For San Clemente Collector, There’s Gold on Them Thar Orange Crates

Gordon McClelland, 34, lives in a quaint little house in San Clemente, often dashing to the nearby ocean to surf, his way of relaxing from selling orange crate labels for up to $1,000 each to collectors throughout the world.

Some of his customers are in Japan, France and England, although most sales are in the United States.

In years past, “I would fly over (to other countries) with a bunch of labels and stay there four to six months,” McClelland said. “Then I would take that money and buy posters of famous artists and bring them back here and sell them. Then I’d do it again.”

A recognized authority on orange crate labels, McClelland is one of the world’s major collectors.

While working in orange packing houses as a teen-ager, McClelland became interested in the colorful and elaborate labels that wealthy orange grove owners commissioned artists to design. The labels, dating back to 1885, are outlined in his two books.

McClelland said his interest in collecting also was stimulated by classes he took in poster design and advertising art at Villa Park High School in Orange, and classes in printmaking, etching and offset lithography at Cal State Fullerton.

“I didn’t get real serious into collecting until I was able to drive a car,” he said, “and after that I traveled all over California to buy them.”

McClelland “has contributed more to label collecting than anyone,” said Linda MacKie of Huntington Beach, current president of the Citrus Label Society, a group of a few hundred people with an eye and appreciation for advertising techniques, artwork and graphics of the labels.

Labels are not McClelland’s only interest. He formed and sold a surf music recording company, wrote a book on California watercolor artists and owns a poster company.

McClelland rents office space in Costa Mesa but does most of his work at home, affording him the opportunity to dash out to the nearby ocean with his wife, Debi, 27, and 3-year-old son, Austin.

“I want to spend a lot of time with them,” he said.

Four nights a week, Olive (Olivia) Scalzo plays a sweet piano for diners at the East Winds Chinese Restaurant in San Clemente, so when her birthday came around recently, it was her time to be entertained.

Some of her friends and everyone from the restaurant, including the cooks and busboys, gathered around a huge round table for her birthday party, eating Chinese food and listening to stories of her decade of playing at the restaurant.

Someone suggested she play a song for herself, but Scalzo balked. When the well-wishers realized that no one else knew how to play the piano, they chimed in to sing “Happy Birthday.”

Scalzo turned 91.

Most parents are aware of drug and alcohol addiction among children. Now comes Newport Beach licensed psychologist Nila Bender, who talks about another addiction: shopping.

“Let’s take a teen-age girl who perhaps feels she doesn’t look right but feels good when people compliment her on the clothes she has purchased,” Bender said. “She’ll continue to buy things to reinforce herself.” At that point “shopping becomes the only way she can feel good about herself.”

Bender will lecture on the subject of addictive shopping April 12 at Orange Coast College. She also will talk about other addictions of young people, including television and food, and ways to break the addictions.

Bender admits she has never treated anyone addicted to shopping but said that “it’s an extreme that exists.”

Acknowledgment--Sadie M. Reid, 55, of Santa Ana, consultant in child care, member of state and local advisory posts and president of the Santa Ana Unified School District board of education, named Woman of Distinction by the Santa Ana-Tustin chapter of Soroptimist International, the first awarded by the group.