FOCUS: ORANGE COUNTY COMMUNITY NEWS : COSTA MESA
For one day a year, the courtyard in the Vendome condominium complex turns into a tent city. Last weekend, fathers grilled burgers while children melted s’mores over a fire pit. The event has become a tradition among the families in the Vendome complex near Lions Park as a last hurrah before children go back to school.
The tradition began informally enough when two families set out a couple tents on the lawn to air after a camping trip. Soon, the tents had multiplied, said resident Steve Burgess.
For some of the parents, it’s a resurrection of something from their own childhoods. Vito Vento remembers throwing sheets over the clotheslines in his backyard in Michigan and sleeping under them with flashlights. It was a time and place where neighbors knew one another, he said.
For Caleb Burgess, 10, the highlights of the evening are flashlight tag, telling camp stories and playing pranks on parents after they fall asleep.
For Mitchell Pfautz, 7, it’s the s’mores.
“The kids have been talking about it for weeks,” Burgess said. “You’d think we were going to Yosemite or something.”
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