Part II – Orange County Mods 1982/83
Above: Mods with scooters parked outside Pizza Pete’s on the Balboa Peninsula in Newport Beach. Mine is the red and white one in the middle…
Our group of mods in 1982 wasn’t the first group of mods from Orange County, the first wave arrived a couple years before we did.
Our mod season began around the time of the last tour of The Jam in May of 1982.
Early in the summer of 1982 me and my friends Mark, Rodney, Dana and a few others started hanging out on Balboa Peninsula in Newport Beach at a place called Pizza Pete’s. We would park our scooters right in front for hours, smoking cigarettes, drinking, listening to music and watching the people go by.
Soon we started to attract a number of other mod kids as word got out that a group of mods were hanging out at Pizza Pete’s every night, getting into all kinds of trouble.
The Garden Grove mods joined us as did the Huntington Beach mods, and the Costa Mesa mods and the Santa Ana mods, and then more and more…
Above: Richard “Sparky” Sihilling, one of the leaders of the Orange County scooter club called The 100 Klub
Some nights we had 30-40 scooters and 40 to 60 kids hanging out and going for late night scooter rides.
By the late summer a mod girl (whose name eludes me) who lived on Balboa Island had joined our nightly group. She had Quadrophenia on video tape and a very lenient mom – many nights we would all crash there and watch the movie until daybreak.
From 1982 through 1983 the mod scene exploded.
Soon we had several clubs like The Concert Factory, Circle City and Radio City to go to, listen to bands, hear DJs spin cool mod and ska tunes and dance. By the summer of 1983 there were hundreds of mod kids in Orange County, many with new Vespa scooters.
That spring and summer we had several scooter rallies which each had a couple hundred scooters riding together down Pacific Coast Highway.
Above: Zoot Scoot Rally II rolling down Pacific Coast Highway – Spring 1983 – Photo from The Register Newspaper.
From all corners of Orange County there were new bands forming, lots of parties to go to and various scooter or mod related things going on all the time. Or, at least that’s how it seemed to me… but then again, this was practically all I was doing.
Next:
Part III – Clubs, Bands and Music
Part IV – The Untouchables and the LA Mods
Part V – Fliers, Buttons and Other Memorabilia
Previously:
Gallery of Images – Orange County Mods 1982/83
Related posts:
Part I - My Scooter This is a machine that changed my life... This ...
Part III - Clubs, Bands and Music Above: The Concert Factory on Mod Nigh...
Part IV - The Untouchables and the LA Mods Above: The first issue of Twi...
Part V – Fliers, Buttons and Other Memorabilia Above: From my button col...
I remember you, Jon. I knew you through Angela and used to come down from LA to visit. I also spent quite a few summer nights hanging out on Balboa Island. One of the girls you and Angela are talking to in the photo of you two sitting on your scooter is named Tiffanie. I wonder where all those gals are now.
After Angela and I split up and I left the mod scene I never kept up with anyone, but I remember you – you were very cool. I remember Tiffanie too (though I had forgotten her name) – I remember she had a nice laugh and was also good to talk too…
Aw, flatterer! You were a terribly smart fellow yourself! I distinctly remember going down to visit Angela one particular weekend and the three of us going out to some infamous burger stand. I think that was the weekend Angela had a big New Years Eve party. Anyhoo, I’m glad to hear you are well and it’s so lovely to see your mementos from a very fun time.
No way, I remember Sparky. Used to hang with him at Circle City, then on to Quadrophenia at the City for a midnight showing. Good memories! Thanks for the post bro!!
You’re welcome – my pleasure!