Horsies at Ecke Ranch. When I was a little kid growing up in Leucadia in the 1970's it was a common sight to see people riding horses around town. I wish we still had pretty girls with long blond hair riding horses down Leucadia Blvd to the beach. Where did they go? Is it even legal to ride a horse down the coast highway anymore?
I think it exists Northeast of Hymettus and west of Encinitas Ranch.
ReplyDeleteThat part of Leucadia is still super rural.
60 acres of Ecke ranch remains zoned as agricultural.
ReplyDeleteI remember those girls on horses too! I had forgotten until I read your post. And all the avocado groves, and all the green houses, and friends whose dad's grew pot in the front yard [yes, really].
ReplyDeleteYou know, lots of people never want to return to the town where they grew up . . . I never want to leave. That is how great Leucadia is. Too bad so many rich East Coasters are coming in and corrupting it.
I was raised on Quail Gardens Drive and remember riding the pony in the poinsettia fields and then going down to Baskin Robbins to have an ice cream. We continued our ride down to Moonlight beach and enjoyed a ride in the sand. It was wonderful living in the open space. Just 12 homes sharing 40 acres that were surrounded by the Ecke property. Too bad the city allowed the shopping center and the golf course to be built.
ReplyDeleteAs a kid growing up in Glendale, CA (Los Angeles) ,my mom and I used to ride the red cars. Very much like the street cars in San Francisco. Then General Motors bought it up and yanked out all of the rails so that they could sell more cars. We moved to Orange County. It was almost all orange groves at the time. Hence the name. We could pick oranges off the trees and no one would care, as there were so many. There were no horses, but plenty of dairy cows. I remember thinking that a brown cow would give me chocolate milk. How I wish that were true. I moved to Cardiff in 1983, after living in Vancouver B.C., Denver, NYC (the Village, of course) and Newport Beach. When I drove down Birminham Drive one day, I knew I was home. I rented a place on Oxford, where I still live and now own. At that time, there was a Vons and Value Faire where the Seaside Market and Starbucks stc. are now. There were more vacant lots than there were homes. Yes, things have changed. Some for the better, some for the worse. However, through it all, I have never regretted moving here and they will probably have to drag me out of my home kicking and screaming when it is my time to go. Why this diatribe, you may wonder? I don't know, just kind of felt like it. As I am sitting here looking over the Pacific, I feel blessed. I also feel regret that younger people cannot afford homes in this area. My husband and I together could not afford our home today. Progress, or is this the way it is supposed to be? I don't know. I do know that I would have never imagined in high school that an electronic age would unite and divide at the same time. So, end of diatribe over absolutely nothing interesting, except the life of one local activist.
ReplyDeleteBack in 1992, "I knew I was home" when I walked into VG's donuts.
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