How San Diegans spend free time

Motorcycles, girl beauty contests, bingo, painting vans, polo, fox hunting

Author

By Various Authors

Publish Date

Dec. 9, 2018

You have to accept a certain air of unreality upon finding polo in Lakeside. (Robert Burroughs)

Since most of the Silver Eagles have associated with outlaw clubs in their past, they claim they are being harassed and followed by the Hell’s Angels. (Ian Dryden)

Heck on wheels

Of the large registered bikes, an unspecified number belong to “outlaw" clubs, the local variants of which include the Hell’s Angels, the Mongols, the Axemen, and the semi-outlaw Nuggets. There are also a couple of militant all-black clubs—the Cobras and the Black Sabbaths.

By Maria Taylor, Apr. 14, 1977 Read full article

Armed with hairbrushes and costume changes and ferocious concentration, the mothers are up to the challenge. (Ian Dryden)

Sugar and spice and everything nice

“When we first got there they got up on stage and they were all smiles. They said, ‘Now this pageant is for the kids and we want you all to have fun.' Then, the first thing they did was to get up and start yelling at the kids.”

Bingo: It won't get you to heaven, but it sure pays the rent

St. Catherine’s got the first license in the county. “Some people claim to know how much we make, but nobody really knows aside from the pastor and a few of us.”

By Karl Keating, Aug. 18, 1977 Read full article

Afghanistan, 1974. Afghani painters have carried vehicle painting to its heights. (Ian Dryden)

It may have four on the floor, but is it art?

The client, a motorcycle dealer, fell in love with one of Lueck’s many Viking ships and ordered a combination of two elements. "He just thought it was great,” Lueck recalled, “but I almost hated doing it.” Swallowing hard, he delivered a chopper poised near a shoreline, the great Viking ship in the distance.

By Jeannette DeWyze, Sept. 15, 1977 Read full article

Bud Herring: “It’s been a sad story.” (Robert Burroughs)

Lakeside chukker

Coronado had at least three fields, located between North Island and Coronado proper. The Spreckels family and East County land baron Walter Dupree subsidized the sport, and apparently all of the West Coast championships were settled on the Coronado fields. “The hotel was the mecca for it.”

By Jeannette DeWyze, June 1, 1978 Read full article

The Daley Corporation allows the club to hunt its Rancho Jamul, and the Teamsters have opened their Los Penasquitos Ranch. (Bill Robinson)

Tallyho!

Red and gray foxes do live in San Diego County’s back country, but they’re rare; Polonitza says he’s only seen two in his six years of hunting. Dale says the coyote can run much faster than the fox, plus he’s stronger and can keep up the pace for longer distances. Yet the hunters yearn for the fox.

By Jan Wolfe, July 7, 1977 Read full article