Carol Tanner's seven-year service tribute

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percent of "Americans" have smoked
Hermosa's favorite librarian
mistaken for 10 on seventh
Hermosa Beach
12
by Timothy Purpus
Popping open the little lid on Her-
mosa Beach, we might find the fester-
ing drug-pushers of The Falcon & the
Snowman or the roller-skating beauty
queens long celebrated in situation
comedies on television. And we might
also find Carol Tanner.
Carol has made historic inroads into
the beach community. She helped to
save Hermosa's oldest historic land-
mark -the Vetter Windmill -and she
was ân original member of the Her-
mosa Improvement Commission. But
all of this is so cut-and-dry compared
to the lady herself.
Last week the Hermosa Beach
Friends of the Library felt they could
resist no longer their efforts to thank
Carol for working as a library assistant
these past ten years in our only local
library. The party was mobilized into a
force of bookish fun-lovers, and a cake
was ordered. Carol, as ever, a little
reluctant to join on the bandwagon
named in her honor, casually leafed
through the files to see just how long
she had served in the little library.
Oops, it had been 7, not ten, years of
service.
Hermosa librarian Carol Tanner. Photo by
Ron Miller.
It didn't matter a damn to those in
charge. The number on the cake had
to be changed and the press releases
altered somewhat, but years had little
to do with anything by the time every-
one was into a hug and a "thank you."
Fine, fine.
Cont'd on page 17

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All there is to write about Hermosa
are the townspeople. The festering, or
bickering, or endearing or unnerving
people who fold themselves between
the season renters and the casual flow
of jazz-listeners at the Lighthouse.
Now that Evie Belasco is gone, now
that the flow of goodness has been
altered in mid-stream and passed onto
those of us who really do love the
original and lively young blades and
beauties of the area, there is suddenly
Carol with the roar of welcome from
the library steps and the gift of laugh-
ter through a thousand fundraisers.
And even if she avoids our weekends
totally (she has a friend in another
county) and is not so frequently at city
council meetings, she remains a bene-
ficial force for Hermosa.
She is courted for her person and not
for her status, and her place in Her-
mosa is right at the top. Carol is mere-
ly the best we offer and she's on dis-
play continually at the library-like
our own little queen or the statûes of
heros we do not know any longer,
though we do know Carol.