It's Spring Again . . .
by Lynn
Sunday, April 17, 2005
When I was very little I remember Saturday nights when my Great Grandmother would come over to baby sit. My Mom would get all dressed up and my Dad would be wearing a suit even though it was not Sunday. My Aunt and Uncle as well as some of their other friends would come over and they would say they were going to "
The Rendezvous Ballroom".
Well, that was the 50's and I have thought little of it until I saw a reference to it in an article about the resurrection of "Swing Dancing". I never gave a thought to the fact that it was right there on the beach in Balboa. There were dance steps that started there, and some say it was this legendary ballroom, which helped start the big craze of "Spring Break in Balboa & Newport."
I am sure there are MANY of you who have memories of places you went and things you did for Spring Break and lazy summers in Orange County. I started driving in the 70's and since I was the first one of my group of friends to get a car I knew the way to Balboa in my sleep. At least one girlfriend and I used to go to the beach at Balboa near the elementary school. It was close enough to stop at the little market for some drinks, and splurge at the bakery next door before we hit the beach. Since I have fair skin, it would take a week for me to get over the sunburn to go back for more. (so far I have not paid for it with skin cancer) Sometimes we would just cruise around the area and wind up stopping for a "Hot Fudge Peppermint Stick Sundae" at a place on PCH near where the Mc Donalds is now. I ca n not seem to remember the name; it was a coffee shoo. And I am sure they loved a bunch of sand covered girls coming in for ice cream. There was a lot of cruising done in the days of 33 cents per gallon gas. And if you saw a carload of guys you knew you would try to ditch them. Eventually the cruising got so bad they closed the peninsula to non-residents. (I am sure this was thought up by police who used to cruise the same area as kids!)
Another fun thing that you can still do was to take the
FERRY from Balboa Island to the peninsula, and back. I had done this lots of times with my parents growing up, but it was a whole new thing when a guy I was dating took me on it while out for my early January Birthday. Balboa in the winter is so different than in the summer, and the weather is not always as bad as this past year. Through the years I have taken my kids down there for the ferry, and even took a carload of neighbor kids who were as excited as if I took them on a cruise to a foreign land. The boys sat out on the benches, while the girls liked to stay in the car. Now my kids are grown and gone, but I recently found out that my son took many college friends down for a ride on the ferry. He was surprised at how many people grew up in and near Orange County and did not know about it.
Perhaps some of you would like to share your "Spring Break" or Summer Memories of growing up here in Orange County!
Labels: Balboa-Island, Swing-Dancing, The-Rendezvous-Ballroom
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