The Current Laguna Beach Greeter Is Simply No. 1 to His Fans

“Merry Christmas, No. 1,” a woman shouted from her blue car as she pulled to the curb in downtown Laguna Beach to hand her gift to the unnamed poet who offers a smile and a friendly wave to Laguna Beach locals as they pass him on the street.

“Thank you, you’re perfect,” said the man, known as “No. 1 Unnamed Archer,” accepting his first gift of the day--a tin of gourmet crackers wrapped in green cellophane and cinched with a fuzzy red bow.

Wearing his red Santa hat, red wool scarf, blue jeans and a red sweat shirt he had been given earlier in the week, the 57-year-old self-styled philosopher stood on “his corner”--the northeast one at Forest Avenue and South Coast Highway--greeting passing people just as he said he has done nearly every day since 1981.

“It’s like saying ‘hello’ to friends you don’t even know. All you have to do is see the light in their eyes,” Archer said.

The firstborn of twin boys who, he said, were listed as “No. 1” and “No. 2” on their Texas birth certificates and never given other names, Archer said he is up every morning by 5 and takes a 6 a.m. bus to the corner to earn money and greet people until dusk.

“I like to greet, but I have to pay my rent,” he said. Archer said he earns about $100 a month from nearby shop owners who pay him to keep the sidewalks clean. For food, he exchanges his poems for what he refers to as “pictures of dead presidents.”

Archer said that he was once an accomplished hairdresser with a client list that read like “Who’s Who” but that he now chooses to live in a lean-to near Laguna Canyon without electricity or running water. His six children--five boys and one girl--are all adults, and he said he has been divorced for “many years.”

Possessions also are few in his effort to “divest” himself, Archer said.

“Everything you own owns you,” he said. “If you own a dog, you better take care of it.” So he “got rid of everything but a backpack” and started “being who I am,” he said.

With shining brown eyes that draw attention away from his long, wiry beard, Archer said his mission as “The Greeter” of Laguna Beach is to make people realize that they are perfect.

“You are the only one of you there is,” Archer said. “There’s no one to compare you to.”

Still, some older Laguna Beach residents compare him to Eiler Larsen, the man who was named the Official Greeter of Laguna Beach in 1963. Larsen had “greeted” people in Laguna Beach for more than 30 years until he died in 1975.

“Some people tell me, ‘Stop trying to be The Greeter,’ ” Archer said. “But how can you stop being what you are? I am ‘The Greeter.’ ”

Archer acknowledged Larsen, as well as Joe Lucas, who was the city’s greeter in the 1880s. But he said he and his predecessors were “appointed by a higher authority” to fill the position. Carrying a tall staff and an amiable demeanor, like those before him, he takes his calling very seriously.

Dr. William D. Harrison, an optometrist whose office shares Archer’s corner, said Archer is an asset. Archer not only cleans the sidewalks, Harrison said, he keeps “street people” from panhandling there as well.

“It’s nice to have someone who does that,” he said.

Harrison said that he and other shop owners pay Archer for cleaning the sidewalks, which need daily tending because so many people spill things. “It really gets to be a mess,” he said.

Gloria Leavitt, Harrison’s receptionist, said Archer cleans the sidewalks so meticulously that they don’t have to hire anyone else to do it. “He takes his corner very seriously,” she said.

Leavitt, who speaks with Archer regularly, described him as not only friendly, but well-read and a pleasure to talk with.

“I think he’s wonderful,” Leavitt said. “Or actually, he’s perfect.”