Belmont Shore's `Ambassador' retires wave
The wave of a hand is such a simple gesture:
You lift your arm and move your hand from side to side. It's a nonverbal gesture, usually meaning hello or goodbye.
You won't find anyone better at the wave than Jim Gorsuch, the security guard who stood outside McCarty's Jewelry, 5011 E. Second St., in Belmont Shore.
For almost a dozen years, Gorsuch would take his post, stand next to his barstool under the green awning, his flip-up sunglasses turned upward, and wave and say hello to customers, passersby, people in their cars — and, it is whispered, even birds flying by.
But Gorsuch's days in front of the store have ended. The man some call the “Ambassador of Second Street” retired last month.
“I think what I will miss the most is the friendliness of the people in the Shore and the feeling of almost coming home when I would get on Second Street,” he said. “It was just a nice feeling.”
Gorsuch, 75, who moved to Southern
California from Baltimore years ago, worked for Allied Universal Protection Service. But he hasn't always been in the security business. He was employed by the Social Security Administration for 12 years and then with the U.S. Navy as a civilian employee when he moved out here.
When he started his assignment at the jewelry story on Oct. 23, 2009, Gorsuch admitted, he wasn't thrilled. He had been working full time at an office building on Fourth Street and McCarty's only needed him three days a week.
“At the time, I was thinking, `Three days a week?' I wasn't really happy,” he said. “I wondered if the protection company had someplace else they could send me, but they didn't. So, I said OK and I agreed to work at that post.”
The jewelry store is one of the oldest businesses in Belmont Shore, having opened in 1932. Page Henley took ownership of McCarty's 50 years later. He considered Gorsuch an integral part of the team.
“He would step up to volunteer to do anything at the store,” Henley said. “He was a team player. And I can't begin to tell you how many occasions there have been when someone would stop me and tell me, `I was walking by and not having a good day and Jim would say hello and brightened my day.'
“The man would wave at people, at cars, even birds,” Henley added with a laugh.
Gorsuch, in a 2013 interview, said that 80% of his job is customer service and about 20% is making security reports, but that the best part of the job was meeting people.
“I did enjoy saying hello to the babies,” Gorsuch said last week from his Seal Beach home. “They look at you and after a while they get to know you
“I think what I will miss the most is the friendliness of the people in the Shore and the feeling of almost coming home when I would get on Second Street. It was just a nice feeling.”
— Jim Gorsuch