Memories of the ‘Hood Live On in Old L.A. Gang

St. Sophia Greek Orthodox Cathedral now sits majestically among the old homes along Normandie Avenue at Pico Boulevard, just west of downtown Los Angeles. Koreatown is now the neighborhood’s northern perimeter. Some of the row houses are gone, replaced by stores or parking lots.

But the old neighborhood lives on in the hearts of those who grew up there during World War II. It was a time when “gang member” was an endearing term. Members of this two-gender gang have hung together for more than 50 years. They aren’t living in the past; they took it with them.

Twice a year, about two dozen of them get together to rededicate the spirit behind their friendship. They come for these semiannual reunions from all over the state and as far away as Oregon. Many of them now live in Orange County and invited me to the latest one. The invitation said “The Old Gang At It Again.” It was a joy.

The reunion was held Wednesday night at Jo and Pat Pearring’s home in Claremont. They’d been neighborhood sweethearts. The laughter, which almost shook their house, was forged from half a century of neighborhood memories. All these people are now in their 60s, yet their affection for one another has only grown with time.

“I started out in the playpen with some of these folks,” said JoAnn Grady, who lived on 14th Street, just south of Pico.

“I’ll tell you how far back we go,” said Fred Molnar, who now lives in Brea. “The supermarket right at Normandie and Pico was Ralphs No. 2.”

Sal Grozzo of Brea wore his old Centaurs jacket to the party. That was the name of the unofficial high school club that 11 of them started.

“Here’s how tight this group is,” Connie Grozzo said. “I was 16 when I started dating Sal. He told me we couldn’t go together unless the gang approved of me. He said, ‘If the gang doesn’t like you, you’re out.’ ”

That brought gales of laughter. I had the feeling that Connie Grozzo probably tells that line at every reunion. A further sign of the group’s bond: When Sal and Connie Grozzo decided to divorce after 40 years of marriage and four children, it never occurred to either of them to leave the gang.

At the heart of this group is Father Jim Rockenstein, who is JoAnn Grady’s brother. The Catholic priest, who came in from Northern California for the reunion, used to scour the old neighborhood as a young man to make sure the Saturday night carousers made it to Sunday morning mass. Since then, he has married many of them, baptized their children and helped them bury family.

“No matter where we are, we are always together,” Father Jim said fondly of his gang.

Three of the married couples I met that night first began dating within the gang. Except they rib Maury Heard that he stole his wife, Gerry, away from her boyfriend Sal Grozzo, who stole her from Pat Pearring. And when Pat Pearring started to list Gerry’s other old boyfriends, she got up from a corner chair and began waving a white hanky of surrender. I laughed as hard as the rest of them.

I met the Leonard brothers, Pete and Joe, who now both live in Buena Park. Their Sicilian father changed their name from Bologne just to spare them the teasing that name would produce. There was Nadine Enis, who lived with her sister Jo Pearring on Cambridge Street off Normandie. When Nadine told me that their home was practically gang headquarters, almost everyone shouted at once: “That’s because you had the first TV!”

A few days later, I drove to the old Pico-Normandie neighborhood, much of it still a throwback to those war days. Many of their homes still stand; I enjoyed seeing where they had played and worked. I left there with a little envy that I had never been a part of a group like this. But it also felt good, just knowing that some people refuse to let time and distance separate them.

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Fired Up: Each year, the Exchange Club of San Clemente sponsors a luncheon for the top firefighter, police officer and civilian police employee who serve in that area. Thursday, Sheriff’s Deputy Marcus Carter was honored for his work in community policing projects. Sheriff’s employee Jan Sener was singled out for her leadership in neighborhood watch programs. And Orange County Fire Authority Capt. Robert Miller was named top firefighter for his 32 years of service.

The plaques were beautiful. But I doubt anything you could put on the wall could mean as much to Miller as these words, spoken in public by his battalion chief, John Howlind: “If I were in a fire, Bob Miller would be first on the list of firefighters I’d want to see coming.”

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House Favorite: Did you happen to catch that recent Newsweek piece on Metropolitan Opera singer Deborah Voigt? She’s a native of Placentia.

This week, the City Council there accepted Voigt into its Hall of Fame for local folk who have done well. There’s talk of a city street to be named after her.

How talented is Voigt? Newsweek said she “can melt steel” with her voice.

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Wrap-Up: I’ve had lots of calls from veterans and their spouses since Tuesday’s column about the round-the-clock reading of the names of the 58,169 Vietnam War casualties. One special call came from Art Wirtschefter of Laguna Hills Leisure World. He’s a past commander of the South Coast District Council of Jewish War Veterans.

In that column, I mentioned that Tim Lynch, killed in Vietnam, was the only other person from my hometown of Washington, Ind., to enter the Army the same day as I did. Wirtschefter called to let me know he was the one who had read Tim’s name during the Mission Viejo verbal salute.

Tim’s was the last of the Ls, Wirtschefter said, and he remembers wondering as he spoke the name what kind of town Washington was. I had the pleasure of telling him it was--and is--a great place.

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