A Time of Rest and Reverence : Memorial Day Weekend Offers Reflective Introduction to Summer

Amid blue skies and balmy temperatures, thousands of Ventura County residents poured outdoors Sunday to celebrate the long Memorial Day weekend with dancing and partying, while others spent a day of remembrance taking flowers to area cemeteries to honor their dead.

At Ivy Lawn Memorial Park in Ventura, friends and family tended grave sites of their loved ones, laying wreaths and shedding silent tears.

“He was a good son and we miss him terribly,” Wilbert Fitzsimmons said as he and his wife, Marjorie, placed a flower arrangement and small American flag on their son’s grave.

Patrick G. Fitzsimmons, a U. S. Army warrant officer, was shot down in his helicopter in 1970 during the Vietnam War, the Ventura couple said as they fought back tears.

Services to honor the nation’s war dead are scheduled at cemeteries, churches and parks throughout Ventura County today.

For many other people, however, the Memorial Day weekend provided a time of celebration and an extra day to spend with family.

For a Simi Valley couple, it was a day to try Cajun delicacies and tap their feet to zydeco music. At a Thousand Oaks picnic, budding romance occupied a young musician and his new friend. In Oxnard, hundreds of rat-race-weary city folk cracked a cold one and soaked up sun at the McGrath State Beach campground.

“Memorial Day weekend is usually our first camp-out of the year,” said Ken Itahara, 43, a West Covina mortgage banker who brought his family to McGrath State Beach. “We pretty much come back as often as we can from now until Labor Day.”

As if to cooperate with people’s plans to kick off summer with patio parties and barbecues, a thick cloud cover that plagued holiday activities Saturday burned off by noon Sunday to reveal sunny skies and temperatures reaching the low 70s along the coast and the low 80s in inland valleys.

Hazy sunshine with afternoon highs in the 70s to low 80s is expected today following morning low cloudiness and fog, said a forecaster at the National Weather Service in Oxnard.

The California Highway Patrol reported Sunday that 14 people had been arrested on suspicion of drunk driving since late Friday, when extra patrols began manning the area’s highways. One of the arrests came at a sobriety checkpoint in south Oxnard on Saturday, the CHP said.

Good weather and the chance to eat such Louisiana specialties as steamed crawfish, jambalaya and catfish fillets drew 5,000 people Sunday to the Cajun Creole Music Festival in Simi Valley. Jean and Frank Allegra of Simi Valley were tempted to treat their palates to an even more regional delicacy: alligator on a stick.

“It’s kind of chewy,” said Jean Allegra, poking the chunks of alligator meat deep-fried in spicy batter. “But it just sounded so different, I just had to try it.”

Nearby, Richard Legge unpacked 25 pounds of still crawling crawfish from an iced box and prepared to dump them into boiling water. One fascinated onlooker asked Legge if the shellfish ever scream when they hit the water.

“I haven’t heard a word,” he said.

The two-day festival, put on by the Rotary Club of Simi Sunrise, also featured bands playing zydeco and Cajun music.

Lynne Goldstein, 52, of Marina del Rey said he drove up to Ventura County specifically to hear the New Orleans-style music.

“If you look around, people are listening to the music and smiling,” Goldstein said. “I don’t know any other music that does that.”

At Conejo Creek Park in Thousand Oaks, 400 members of the Evangelical Free Church of the Conejo Valley gathered for their annual picnic. Following the example of their pastor, Steve Larson, the members attended church in shorts and tank tops before leaving for the picnic around noon, organizer Natalie Sheard said.

“We have been praying, ‘Please Lord, let it be sunny,’ ” Sheard said. “And he listened.”

Summer Tracy and Heather Pistulka, both 13, entered the three-legged race and lost. Big time.

“We came in dead last,” giggled Heather. “Summer kept tripping.”

In another section of the long and narrow park, Agoura Hills musician Richard Graham, 35, and Rosie Reeske, 28, of Oxnard were getting to know each other.

“No, we’re not boyfriend and girlfriend,” Graham said. “But I’m glad you brought it up because now we can talk about it. I’m very interested.”

At Camarillo Airport, Mark Spivey, 39, spent his Sunday taking in an exhibit of World War II-era planes with his 3-year-old grandson, David (Hoss) Ortiz. He takes Hoss on excursions nearly every weekend, often to see airplanes, Spivey said.

“My dad flew planes in the Korean War and I have always been fascinated with them,” Spivey said. “And my grandson loves them, too. I guess it’s in our genes.”

Rest and relaxation were the order of the day for hundreds of campers at McGrath State Beach. Itahara’s family and three others, all related, were spending the day reading books, sunbathing and just chatting.

“What do we plan to do this weekend?” Bonnie Itahara, Ken Itahara’s sister-in-law, said as she sat in a lawn chair and watched other campers flying a kite. “As little as possible. We want to enjoy ourselves.”

At the Ivy Lawn cemetery, meanwhile, families arrived throughout the day to keep another vigil. Mary and Ventura Lopez laid flowers at the grave of James V. Lopez, Ventura’s brother.

“I think it’s nice to have a holiday on the calendar like this,” Mary Lopez said. “It keeps them alive in our memories.”

Correspondent J. E. Mitchell contributed to this story.