Beachcombing

If alive today, Don Temple would have been 91 years old on Sunday, August 19. With his passing six years ago we can only surmise his pleasure of seeing the business he founded on July 7, 1968 observing its 50th anniversary.

We were honored to be involved in that observation, which included a 12-page anniversary publication that told the Don Temple Storage story. His was the first such business in Southern California where residents no longer needed to use their attics and garages to store their “stuff.”

Beeler & Associates contracted with Don and his partners in the promotion of Auto Air Porter at LAX in the mid-1980s. It was a unique look at a self-made man with little college education who would go on to achieve financial success through the use of common sense, honesty and integrity.

Even today the Don Temple Family Charitable Foundation does what Don planned 15 years ago by distributing charitable funds to the many Long Beach-based non-profits, benefitting youth, education, medicine and the arts. Sixteen of those organizations participated in the July 7 50th anniversary celebration at the Long Beach Police Officers Association Park.

There’s one thing that stood out the most when researching Don’s life story – saving Long Beach Community Hospital. He took a leadership role when the hospital closed in the fall of 2000 and effectively got it re-opened in June 2001. He recruited new board members and dug into his own pockets to loan the hospital money when cash flow was tight.

One recruited board member, Nancy Myers, said she asked Don why he wanted her on the board when she had no hospital experience whatsoever. “You don’t need hospital experience,” Don said, “I just want you to look after my investment!”

No doubt that today Don would have been at the forefront to keep the hospital open in light of the current earthquake fault problem. It appears that John and Mario Molina have stepped up to take a leadership role in reviving the hospital, just as Don Temple did 18 years ago.

We wish Molina, Wu and Network LLC good luck in their efforts, but doubt the viability of doing anything at the current site to get around the state mandate to build a stronger facility. A more reasonable, long-range plan would be the construction of a new hospital as part of the VA Medical Center’s north side or near the west entrance to CSU Long Beach.

The VA would benefit by having access to medical facilities and staff – especially in emergencies – and the university would benefit from using the new hospital for the training of future nurses and medical specialists.

Undoubtedly the Puvunga lovers will come out of the woodwork to challenge such a project, since there are claims that the Gabrielino Indians buried artifacts (not natives as some have claimed) on that barren property.

I recently had a séance with my Indian friends and they were favorable to the concept. “Look, white eyes, anything you can do to help the medicine man work miracles is okay by us. Just make sure any peace pipes, arrows and tomahawks you find are re-interned next to the CSULB entry signs.”

It’s a done deal!

In our continuing quest to gauge the opinions of Beachcomber readers we asked the question “How do you grade the new bike lanes and bollards on Bellflower Boulevard? The majority, 67 percent, were not favorable with the changes and 26 percent were okay with it.

What’s your opinion? Go to www.beachcomber.news and vote at the bottom of page one. Your comments are welcome as well.

A reader recently sent me a photo of a young woman at a protest rally. Her sign read “Stop killing ducks to make duck tape.”

The mind is a terrible thing to waste. Most people know that duct tape has been around for a few decades now, but one manufacturer has taken advantage of the misnomer by labeling their product “duck tape.”

As any do-it-yourselfer will attest, duct tape is the best invention since sliced bread, with the possible exception of Super Glue. Originally designed to connect heating and air conditioning ducts, it is very flexible and super strong for all sorts of cheap repairs.

 publisher@beachcomber.news