Area’s Fallen Veterans Are Remembered Many Ways : Holiday: Others take advantage of the sunny weather to enjoy the Memorial Day weekend on the sand, in a campsite or at a festival.

Following different but equally time-honored traditions, some Ventura County residents kicked off Memorial Day weekend Saturday by paying respects to fallen veterans while others headed toward the nearest beach, campground or outdoor festival.

Those taking advantage of the good weather Saturday can expect more of the same today, with temperatures again in the 70s and 80s.

Saturday began for dozens of people with a trip to Ivy Lawn Cemetery in Ventura to raise flags for veterans who have died.

Although most of the Brownies, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts and other volunteers at the flag-raising came out of general respect for the nation’s deceased servicemen and servicewomen, others had more personal reasons.

Sue Fowler said she hoped the cemetery visit would help her 9-year-old daughter, Sarah, and 4-year-old son, Remington, cope with the loss of their father, a veteran who died in January.

His ashes had remained in the Ivy Lawn Cemetery vault, but on Saturday, Fowler said, she and the children would finally get some closure in dealing with his death.

“We’re going to take him home today,” she said. “It’s all coming together.”

As Fowler’s children and other youngsters scampered through the cemetery helping veterans and other volunteers to raise flags, some older county residents quietly laid flowers and decorations by the graves of family members.

Crouching over the grave of her husband, Joanne Barnes carefully planted three small plastic windmills and three tiny flags at the head of his flat headstone.

James H. Barnes died of cancer last October, she said, at the age of 56. A career Navy man, he had served several tours in Vietnam, helping Marines retrieve bodies of soldiers.

“The Navy was our life,” the Ventura resident said. “He fought for his country. He believed in what he did.”

And it’s in memory of soldiers such as Barnes that the local chapter of the American Legion and other veterans groups place flags at the cemetery every year.

Each of the flags once draped the coffin of a local veteran who served in at least one war. Each year the number of flags grows as more World War II veterans die, said Gene Seitz, past commander of the American Legion post in Ventura.

This year more than 700 flags were raised, contrasted with 647 in 1993, Seitz said.

Over the past year, Seitz said, “we’ve had as many as three members of our Ventura chapter pass away on one day.”

The number of living veterans of the second World War may be declining, but the legions of World War II buffs are as large as ever.

Hundreds of WWII enthusiasts and aviation fans converged on Camarillo Airport Saturday to marvel at the dozen 1940s-era military planes on display at an open house of the Southern California Wing of the Confederate Air Force.

At the show, Derrell Snider, his wife, Suzanne, and their five children checked out a TBM-3 Avenger, which was built in response to the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Three-year-old Tommy peered into the cockpit, pretending to pilot the vintage plane. Meanwhile, his 9-year-old brother, Timothy, said he was glad to be at the show, even though he did not have much choice in the matter.

“My dad loves airplanes,” Timothy said.

Indeed, Derrell Snider said he once flew trainer planes for the Navy.

But he said he had motives other than his own interests in aviation for coming to the show. The event, which runs through Monday, is free. “It’s inexpensive fun for the family,” Snider said.

Other county residents found some different ways to have fun inexpensively.

Taking advantage of sunny skies and temperatures that reached into the 70s on the beach and the 80s inland, an estimated 3,000 people flocked to the county’s beaches Saturday.

“It’s beautiful,” lifeguard supervisor Kirk Sturm said. “We’ve got plenty of sunshine, moderate surf, a light, comfortable breeze and a lot of families enjoying the day.”

But the warm weather came with an unpleasant side effect: smog. The smog was at its worst in Simi Valley, where authorities said the air quality approached unhealthful conditions Saturday. It is expected to worsen slightly today.

The steady flow of people toward the beach and other recreational destinations slowed traffic on both the Ventura Freeway and Pacific Coast Highway. But the California Highway Patrol reported no major backups or serious accidents.

For some people, one day at the beach wasn’t enough--all 174 campsites at McGrath State Beach in Ventura were full Saturday.

Mark and Suzanne Lichtenberger and friends Richard and Laurette Harris, all of Simi Valley, had arrived Friday night and by noon Saturday were ready to hit the beach.

The four planned to stick around, they said, “until they kick us out” at noon Monday.

As nearby camper Bill Haas said, “Where else can you get a big, open area, throw some tents down, throw some horseshoes and put the kids out and let them run?”

“This,” said Haas’ friend, Fred Clements, opening a beer, “is what it’s all about.”

Merriment was also the order of the day on the other side of the county, at the fifth annual Cajun Creole Music Festival.

More than 1,000 people crowded into the outdoor event to dance to live Cajun and zydeco bands, and to feast on such New Orleans-style cuisine as seafood gumbo, boiled crawfish and alligator-on-a-stick.

For some visitors, the festival was a chance to sample new foods and hear a type of foot-stomping music not commonly broadcast on the airwaves.

For others, the event was like a homecoming.

Donovan Mohr, a Cajun from Louisiana who lives in the San Fernando Valley, sat at one of the long picnic tables demonstrating to onlookers the proper way to eat crawfish.

Grabbing one of the brick-red shellfish from a nearby bowl, Mohr tore the head away from the small body and sucked the meat from the head.

As Mohr ate, his friend Louann Cunningham narrated. “The Cajun way,” Cunningham said, “is to suck the heads, pinch the tails.”

Sponsored by the Simi Sunrise Rotary Club in Simi Valley, the Creole festival will continue today beginning at 11 a.m.

Although the festival has little to do with veterans or memorials, both organizers and visitors said it nevertheless is a proper way for people to commemorate the sacrifices of the nation’s military men and women.

“A lot of people died for us to have a free country,” Rotary Club member Jim Lowry said. The festival “is an opportunity to get out and enjoy life and be grateful.”

Or, as Cunningham put it: “The Cajun way is to celebrate.”

The first day of the Memorial Day weekend ended with an evening event in Ojai that combined fun and solemnity.

The hundreds who gathered at Nordhoff High School were treated to a flyover of small aircraft, a musical performance by the Shirelles and a dramatic reading of the Gettysburg Address.

Correspondent Scott Hadly contributed to this report.

Memorial Day Weekend Events

Day Time Location Today 2 p.m. Simi Valley Monday 10 a.m. Simi Valley Monday 10 a.m. Oxnard Monday 10 a.m. Oxnard Monday 11 a.m. Camarillo Monday 11 a.m. Ventura Monday 11 a.m. Westlake

Day Event Today Gen. P.X. Kelley, a 37-year veteran and former Marine Corps commandant, will deliver a patriotic address at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. Admission free. Monday Assemblywoman Cathie Wright (R-Simi Valley), Supervisor Vicky Howard and other community leaders will speak at a service at the Simi Valley Public Cemetery, sponsored by the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the Disabled American Veterans. Monday Msgr. Terrance Fleming will celebrate a Mass at Santa Clara Cemetery. Monday The Oxnard Veterans of Foreign Wars will present a veterans memorial program at Plaza Park. Monday Capt. John Beachy, Port Hueneme Div., Naval Surface Warfare Center, will speak at a service at Conejo Mtn. Memorial Park and Funeral Home. Monday Supvsr. John K. Flynn will speak at a service at Ivy Lawn Cemetery, presented by Avenue of the Flags, a coalition of local service groups. Monday Village Civil War buffs will present an hourlong sight-and-sound program highlighting great moments in U. S. military history at Valley Oaks Memorial Park.

Closed: All government offices, courts, banks, post offices, stock and commodity exchanges, libraries, schools and many businesses. MTA buses will follow Sunday schedules.