It was a hot night on May 16, 2014, but many people showed up for a lot of fun and some great photos at OB EXPOSED! at the Masonic Center. Feature MC Wonderland Series Documentarian Noah Tafolla was a hoot (See more of him on TV coming up soon on Channel 4).The photos of Ocean Beach or Point Loma this year included many color entries. We had a spectacular year for Sunsets, and our photographer caught the best of them. “People’s Choice” was a golder sunset frame shot from inside a cave at the cliffs. The photograpgher said, “The color was so great that evening no tweaking had to be done on the photo”. “Best Vintage” photo entry by Jonnie Wilson, wearing  her “Cat Glasses” in front the pier with her family, in the mid-sixties, brought back memories for many of that nostalgic time.

Congratulations to OB Exposed! 2014 Winners: BEST IN SHOW- Julie Peters-Haymes, BEST COLOR- Jaclyn Shepard, BEST BLACK & WHITE – Fran Del Santo, BEST VINTAGE- Jonnie Wilson, PEOPLE’S CHOICE- Krista M. Rayl, BEST SPECIAL EFFECTS- Michael Contos, BEST CHILD UNDER 16- Scott Williams
Special thank to the OB Business Center at 4876 Santa Monica for collecting and helping with the photos. Winners will soon be exhibited there/Humming Bird. Entrants who didn’t donate will be able to collect them there after May 20th. If not collected by Mid-June they will go into the OBHS archives. Thanks to all those that entered photos, the businesses that donated food and the volunteers and OBHS Board Members. Start your clicking shots for next year’s OB Exposed!

April 17, 2014 the OB Historical Society Presented: The Ocean Beach Woman’s Club Turns 90!  We Celebrated the club’s fabulous History in O.B.
The Ocean Beach Woman’s Club Interim President Melyssa (Mel) Roark and Board Member Mercy Baron, presented the club’s history and plans for the future.
The OBWC was formed in 1924, by a group of women from the founding families of OB. They are the oldest civic group in Ocean Beach. Over the years, the club met in several of O.B.’s past landmark buildings, before settling in the current clubhouse on Bacon Street. Many gals, and some guys, celebrated the Ocean Beach Woman’s Club 90th Anniversary and learned about the extraordinary women who did so much for OB.

MARCH 22, 2014, we celebrated Spring and the Ocean Beach Historical Society’s Annual Wisteria Garden Party & Fundraiser. The garden of a historical cottage under the largest wisteria canopy in O.B. was a great backdrop as locals enjoyed tasty treats while listening to rag time music by Billie Lee and his band. The event included a live auction and drawing for great prizes donated by local businesses and friends of the OBHS. Colorfully clad party goers joked with OB clown Dreamin Mimi, hearing former 1948 PAC Shores owner Evelyn Church tell stories, and looking at historical O.B. photos. All together a great party.

On Feb. 20, 2014, we learned “the Green Community Spirit”  is alive and well in O.B. as a packed house showed up to celebrated and honor Colleen Dietzel, co-founder of The Green Store. She presented 25 years of The Green Store’s history and activism in O.B. and San Diego.
On Earth Day April 22, 1989, Colleen and Kip opened The Green Store on Voltaire St. Starting with a ribbon-cutting ceremony with famed environmentalist David Brower. They embarked on a journey to try and “save the world and O.B.,” working with groups such as the Ocean Beach Greens, Rainforest Action Network, Greenpeace, the Save O.B. Coalition and Ocean Beach Grassroots Organization among others. Historically, The Green Store/Ocean Beach Green Center has lead the way as an “Eco-Center of Ocean Beach working for the Environment, Peace and Social Justice.” Thanks to Colleen, Kip & The Green Store friends for their commitment to: • Bringing environmental issues to the forefront • Promote Mom & Pop Businesses • Advancing Social Justice • Educating people about health, farming, water and other issues • Getting residents to take part and have a voice in community issues • Working towards peace • Forming bonds with people that want a better world
• Bringing people together that love O.B.!!!

Jan. 16, 2014 the OBHS Presented: Miss Rankin and the Library She Built— Featuring OB Librarian Matt Beatty. Margaret Rankin was librarian at the Ocean Beach Library from 1921 to 1959. A lifelong force in OB, Margaret was largely responsible for getting the current library built and later remodeled. She was also deeply involved in her community seen in news clippings, her own library reports, and photos of the places she lived.
Matt Beatty put on a great program. He has been a librarian at the Ocean Beach Library for eight and a half years.

2015 Winner SD Book Awards- Best Published Local Interest “Ocean Beach” by the Ocean Beach Historical Society (Jonnie Wilson & Kathy Blavatt, eds.)
“Ocean Beach” book by the Ocean Beach Historical Society & Images of America is $21.99 ea. plus tax. This fantastic book is filled O.B.’s wonderful history and images. Available at: OBHS  programs, events, Te Mana Café, Green Store, SDHC, James Gang Company,  OBMA,  Olive Tree Market, Shells, and Bookstar.

HISTORICAL 1887 OB MAP poster shows lovely calligraphy, old street names, railroad lines, beaches, rock formations, sand dunes and springs. The map’s natural aging gives it a wonderful pirate-map quality— $20 ea.  Available at: OBHS Events/Programs, The Green Store, John Baker Picture Frames, OBMA and the Newport Ave. Antique Center. Proceeds go to the OBHS, a 501(c)(3) non-profit org

OBHS Presented: Landscapes Rediscovered by John DeBeck—Nov. 21st.  John DeBeck, former long-time School Board Member presented a program on the recovered San Diego Unified School District art collection, an extraordinary project he accomplished that benefits historians, school children and all San Diegans. When serving on the School Board, John found out that the district owned a significant amount of W.P.A. and donated art that had gone missing or was set aside. These works, approximately 100 canvasses of landscapes, seascapes and people (many of children), were unseen by the public for decades. These include depression-era paintings from acclaimed San Diego artists Charles Reiffel and Maurice Braun, including landscapes of Point Loma.  This rediscovered art was brought back to the public… but sadly we learned much is still missing or deteriorating because of lack of funding and interest in restoring the art.

The OBHS Presented: San Diego Yesterday
Richard Crawford, Oct. 17, 2013, San Diego today is a vibrant and bustling coastal city, but it wasn’t always so. The city’s transformation from a rough-hewn border town and frontier port to a vital military center was marked by growing pains and political clashes. Civic highs and criminal lows have defined San Diego’s rise through the 19th and 20th centuries into a preeminent Sun Belt city. Historian Crawford recalled significant events and one-of-a-kind characters that laid the foundation for the San Diego that we know today.
Richard Crawford is the Supervisor of Special Collections at the San Diego Public Library. He is the former archives director at the SDHS/edited the Journal of San Diego History.

Our Sept. 19, 2013 program “The Incredible and Mysterious Hidden Past of San Diego County” was very informative and interesting.
Noted anthropologist and historian Richard L. Carrico lectured on the hidden past and mysteries of ancient San Diego County. Richard took the audience back thousands of years to explore a people and a land that few know about.  Richard delve into possible meanings of prehistoric rock paintings (pictographs) and carvings (petroglyphs) that dot our landscape, he discussed Kumeyaay knowledge of our vast universe, explore Kumeyaay pharmacology as shown through native plant use, detail the ancient roots of Indian gaming in the region, and explain how at least one local Kumeyaay holy man got the best of the Christian devil. He spoke on how Indians cured and treated some common ailments, or how some of our mountains were formed, how the pine trees moved from the coast to the Cuyamacas, or the Kumeyaay name of Ocean Beach, Mission Valley, and San Diego, and how Kumeyaay made pigments. If you missed this facinating program or want more infonation: http://www.rockhilllearning.com