“We wanted to create camaraderie among the women and be a service group for the Yacht Club and the community. In time, we also became a fundraising group,” Lowry said.
The women, some dressed in scarves, cat-eye glasses, pearls and capri pants, posed for pictures in a baby blue 1957 Ford T-bird convertible parked in front of the club’s entrance, then headed to three Corona del Mar homes hosting the luncheon.
Las Commodoras President Terese Ivory coordinated the menu items, asking women to bring specific dishes. She said the recipes came straight out of the book found in most 1950s baby boomer kitchens — the red and white, hardback edition of the Betty Crocker Cook Book.
Deviled eggs, tuna-noodle casserole, Spam salad and corn flake-crusted chicken were some of the foods available for sampling. Cosmopolitans were the drink of the day.
Elvis memorabilia collector Linda Tasooji’s house was the first stop on the tour. The King’s tunes played inside and out, and her collection was on display.
Member Ann Carter thinks she was lucky to be a teen growing up in late 1950s Texas.
“It was fun and innocent. The worst thing we could do was drink a beer,” Carter said. “I saw Ricky Nelson and Elvis in concert in Fort Worth. The music [back then] had such a good beat, and you could understand the words.”
Cosmo in hand, another former Las Commodoras president, Doretta Ensign, recalled growing up in Laguna and driving her Ford with the top down. Her husband was a lifeguard, she said, and they’d hang around the local beaches looking like something out of the Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello “Beach Blanket Bingo” movies.
