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Those 61 Plymouth taillights look so tacked on. Makes it look ridiculous.

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So sad... Please put this on your status if you know or are related to someone who suffers from stupidity.

People need to understand that stupidity is real and should be taken seriously.

You could be sitting next to a stupid person right now!

There is still no known cure for stupidity and sympathy does not help.

Sometimes a 2x4 to the back of the head helps, but not a lot.

But we can raise awareness!

53% won't re-post this because they don't know how to copy/paste.

 
Ah, Poop.

by Kevin Cody

Hermosa Beach surfer Howard Bugbee opened the Poop Deck on April 17, 1957, shortly after graduating from USC, where he majored in business and ran track. Bugbee built the bar top from used diving boards and bought used bar stools from the Mermaid. A poop deck is the stern deck on a ship, but the pun was not an accident. 

“We never charged more than 25 cents a beer. On summer days, when I was working the front door, it  was quicker to walk around the block to the back bathroom than to try walking through the bar,” Bugbee said.

Many of his customers were USC athletes. 

“Perry O’Brien, the [world record setting USC] shot putter, was a good friend,” Bugbee said. “One day a customer wanted to tangle with him. I told guy, ‘That’s not a good idea. He’ll shot put your head out the door and into the ocean.’” 

“The real owner was Sooner, a black mutt. If he was sitting on a bar stool or the shuffleboard table and you tried to move him, you’d be in trouble.

“We had a cop named Al Graham, who wasn’t very popular until one day the dog catcher saw Sooner run into the bar and sent Al in to get him. Al looked around, then walked out and told the dog catcher Sooner must have slipped out the back door.”

In 1971, a Poop Deck bartender mentioned to beach lifeguards Steve Voorhees and Steve Wood that the bar might be for sale. Bugbee had divorced and moved to Hawaii. 

“Steve and I liked drinking there, so I asked my accountant if it made sense and he said it did,” said Voorhees, who retired from the lifeguards as the Southern Section Captain in 1990 and lives in Manhattan Beach.

“The saddest part during this period was that so many of the young people who would come in off the beach in the afternoon  were taking drugs. We had to run a lot of people out because they were high on something.

“It was just a time when beer bars were not very popular.” 

After five years, Voorhees and Woods sold the Poop Deck to Poop Deck regular “Uncle” Bill Vacek, a Southern Pacific Bank vice president who lived on The Strand. 

“He told us his goal in life was to own a home on The Strand and a bar on The Strand,” Voorhees said.

Throughout the years, Bud remained the sole tap beer, wine was red or white. Food was served when you picked it up from Big Mike’s on Hermosa Avenue, or from wherever else you wanted to bring in take-out. The only notable changes Vacek made from the Bugbee era were new pool tables and an ATM. Beers stayed cheap and cash only.

Following Vacek’s death in 2008, at age 77, just days after being diagnosed with liver cancer, the bar went to Vacek’s sister Dorothy Zagozda and her husband Rae. But the bar’s daily operation rested with bartender Bob Schwartz and his veteran staff.

Among the old-timers sitting one afternoon in the window seats, shortly after “Uncle Bill” Vacek’s death were Walt Armstrong, Ed Barden and Matt Schumacher. The three were watching women on The Strand and volleyball on the beach, and drinking $12 pitchers of Bud (one pitcher each). The three met playing volleyball in the mid ‘70s and met almost daily at the Poop Deck ever since.

“We talk about everything except art,” said Armstrong. Thursday’s talk was mostly about where to meet when the Poop Deck closes. 

Hermosa has three other beachfront bars, but none met the bill.

“Not the Mermaid. They don’t open ‘til three,” Barden said. (The Mermaid closed a few months later, shortly after its owner Quentin “Boots” Thelen died).

“Not Scotty’s. You’re looking out at public bathrooms,” Armstrong said.

“Not Hennesseys. We’d have to sell the farm,” Schumacher said. “I’ll have to change my lifestyle,” he added

“We’ve heard that before,” Barden said.

“I’ll miss the sunset services,” Armstrong said. ER

 
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