GOOD OLD DAYS:

Christian’s Hut on the Balboa Peninsula. The China House in Corona del Mar. Richard’s Lido Market on Lido Isle. The Snug Harbor Café.

Former Coast Magazine publisher Jim Wood spent the Aug. 13 Speak Up Newport meeting at the Newport Beach Yacht Club describing Newport’s heyday in the 1960s and ’70s, triggering lost memories for many of the assembled listeners.

Wood now lives in Marin County, where he has started a northern counterpart to Coast: Marin Magazine.

The biggest difference he sees between his old and new homes is the rampant development and crowds that have spread through Newport, he said.

“I clearly remember our family driving up from Corona del Mar into the sticks of Eastbluff, and looking at homes for [$32,500],” Wood said. “It really does not seem that long ago.”

His daily drive between work and home took him between Corona del Mar and Costa Mesa.

A photo showing an empty swath of East Coast Highway at Bayside Drive, taken in June 1963, shocked some newcomers while it triggered memories for longtime locals.

“I remember so clearly a blustery winter day in February 1967,” Wood said. “We lived in Mesa Verde at the time. I was out looking for a tugboat tugging the Queen Mary to her berth in Long Beach. It was quite a sight.”

A highlight of the slide show was Wood’s recollection of the Los Angeles Airways helicopter pad, which allowed travelers to board a 28-passenger Sikorsky that took them to LAX in one hour for about $15 per person.

Also popular was a set of shots of the 1958 Ford Aeronutronics facility on Jamboree near Ford Road, designed by William Pereira.

The site built missiles like the Shillelagh, Chaparral and Sidewinder, Wood said.

He also showed pictures of the Irvine Co.’s salt works, established in 1934 at the head of the Back Bay along what was Palisades Road.

The muddy trail was paved after the 1953 International Boy Scout Jamboree, held in the Fashion Island/Newport Center area.

Palisades Road was later renamed Jamboree Road; the salt works was destroyed in the 1969 floods.

“There are a few people around who water-skied in the Back Bay, and I was one of them,” Wood said.

His clearest memory from UCI was from April 30, 1970, when a teach-in following the secret invasion of Cambodia brought in thousands who packed into the gym.

Four days later, after hearing news of the Kent State shootings, Wood went to a friend’s house, where an American flag hung upside-down.

“It was a moment I will not forget,” he said.

Speak Up Newport meets on the second Wednesday of the month and hosts community leaders who speak on issues relevant to Newport Beach.

For more information, call (949) 224-2266 or visit www.speakupnewport.org.

CANDICE BAKER can be reached at (949) 494-5480 or at [email protected] .