Old Man Kicked Out of Griffith Park for Selling Used Golf Ball

Balls o’ fire!

Shame on Tom Barber and the others who forced Alfred Kelly out of Griffith Park (Metro, March 16)! So the poor old guy was enterprising and getting a few of Barber’s lost balls--what in the world? Isn’t being enterprising supposed to be one of the great American virtues? Besides, Kelly was working for his living--another great American virtue--that is, if one can consider making $4 a day a living in Los Angeles.

To avoid the morning madness on the Golden State Freeway, I have often driven through the park on my way to school, and many a day I have seen Kelly already at his post in the park. I have also seen him pedaling along--slowly, yes, but surely--on Santa Monica Boulevard in Beverly Hills and even in Santa Monica. I have seen him in the San Fernando Valley. In fact, I am no longer surprised when I see him anywhere. As I have passed him, I have often been reminded of the little train that thought it could as it chugged up the hill, one steamy puff after another.

The city fathers should rescind Kelly’s expulsion from the park. Better yet, they should give him a yearly pension and add it to the yearly fees Barber has to pay for his “right” to lost balls.

Speaking of rights: Perhaps the city lawyers can tell us how anyone except the loser can have a right to what is lost. Or how the city can give Barber the right to lost balls in the park. Even that old law of the jungle--”finders keepers”--is better than having an Official Overlord of Lost Balls.

STEPHEN H. STATHAM

Los Angeles