Weekend Forecast: Blue and Gray

Central Park in Huntington Beach is a peaceful, huge stretch of green where children feed the ducks in the pond and lovers leisurely stroll its many paths. Hardly the place where brethren face brethren with rifles blazing and cries of war echo off the surrounding hills.

But it will be a different Central Park this weekend. We’ll fight the Civil War there all over again and the outcome will be as rigged as TV wrestling matches. The Union Army will win a battle or two, so will the Confederates. There will be two battles Saturday, two battles Sunday, sponsored by the city and its historical society.

Most of the soldiers will be wearing the colors of the South, you can bet on that. “There are always more Confederates, sometimes they outnumber the Union soldiers five to one,” says Carl Clink, in charge of staging this reenactment. The soldiers will come from a variety of Southern California Civil War-related clubs.

Do that many people today really side with the cause of the rebellious states of that great war? Not at all, says Clink. “A lot of these guys have never set foot in the South.” The problem in getting balance in the two sides, he says, is that Americans always identify with the underdog.

Clink, 32, a Hollywood prop man who lives in Huntington Beach, had some 350 Civil War books in his collection. He got hooked on reenactments when he was just a ninth grader. He’s now been doing them for 18 years, usually eight or nine reenactments per year.

The Central Park reenactment will provide more than just a ringside view of dramatic battles. The public will get a chance to see Civil War artifacts and how a military camp is set up. There will be an Abraham Lincoln wandering through, and a lot of support people. Clink’s wife, Treece, has her own role: She plays a vivandiere, one of the women who followed the regiment of soldiers to help with the wounded and other needed duties of camp.

For Clink, the satisfaction is not the firepower--though there will be plenty of that, all blanks--or even any strong ideological or political feelings about the Civil War. For Clink it’s a way of paying tribute to the many soldiers who took up arms for their cause, whichever side that might be.

“Just think about what it must have taken for these men to volunteer to leave their families and go to war,” Clink says, his great-great-grandfather from Ohio among them.

Wine for the Poor: This may seem a little mind-jarring, but a simple $30 donation to Orange County’s Food Distribution Center can provide 1,000 meals, or feed a family of four for more than a quarter of the year. Dan Harney, spokesman for the Food Distribution Center, explains that the $30 goes toward necessary operating costs for those groups who actually donate the food.

You can see why the Food Distribution Center is hoping for huge attendance Thursday at the fourth annual South Coast Plaza Summer Food & Wine Festival, from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. at Crystal Court in Costa Mesa. Your $30 entry fee is distributed equally between the Food Distribution Center and the Someone Cares Soup Kitchen in Costa Mesa. But for your money, you get to sample food from more than 30 South Coast restaurants and drink a variety of California wines.

The center gets more out of it than just your entry fee. “We want people to eat and enjoy themselves, but what is important is awareness,” Harney says. “A lot of people come and learn what we are all about, then become our supporters all year long, not just at festival time.”

Heavenly Inquiry? Waiting in a lengthy checkout line I grabbed up the National Enquirer, to kill the time and catch up on the latest batch of celebrity scandals: Demi Moore (“The Photos That Made Bruce Explode”), Cher (“Her Heartache Revealed”), Sean Connery (“Caught With Young Beauty.”)

So it was quite a surprise thumbing through all this human drama to see a piece written by the Rev. Robert H. Schuller of the Crystal Cathedral. No, not the story on Kathie Lee Gifford battling to save her career. Schuller wrote a first person reminiscence of his family losing their Midwest home to a twister during his college days. Nature just picked it up and dropped it in one smashed piece half a mile away.

Schuller writes: “We saved every nail and every shingle. And from these pieces we built a new little house on the old farm. It was a deadly twister, but it taught me a crucial lesson about faith and determination: Tough times never last--but tough people do.”

A good piece. But in the Enquirer? Turns out he’s written dozens for it over the last 20 years. Crystal Cathedral spokesman Mike Nason explains: “We see it as a form of ministry. Rev. Schuller can reach a lot of people through the National Enquirer who might not otherwise ever hear much about God or Jesus Christ.”

Dean’s Return: Can you imagine what a giant name in films James Dean would be if he hadn’t died in a 1955 car crash, at the age of 24, after just three films (“East of Eden,” “Rebel Without a Cause,” “Giant.”) You can buy the first James Dean stamps at post offices throughout Orange County beginning today.

Stepping Up to the Bar: A lot of local bar programs are aimed at helping juveniles in trouble. Marla Malkin Florman, spokeswoman for the Orange County Bar Foundation, is touting one that began this week where only “good kids” are involved.

It’s called Project Self, where 43 high school juniors and seniors, screened from a large pool of applicants, will spend eight weeks this summer working for law firms or public agencies. They get paid too--$6.43 an hour.

“The program was such a success last year that some law firms and agencies hired their interns to stay on for permanent employment,” Malkin Florman says.

It was an idea brought to life by last year’s Orange County Bar Assn. President Gary Pohlson. The foundation took it over this year, with help from the Assn. of Legal Administrators.

Wrap-Up: If you want to see the Civil War reenactment, but the gunfire worries you, Clink says that in all his years putting these on, he’s never seen any spectators hurt. Also, these battles will be a little tamer than some--the city won’t allow the use of any horses in the park.

Jerry Hicks’ column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Readers may reach Hicks by calling the Times Orange County Edition at (714) 966-7823, by fax (714) 966-7711, or e-mail,Jerry.Hicks@latimes.com.