YMCA Benefit Revives Days of Wild West

As a bulldozer blade hoisted half a ton of fragrant barbecued buffalo into view, Toni Daley turned to a newcomer to the East County ranch country and said, “They say there’s nothing in Jamul, but there is. We put on a pretty good show.”

The show they put on Saturday, in fact, was a cross between a three-ring circus and a Buffalo Bill Cody revival, with a mild dose of “Dallas” tossed in for color. Dressed in buckskins and diamonds, Daley joined her husband, Don, and their sons and daughters-in-law John and Debbie and Don Jr. and Taunya in hosting the Ninth Annual Mission Valley YMCA Buffalo Bar-B-Q, a Daley ritual that in its first eight installments raised nearly $500,000. Net proceeds from Saturday’s hoedown were expected to reach $130,000 and were earmarked for a proposed gymnasium at the Mission Valley Y.

The 600 guests began arriving around 2 p.m., but the Daley day began well before dawn, when Don Jr. and John arrived at the historic, 10,000-acre Daley Ranch to light the fire in an immense, brick-lined pit.

“The buffalo went in at 9 a.m.,” said John, raising his voice above the pistol shots fired by the gunslingers who dueled on a nearby lawn. “My brother and I have this down to a science. We put the meat on a double rack and haul it to the pit on a skip-loader.” Two buffaloes from the Daley herd were dedicated to the pit, the roasts first rubbed with garlic salt, pepper and pureed jalapenos, then wrapped in muslin and an outer wrapping of gunnysacking to protect the meat from the white-hot embers.

Casino for Charity

The roasts reposed quietly in their underground chamber for nine hours while, nearby, the guests’ noses twitched for the first hint of buffalo aroma as they pursued the round of Wild West activities. The guest list was long on East County names, and unlike some of the Western parties given around San Diego, this one seemed populated by genuine cowfolk, instead of the spurious cowpokes and unquestioned cowpunks who sometimes turn up. Their boots looked to have seen action in stirrup and pasture, and the gaits of many indicated an education in the West’s Three R’s--riding, roping and wrangling.

Several acres--there were plenty to spare--of lawn and pasture in front of the massive ranch house were turned into the party site, which included a Wild West street to the north of the cattle baron-sized pool and a stretch of grass dedicated exclusively to the ever-popular buffalo chip toss. Hidden behind one of the false-fronted buildings (under the sign of the Copson Brothel and Hotel, to be precise), a casino lured in more dollars for charity; a nearby jail provided less pleasant accommodations for stragglers. An out-sized mariachi band alternated with a Country Western group that turned heads when it bawled “All My Exes Live in Texas.”

Other doings included an aerial show put on by a squadron of biplanes that buzzed the throng and occasionally spun into steep, crazy dives before pulling up to amble at slow speed across the lazy backcountry sky. Later, a team of five parachutists trailing smoke from canisters (oddly enough, they chose peach and chartreuse, which scribbled New Wave squiggles across the sunset) glided from on high and, rather remarkably, landed on the large white “X” that had been painted in a nearby pasture.

Auction of Artworks

YMCA board member Jack Phelps returned to co-chair the event for the fourth year running, and said that he has signed on for at least the next five.

“The Daleys told me they’d do five more of these if I signed on to co-chair them, and you don’t argue with them,” said Phelps. He gave the event’s unusual proceeds-to-expenses ratio as his other reason for annually taking the barbecue’s reins.

“Of all the fund-raisers I’ve been involved with, this one is by far the most profitable. We realize about 98 cents on the dollar, because our expenses are almost completely underwritten, mostly by the Daley family,” said Phelps.

The sun had difficulty setting on this party; before it ended, there had been an auction of artworks that included five Remington bronzes and an Olaf Wieghorst print; a synchronized swimming exhibition led by 1984 and ’88 Olympic medalist Tracy Ruiz Conforto; dancing, and fireworks. But the barbecue, of course, was what everyone had come for, and at about 5 p.m., Y board members began shoveling dirt off the iron lid that covered the pit. It was hot, dirty work, but they put their backs into it, and in short order the 600 hungry guests were chowing down on buffalo, beans and tamales served from silver chafing dishes.

Toni Daley said that she and her daughters-in-law had cooked 50 pounds of beans, but added that she had no idea just how many gallons that stewed up into. She did have an exact count on the homemade tamales, however, which went into production on Wednesday morning and were finished by sundown Thursday. Precisely 1102 tamales were issued from the ranch house kitchen.

“When you’re going to make tamales,” said Debbie Daley in a kind of epigraph for the party, “you may as well make a bunch.”

The guest list included Laurie McGrath, Bruce and Linda Blakely, Jamie Baugh, Dick and Patti Brooks, Bill and Patricia Everett, Glenn and Linda Asekawa, Ron Zgami, Joy Phelps, Bob and Maureen Cheverton, Gary and Linda Copson, Judy Hartman, Robert and Marsha Copeland, Lee Copson, Hugh Hall, Scott and Terri Harvey, and David and Tomi Vickars.

SAN DIEGO--Six or eight of the part-time wranglers from the Daley party actually raced home after sunset, scraped off the trail dust and duded up for “Flash,” the glitzy soiree given Saturday evening for the Museum of Photographic Arts at the new San Diego Design Center in the burgeoning Sorrento Mesa district.

The invitations warned guests to dress “with pizazz,” and the majority of the 1,200 seemed only too glad to comply by donning feathers, designer knock-offs and, in some cases, outfits that could have come only from Hollywood costume shops or very active imaginations. The building, which will house some of the city’s interior decor suppliers, has plenty of windows, but what it really needed Saturday was mirrors.

Artist Stephen Correia’s new kinetic laser sculpture premiered at “Flash” and sent green shafts bouncing through the sky until they dissolved in the darkness. Inside the building, cameras flashed repeatedly, and one of the more clever features was a “walking” camera that traveled around the first floor shooting keepsake photos. Other attractions included a casino, the Peter Sprague ensemble’s hot samba rhythms and dancing to Jack Mack and the Heart Attack.

Among the guests were building developer Chris McKellar and his wife, Molly; Kathi and John Howard; Barbara and Karl ZoBell; Joy and William Miller; Roz and Ted Odmark; Elaine and Murray Galinson; Rhoda and Len Lemlein; Susan and Vince Siciliano; Linda and Ron Bird; Kitty and Steve Hamm; Norma and Sam Assam; Katherine Kennedy and Robert Horsman; Liz and Mason Phelps, and Cheryl and Dene Oliver.