Wednesday, July 23, 2008

San Juan Capistrano, County Planning Dept., etc

In my day job at the Archives, I've spent a lot of time lately collecting materials from the County Planning Dept. They're moving, and a small mountain of their older, historically-relevant materials are coming to the Archives. I'll be an old man before we get ALL of it processed, but I thought I'd share some of the interesting stuff I'm finding along the way - starting with this image (above) of San Juan Capistrano. Today's photo was taken in March 1978 and shows San Juan Creek, the 5 Freeway, the now-defunct Capistrano Airport and (in the distance) Dana Point Harbor. (As always, click on the image to enlarge it.)

5 comments:

  1. awesome pic chris! thanks for posting.

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  2. Memories, memories. In the sixties, there would be small air shows at that little old grass strip. We kids would walk down there and spend half the day ogling the WW2 warbirds that would fly in. No big bombers of course, but plenty of fighters and trainers would show up.

    My neighbor, Mr. Carey, had a Cessna parked there, and would
    occasionally take a lucky kid from the neighborhood up with him. I wasn't one of those lucky kids. *sniff*

    Look at all the water in San Juan Creek. That's a rare sight.

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  3. One more thing: The death knell for that strip came not too long after this picture was taken when a banner tug crashed shortly after takeoff into an area where some kids were playing, killing a little girl.

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  4. My brother Greg used to make my Dad take him and I down there every day to watch the airplanes take off and land, take off and land. Greg was 3, I was 5. I was bored with the airplanes, but fascinated by the helicopters. There were 2 Hughes 300c's there for crop-dusting, a red one and a blue one. Greg is now a pilot for Frontier Airlines, and I'm a private Helicopter pilot. I hope to introduce my son Michael to flying helicopters soon. He's 8.
    Rick.
    P.S. My friend Dennis C. was one of the kids playing in the creek that day when the banner-tow came down, just missing him.

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  5. I use to as a kid mow the lawns at that airport and watch the planes take off and land. My neighbor took me up in his 172 all the time and now today its a airline job. Are small general aviation is going away. Its a really a shame.

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