I find perusing old newspapers a delightful past time and I have been doing just that; reading a collection to be passed to the Encinitas Historical Society.
The Feb. 18, 1981, issue of the Citizen carried an article on the Value Fair, the area we now know as the Town Center.
It had closed earlier that year and a local realtor, the late F.H. “Happy” Hassen, was looking for buyers for the property.
When we arrived in Cardiff-by-the-Sea, it was “Happy” who found us a delightful home on Cambridge Avenue.
Nov. 15 the Coast Dispatch had a picture and a story on Jessica and Orville Carpentier “tending their garden,” which later did become the Carpentier Parkway. They tended the linear strip from south of Chesterfield to Liverpool Drive, weeding, watering and praying for rain. This dedicated couple kept our front garden presentable.
In the San Diego Union in June 1981 the late Neil Ball wrote about the formation of the Piece of the Walk, a project of the Cardiff Town Council and the brainchild of Jackie Barker. Ken Harrison was the president and the project was completed in 1987 when Cardiff Seaside Market and Cardiff-by-the-Sea Apartments joined forces and completed the walk which runs from Newcastle to MacKinnon. Arriving here in 1982 it was the talk of the town and I am pleased to say that there is a Kratzer section. If you have never walked its length, make it a summer outing and enjoy.
Another item that caught my eye was the April 1981 Citizen piece on MiraCosta College purchasing the property on Manchester where our lovely college now stands. They broke ground in 1986 while I was a student worker in the computer lab at Del Mar Shores and in September 1988 we were up and running at the Cardiff-by-the-Sea campus.
The April 30, 1981, issue of San Diego Union reported that eight branches of the County Library were urged to close, one of them our dear Cardiff-by-the-Sea branch. In May of that year our branch went on a month-to-month rental basis until a local business person stepped in and paid the rent for several years.
In April 1984 the Friends of the Library organization was formed. We were instrumental in not only keeping the branch open but getting it moved to the new Cardiff Town Center. Several years later we were able to enlarge that space while all the time searching for a location for a permanent home for our library. With a welcome donation from Frances White plus help from Supervisor Pam Slater Price, in March 2003 we cut the ribbon at the present location.
I am happy to say that after 1982 I was able to be a part of both MiraCosta as well as the library and appreciate all the efforts put forth by the many who made it happen
On Saturday June 16 Marion Ross will do a book talk on her new book “My Days Happy and Otherwise” at our library. Plan to join us at 1:30 p.m. for this “happy” reason Cardiff-by-the-Sea is the special place we all love to call home.
