Food In L.A. Last Weekend

Above, my Tommy's breakfast sandwich. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

When I went to Los Angeles last Friday to attend the 50ish Hawthorne High School Reunion, I made it a point to go have a breakfast sandwich at Tommy's in North Hills. This I accomplished. I was craving Tommy's chili.

As for other food outside of the reunion, the gang of us headed to Pancho's Mexican restaurant in Manhattan Beach. While planning the trip, I had my eye on either Pancho's or Cozymel's Mexican Grill.

Above, Pancho's looked the same. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Well, Cozymel's was closed down several years ago as their rent was increased and the plaza was being remodeled. My late mother and I used to go there for dinner quite often. Therefore, as Pancho's was still operating, we went there.

The place still looked the same and the food was still good. I used to bring Young Republicans there in the 1970s and 1980s whenever we had a convention in Los Angeles. Pancho's didn't disappoint. I had a cheese enchilada and chile relleno combination plate.

Above, the gang at Pancho's last Saturday evening. 

A friend here asked me how did the food at Pancho's compare to the Mexican food in New Mexico. I said that although the food at Pancho's was good, the Mexican food in New Mexico is better and hotter. (It must be the Hatch Valley chile peppers in the sauce.)

The only favorite place I missed was In-N-Out Burger while in L.A. Oh, well. Next time.

At The Beach

Yesterday, we spent part of the day in Redondo Beach at the pier and later at Pancho's for dinner in Manhattan Beach. 

Joining us was fellow alumnus Mark Holloway. 

Some photos:

Remembering Lance G. Widman

Earlier today, I had the idea to see if a former teacher I had (in several political science classes, including an independent study class) at El Camino College in the South Bay area of Los Angeles County was on Facebook.

Even though we were poles apart politically, Lance G. Widman was a good teacher and we had some good laughs during my time at El Camino. I thought it would be fun to reconnect after all these years.

Unfortunately, I found that Widnan passed away last December of congestive heart failure. 

In 1972, during my first year at El Camino, I was at the Century Plaza Hotel with the youth organization (Young Voters For The President) of President Nixon's Committee To Re-Elect The President. President Nixon was there for a campaign dinner. At that time, I had an early morning political science class with Widman that started at 7:00.

During the evening, I wandered out to the front of the Century Plaza and saw a few hundred anti-war protesters out on the sidewalk. (This was right after I ran into comedian Red Skelton in the lobby and got his autograph.) Among them was good ol' Lance Widman. I yelled out, "Hi, Lance!" and he waved back. We had a good laugh over this the next time I saw him in class.

We got along fine, even trading some campaign buttons over the years. He good-naturedly took wisecracks from those of us with the Young Republicans of El Camino College during classes. We knew where each of us stood politically. He was a liberal with a good sense of humor, something rare these days. He's someone I'll remember fondly.

He later was elected to the Hermosa Beach City Council. 

According to his obituary, he retired from El Camino College in 2016. It is sad that he didn't have much in retirement years before passing last year. He was only nine years older than I.

Tried Out The Cuban Rum

Above, the bottle of rum I bought in Havana, Cuba. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Yesterday, I had a couple of glasses of the rum I bought last week in Cuba. It has been a while since I last had a rum cocktail of any kind.

Generally, whenever I had rum, it was in the old standby: rum and Coca-Cola. For some reason, rum mixes best with Coke and not with Pepsi or any other colas. This was how I drank the rum yesterday. It was nice and smooth. And, refeshing!

Back in the 1970s, we had a running joke in our political circles that you'd find rum drinkers in the South Bay area of Los Angeles in the city of Lomita. I don't know if that is still true or not, but it seemed to be the case back then (I did some bartending at different political functions in those days).

According to Wikihow.com, they came up with four ways to serve rum. They begin with:

Rum is a liquor distilled from sugar cane juice or its molasses byproduct. It is aged in casks of steel, oak, or charred oak to create light, gold, or dark rum, respectively. Commonly sourced from the Caribbean and Latin America, rum is a very versatile liquor that lends itself to a wide variety of beverages as well as being enjoyed on its own. There are many ways that this liquor can be served, so try a few to find your favorite.

To see how to serve rum, go here.

Lincoln Club of the South Bay - Gone

Above, Assemblyman Bob Beverly and Armand circa 1976. Photo by Ken Huthmaker.

It has been some 30+ years since I lived in the South Bay of Los Angeles County.

Back in the 1970s and 1980s, I was active in Republican and local politics along with working as a field representative for Assemblyman Paul Bannai, chairman of the Young Republicans of El Camino College and area chairman for three Reagan presidential campaigns.

Back in those days, the "Big Kahuna" in Republican Party circles was the Lincoln Club that was based in the then-51st Assembly District. These were the days when Bob Beverly was State Assemblyman (and later Marilyn Ryan) in the 51st.

Each year, in February, the big political social event of the year was the annual Lincoln Day Dinner that the Lincoln Club organized. It was a huge event, often drawing anywhere between 400 to (maybe) even 1,000 attendees.

I had a talk today with a South Bay political activist and asked him if the Lincoln Club still existed. He said he hadn't heard of any Lincoln Club activities (or even the name "Lincoln Club") in years.

We speculated that many of the activists "of the day" probably either died or moved out of state, allowing the Republican Party to wither and die out. I guess there was nobody around to fill the void in leadership positions.

That's too bad. This seems to be one (of many) reasons why California has become a one-party state full of socialists. The GOP ceased being a viable party in California.

L.A. Traffic

Above, here is one L.A. landmark I passed on the way home. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Today's task was completed a while ago this morning.

I had to take Sierra down to the vet in Torrance for spaying. Luckily, I used to live in the South Bay area of Los Angeles County and knew the best and quickest route to getting there. They said that I can pick her up anytime tomorrow. I will definitely avoid the morning and afternoon rush hours when I do pick her up.

Getting down there from the San Fernando Valley wasn't too difficult. I got there in less than an hour. However, getting back home was another story. I expected a lot of traffic and that's what I received. It took me a good hour and a half to make the 30-mile trek back. Some of the time was used to cruise around the old neighborhood in Hawthorne. The businesses along Hawthorne Blvd. from Torrance to Lawndale and then Hawthorne were barely recognizable.

Interstate 405 going north was in its usual parking lot conditions, so I took the surface streets from Inglewood. There was a lot of traffic there as well. It was probably the worst in West Los Angeles. I managed to get back on the 405 at about Olympic Blvd. and the traffic began to thin out there. After passing Wilshire Blvd., the freeway opened up to clear sailing (almost) into the Valley.

Thank goodness it wasn't raining this morning!

Remembering Senator Bob Beverly

Above, Assembly Minority Leader Bob Beverly and Armand at a Paul
Bannai fundraising dinner on May 6, 1976. Photo by Kenneth Huthmaker.

The other day, I was thinking about the "old days" in the South Bay area of Los Angeles County when I was chairman of my assembly distict Republican central committee.

Back then, I was an elected member of the 53rd Assembly District Republican Central Committee. The committee chose me to be chairman. The GOP was well-represented in the South Bay with Paul Bannai as State Assemblyman in the 53rd Assembly District and Assemblyman Robert G. Beverly in the neighboring 51st Assembly District. Beverly was elected to the State Senate in 1976.

Since I have not lived in the South Bay since 1986, I hadn't heard much of state politics in the area. I knew State Senator Robert G. Beverly of Manhattan Beach had been in retirement, but haven't heard any news about him for some time. He was known in some GOP circles as "the great white father of the South Bay."

So, this morning, I did a Google search and found that former Senator Beverly passed away at age 84 on October 13, 2009.

The Los Angeles Times wrote:

Robert G. Beverly, a Republican who served in the state Legislature for nearly 30 years and may be best known for consumer-protection legislation that led to California's lemon laws, has died. He was 84. 

Beverly, who also was a lawyer, died Wednesday of complications related to Parkinson's disease at his home in Manhattan Beach, said his son William.

Beginning in 1967, Beverly represented the South Bay in the Assembly. Nine years later, he jumped to the Senate to represent the 27th District, which eventually stretched from Rolling Hills to Downey. Term limits forced him to retire in 1996. 

Former Gov. George Deukmejian, who was a close friend, called the moderate Republican "a very effective legislator."

Although Beverly was a moderate, we got along well and he had a very capable staff that was led by his administrative assistant Tom Martin. Those were the days when California had a viable Republican Party. It has since become a one-party state ruled by lunatic leftists.

I am sorry to learn of Beverly's passing nearly 5 years later.