Crystal Cove memories

Stefanie Frith

EDITOR’S NOTE: Prior to leaving their homes and vacation spots in

Crystal Cove, a number of the cove’s residents talked with the Daily

Pilot about their memories and stories of a place they believe is one of

the most magical areas in the world.

A perfect month

For about one month out of the year, Shana Robertson falls tosleep to

the sound of the waves crashing down on the sand outside her cottage. For

Robertson, it’s the best one month of the year.

“It is so nice to be so close to the ocean,” Robertson said, taking a

break from sweeping up the sand on her front porch. “I go to sleep with

the sound of the waves. I am going to miss that so much.”

Robertson’s family has owned a cottage in the historic Crystal Cove

area since the early 1950s, sharing vacation time among family members.

Robertson, who lives in Yosemite, said she vacations in the off-season

when the cove is most quiet and she can sit on her porch and watch the

waves, birds and the people go by. She said she likes seeing people she

knew when she was only knee-high.

When Robertson’s family first bought the cottage, they had no idea

that Crystal Cove even existed.

“They were just driving down Coast Highway on a Sunday afternoon and

saw this road and turned down it,” Robertson, 45, said. “They found this

beautiful little area and asked the manager, who used to live here too,

if there was anything for sale that very day. And they bought the

cottage, for what we would say is pennies. I am sure glad they did too.

There is no other place like this.”

Too many moments to count

One million memories. That’s what Wendy Barnard-Folger says she will

have when she leaves Crystal Cove.

Barnard-Folger’s parents live in a two-story cottage built by her

great-grandparents in the 1920s. By this year, fifth-generation people

had starting to vacation in the home.

“That’s a fifth-generation out there skim boarding,” she said,

pointing to her nephew out in the water, her eyes welling up with tears.

“This is what I am going to remember and I just trying to make a sketch

in my brain of these wonderful memories. This is not just a vacation

place for those besides my parents. It’s our home.”

A friendly neighbor at every turn

When Edie and John Rowlands walk their dog Pepe through Crystal Cove,

they can’t go two minutes without running into a friendly neighbor.

“We’ve lived here 28 years and raised three kids here. Now our

grandchildren are coming here,” Edie Rowlands, who is a second cousin to

Shana Robertson, said. “It’s hard to imagine not having this any more.”

The Rowlands said they won’t miss having to replace the windows to

their tiny, 400-square-foot cottage every time there is a storm, but they

will miss being able to bring family and friends to the cove to

experience the beauty of the historic area.

“We feel very privileged to be able to stay here,” John Rowland said.

“We all know each other around here and we all do our share to help keep

it clean. There is no reason for us to be kicked out. If we leave, who is

going to do the maintenance? Every day, we wake up and just enjoy the

time we do have.”

One word describes it all

Paradise. It’s the only word Dolly Shatford can summon to describe

Crystal Cove.

“I have a friend who had just been visiting me and got lost in the

hills around Corona del Mar and Laguna Beach and asked a police officer,

‘Where is paradise?’ and he took her to Crystal Cove. Even the officer

knew where Crystal Cove was,” Shatford said. “Its so simple here and now

we will have to leave.”

Simple is how Shatford and her family have lived and vacationed at

Crystal Cove ever since Shatford’s family bought the cottage during World

War II.

“We would stay here for a month at a time with only a paring knife and

canned food,” Shatford said, eating oranges at the kitchen table with her

two grown children, Sally Layne and Tom Shatford. “When the kids were

growing up, they had to make their own fun. This place is free from

artificial attractions. We didn’t even have a phone for the longest

time.”

Tom Shatford agreed, leaning back in his chair as he watched the waves

in front of from his family’s cottage.

“I take long walks and look at the rocks. I know all the formations

now,” he said. “And I watch the dolphins.”

Layne said living in Crystal Cove while growing up encouraged

creativity and to ability to enjoy the simple things in life.

“It was always a big deal to go up the road to the fruit and vegetable

stand with the other kids to get something,” Layne said. “And I remember

building tents and a fire where we would roast marshmallows

Dolly Shatford also remembers when tents were allowed on the beaches

and how the whole beach would be dotted with tiny tents and fires.

“Every summer, the tents would come. The sand used to go out further

too,” the 79-year-old said. “We used to stand on the porch during the

storms and feel the spray from the waves. Many times, the storms would

wash away the boardwalk [a wooden walkway that leads across the beach

from home to home]. Once we were evacuated because of a possible tsunami

and for the Laguna Beach fire.”

Despite the possibilities of natural disasters, Dolly Shatford said

she has always felt comfortable in Crystal Cove.

“I feel safe here,” she said, continuing to peel her orange. “It’s our

little, enclosed space. So peaceful and such a special place for people.

We certainly appreciate the time we had here. We will miss it.”

A greeting for everyone and everything

The girl with the rabbit. That’s how people know Pia Mattsson, 28.

Because her cottage is on the path where residents and visitors walk

to get down to the beach, it’s hard to miss the bright white rabbit named

Bina.

Since moving to the cove two years ago, Mattsson said Bina has become

much friendlier than when she lived in Huntington Beach, thanks to all

the people who meet and greet her each day. And now she is concerned now

that when she has to move out of the cove, she won’t find another place

to live that will even come close to comparing to the friendly atmosphere

of Crystal Cove.

“I moved here from Sweden [nine years ago]. Sweden is full of history

and so is this cove,” Mattsson said, stroking Bina’s fur. “If they get

rid of the homes here, it’s going to be like all the malls in Newport

Beach and Huntington. There’s no history in things like that.”

Mattsson is a recent addition to the cove, but said her neighbors made

her feel welcome immediately.

“People always say hi here and come and pet Bina,” she said, leaning

back in her patio chair as Bina hopped around on the table. “The people

here are really, really nice. It won’t be easy to move from here. The

whole thing just makes me sad and depressed.”

Mattsson also said that with whatever happens to the area, those who

wind up in charge need to be careful with the special treasure they have.

“Other places don’t have an atmosphere like this,” Mattsson said.

“They shouldn’t make this like the rest of the world. It needs to be a

place that tourists will still appreciate. It’s really, really special

here.”

Tears for the goodbyes

Francine Rippy has tried hard to honor the history of the cottage she

and her family take care of. She has kept the original paneling,

picnic-style table and cupboards. Perched high on the hill above the

water, her cottage is one of the original 46 and was even used as a movie

set in the 1920s, she said.

And now that Rippy, her family and the rest of the cove residents are

being forced out, she has no idea what to do except cry.

“We are trying to say our goodbyes through tough tears,” she said,

flipping through a photo album of old pictures of the cottage. “My

daughter has brought her friends up to say goodbye. It’s been in our

family for 40 years. I just don’t know what we are going to do.”

Rippy is the cousin of Ellen Applegate, who originally rented the

cottage in the late 1920s. Applegate, now 97, and her friends, Elizabeth

and Ruth Starr, would vacation in the cottage, hold bridge parties and

more. When Applegate was unable to live in the cottage anymore, she asked

Rippy and her family to take over the rent.

Now Rippy shares the rent with two other families. She spends her

weekends at the cottage making wildlife charts and watching the children

on the family boogie board in the water from the front windows and porch.

Over the years, Rippy said she has watched the cove change from her

favorite room, a tiny room with a bed and table connected to the living

room with a 360-degree view of the cove.

“I have watched the water eroding the cliffs and the amount of

mansions built across [Coast Highway],” said the 62-year-old, who mainly

lives in Hacienda Heights. “The beach has really stayed the same. The

view we have is just mind-boggling.”

Rippy said the worst change is yet to come. She said the cottages will

just fall apart when the residents leave, and then the charm of the cove

will start to fall apart.

“I have tried so hard to keep the flavor of this place. It’s so

unique. I remember how my daughter would come up here with friends and

bodies would just be lining the floor. And how I, still, make glass

pictures from the beach glass. And now it’s all going to be gone. We were

all so tickled to be here.”

A tranquil find

Hung on the wall in the back of his hilltop cottage hangs a sign that

many Crystal Cove residents thought had washed to sea. It’s old and

weathered, the white lettering faded, the wood chipping away.

“There it is, the infamous ‘Crystal Cove Yacht Club’ sign,” Jim Thobe

said, pointing at the sign. “I can still remember when I made it.”

Thobe has lived in Crystal Cove for more than 30 years and in 1972,

posted the first yacht club sign, even though there was no yacht club. He

and some other residents built a shack instead, which often collapsed and

had to be rebuilt when the weather was rough. Even the signs would wash

away, and new ones had to be resurrected.

“It didn’t take much to join either,” Thobe, 75, said laughing. “Just

a fifth of Cuttysark.”

Thobe, who lives in the cove with Pam Gardner, 72, said the Crystal

Cove Yacht Club was the social center of the cove for years. Potlucks,

cocktail parties, tie-dye parties, bonfires and more all took place at

the yacht club.

“What memories,” Thobe said, sitting down in front of the large window

in his living room. “I was famous for the ‘Ghost of Crystal Cove’

stories. They always changed. I would tell them at the bonfires before

the state stopped allowing the fires.”

Even Fourth of July parades were kicked off from the club.

“All the kids would march up and down the beach,” he said, shaking his

head. “They loved it.”

It was back in 1945 that Thobe first discovered the tranquil cove.

“I was up in Long Beach and trying to get back down to camp and

hitchhiked with someone in the Coast Guard who was stationed here at the

cove,” he said. “He left me off at the corner and I was freezing my buns

off and it was pitch black. But I never forgot this place.”

Later, Thobe got into the insurance business and had a client in

Crystal Cove who asked him to insure his home.

“I came down here and it was a love affair like you’ve never seen,”

Thobe said, a little smile on his face. “I started knocking on doors to

see if anyone was selling. And I bought this place for $35,000. And I

have been renting ever since.”

Gardner has been living with Thobe for 21 years and said she

completely understands why Thobe fell in love with the cove.

“It’s so beautiful here,” she said fondly. “We still walk the beach

and swim every day. And the mix of people is so wonderful. There’s just

so much magic.”

Thobe agrees.

“The people here are wonderful. It’s going to be so hard to leave,” he

said, glancing out over the ocean. “I just remember getting a group of

guys together, having a few cocktails and putting up the yacht club. We

even had membership cards. Those were the days. What memories.”