La Cañada History: Fiesta Days adds beard battle and thieves make off with roof solar panels

Ten Years Ago

Flintridge La Cañada Guild for Huntington Memorial Hospital was gearing up to present the 85th annual Children’s Horse Show at Flintridge Riding Club in late April 2006.

Twenty Years Ago

Tickets were on sale for the ninth annual car rally sponsored by the La Cañada Presbyterian Church Parent Education program. The 1996 rally, themed “Game of Life,” was to start from the St. Francis High School campus, then participants would decipher clues as they traveled through La Cañada. Afterward there would be dinner, dancing and live and silent auctions.

Thirty Years Ago

Reportedly a “first” in terms of criminal activity in La Cañada was the theft in April 1986 of four solar-heating panels from the roof of a local residence. The theft of the three-year-old solar installation was discovered by the homeowner after he returned from a week’s vacation.

Forty Years Ago

La Cañada clothier Michael Feldman announced that the 1976 Fiesta Days celebration would include a beard growing contest and that he would be its chairman. The prizes offered included gift certificates to his menswear store, a free hair or beard styling at Paco’s Barber Shop, two tickets to the Fiesta Days’ Gold Rush Ball and a floral arrangement for the winner’s female companion to the ball.

Fifty Years Ago

A grand opening was held for the 103-home Angeles Crest Estates development west of the La Cañada Country Club that had been planned by a former La Cañadan, Ron Lane. The public was invited to tour six model homes carrying price tags from $41,000 to $51,000.

Sixty Years Ago

Mid-April 1956 brought a late season storm that included snowfall down to the 2,000 foot elevation and dropped nearly 3 inches of rain on La Cañada. The same storm was blamed for a landslide on Angeles Crest Highway about a mile above Red Box Road.

Compiled from the Valley Sun archives by Carol Cormaci.