ISLAND TALES

June Casagrande

Jim Jennings heard a lot of stories in his 30 years of running a

service station on Balboa Island -- stories of the people and the

events that helped make a former sandbar into the thriving island it

is today.

But by the time he retired in 1989, clearing way for what would

eventually become the site of the fire station, he wasn’t just an

expert on local history. He had become part of it.

“Most of the things I know about local history I know because I

lived them,” Jennings said.

About three years ago, he began writing history pieces for the

Island Breeze, documenting some of the most fascinating and colorful

moments of the island’s past. But as he saw the past come to life in

the Breeze pages, he was suddenly hit with the idea that they should

be written down someplace more permanent.

“I started realizing a couple years ago that when I’m dead and

gone all these stories are forgotten history,” he said. “So I

realized the only way to preserve it was to put it in a little book.”

About three weeks ago, this dream took form in “Old Balboa Island

Stories: From 1907 to the Millennium,” a collage of some of Jennings’

favorite tales of the island’s early years.

Jennings’ all-time favorite is the story of Ray Reeves and the

first flat-bottomed tennis shoe. According to Jennings’ book, Reeves

was a Balboa Islander and a foot doctor who invented the first

“wedgee” tennis shoe for a patient.

“So when you slip on your flat-bottomed tennis shoes in the

morning, remember that a Balboa Islander invented them!” Jennings

wrote.

The 89-page book is filled with such stories. Jennings’ accounts

of the past that, while not always verifiable, are consistently

entertaining: the history of the Village Inn, the beginnings of

Hershey’s Market, the old Fire Station No. 4, the closing of the 76

gas station. Dozens of historical photos round out the picture of a

Balboa Island of yesteryear that laid the groundwork for the

heartbeat of the island today as a close-knit community where

everybody knows everybody’s name and business.

Jennings paid out of his own pocket to have he little book

printed, a cost that averaged out to about $6 a copy on the first

round of printing. Working with a professional book consultant, he

took it to several printing houses, where he was dismayed to learn

that the minimum number of books they would print was 1,000. Finally,

he found a printer that would agree to bang out just 200 copies.

“I was hoping I wouldn’t die of old age before I got rid of them,”

he said with a life-affirming laugh. “Much to surprise, in the first

two weeks, all 200 were gone. And now I’m ordering another 200.”

Copies have gone on sale for $12 at the Balboa Island Museum and

Historical Society, Hershey’s Market, Martha’s Book Store and

Sandpipers gift shop. Balboa Peninsula resident and Balboa Beacon

publisher Gay Wassall-Kelly, who also publishes Jennings’ history

pieces, bought a dozen.

“I’m so excited about them, I wanted copies for gifts, to share

with others,” Kelly said.

But despite the book’s initial success, the chances are slim

Jennings will ever recoup his losses: he figures he would have to

sell about 1,000 copies to break even.

“The sole reason I did it at my expense is I wanted some of these

stories to carry on after I’m dead and gone,” Jennings said.

Luckily, Balboa Island has been good to him.

“In 1936 I bought my home on Marine Avenue so I could be near my

business for $49,000,” said Jennings, noting that at the time it was

ridiculously overpriced. “Now the lot value is $1 million.”

Land values aside, Jennings said it’s the people who made Balboa

Island what it was 50 years ago, just as they do now.

“About six years ago, a lady named Mrs. Dickey had a little

apartment on the back of a lot. She was 97 years old. She was trying

to clean up the front yard and she fell and broke her hip so I

decided to clean it up for her. I worked a whole day and didn’t even

make a dent in it,” he recalled. “I wrote a letter and made some

photocopies put it on each house on the block saying I was going to

clean her years the following Sunday and I could use some help. I was

hoping two or three people would show up to help me. 20 people showed

up. That kind of tells you how people help one another.”

* JUNE CASAGRANDE covers Newport Beach and John Wayne Airport. She

may be reached at (949) 574-4232 or by e-mail at

[email protected].