STORIES FROM THE PAST

50 years ago

If your fashion tastes run parallel with the socalled “hip” generation you might have in your possession a number of “hippie beads,” used to grace your newly acquired wardrobe of leather bellbottoms and puff sleeved shirts. Or perhaps your “hang-up” is security through “bead chewing.” You function impervious to any disaster because there is a two-foot string of beads hanging from your mouth. Either way, if those beads were purchased in Mexico and they are jequirity beans, you may be headed for that great rock festival in the sky.

According to the Food and Drug Administration, jequirity beans are highly poisonous. Importation into the United States is prohibitive. Tourists buying bead necklaces should be aware of the ban on the beans and the customs agents will confiscate them at the border.

There are two types of jequirity beans; both of the pea family and grown in a pod. The distinction in the beans depends on where the beans have been severed from the pod. Both types are black and red in color. The black covers about a third of the bean. A small, white notch designated the area that has been attached to the pod. One type has the notch in the black area; the other had the notch in the red area. Jequirity beans are toxic enough to cause death to children, Officials say children may be attracted by the bright color and come tempted to put them in their mouths. The beans are used in making novelty items such as necklaces and toys. Recently, the Sears stores received a shipment of novelties made from jequirity beans. A federal officer happened to spot the items in a Los Angeles store and identified them as the toxic beans.

40 years ago

The coroner’s office today said the victim of a fatal knife attack last week in Calexico’s Border Park had been separated from his family for over five years because of an alcohol problem.

Deputy Coroner Avis Crowder said Penciano Garcia, 34, had dropped out of sight and his family, which resided in Marysville, had no idea of his whereabouts until he became Imperial County’s 13th murder victim last

Thursday.

Meanwhile, the man charged with Garcia’s murder has been arraigned in Calexico Municipal Court and ordered to appear for preliminary hearing Aug. 7. Santiago Inzunza Sandoval, 25, was arrested July 24 shortly after Garcia was found lying on the grass in Border Park suffering from stab wounds.

Crowder said Garcia left his Marysville home “about five years ago” after he apparently was unable to cope with his family and a bad drinking problem. Calexico police officers last week said they remembered Garcia was a frequent visitor at Border Park, also dubbed “Wino Park” by some Calexico locals and police because of the large number of intoxicated people who inhabit the park. Two days before Garcia was stabbed, Officer Gus Araiza said he had confronted an “intoxicated” Garcia at the park “and almost arrested him for being drunk in public.”

30 years ago

The shifting sands and steep drops of the Algodones Dunes in Imperial County can be a rollercoaster ride for some people. But those who are not careful may find themselves in a playground of pain. In seasons past, injured riders needing medical attention in sometimes life-threatening circumstances would have to wait while U.S. Bureau of Land Management staff searched for a good Samaritan to lend a four-seater dune buggy for transport, or wait until authorities called the Yuma Marine Air Corps Station for an airlift helicopter.

“It is a continuing problem to try to reach people in the dunes,” said Jim Grizzell, a visitor services specialist with the BLM’S El Centro Resource areas. “We have been very fortunate in that we have been able to find somebody with a dune buggy to get in and out of there.”

But this winter riding season, a Monrovia manufacturing company will make it a little safer and more comfortable for those injured in off-road vehicle accidents in the dunes. Craig and Leigh Anne Hanloh, dune buggy builders and owners of Sand Rail Manufacturing Co. in Monrovia have built an emergency medical dune buggy and donated it to the BLM. Agency staff say it will save them valuable time when they are attempting a rescue.