People liked to make a buck back...

People liked to make a buck back then, too: It’s easy to forget that exploitation didn’t begin in the Era of O.J. Soon after another famous Southern California fugitive--outlaw Tiburcio Vasquez--was arrested in 1874, the Merced Theater in L.A. premiered a production titled “The Life of Vasquez.”

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Hard to swallow: It’s been a tough year for Orange County, what with the bankruptcy, the departure of the Rams, and the shocking announcement by Bloomingdale’s that it had chosen Beverly Hills over Newport Beach for the site of its West Coast store.

And now comes news that the swallows are rejecting Mission San Juan Capistrano.

The problem is that the birds return to the same mud nests every year and most of their little dwellings at the mission have been wiped out during earthquake repairs. Not only that, but nearby development has made it more difficult for the birds to find building materials and food for the nests. It could be a lonely March 19 at the mission.

Interestingly, the birds have been sighted in large numbers at two schools up this way--Pepperdine University in Malibu and College of the Canyons in Valencia. That seems fair. Orange County took our Rams. Now we’re taking their swallows.

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O.C. B.C. (Before Condos): We mentioned the other day that Orange County never should have left safe and sound L.A. County, as it did a century ago. Writer Larry Dietz sent us an 1888 map of Southern California, which shows what a different land it was.

Imagine life with no Malibu, Beverly Hills, Hollywood, Laguna Beach or even Placentia. The L.A. area then boasted several towns that have since given up the ghost, including Kent, Lang, Savannah, Spadra and the Westside coastal community of Truxton. Romantic Truxton.

Pomona was listed as “Pomono” on this map.

The towns dotting what is now Orange County were Anaheim, Westminster, Santa Ana, Tustin and a few others, including the sometime home of the swallows, San Juan Capistrano.

There’s no Mission Viejo, which apparently isn’t so viejo.

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Revisionist history: We realize that the juggling of holidays was done just for bookkeeping purposes. But, still, as Bob Prest, points out, it looks a little odd for one adult school to list June 25 as Lincoln’s birthday. Why not move the holiday to June 12 so we could all celebrate George Bush’s birth?

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No cigar: We visited the Olympic Auditorium the other night for the first time in more than a decade, and saw several changes in the 70-year-old boxing palace. Not only had it been refurbished (and renamed the Grand Olympic) but security was much heavier. In the old days, we witnessed some of the building’s more colorful riots, encompassing a variety of fistfights, thrown bottles, fires, ripped-out chairs and journalists diving for cover.

Now the atmosphere at the boxing matches had changed--literally. We encountered just one crowd problem, which promoted a hurried meeting of three burly guards.

“They’re in the restroom,” one said.

“Doing what?” another asked.

“Smoking.”

And, so, off they went to scold the miscreants.

One more knockout dealt to tobacco-lovers.

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We bet she would have preferred flowers: Sherman Kappe of Cerritos looked at the bill he received from his exterminator and saw a reminder on the bottom of the statement. It said: “Don’t forget your sweetheart on 2-14-95.”

miscelLAny Camp Canine, a West L.A. “educational workshop for dogs and their owners,” begins a new semester next month. Cost of eight sessions is $100. A flyer says that “those with perfect attendance will receive a $10 gift certificate from the PetCare Company.” Wonder if bringing a dog biscuit for the teacher might help, too.