Was just reading some old Southern California history threads and somehow he came to mind. I believe he was some kind of folk legend around there. I remember going thru Laguna Beach one day and he came up to my car window and started yelling something about being sure to look out for the police.
I remember Laguna Pete, we used to travel from San Diego to Downey a couple of times every year to visit my dads cousin and family (wife and nine kids). Every time we passed through Laguna we would see Pete, sometimes as we came from the south at that end of town and sometimes on the north as we headed home. He would always wave and shout about watching out for the police. Back in the day 101 was the main route from San Diego to the L.A. area and Laguna cops ran a constant speed trap with sharply lowered speed limits when you hit the city line, that's why Pete was always trying to warn people. The cops would chase him off so he would go to the other end of town and do his thing there 'till they would chase him from that end. About every third trip we would take to the cousins Mom would make Dad stop at the Pottery Barn to buy replacements for all of her Desert Rose Franciscanware dishes that us kids had broken when we were doing our chore of washing and drying them.
The Jalopy Journal
