Blog

January 16, 2019

1943

1943, Laguna Beach. Murray Zimmerman (we called him “The Lung” because he could hold his breath for three minutes) and I got these bugs, a couple hundred yards off where […]
December 4, 2018

1958 – 1962 / 1978 – 1992

“I moved with my mom and siblings up on Top of the World and joined all the kids in school down Park Ave. When I was in high school, I […]
December 4, 2018

1965 – 1975

“I really enjoyed growing up in Laguna. My wife, Bonnie Couse, happened to be a classmate with Kelly Boyd, Sid Bryan and Carolyn Smith. I knew the South Seas bar […]
December 4, 2018

1960 – 1973

“I moved into my grandparents home in Laguna Beach when I was eight years old. My first two jobs were setting pins at the bowling alley and washing dishes at […]
December 4, 2018

1960s

“I was the South Seas bartender for years–mainly I was dependable and a hard worker. All I asked was that I bartend at the South Seas because the Tap Room […]
December 4, 2018

1960s

“Everyone remembers part of the charm of both Coast Inn bars being tropical aquarium fish tanks used for the bar counter tops. The upstairs bar, known as the Tap Room, […]
December 4, 2018

1958 – 1970s

“I worked at the Coast Inn in nineteen sixty-six. Would get up extremely early in order to sweep the outside area for Pappy Smith. But I have been a frequent […]
December 4, 2018

1950s – 1960s

Bob Boyd leased the restaurant in the Coast Inn from Dick and Karl Smith around the late nineteen fifties into the early nineteen sixties. “I worked for my dad as a busboy […]
December 4, 2018

1948 – 1956

“I was around eleven years old when I began to work for the Smith family of the Coast Inn. My best friend was Mike Smith, Karl’s first son and Pappy […]
December 4, 2018

1959 – 1973

“To recall L.P. Hartley’s immortal line from his novel, The Go-Between, ‘the past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.’ “As just-legal 21-year old bar-hopping locals, tightly focused […]
December 4, 2018

1930s

“I was born in the early nineteen thirties. Laguna’s population was around 2,000 growing to 4,000 as I grew up. We had only a few stop signs rolled out on […]
December 4, 2018

“That” Laguna, “Those” Days

Please enjoy the live stories below. I had so much fun talking to many people about their experiences at different periods of the Coast Inn. These are interviews, thus their […]
July 23, 2018

Olympic Cottage – Candy Bergen

The movie star who opened a Hawaiian dress shop in the little Olympic cottage behind the liquor store was Candy Bergen. She was a friend of mine back then. Remember […]
November 30, 2017

Social Cultural History Report 2014

Building Chronology by Rita Cofield, B.ARCH. Historic photos of the Coast Inn show unpaved roads at S. Coast Blvd. and Mountain Road (formerly Cypress), indicating that it may have been […]
July 6, 2014

The Coast Inn’s First Postcard!

  This is the very first postcard ever taken. Dad was proud of it. It’s cut in half for some reason and Dad scotched tapped it to the inside of […]
June 19, 2014

Welcome To My New Blog And Website

                              Welcome to the Coast Inn blog.  I have heard so many wonderful stories from many […]