Dick & Alberta Wagoneer moved to North Park 21 years ago.  Since then, they have been creating and maintaining what I would call the most striking garden on my street.  (My photos are not doing it justice!)  I've been walking by and admiring it for 8 years and I finally had the pleasure of meeting them today.  It was another reminder of why I love living in North Park; it's the people.  Okay...maybe it's the flowers, too.



Dick and Alberta lived for many years in El Cajon where they both worked as Elementary School teachers.  When they retired, they wanted a smaller home and something closer to the kinds of activities they enjoy, like going downtown to the symphony and walking at the beach.  North Park offered just that.  (They nearly purchased a condo in Mission Hills, but Dick plays the organ and the HOA wasn't sure they wanted him sharing walls with others; this led them next to our neck of the woods.) 
When they bought their North Park home back in 1988, it needed a ton of work.  (It had been built in the 40's by the family that also owned the house next door.)  Dick and Alberta worked on it for a year before it was ready to move into.  They have completely transformed it and, I might add, did so before North Park became a "trendy" place to live.   They had vision.



Naturally they've seen things change around here.  They joke that they used to the youngest people in the 'hood.  Many of their neighbors were original owners from the 30's & 40's who were elderly and unable to maintain their properties.  (But they loved their neighors, who were all welcoming and neighborly.)  Gradually those original owners were replaced by new, younger ones who restored and improved the historic  homes.  They find it amusing that they've now become the "old" people on the block.

They call North Park the "10 minutes from everywhere" neighborhood.  I couldn't agree more.