NEIGHBORS : Looking Backward : If you missed the recreation of the Civil War era at Olivas Adobe, history will repeat itself.

Who could forget July of ‘61--1861, that is. Abraham Lincoln was the new President, the Civil War was getting into high gear and there was a heck of a lot of quilting going on.

If you visited the Olivas Adobe in Ventura recently during its “Life on the Rancho” living history program, you were transported back to those days. If you missed the event, worry not--history will repeat itself June 16 and again July 6.

It has taken some serious study by Olivas Adobe staffers and volunteers to authentically turn the clock back 130 years, particularly with respect to the jargon of the period.

For one thing, no one referred to the city as Ventura in those days, but rather San Buenaventura. And Olivas Adobe staff members are making sure their opinions on the war and Lincoln are accurate too.

“The viewpoint in California would be a lot different than the viewpoint in the North or South,” Olivas Adobe historian Richard Senate said. “Many people did not like Lincoln. Many people had the opinion of Lincoln we have today of Dan Quayle.”

What’s the toughest thing about forming a new rock band?

How about coming up with a tasteful original name. Take for instance the newly formed Oxnard group known as Mucous. It snot, I mean it’s not, as bad as it sounds, really, when you consider that the band was originally called Parasite.

As far as creativity goes, it doesn’t rank up there with the name of the group the Mucous drummer used to belong to: the Morbid Tabernacle Choir.

So are people singing their praises or praising their singers? Both, actually.

The Gold Coast Community Chorus is receiving plenty of positive recognition these days. Last week, the Ventura County supervisors presented chorus members with a resolution congratulating the group for being invited to sing at Carnegie Hall on July 7.

That invitation was quite an achievement. Gold Coast Director Kurt Berentsen heard that folks at Carnegie were looking for choral groups to help celebrate the hall’s 100th birthday this year. So he sent a recording of the chorus performing Mozart’s “Requiem” from last year’s winter concert.

The response? “I just wish to tell you that this is an absolutely first-rate performance,” Peter Tiboris, music director of the Manhattan Philharmonic, wrote in a letter to Berentsen. “I have, frankly, heard few performances that move me in such a strong manner and I congratulate you.”

Not bad.

At Circus Vargas, little goes to waste--particularly the waste.

During the circus’s stay at Oxnard College Friday through Sunday, anyone interested in shoveling up and taking home a pile or two of some free elephant manure is welcome to do so. Just bring a shovel and a receptacle (preferably heavy-duty) to the elephant tents and have at it.

And don’t worry, spokeswoman Joan Hart said, there will be plenty for everyone. “We’ve never been at a loss yet,” she said. “We’ve got 10 elephants. Even in an hour trip from Thousand Oaks to Oxnard, the truck has to be shoveled out.”

Hart said circus administrators decided to give away the fertilizer for ecological and financial reasons--landfills were filling up and dumpster costs were adding up. People have been receptive to the idea.

“A woman and her mother were bringing a 3/4-ton pickup truck down every few hours when we were in Canyon Country,” Hart said. “Eventually the woman started leaving her pickup truck and they just loaded it right in.”

The Boys & Girls Club of Ventura County will be holding its 24th annual Great Auction on Saturday night at the Doubletree Hotel in Ventura. The goal this year is to raise $100,000.

Among the many items up for bid: a Rosanne Cash blouse, a meal at McDonald’s each week for a year, a commemorative American flag that flew over Omaha Beach in Normandy (along with a vial of sand from the beach) and a “bungee jump” dinner package.

Regarding that last item, the auction catalogue says: “You and a friend will experience falling at 62 miles per hour and bouncing back at 60 miles per hour. Then relive your adventure sitting down to a delicious dinner at Stuart Anderson’s Black Angus Restaurant.” Something tells me you really don’t want to relive that bungee feeling while downing a steak dinner.