An era that bled orange

Marisa O’Neil

Long ago in Newport Beach, stables kept horses where million-dollar

homes sit today, and cows chewed their cud where shoppers now charge

designer shoes.

Students at Our Lady Queen of Angels School in Corona del Mar

learned what life was like in their hometown long before they were

born. At a Thursday afternoon assembly, speakers such as longtime

resident Willard Courtney, 89, shared their stories about a time when

the county’s name made perfect sense.

“Orange County was all oranges,” Courtney said. “You could drive

through the orange groves and smell the wonderful smell of orange

blossoms. It is a wonderful memory.”

Kindergarten teacher Carolyn Williams organized the assembly in

conjunction with the community’s 100th year. Rather than have the

students just do art projects or essays, she decided to bring the

city’s history alive with the help of locals.

“I thought it would be great for them to share their lives,

particularly the changes that have taken place,” she said. “The

students enjoy hearing how life was.”

Williams showed slides spanning the past 100 years of the Eastbluff area, including the school’s site. They gasped with delight

at photos from the 1960s, showing the church’s steeple jutting high

above a mostly barren landscape.

A vintage photograph showing grassy fields where Fashion Island

now lies drew a hubbub of excited recognition from the students.

MacKenzie Jones, 13, had never seen photographs of the Newport

Beach of yore.

“There’s no cows here anymore,” she said. “It’s all just houses

now.”

Longtime resident Doug Dyer told the students about his experience

as one of 50,000 boys to attend the National Boy Scout Jamboree in

1953. Back then, he said, coyotes and rattlesnakes lived in the area

off what is now called Jamboree Road.

Courtney told students about driving a Model T with his friends

and sneaking up Buck Gully to watch the filming of World War I movie

“All Quiet on the Western Front.” He also talked about how local

fishermen used horses to drag in their nets.

Janet Curci Walsh talked about her days riding horses around

Corona del Mar. She kept hers at a stable where Irvine Terrace now

sits.

And Jack Keating cast the students’ minds far back, telling them

about a river that cut through the area 10,000 years ago, when the

cliffs of Eastbluff rivaled those in the present-day Grand Canyon.

But before he told them about the river, Keating asked the students

how they thought the area formed.

One student offered an answer that drew a wide smile to the

Catholic school’s principal, Eileen Ryan.

“God,” the girl said.