Pickets Bare Feelings About Nudity : Protest: Garden Grove group takes to street to oppose rumored return of a proposal for a nude juice bar. City has rejected the plan, now in the courts.

Put “nude” and “juice bar” together in Garden Grove and you have mixed an explosive concoction.

Proof of that was abundant Sunday along Garden Grove Boulevard near Beach Boulevard, where about 120 residents braved the wilting afternoon heat to protest the possible return of a proposal to convert an adult bookstore into a nude juice bar.

“That’s the rumor--that the gentleman who owns the store still wants to expand and add on that juice bar,” said protest organizer Marjorie Garcia, a housewife and anti-pornography activist.

Waldon R. Welty, owner of A-Z Adult Books, could not be reached for comment.

Welty has wanted to turn his one-story building into a two-story juice bar featuring nude dancers--the largest nude juice bar in Orange County. The City Council rejected the proposal two years ago, and a Superior Court ruling upheld the action. Welty appealed, and a decision from the state Court of Appeal is expected soon.

“It’s totally unknown what the decision of the appellate court will be,” Mayor Frank Kessler said Sunday. Kessler, in his last year in office, declined to comment on the case until the appeal is decided.

Near the hot-pink stucco bookstore, protesters waved anti-pornography signs--”Clean Up Garbage Grove,” read one--and cheered motorists who beeped. A dozen of the braver souls crossed the street and camped in front of the store. Some stood precariously in traffic and took pictures. One man picketed with a parrot on his shoulder. Most were worried about crime.

“All the children go the theater here, the stores here. We don’t need that kind of stuff around children,” said Roberta Kolano, joined by her 10-year-old daughter, Jill. “I think they’re inviting criminals.”

Jill Kolano was equally disapproving. “People going to nude bars and taking off their clothes--I don’t think that’s good,” she said.

Parking and crime were on the minds of the City Council and the Planning Commission when both panels rejected the juice-bar proposal in 1992.

Officials said the bookstore had been a site for cruising, solicitation, loitering, lewd conduct and noise.

On Sunday, the store was mainly a site of befuddlement. A clerk surprised by the protest said he thought the juice bar idea was dead. Troy Kendrick, a sympathetic patron, scoffed at the pickets and said such bookstores pose no danger.

“They have them everywhere. You ought to teach your children at home,” he said. “I think this is a good adult bookstore.”

The protesters, many of them from local churches solicited by Garcia, plan to turn the heat up on the store--just in time for the City Council election campaign. Councilman Ho Chung, a mayoral candidate, was quick to show his support.

“This is another election year,” said Chung as he joined the pickets. “That’s why people came out to address their voice to the candidates. That’s one of the political goals.”