DIANE BELL
She and her late husband, Al, drove from their Kansas home to California in 1941 in a borrowed 1929 Plymouth. Later they shared a passion for cruising throughout the world. Baber’s cruise tally is 39, and she just renewed her passport for another 10 years.
COVID canceled the family’s planned 100th birthday celebration in a Masonic hall on May 10. Instead, she was treated to a surprise birthday drive-by led by two CHP officers. Her birthday party was rescheduled for next May.
While Baber isn’t the only voter in the county age 100 or older, having cast her ballot a day after the polls opened, she certainly was one of the first.
“I hope to vote when I’m 104,” she says.
New normal: For nearly a century, Little Italy’s Our Lady of the Rosary church has observed Italian traditions that tie its parishioners to Italy. But the coronavirus has taken a toll on its activities. The church’s annual processional through Little Italy to the Embarcadero to bless the fishing boats was canceled this month.
This also marks the first
year the parish has scratched its annual spaghetti dinner, an 80-year tradition and its primary fundraiser. Church members opted instead to hold an online silent auction followed by a livestreamed telethon at 5 p.m. Oct. 17. It will show off the $2.4 million restoration of the church interior that began in January.
The virtual event also includes a performance by church leader Father Joe Tabígue, who, in keeping with the telethon theme, will sing his own version of “Let It Go.”
Monster news: With Halloween approaching, timing is right for disclosure
of the newest Tom DeLonge project — a sci-fi feature film titled “Monsters of California.”
The former frontman of the Poway-bred blink-182 rock band is directing the film. Deadline, an online entertainment news source, reported that the cast includes “Curb Your Enthusiasm” actor Richard Kind, along with “Starship Troopers’” Casper Van Dien and “Days of Our Lives’ ” Arianne Zucker.
Since leaving the band and founding Angels & Airwaves, DeLonge has devoted his time to UFO research, writing books and founding his To the Stars
Academy of Arts and Science in Encinitas.
His research and release of classified military videos of UFOs led to the recent History Channel airing of “Unidentified: Inside America’s UFO Investigation.” Earlier this year, the Pentagon finally declassified three unidentified f lying object videos that DeLonge previously had released.
The North County resident’s new coming-of-age sci-fi film, co-written with Ian Miller, focuses on growing up in the San Diego suburbs as a disaffected, irreverent teen skateboarder with a tight tribe of friends, he told Deadline.
The plot follows the teens as they investigate mysterious paranormal events that lead to discovery of a deep government coverup.
In 2017, DeLonge described his debut feature film (which then had a working title of “Strange Times”) to U-T music critic George Varga, saying it most likely would be filmed in Encinitas.
“It’s a coming-of-age, Spielberg-meets-John Hughes movie, but with a hard ‘R’ rating. It will be really funny, but scary, and touch on what it’s like to grow up here,” he said.