Epic
Dear ER:
Bravo Allen Sanford. (“Redondo BeachLife Festival hopes to rock steady,” ER Sept 9, 2021). BeachLife is the most epic thing to happen in the South Bay in a long time.
Stacianne Gabrielli
ERNews comment
A little less epic, please
Dear ER:
Hopefully, the new rendition of the Fiesta de las Artes was a success for the Hermosa Beach Chamber of Commerce. While these changes to the former twice a year fiesta were necessitated by the pandemic, this was a welcomed arrangement compared to the previous, traditional event. Far less mess, congestion, noise, garbage, crowding, clean up, rowdiness, and traffic. As most living within a few blocks of the fiesta already know, we have enough of this on a regular basis, albeit to a lesser extent. It’s somewhat ironic that the travesty of the pandemic prompted the “new” Fiesta Hermosa Locale. It would be a lesson well learned if the Chamber and the City continue with modification to a scaled back, more ‘civil’ celebration. I’d gladly pay the $25 admission price, and not even attend the fair, even though I’d prefer to participate, if this modification is continued down the road. And, if the Chamber and City decide on having the fair two times a year — one is preferable — $50 bucks. I am confident that so many of our neighbors would agree that a scaled back version is needed. I am all for Hermosa Beach businesses to be profitable, but let’s be sensible and sensitive to those who live here and continue to support efforts for all of us to thrive.
Peter Carter
Hermosa Beach
Natural epic
Dear ER:
On April 3, 2017, our grandson and our nanny wanted to take me to Wilderness Park to see the ducks for my birthday (“Council approves payment to South Bay Parkland Conservancy,” ER Sept. 9, 2021). Our grandchildren had grown up playing there since babyhood, with all the neighborhood nannies, and all their kids, so this was a very special place for them.
When we got down to the Lower Pond to see the ducks, the pond was gone, the water drained, the pond bulldozed to piles of rubble. No ducks. No nothing. I cried out to newly elected Mayor Brand and Councilman Todd Loewenstein. Magically, we were put in touch with another park advocate, Jacob Varvarigos, along with Tucker, an Eagle Scout candidate who had been asking the City of Redondo Beach, for a year, to permit him to do his Eagle Scout project there. The South Bay Parkland Conservancy regrouped in 2017, and formed “Friends Of Wilderness Park.” Our Eagle Scout finished his project, planting a Sycamore tree and three benches where the Lower Pond will someday be restored to its former glory.
Barbara Epstein
Redondo Beach
Epic memory
Dear ER:
My husband and I moved to Hermosa Beach in 1960, shortly after our first child was born. Sometime after that — it was at Christmas time — I wandered into the Wind Bells Cottage Antiques on Eighth Street to see what it was all about (“Home is where the art is,” ER Nov. 13, 2015). The living room was the center of the business and there were candles lit all over the room. It was so warm and inviting that I remember it’s glow to this day. I wandered around and visited with the proprietor, Delma Peery. I purchased a set of tiny salt spoons for my husband’s aunt and uncle, and more importantly, a children’s book called The Tomten by Astrid Lindgren, which has been read to and by our children (eight of them) through the years. It has become a beloved part of our Christmas family liturgy. Later I would return and purchase another book by the same author called Christmas in the Stable. I often wish I could wander back into that little antique store and enjoy the warmth and the glow of the candles and the friendly, welcoming atmosphere. I am happy to know the home is still there and has been added upon and well loved. I hope you can feel the spirits of those who wandered in and found warmth there.
Pat Corzine Catherall
Hermosa Beach
