ON THE HOME FRONT : Map Shop Strains to Help San Diegans Pinpoint Gulf War

From her family’s tiny map store in North Park, Gayla Brown has watched San Diegans get acquainted with war.

In August, when Operation Desert Shield began, maps of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait were the big sellers at the Map Centre, Brown’s shop.

Then, as the complexity of the conflict began to sink in, customers sought maps of the entire region. But, especially since the outbreak of war, Brown said, she can’t begin to sate San Diego’s cartographic appetite.

“To say that we have been inundated or swamped is an extreme understatement,” Brown said Monday, estimating that her store has received more than 300 calls since the fighting began. Many seek a map called “Mideast Crisis” and one titled “Operation Desert Shield.” Brown can only add their names to the bottom of one of her many waiting lists.

“We have not been able to keep any kind of Middle East products in stock,” she said with a sigh.

In big ways and small, the Persian Gulf War is changing the way San Diego County residents live their lives. Parents say you can hear it in their children’s voices--a 9-year-old Oceanside girl whose father is at war has suddenly incorporated the word “body bag” into her vocabulary. A 4-year-old Encinitas boy, his arms outstretched to imitate the wings of an airplane, tells his friends he’s “doing a sortie.”

Commuters see it on the way to work. A billboard on Interstate 8 urges drivers to “Support Our Heroes.” One on California 163 north of Clairemont Mesa Boulevard says simply: “Our Prayers Are With You.” In Ocean Beach, an opposing view: a cigarette ad decorated with graffiti peace signs sends a message to the President--”Lick Bush.”

“It is getting to people,” said Dr. Robert (Cris) Crisler, a clinical psychologist in San Diego who has a small private practice. “The people who come into my office, the first thing they want to talk about is war. . . . Those items are up front in people’s consciousness. Everyone wants to talk about it.”

Some snapshots, taken in and around San Diego County, of Americans at war:

As war struck, some news-hungry San Diegans weren’t satisfied by the local fare. They turned, instead, to international sources.

“Shortwave receivers are selling like crazy,” said Ken Millman, a salesman at Ham Radio Outlet on Kearny Mesa Road. Although sales usually rise during crises--the San Francisco and Mexico City earthquakes boosted business--Millman said the war has generated unprecedented interest.

“I’ve never seen it like this,” he said, noting that his store is doing a brisk business even in higher priced radios. “I suspect the majority of (buyers) are people with someone over there. They want to hear their news from the BBC or the Israelis or anyone else.”

And, with shortwave, he said, “you can listen to anyone you want--the BBC, Voice of America, Iraq--all you have to do is dial them in.”

Even in the beauty parlor, where comforting small talk often supplants serious debate, tinting and frosting came to a halt this weekend. When the TV hanging high on the wall at Panache, a San Diego salon, went suddenly from basketball to news reports about the gulf, the music and hair dryers were silenced. Even in this haven of self-improvement, the war took precedence.

The same was not true, however, at a bar south of the border, where two televisions dueled for attention Friday night. On one, a story about Madonna was blasting in Spanish. On the other, Dan Rather reported on the latest attack on Israel. The sound was off.

A San Diego call-in radio show the next morning took a call from a listener who would probably have been among Madonna’s admirers. He complained that war coverage had interrupted his weekly “Dallas”-watching party the night before.

At the onset of war, video rental stores throughout the county had noticed a lag in business--a desire for the latest facts had replaced most people’s yen for fiction. But, by the weekend, some war-weary customers returned, eager for escape.

Comedy rentals were up, while war movies sat largely untouched on the shelves. In an Encinitas rental store on Saturday, where most shelves were picked clean, a dozen or so copies of “Born on the Fourth of July,” the story of Vietnam veteran-turned-protester Ron Kovic, sat in a row--available, but unwanted.

At the Video Depot in Oceanside on Monday, Josh Russell, the assistant manager, said business was up.

“We get a lot of people who don’t really want to watch TV,” he said. Situated near the entrance to Camp Pendelton, the store counts many Marines among its customers--several who have rented movies lately about wars, but “not about ones we lose.”

American flags have become seemingly omnipresent--displayed on porches, affixed to car antennae, painted on shop windows. One Vista man mounted a huge flag on the cab of his pickup truck. And, over the weekend, patriotic fervor flared at the Sports Arena, where crowds attending the Paul Simon concert waved tiny star-spangled banners in time with the music.

In response to the audience’s repeated requests that he say something in support of the U.S. effort, Simon played “American Tune,” his early-’70s tale of social-political weariness and uncertainty. It struck a chord.

“I dreamed I was flying,” he sang, to loud applause. “I dreamed I was dying . . . .” Later, he told the crowd: “Let’s hope for an early end to war; let’s hope for peace.”

Tom Jacques, an Oceanside real estate agent, said the growing U.S. presence in the gulf has made his job more complicated--but at the same time, inspiring.

Since August, several of his clients have left abruptly for the gulf, unsure when they would return. Little by little, Jacques says, his company’s storage space has filled to capacity with their belongings--he even has a car he’s storing for a client.

But, as soldiers have been uprooted, often at a moment’s notice, Jacques has witnessed what can only be described as the kindness of strangers. In one six-plex he manages, half the tenants have shipped out. Their neighbors are helping to store their furniture. Another client, an officer, was in the process of buying a house when the war called him away. Jacques has found renters who will help make the payments.

“There’s been a real nice cooperation,” he said. “People are getting involved.”

Countywide, there was no better example of that spirit than at the San Diego Blood Bank. On Monday, Blood Bank officials reported that, since Jan. 15, more than 3,500 people have given blood, ending what had been a critical blood shortage.

Alex Varga was hoping the same sentiment that caused those folks to give might also prompt others to buy. That, the Escondido-based investor and developer said, was why he placed a classified ad in the newspaper Sunday.

“WAR will end soon, invest now!” it said. “$750K, now $599K.”

According to Varga, the war has caused many higher-end home buyers to stop buying. In response, he said, sellers are dropping their prices. The opportunities, he said, are obvious: wartime is money-making time.

“A lot of people are panicking, dropping their prices by $100,000,” he said, explaining why he worded his ad the way he did. “My thoughts were, ‘Hey look: invest now and you can take advantage of that. Once the war is over, the houses are going to start skyrocketing again.’ ”

At the Oceanside Martial Arts Center on Hill Street, Tere Reynaga, the owner, got a call over the weekend from someone who asked her to cancel a scheduled karate tournament because of the war. Instead, she dedicated the competition to the troops.

The conflict “has hit us pretty hard,” she said, estimating that 35 of her students have been deployed to Saudi Arabia. “But we feel a little bit of us, the discipline that we showed them, is helping out over there.”

Reynaga, a black belt, described herself as a peace-loving person.

“Karate is a paradox,” she said. “We teach how to hurt and damage the body in so many ways, and yet we don’t want to use that force. You know you can--that’s where you get your confidence. But what for? Why? (Most times) you just walk away. But sometimes you can’t.”

She continued: “It’s like President Bush. He doesn’t want to do it. But, when push comes to shove, you have to fight back.”

A few blocks north on Hill Street, the marquee at the Star Theater advertised its latest feature: “Eve of Destruction.” Anyone who was tempted to read the title as an omen, was quickly reminded it was only a movie. “Robocop 2,” was the second feature, the marquee said. “$2.99 All Shows.”

Times staff writers Alan Abrahamson, Armando Acuna, Kevin Brass, Susan Freudenheim, Tom Gorman, Michael Granberry, Greg Johnson, Linda Monroe, Tony Perry and Vince Compagnone contributed to this article.