Page 12 August 5, 2021 EL SEGUNDO HERALD
Craig Parker from front page
Marine Corps from 1966-68, he never missed
a Fourth of July show, always ensuring that
he was in town on that special day.
As an electrician, Parker worked at Wise
Electric until his retirement. He also served
stints working in the television industry, toiling
as a grip or key grip on a couple of television
shows that you may have heard of, including
M*A*S*H and the Mary Tyler Moore show.
Parker loved the Christmas holiday season,
lights, festivities, and the December parade
down Main Street. In days gone by, El Segundo
featured a Santa’s Village in the area in front
of City Hall. At that time, Candy Cane Lane
had not been officially branded, but, Jennifer
said, was “just a bunch of neighbors who did
an excellent job with their lights.”
Jennifer said that, sometime in the ’90s, the
city decided that the annual Candy Cane Lane
extravaganza could benefit from a publicity push
from the city. Talented electrician Parker was
tasked with running the electrical gizmos that
would make Candy Cane Lane a virtual power
strip that the City of El Segundo could light
up for a few weeks, drawing in non-residents
to view the spectacle.
Parker didn’t stop his civic involvement there.
One of the early organizers of the Main Street
“circle stones.” Parker bought at least three of
said stones. Two of which are located outside
of his beloved Wendy’s Café, where he took
breakfast as often as possible. The other circle
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health was declining, a lot of people helped him.
My sister and I both live out-of-state,” she said,
so they could not lend a hand in caregiving as
Parker’s health deteriorated. Neighbors would
pitch in and help “bailing my Dad out of situations,”
she said, as Parker’s dementia worsened.
“He was such a great guy to everyone, and
then dementia got ahold of him and changed
his personality,” Jennifer said. “He became
angry and defiant, and kind of took it out on
a lot of people, which was really hard to hear,
because he was so giving,” but after about a
year, he was “cussing people out,” yet the
townspeople treated him with so much grace…
he walked everywhere…then when he couldn’t
walk, we got him a tricycle, which he rode all
over the place…The fact that the city took care
of him is really a big deal.” Over his final
years, Jennifer said that her father “got into
a fair amount of trouble. It was amazing that
he was at one point recognized as Citizen of
the Year!”
Parker went to work in Saudi Arabia in 1978,
serving as a cost and scheduling engineer for
the Fluor company. He returned to the states
in 1982, and Joan, who he had met during
his tenure in Saudi Arabia, followed him to
America. The couple was married in 1985.
Parker moved to El Segundo on July 1, 1988.
He loved the Fourth of July, Jennifer said, and
he would stake out a spot at Rec Park to watch
the iconic fireworks show. A member of the U.S
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stone embedded in the sidewalk on the west
side of Main Street marked the spot that he
and his family members would settle down to
watch the annual Christmas Parade.
A tad bit to the north, Parker has his handprint
memorialized in what might be termed
“butterfly and handprint alley,” which is located
between two Main Street buildings. Jennifer
said that Parker took it upon himself to repaint
the signatures on the wall periodically.
With a keen eye on his El Segundo neighborhood,
Parker would venture across Main Street
to do a little gardening, cutting the grass at what
is now Library Park, if he thought the grass
was growing a little too tall. He also spent a
good amount of time tidying up Main Street,
picking up trash, and pulling weeds the day
before the Christmas Parade, manned with his
trash bag. Jennifer said that her father termed
his duties “spiffing-it-up.” Then when the family
arrived, Parker would have their viewing spot
set up, on their circle stone, with chairs. Over
the 25 years or so, Parker would participate in
the parade and drum up support for participation
by others in the parade.
“He was Christmas,” Jennifer said, mentioning
how Parker was “always buying Christmas
décor, stringing things up,” and when the Santa’s
Village started to need a refresh, was always
a guy who you could count on to take the
time to “paint something, make it look better.”
A Morningside High graduate in 1963, Parker
was an accomplished pole vaulter. After settling
in El Segundo, he took advantage of the
blue waters of the Pacific Ocean, surfing and
boogie-boarding. He also had a standing tee
time at The Lakes Golf Course on senior day
and was a member of the El Segundo senior
tennis player group.
In his later years, Jennifer said that Parker
“broke a lot of clubs” on the golf course and
seemed to remember brilliant shots, like a
hole-in-one, that nobody else in his group could
remember happening. And she shared that,
eventually, Parker was banned from the tennis
courts for his John McEnroe-ish bombastic
behavior. “Dementia sucks; it just changed
him,” Jennifer said. “It is such an indignity to a
strong man, with a strong spirit, like my Dad.”
Back to his visits to Wendy’s, “Most of all,
Dad was a regular at Wendy’s,” wrote Jennifer.
“He took breakfast there about three times a week
for 33 years, as well as eating fish on Friday’s.”
He met Wendy Wallace more than 30 years
ago. It seems Wendy noticed Joan Parker’s
British accent and came over to chat with the
Parkers, with Wendy being a Brit ex-pat and all.
“The first time (my parents) went to Wendy’s,”
Jennifer shared, “Wendy said she loved my
Mom and tolerated my Dad.” Towards the
end, “it seemed to be the only place that he
could remember to get to. Wendy’s was his
touchstone. Countless times he would show
up, and they would serve him, even though he
may not have been in any shape to be served.
They brought him home dozens of times. I am
convinced they kept him alive longer than he
would have survived by feeding him a daily
meal. One of the hardest things I had to do
was place my Dad’s picture on the shelf above
the cash register (where Wendy’s stalwart customers
who have passed are memorialized). I
can remember all of the faces on that shelf,
remember all of them aging, too, sitting at that
counter, probably for their one good meal of
the day---slugging each other’s arms passing by,
or just a nod as another ‘old guy’ sat down.”
Jennifer was emotional during our phone call
when talking about how the staff at Wendy’s
would always go far above and beyond to
take care of her father. They took care of him
when he suffered a bike injury, crashing across
the street from Wendy’s. And didn’t create a
ruckus when, in his final years, Parker would
forget to pay his tab at Wendy’s.
April Shevlin is a long-time waitress at
Wendy’s. She related that she, wink-wink,
did not want to share certain, probably ribald,
stories about Parker, but did text that “one of
my biggest and fondest memories of him was
when he played Santa at the tree-lighting
ceremony. He was perfect for it (with his big
belly and great laugh). I remember when he and
Joan got Citizens of the Year,” Shevlin texted,
calling the moments she spent with Parker “always
a good time, that laugh was the best!!!”
Over breakfast at Wendy’s, one of Parker’s
granddaughters, Sarah, who called Parker
“Poppa,” related a story that sheds some light
on the man. It seems she was 13-or-so, and
Parker decided that it was time for her to learn
to drive. Now, they were in Oklahoma at the
time, which is where his daughter Jennifer
lives. And the roads are a tad bit less congested
than the mess that is our 405. Anyway, the
barely aged teenager started barreling down
the highway, with Parker riding shotgun, paying
not-so-much attention to nascent driving
skills, as he was more interested in sipping his
Scotch and reading a book. However, he did
glance over occasionally and advised Sarah of
the necessity of gently tapping as opposed to
stomping on the brakes when a stop or slowdown
was required.
It all ended well. Sarah and Parker survived
the erstwhile driving lesson. Sarah said that the
driving excursion epitomized her grandfather,
saying that he was “born with the fun button
stuck in the on-position.”
He was the ultimate good-time Charlie,”
Jennifer said. “He always made time for fun
and lived at full throttle his whole life.”
Seems like a life well-lived, though cut
too short. •