Treats, Minus Tricks, for Homeless Kids

A dozen members of the San Diego County Chiropractic Society bent over backwards Monday to treat the resident children at the St. Vincent de Paul Center to a memorable Halloween.

The little gremlins, whose present universe is limited by the warehouses and grim streets that surround the shelter for the homeless, seized upon the moment as if it were taffy and stretched it into a late (for them) evening of games, candy and fun.

Monday’s masquerade marked the fifth year that the chiropractors have donned costumes and lugged sacks of sweets to bring Halloween to the St. Vincent de Paul kids, who account for more than a third of the shelter’s 300 temporary residents.

James Cregg, who oversaw the first four events and returned to paint toddlers’ faces at the fifth, said that the group’s main purpose was to provide the children entertainment in a safe environment. “The kids can’t go trick-or-treating around here,” Cregg said. “There aren’t a lot of doors to knock on.”

William Howard, a former Chiropractors Society President and another Halloween regular, said that he has given the St. Vincent de Paul party priority on his calendar because of the children. “I have three little grandkids, and but for the grace of God I can imagine that they might find themselves in a situation like this. I come here for the kids,” he said.

The youngsters, who ranged from babes-in-arms to preteens, had spent a good part of the day preparing for the big event. Their efforts showed not only in the homemade costumes--one child wore a Max Headroom outfit that must have been tricky to make--but in the decorations, which ranged from dangling skeletons made of clothes hangers to goblins and jack-o’-lanterns finger-painted on the dining room windows.

The little devils (and witches, ballerinas and pumpkins) burst into the room and made straight for an immense spider that the chiropractors had suspended from a basketball hoop. Swinging from its eight hairy legs proved momentarily amusing for most, although one youthful gorilla seemed a little nonplussed by the beast, which, as things turned out, he assumed to be a pinata. Other amusements included musical chairs, bowling at plastic pins and games of chance. Seven-year-old Kelly Martin, for the nonce a crimson crayon, said that what she liked best were the “cookies and candy!” Her sentiments seemed echoed by the squadrons of bag-bearing children that veered around the room.

St. Vincent de Paul Center director Father Joe Carroll strolled in as the party neared its apogee and seemed amazed by the ruckus. “I didn’t realize there were this many kids in the building,” he said, pausing to greet a pint-sized ghoul who scooted past. “It seems like there are thousands of them. But it shows you why we’re here. This is a second generation on the streets, and if we don’t get them into school and back into society there will be a third generation of homeless.”

Among the volunteers who hosted the evening were Paulin Edwards, chiropractic society President Mary Anderson, Nancy Howard, Gary Wood and Jeffrey Ross.

CORONADO--Walter Cronkite, the dean of American newsmen and an avid sailor, was accorded the honor of ringing the ship’s bells Oct. 25 when a party boat bearing him and a shipload of local notables slipped into a berth near Le Meridien hotel.

Cronkite and his wife, Betsy, were on hand to applaud as San Diego Tribune editor Neil Morgan received the Fourth Estate Award granted by the College of Professional Studies and Fine Arts at San Diego State University. The dinner, given as a benefit for the SDSU journalism department and the proposed graduate school of communications, attracted a guest list of more than 400 that included Mayor Maureen O’Connor, newspaper publisher Helen Copley and philanthropist Joan Kroc.

Sig Mickelson, former President of CBS News (he chose the occasion to reveal that, much to his regret, he coined the term “anchorman” during the 1952 presidential race) and Cronkite’s one-time boss, said that he long had wanted to bring Cronkite to San Diego.

“People like Walter, and he normally has something to say,” Mickelson said. “I’ve wanted him to participate in something in San Diego for quite some time, and, since he’s good friends with Neil Morgan, I felt this was a good time to have them together on the dais.”

Mickelson’s wife, Elena Mier y Teran, put the dinner together and used her knowledge of the principals’ personalities when she planned the details. Thus the tardy party boat that brought top-level patrons to the hotel. “We’ve stayed at Martha’s Vineyard (where the Cronkites own a summer place), and every day Walter shoots off a cannon and raises the American flag. So I chose a boat ride for fun, but no theme for the dinner, which I just wanted to be elegant and simple,” she said.

Speeches and tributes were put off until after the dinner of poached scallops and veal saddle, which were eaten to a Latin rhythm supplied by Grupo Azteca. After the fruit terrine dessert, however, joint masters of ceremonies Lionel Van Deerlin and Clair Burgener rose to tease the crowd into amused submission. The audience howled when Van Deerlin, a former congressman, said, “If Walter Cronkite is America’s most trusted man, it tells you one thing: He never held public office in Washington.”

A videotaped tribute followed, and Morgan, an accomplished pianist, himself provided the musical background for “The Life and Times of Neil Morgan,” which covered highlights in a career in San Diego journalism that began in 1946. The tape also included an interview with Cronkite in which the newsman admitted that “Neil is not as poor a sailor as rumors have suggested. He knows a little--a little--about steering a boat.”

Cronkite’s formal address extended beyond a tribute to Morgan to include an expression of his distaste for the current contest for the presidency. To the surprise of many in the audience, he advocated a return to the old system in which party leaders, rather than primaries, choose the candidates.

SDSU President Tom Day presented the Fourth Estate Award to Morgan. “It’s fitting that institutions representing higher education and the mass media should come together in honoring an individual tonight,” Day said. “We both educate people to make informed decisions.”

Morgan kept his remarks brief. “San Diego still has a chance to be something extraordinary, to be one of the really different cities of the next century,” he said. We’re not really America’s Finest City yet by any means, although it’s a nice slogan. But we can get there if we work for it.”

The guest list included Morgan’s wife, Judith, and daughter, Jill, as well as San Diego Union editor Gerald Warren and his wife, Viviane; SDSU College of Professional Studies acting dean Joyce Gattas; Ernest and Jean Hahn; Richard and Alice Cramer; KGTV-Channel 10 general manager and dinner co-chairman Ed Quinn; Terry Churchill; Bill and Lollie Nelson; Danah Fayman; David and Kay Porter; Ken and Dixie Unruh; Audrey Geisel; Eileen and Everett Jackson; Malin and Roberta Burnham and actress Mercedes McCambridge.