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February 9, 2000

People, the heart of our city

There are so many people who've been an important part of the history of what's now Pacifica, contributed to our progress, gave of themselves, lived here for the better part of a lifetime, then, for whatever reason, moved on. Sometimes they retired in less expensive venues. For some, they preferred locations where they could hunt, fish and hike. Sometimes, they died.

Chuck Bublak was a butcher. He owned Chuck's Meats on Francisco Blvd. in Sharp Park until some point in the late sixties or early seventies. He was more than a butcher, however, and while he was selling chuck roasts for 39¢ lb, he was also active in the community. During the time I knew Chuck, he was a one man band, doing most of the work in his shop himself. It's a wonder he could find all the time he devoted to community service. Lloyd Easterby earned his living as a newspaper typesetter, but he had multiple interests, including photography, darkroom work, and his well loved airplane. He did much excellent darkroom work at the Tribune in his "spare time" during the mid sixties. His aerial shots of this area in the forties and fifties are now an important part of our recorded history. His photo panorama of the long vanished Sharp Park business district destroyed to make way for the freeway is about all we have to remind us of how it looked.

Lydia Comerford Fahey lived in a nineteenth century ranch house surrounded by Monterey Cypresses, where the mobile home park is now. Her grandfather settled in this area in 1853, and Lydia did not leave this area until over 100 years later. Her husband died at an early age. Her 13 year old only son drowned. Stories about her tell how she stopped surveyors of the Ocean Shore Railroad with her shotgun. They couldn't trespass until a deal was made. In a time when a few women still had "the vapors" and Lydia Pinkham's medicine was still popular, she had a lot of gumption and just plain guts. The Pacifica Historical Society has been given the shotgun.

Ernst Danmann came to Pedro Point in, I'm told, 1879. He died in 1954 at the age of 98. A street was named after him in 1959, replacing the ubiquitous "Pacific Avenue", whose multiple locations on the coast had to be trimmed to one in 1959 when our street names were reviewed and simplified. His bar/hotel on Pedro Point was a favorite of authors like Peter B. Kyne, whose books enriched my childhood and that of many readers from 1900 to 1950 or so.

The most influential real estate sales person, in a community where many have attempted to make a living, and some have tried to make a killing, was Ray Higgins. At one time, it's said, he owned more than half of Sharp Park. He was the agent who negotiated the deals in one weekend that brought together the seven ranchers who owned most of San Pedro Valley, and Andy Oddstad, who created Linda Mar on the sites of their ranches. Higgins was the man who gave the City of Pacifica the old school building we've used as a City Hall ever since.

Some recent Reactor columns may be found at Paul Azevedo's website, http://www.thereactor.net/ Reach him by e-mail at Paul@thereactor.net

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