Mission Viejo History Buff Transmits a Definite Sense of the Past

Beverly Peace of Mission Viejo is a walking trivia buff and historian about Colonial times and even dresses the part in a floor-length costume she made.

When she addresses audiences at schools, civic clubs and other organizations, she might ask, “Remember the long-stem clay tobacco pipe of yesteryear? Why did they have the long stem?” She tells her audience that “Tavern owners would give them to customers to smoke and when they were done, the owner would break off the puffing tip. The pipe could then be given to another customer.”

She likes to refer to that as 18th-Century recycling.

“I like to talk about early history,” said Peace, who holds two college degrees and spent 10 years in Williamsburg, Va. She was born in Richmond. Now she travels throughout Orange County talking to youngsters and adults about the 18th Century. Peace, 48, the wife of Mission Viejo minister Philip Peace, does much of her talking in libraries and schools. She likes to tell her audiences, mostly fifth-graders, “If you don’t know history, you’re liable to re-create the mistakes of the past.” She also totes along quill pens, musket balls, raw cotton, bayberry candles and old currency.

To keep the attention of children, she explains the hardships of those times, demonstrating how people made meals from scratch. “It’s hard for children to imagine that kind of life,” she said. “Today, children buy everything prepared.”

She also lets the youngsters use the quill pens to write their names. In Williamsburg, Peace said, she got the reputation of “a walking chamber of commerce. I loved what they did to preserve that community. I hope my presentation gives everyone here an appreciation of our past which makes us Americans.”

She also leaves listeners with another bit of trivia. She asks why four-poster beds had curtains. “Youngsters sometimes say it’s to keep ghosts out, but the real reason was for privacy as well as to keep drafts from coming in from fireplaces.”

Besides her talk, Peace shows slides to familiarize youngsters with the hardships, starvation and illnesses of the early settlers of America.

Chocolate Lemmon, 38, of Yorba Linda, had a tough time growing up with that name, “but now that I’m a professional, it’s been more of a benefit than a hinderance in every respect,” she said. “Not too many people forget my name.”

Lemmon’s given name is Marie, but her parents called her Chocolate from the start, she said, “because I came out dark-skinned while my two brothers and sister are fair-skinned.” Her mother is Mexican, and her father is Italian. “It was kind of tough when I was young because kids don’t want to be different,” she said.

But that’s not the end of the story. Lemmon, a mortgage company financial officer whose married name is Balsamo, has two daughters ages 6 and 18.

She named the eldest daughter Michael.

In 1984, just about everyone bought Girl Scout cookies from “the poor little girl with the cast on her arm.” Actually, Jennifer Lynn Wanner, 9, of Fountain Valley turned that broken-arm accident into a marketing success that earned her honors as a top cookie seller in Orange County. She sold 844 boxes of cookies that year.

She apparently learned her lesson well, selling vast amounts of cookies the next two years. Wanner was the top Orange County seller in 1985, selling 1,057 boxes. Again this year, she sold 1,367 boxes, which brought in $2,734.

She sold most of them door to door and in shopping centers. “Jenny is a very competitive kid,” said her mother, Leslie Wanner. “She likes the glory of being No. 1.”

Myrtle Wolch of Newport Beach entered her first swim meet and crawled off with five firsts and a second, not bad for a 70-year-old woman who in August couldn’t swim half a pool length.

“My friends have started calling me Mrs. Mark Spitz,” joshed Wolch, who won the 50-, 100- and 200-yard freestyle races and the 50- and 100-yard backstroke events in the masters swim meet at East Los Angeles College. “This is the first time in my life I was pleased with my age bracket.” She swam in the 70 to 74 age category.

Dennis Skupinski, Wolch’s coach, said his student “likes individual competition.” He said she looks 50.

Wolch, a widow, said she hasn’t told her two daughters about it yet. “When I do, I know they’ll be so proud,” she said.

Acknowledgments--Dr. Alan M. Strizak, a Fountain Valley orthopedic surgeon, has been honored by the state Employment Development Department for his work in increasing opportunities for the disabled to participate in athletics, recreation and employment.