at Laguna Beach High School.  On Halloween night there was a large group of us on the senior lawn in front of the high school.  A Laguna Beach Police car drove by very slowly to check on us and was immediately pelted with water balloons.  It took of rapidly, undoubtedly to get reinforcements to make a statement that you do not disrespect police officers.

Sure enough, about fifteen minutes later two police cars drove up to the front of the high school. Side doors opened on both cars as the officers got out - and pelted us with a barrage of water balloons.

The police made their statement. As for respect, they received the highest respect from a large group of teenagers that Halloween night.  Those were the happy days.  Earle

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That was 1959.  One of my friends Dad was a lieutenant on the small town force, then. 

More small town stories regarding the police:

As graduation approached we, senior boys, had a stag graduation party at Irvine Cove, next to Emerald Bay.  It was in its natural state.  No construction yet.  In fact, as you may remember we had a lifeguard Luau there a few years later. 

We were drinking alcohol.  Every so often the Laguna Police would come by to check on us.  They knew we were underage and that we were drinking.  But, that being the case they wanted to make sure we all stayed in one place and did not get in to any trouble.  Mark MacMannus was totally drunk and was riding down the hill on a Banana leaf with only his jock strap on.  Dianne Dugan (who has since passed away) and a few other senior girls were in the bushes watching, as we learned later.

Here is another small town Laguna story involving the police. 

In the early sixties when I was a LBLG, John Majuri, a class mate of mine and one of my best friends and I were drinking in the South Seas Bar.  You may remember that was a watering hole for Laguna Beach lifeguards including Westgaard.  If you drink, then you know that and were probably there on occasion.  John was the bartender.  One night Jenny Jo Williamson, also our classmate, and a friend of hers visiting from the east whom John had a huge crush on were at the bar.  Jenny's dad was head of the Art Festival at the time (another small town fact). 

When 2:00 A.M. came John had to close down the bar.  However, the four of use stayed after closing hours and continued to drink. 

Then when we decided to move the party elsewhere John grabbed a bottle of sprits and we headed for the door.  The only problem was there were two Laguna Beach police officers waiting for us at the door.  One was a very tall Mexican, over six feet with a huge flashlight he was holding.  His right hand held one end and the other end of the metal flashlight was resting in the palm of his left hand.  It looked more like a weapon than a flashlight.

The other officer was a shorter blond man who was giving us the third degree and reminded me a lot of a yipping Jack Russell terrier.  They let the girls go (small town culture) and told John and myself to drive down to the police station in my car while they followed us (That wouldn't happen today).  When we arrived at the police station they took us inside to meet Lt. MacMurray.  The Jack Russell terrier kept yipping at us until finally Lt. MacMurray told him to "shut up and get out", in exactly those words.
Lt. MacMurray reminded us of the law that Bars have to be closed down by 2:00 AM and then let us go.  No booking or anything.

John MacMurray was a year ahead of us at Laguna High and played sports with us. He was our friend.  Lt. MacMurray was his Dad.

John lost his job at the South Seas as a result of that incident.  That was too bad because he was a good bar tender with a great personality.  John was my best man at my wedding to Sue Ellen.   Years later when John was still a young man he was killed in a freak accident at Elko, Nevada when a tree that was being cut down fell on him.