Days of $10 lots

While strolling through Latitude 33 the other day, I picked up

“Laguna Beach -- An Illustrated, Narrative History,” two years late.

It’s a 2003 book by Lagunan Roger Jones, filled with photos and

eyewitness accounts of our town’s early days, and after a two-minute

examination, I realized I was going to have to muscle up and buy it.

I found the following items particularly edifying:

* George Rogers was first to subdivide downtown Laguna Beach in

1887 but became discouraged and moved back to Kirksville, Mo., in

1893 when nobody would buy his $10 lots.

We’ve all found ourselves in discussions during which someone

said, “I could have bought a house in ___ for $__.” Now I can say,

“If I’d been in Laguna earlier, I could have bought the business

district for $310.”

Imagine yourself the frustrated ghost of George Rogers, flying

back here from Kirksville, taking a look at present-day downtown real

estate prices -- and unable to kill yourself.

* The area around Broadway and Coast Highway was once the location

of the Pomona College Marine Lab, with a tent city for students

during World War I. In the ‘30s the lab became a serpentarium to

accommodate local rattlesnakes, which were especially numerous in the

hills where the high school is now.

This is an antidote for the feeling we get that we have missed a

previous perfect golden age. I don’t miss the rattlesnakes at the

high school. I don’t think I miss the serpentarium either.

* Doc Blacketer, who lived here from 1923 to 2001, recalled that in 1927, the year Laguna was incorporated as a city, the police chief

told him he couldn’t tie his horse up on Forest Avenue: “Take it over

to Ocean Avenue and tie it up in front of the playhouse. It doesn’t

matter if he makes a mess there.”

Everyone has always been a critic.

* Eiler Larsen, the most famous and fabulous of Laguna’s Greeters,

was a philosopher who walked all over the world and greeted everyone

who came by his usual corner, Coast Highway and Forest Avenue. He

read many books and gave each one away upon finishing it.

In theory I am happy to see everyone, but in practice I tend to

stay home and screen my calls, and I don’t give up books easily. To

me, the Greeter was a character no less marvelous than Batman.

I won’t be giving up Roger Jones’ book any time soon. There’s too

much Laguna in it. It’s got Prohibition rumrunners, fire and flood

and Villa Rockledge, and it’s beautifully illustrated. So if you’ve

an interest in who or what stood where you’re standing now, track

down a copy. The price at Latitude 33 is equivalent to 7 1/2 of

George Rogers’ old lots.