Category: Life Events

After a brief respite from them, I was back on the trail for my series of “random” interviews of OBceans when I entered NewBreak coffee house on Abbott the other day. It was hot in the rest of the County of San Diego, but in OB it was a windy – almost cold day – and I was looking forward to my steaming mug of java.

After introducing myself to Aaron Sutton, a 40 year old with a full brown beard who was sitting in front of his laptop, he agreed to be interviewed and we moved over to a corner booth with more privacy. “Everybody has a story,” I told him, and “I want to tell yours.”

Aaron had been living over on Pescadero for about 3 years, when he moved in with good bud, Mike Stevens, on Lotus Street about 6 weeks ago.

“We call it ‘the Farm'”, he said, “we’ve got dogs, frogs, chickens, and fish,” he said.

Editor: With the following post, we begin a new, irregular column called “The Old OB Hippie Speaks” by a long-time resident who still calls himself a hippie. Check it out and tell us what you think about it in the comments.

Life in the OB Village

Life in this beautiful village goes on – and it’s daily. My aim is to keep you up on the very soul of the community by sharing news, observations, and tid-bits that cross my reality. I plan to speak truth to you. And you can reciprocate by sending me stuff, either as a comment to this post or via email ( address to “old hippie” and send to obragblog@gmail.com ).

Still Counting Ballots for Planning Board Election Results

One big thing that is going on in OB is the Ocean Beach Planning Board election. The balloting was yesterday, Tuesday, but I’ve heard that they are still counting the “provisional ballots” and have not announced the results yet. I’m told by the editordude that once the OB Rag hears the results – it will immediately publish them.

The Gawronskis and Mount Kilimanjaro

Speaking of the Planning Board, our friend Jane Gawronski – who is Chair – and her hubby Tom – who just stepped down after being on the Board for a total of 10 years – have just returned from their trek to Africa and to Mount Kilimanjaro.

Leonard Poma – who started “Poma’s” on Bacon Street – passed last Wednesday, March 6th. He is reportedly to have died at home around 5 a.m. with his family.

Leonard, or “Len”, had been battling cancer for awhile now. But his body finally gave out. He was 62.

Poma’s became synonymous for wonderful roast beef sandwiches. Those and his cheese-heavy pizzas have been mainstays in the Ocean Beach restaurant scene since the 1960’s.

Services will be held Thursday, March 14, at 11 at the Gateway Church in El Cajon (1280 North Johnson Avenue). All are welcome.

UPDATE: Boogie Boarder identified as 62 year old Vernon Taniguchi. Could be a local.

The Medical Examiner reported that the man pulled from the surf at Dog Beach on Sunday who later died is Vernon Taniguchi from San Diego.

We cannot be completely positive about whether the victim is Vernon Taniguchi of Point Loma, of Worden Street.

So the 62 year old who met his end Sunday very well could be a local. The deceased is Japanese-American and his next of kin have been notified.

UPDATE: Boogie Boarder identified as 62 year old Vernon Taniguchi of San Diego.

An unidentified male boogie boarder was pulled from the surf Sunday, March 3rd, unconscious. He had been spotted off the shore near Voltaire Street in north OB. CPR was administered but to no avail as he died about an hour later.

The county Medical Examiner’s Office is trying to determine his identity.

Just before 7pm, a surfer found the guy, and pulled him to the beach, where a bystander performed CPR on him, before medics arrived. The medics then took the man to UCSD Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 6:58 p.m., the Medical Examiner’s Office reported.

His name and age were not immediately known.

By Becky Sorenson

In an effort to continue serving the Ocean Beach community, the OB Woman’s Club is hosting a community clothing swap fundraiser. This event will be held on Saturday Feb. 23rd from 1-3pm. There will be a $5 entrance fee for this event.

A Clothing Swap is an event designed to reuse the perfectly good clothing, shoes and accessories that we no longer wear or need. Here’s how it works, clean out your closet and bring some gently used wearable clean clothes that are taking up unwanted space in your closet. Then come browse and find some new items to spruce up your wardrobe.

As I have a birthday coming up in a few days, and as my last experience with on-line dating made me want to find my birth certificate – yes, they had them back then – I wanted to check and see if I was really born many years ago, or if there could have been a typo and I was really born in 1995.

Many of the men I am meeting online these days remind me of my youth – yes, I can remember back that far – and the titillating things we talked about during the dating process. I am not happy to report that things have not changed significantly. Men still want to talk about all the things we read about in “Catcher in the Rye” or “Lady Chatterley’s Lover.” So let me tell you about my latest.

This is the third in a series of interviews with OBceans that I have met randomly – all so far in NewBreak coffee house on Abbott Street. I heartily believe that everyone has a story worth retelling, so I approach strangers and ask them if I can sit down with them and take their story.

Two requisites: they have to live in OB – or the Peninsula -, and they have to agree to have their picture taken. Up to now, the feedback from readers has been positive on these random interviews. Here’s my first interview with Eric Long and my second with Helga Staalhane.

Gina Manning – Who Fled the LA Area and Who Now Is in Search of Gigs As a Comedian

Gina Manning was just closing up her laptop the other day when I approached her and asked her if I could interview her for this blog. She said sure, so I sat down at her small table with my coffee mug and got out my notepad.

Those of you that have been reading my articles for the past few years, probably will remember that I am a widow. My husband of 46 years died September 21, 2009, from lung cancer. Yes, he was a smoker, or was for 30 years of his life. He gave it up for 34 years but it was still the cause of death. Whether it was caused by his smoking or living in Los Angeles for the first 39 years of his life, or working in a school where he helped install the asbestos in the ceiling so it could open on time we will never know. And the reasons for his death are not germane to this article.

Editor: this is the first in a hopefully weekly series highlighting different OBceans and their stories, OBceans chosen at random.

Each person I’ve ever met has a story. Whether it was their life experiences or their dreams, or a combination of both, everybody has a story to tell. So, with this belief firmly in mind, I set out to find a denizen of Ocean Beach who I knew would have an interesting and deeply individual story, so I could tell their story to the rest of the village.

Right around 9:15 Friday night – Jan 18th -in Ocean Beach a woman stabbed a man in his forearm with a pocketknife – or folding knife – while they were arguing. The 44 year old woman was taken into custody by police.

This was a wonderful year for Christmas lights in my City Heights neighborhood. They cheerfully, often exuberantly, illuminated the night from the day after Thanksgiving until the day after New Year’s. It is sad to see them extinguished, put away, for yet another year, although ours stay up in the house year round. You can never have enough illumination in the darkness…

But that is not to say the seasonal celebrations are over- far from it. Sunday January 6th is the Three Kings Day celebration in Mexico and other Spanish speaking cultures; it is also Orthodox Christmas Eve for those religious traditions based upon the Julian calendar, as opposed to our Gregorian calendar. What that boils down to is that I have to order my rosca de reyes so that I can take it to our Orthodox Christmas Eve dinner.