Parents what are you thinking?
On Super Bowl Sunday at 9 p.m. in the dark night in the Hill area of Seal Beach there were many after parties. Drivers had been drinking and boys age 9 or 10 were riding razor scooters in the middle of the street. Parents, what are you thinking? – are you thinking?
Norma Chafe
Seal Beach
Good samaritans
I do not need to tell you just how incredible and threatening the recent weather has been here in Seal Beach.
My windows rattled and the trees simply came apart from the water weight and wind. My husband sent me to the Seal Beach fire station to fill sand bags as he tried desperately to secure our shutters and board over a broken window.
When I pulled into the fire station, I saw several people frantically loading sand bags into their cars, and thought there would not be any left for us.
As I walked up to them I noticed two young firefighters tirelessly shoveling sand into bags for them. One man got 12, another 6, the lady before me was waiting for 20 and I needed 18.
The woman holding her bags open for the scoops asked if they were volunteers, and the two young men replied “yes, we are reserves.”
Their first names were Mike and Danny, I didn’t catch the last names.
I thought I was going to have to stand in the pouring rain and do it myself, but not today.
They had been filling sandbags for hours for people and happy to do it.
They had such positive personalities and reminded me of why we love Seal Beach so much—for its people! These two men make me proud of our fire service volunteers, and we are lucky to have them.
As they loaded my sandbags, another man pulled up and started to help them fill the 20 bags he needed for the shop owners on Main Street.
It’s wonderful to have local people helping during a crisis. It is nice to know that there are still treasures like this to be found at the beach!
Tina Marie
Seal Beach
Praise for police
This letter is being written to praise the Seal Beach Police Department regarding the recent tornado warning.
I lived most of my life in an area that would be considered tornado alley in Illinois.
Never, ever did I or anyone else receive a warning call from the police department or for that matter any other city department.
The Seal Beach Police Department made wonderful calls to help me be aware of the on-coming storms recently.
The city of Seal Beach is a great community and the Seal Beach Police Department helps to make it so.
Bless Seal Beach!
Carol Franz
Leisure World
Remembering grandpa Dennis
Editor’s note: The following is from the granddaughter of the late Dennis Pollman. The scope of edition notes for his obituary could not include these comments, but we share them in this space with the Sun’s readers.
My grandpa was strong and very business-like with everyone. Whenever he would call me, it would sound like this: “Uh, Morgan, yes this is uh, Dennis Pollman.”
I always would ask him why he would even leave a message for me like that since he was my grandpa and I knew who it was by his number. He never did stop leaving me messages like that either!
He was a part of my life throughout my childhood and someone whom I looked up to in the business world.
My grandpa is the reason why I chose to major in business management because I saw how successful he was and still has been up until Feb. 5, 2010.
My grandpa was very stern about wanting to be the first person who I would have my first drink with at 21. He took me to 320 down on Main Street in Seal Beach and I felt so special that he wanted to be the first to do this with me.
He then took me after dinner to “his place.”
I am talking about Dave’s Other Place and if you have never been there … it’s more of a familiar hang out for the locals.
I definitely was not one of them in a DVF dress and L.A.M.B. heels and I stood out like a sore thumb.
He never took me there again, but couldn’t figure out why I wasn’t in love with the place.
Dennis went to Southern Utah University and always wanted to take me so I could attend his alma mater.
He would hound me about “oh, let’s go this weekend or let me take you on a tour of the campus. We can plan it right now!”
I always told him I couldn’t get the time off since I work full-time and attend CSULB full-time and need to plan months in advance.
He always hassled me how I wouldn’t go bond with him, but I knew it was out of love.
Grandpa Dennis wanted me to take over his company, Pollman Insurance … at least that is what he said. He told me that I better start working on my 52-hour course to get my license if that was going to be the deal.
About a week before he passed, that is exactly what he said, but he told me I had a month to start working on it because he wasn’t going to be here much longer.
He and I already had the discussion about it over lunch a few times, and he told me that he couldn’t match my check to what Nordstrom was paying me because then he’d have to fire someone. I told him he could take it or leave it and, well, I’m still at Nordstrom, but definitely not disappointed!
I was very fortunate to choose to spend Christmas and Thanksgiving with my grandpa.
I had the whole meal planned out and was so excited to cook Thanksgiving dinner.
Dennis always told everyone that he was allergic to chicken and didn’t like turkey.
I made Cheesy Hashbrowns and Cranberry Turkey Meatballs and can I tell you that he ate it and loved it.
I told him that the meatballs were pork, and he thought it was the best thing he’d every eaten and he wasn’t eating because he was sick with the staph infection.
He took me, and only me, to see movies.
We saw “Valkyrie” together and “Inglorious Bastards.”
He always ordered a large popcorn and large diet Coke to share with two straws, yet he always was drinking from mine. This was something he enjoyed and would call his friends about after on the car ride home to brag that he was bonding with his granddaughter.
When I turned 16, he was the first person to offer to get me a car.
He and I went online, looked through Auto-Trader, and even went to the Lexus dealer.
Well, he never did get me a car, but he did give me his mother’s Lincoln.
My friends liked to call it “Cruella Daville.”
When I went to return it back to him after buying my own vehicle, he told me it looked like someone poured acid all over it.
If you knew my grandpa, he was cheap when it came to certain things and he got a cheap paint job … that was the problem.
The paint chips were flying off the car, never any acid, and he would never let that go.
When I was younger, I spent a lot of time over at my grandma Bette and papa Dennis’ home.
Dennis would go out on Tuesdays and stock up on dozens, I mean dozens, of McDonalds cheeseburgers for 39 cents.
He would then freeze them and for me, whenever I was over, that was my treat!
I couldn’t wait for that. He did love their cheeseburgers.
Morgan Nolette, 22 years old
Dennis Pollman’s Granddaughter
