El Toro Road

Posted on July 20, 2003 in The Orange Writing in Orange

Living in Orange topic for July 20, 2003: Write about something you saw while going somewhere in Orange County.

Freedom Village. A beige retirement community for the elderly with buses that take them to Laguna Hills Mall, local theaters, and other area attractions. You can find it along El Toro Road, south of the tracks and north of the freeway. It boasts liberation and keeps outsiders out by means of a spiked stucco-covered wall.

When I drove past it the other day on my way to Barnes and Noble for the air conditioning, I saw a line of school children led by three leaders. The kids wore either flaming orange t-shirts or gentle sky blue long-sleeved sweatshirts. Their young adult counselors herded them along the sidewalk, north towards the Saddleback.

I had no idea where they were coming from, where they were going.

Seven minutes later, after I passed Interstate 5 and Moulton Parkway, I saw a helicopter with a single orange spot on its side hovering over some hulking condominiums. I rolled down the window: there were no sirens and I could not guess why it flew there. Perhaps some observations were being made.

El Toro Road stretches from a point just beneath me to its intersection with Laguna Canyon Road, some 16 to 20 miles away. I do not see many pedestrians along the route. Just the occasional Latina day worker waiting for a bus, the Women in Black on Wednesdays, and kids going or coming from a mall. Other than that, I see the Jeeps, the Land Rovers, the Asian-made SUVs, the Fords, the Lexuses, Harleys, Honda motorcycles, Toyotas, Cadillacs, and all the other vehicles that raise the level of the street by two to three feet and give it a painted steel surface. I can’t explain the reason for each of them being there, but I accept them as flow. People going places. People stopped at lights or pulling into parking lots. No destination known to me. No origin certain.