Odds & Ends Around the Valley

Old Times

There are more than 30 whopping days until school starts, and you’ve taken the children everywhere that might amuse, entertain, exhaust, enthrall or otherwise engage their tiny attention spans.

They want more and they want it now.

Try taking them back in time by introducing them to local history.

It is not true that everything in the San Fernando Valley was built the day before yesterday. The city of Los Angeles has a Cultural Heritage Commission that identifies sites of historical significance and more than 30 are hereabouts and reachable before anyone can ask how long until you get there.

The Leonis Adobe, 23537 Calabasas Road, in Calabasas, is a case in point.

What young person would not love a place with real cows grazing in the front yard around an authentic hanging tree used in the late 1800s to string up the bad guys?

You will have to explain to them that the cows are real, as is the tree, not props like at Universal Studios.

Inside the two-story hacienda there are people who will talk about the adobe’s past, and fill the children’s heads with stories of the Old West.

The Leonis Adobe is open from 1 to 4 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday. There is no admission fee. For a booklet with pictures of more than 300 Los Angeles historical sites, write to Nancy Fernandez, Cultural Affairs Department, 433 S. Spring St., 10th Floor, Los Angeles, 90013. The commission accepts donations to defray the cost of updating the booklet.

Into the Pool

You would like to get out of the driver’s seat and into a pool--a car pool--but it just wouldn’t work for you, right?

What would happen if you were at work and one of the children got sick, or if you got sick, or had to work late, or. . . ?

If you work in Warner Center in Woodland Hills, Transportation Management Organization will put you back into the driver’s seat--or into a taxi--in an emergency through its Guaranteed Ride Home program.

Since June, 1989, when the Guaranteed Ride Home program went into effect, any one of the 40,000 people who work in Warner Center and car pool or van pool, can get home in a hurry in an emergency.

They simply get a voucher from their company for the cab fare or rental car fee, and they’re on their way.

Naomi Prince, who’s in group sales at Blue Cross, put the program to test last April.

She had a mean sore throat when she went into work, and by 10:30 in the morning, she couldn’t talk and was told to go to bed and rest.

The cab ride home cost $124--and it was paid by the Guaranteed Home Ride program.

It made a believer of her.

Debra Lacy in Blue Cross telecommunications is another believer.

Also in April, her daughter’s school called to say that the child had been in an accident. Within an hour Lacy was in a cab headed for Los Angeles.

The program paid the $43 fare by voucher.

According to Gary Newnham of Blue Cross human resources office, emergencies don’t happen often, but when they do, the guaranteed ride has worked perfectly.

It sounds like an expensive proposition, but Christopher Park, who administrates the TMO for the Warner Center business community, says the program is almost never used. Park said it mainly helps allay fears of people who may commute 60 or 70 miles and are concerned about the what-ifs.

Although this program was funded by the city, Park said other areas or companies could easily set it up in agreement with a cab company and a rental car company.

Designer Dining

It’s been six months since the Valley got an over-the-hill-gang-approved restaurant, the Bistro Garden at Coldwater.

But, popular over-the-hill wisdom to the contrary, the restaurant has not had to rely on the Beverly Hills set for business.

According to the restaurant’s Laura Stegman, the clientele is very Valley.

Stegman, who is a sucker for the Garden’s German apple pancake and chicken quesadillas, although not necessarily together, says the restaurant is filled for lunch and dinner with the well-healed and -connected, including lots of studio people such as MCA chief Lew Wasserman and Mary Tyler Moore, who, if they don’t actually live in the Valley, may pick up a paycheck here.

Business is inexplicably slower than expected for Sunday brunch, Stegman said. For $25.75, you may order from an overwhelming list of goodies that include papaya and shrimp, wild mushroom and onion pie, all sorts of egg things, the apple pancake, corned beef hash, and, for dessert, all manner of sweets, including the chocolate souffle.

Don’t Drip

If you thought Pizza Man delivered, check out the Department of Water and Power.

Not only is it willing to light up your life, it is driving home the water conservation message.

You can now call the DWP, (818) 909-3000, and make an appointment to have a representative come to your home and show you indoor and outdoor ways to save.

There’s no charge to DWP customers, which you have to be to get the man to come out.

The representative will give you a checklist of things to do, and will install a free water-saving shower head. He will also tell you how to get a $100 rebate by installing a low-flush toilet.

If you would like to read up before the visit, go to the Canoga Park DWP office at 7229 Winnetka Ave. or the Van Nuys office at 6550 Van Nuys Blvd., and pick up reams of free information.

Overheard

“I didn’t need women’s lib to tell me to be an uppity chick.” --One woman power luncher to another at La Serre restaurant