Southland Celebrates Independence, and Togetherness

Southern California celebrated Independence Day--and its own ethnic diversity--in suitably independent fashion Thursday.

Daytime hours brought umbrellas and surfboards to the beaches, holiday drivers to the freeways, picnic baskets to the parks, parade watchers to the sidewalks and firefighters to the alert.

Nightfall brought fireworks watchers to the stadiums and traffic officers to the streets.

Even the weather seemed to cooperate; a bone-dry, triple-digit heat wave that had turned tempers to tatters and tongues to sandpaper earlier in the week finally began to break, with afternoon highs falling four or five degrees below predicted maximums.

So almost everyone seemed to have a good time. . . .

The nation’s 209th birthday was also the 29th birthday for attorney Laura Van Eyk of Granada Hills, and she celebrated the event as she has done for the last eight holidays--by having a picnic and playing softball with old friends in Van Nuys’ Sherman Oaks Park.

About 30 people attended this year’s birthday picnic, including children.

“We get here early every year to stake out this tree,” Van Eyk said.

“My friends are getting slower, gaining weight, and don’t drink as much. But I’ll come here forever. When I’ve got my electronic wheelchair I’ll still come--but I’ll be drinking warm milk. It’s tradition for us. . . .”

And for the Imai family of the San Gabriel Valley, too: Fifteen Imais and their relatives gathered at Garvey Ranch Park in Monterey Park for a picnic and reunion, as they have been doing for a decade, and Kiyo Imai, 50, said he wouldn’t have missed it.

“This,” he said, “is definitely an American holiday that all can enjoy.”

His son, Paul, 23, nodded agreement.

“It marks the summer is here,” he said, preparing to enjoy the traditional Fourth of July fare: salad, beer--and beef teriyaki.

At El Sereno Recreational Park, the Independence Day edibles included tacos, nachos and burritos, while the music was an amalgam of jazz, rock and salsa.

For the 200 people who gathered there to talk, eat and listen, the event was a tradition--a slow and happy celebration. But Ayal Hermas was not entirely satisfied.

It’s superficial,” he said, “The people don’t have the appreciation.”

Hermas, 30, who lives in Highland Park with his wife and three children, moved to the United States from Paraguay nine years ago. He said he enjoys the American Fourth of July traditions--but thinks that his former countrymen were more patriotic in celebrating their own Independence Day.

“The parties,” he said, “are secondary. It ought to be more than parties.”

He struggled for words to convey.

“It ought to be more,” he said. “The independence . . . costs too much.”

Not all picnics were a matter of tradition, of course.

“This is really the first holiday we have been to this park,” said Vera Johnson, 59, of South-Central Los Angeles, who gathered with 25 members of her family at Jesse Owens County Park. But it is really nice. It’s been quite a while since we have all been together.”

But this year was a special occasion.

A cousin, Ralph Topps, moved to Los Angeles from Ohio about three months ago, and relatives ranging in age from 1 to 59 years seized the holiday as an opportunity to welcome him.

About sundown, she said, the whole group was planning to drive to Santa Monica to watch the fireworks display.

Fireworks, however, were a tradition that ran into a few roadblocks this year.

A red-flag alert, signifying extreme fire danger, and relative humidity that dropped to just a point or two above 10% during the afternoon caused worried officials to cancel community fireworks shows in Burbank, Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley and Ojai.

Elsewhere, the shows went off more or less as planned.

Huntington Beach, Santa Monica and Long Beach all planned their usual fireworks-over-the-ocean displays, 39 other cities went ahead with long-planned pyrotechnics--and in Saugus, the Stuart Miller family’s fireworks celebration was expected to attract 11,000 people to Saugus Speedway.

Stuart Miller was arrested in 1983 when the annual event outgrew the family’s Granada Hills home, but this year all permits and precautions were in order for the Speedway, where, the Millers said, 1.24 million firecrackers and aerial effects were to be used.

High temperature at Los Angeles Civic Center Thursday was 87 degrees, and the National Weather Service said a coastal eddy was allowing air to circulate more freely, bringing cooling sea breezes ashore. But the offshore breeze was strong enough to cause a small craft warning during the early afternoon, and beach crowds found well-shaped, five-foot waves coming ashore on an 11-second interval.

About 1.9 million people spent at least a portion of the Fourth on beaches from Zuma to Newport, and lifeguards said there were no special problems--except in the parking lots.

“I bet there’s not a parking place within a mile,” said Los Angeles County Lifeguard Capt. Don Rohrer at Marina del Rey. “Traffic’s backed up a couple of miles.”

He was seconded by county lifeguard dispatcher Tom Overmire at Topanga Beach. “All our parking lots have been full since 10 a.m.,” Overmire said. “All the transition roads are closed, parking-lot style, and Pacific Coast Highway northbound in virtually closed. . . .”

But both lifeguards agreed: “It’s a beautiful day.”

There were more than 300 rescues during the day along the ocean’s rim in Los Angeles and Orange counties but no fatalities or serious mishaps. Inland waters, however, were more deadly: Two young men were missing and presumed drowned in separate lake boating accidents.

John Hernandez, 20, of South Pasadena disappeared after his boat capsized at Puddingstone Reservoir in San Dimas, and Jesus Cordova, also 20, of Los Angeles failed to surface after diving to retrieve an oar that drifted away from his boat on Legg Lake in the Whittier Narrows Recreation Area.

Several thousand Southern Californians spent the afternoon listening to live patriotic music.

At Palisades High School, 4,500 little American flags were sold and spirit was kindled by patriotic airs played by a band called the Oom Pa Pas, while the Hollywood Bowl was filled to capacity for the annual Independence Day concert, this year featuring a potpourri including works of Gershwin, Duke Ellington, John Phillips Sousa--and Fleetwood Mac.

Parade lovers had their choice of 31 events at various locations.

More passive patriots got a second-hand taste of all the events from television, watching PBS’ “A Capitol Fourth, 1985.”

And for a few--firefighters, emergency physicians, nurses and police officers--the Fourth was just another workday.

Police said 14 people were killed in traffic accidents during the first 18 hours of the holiday, and the California Highway Patrol beefed up its field force by 25% during the afternoon and evening in an effort to “curb” drunk drivers.

“We don’t want to spoil anyone’s Fourth,” CHP spokesman Dave Doon said. “It’s just that we’d like them to be around for the fifth, sixth and seventh, too.”

Times staff writers Cathleen Decker, Sibyl Jefferson, Keith Owens, Carla Rivera and Renate Robey contributed to this story.