Laguna Breeze | July/August 2024
THEN AND NOW | VILLAGE BREEZE JULY/AUGUST 2024
“I remember working at Gate 1 and looking across El Toro where ground squirrels were chasing one another from hole to hole and where Gate 5 stands now,” said Sergeant Nate Willner, a member of the community’s original nine-man security team. “Our busiest hour was from 6:30 to 7:30 a.m. to allow construction vehicles to enter,” he recalled. After the busiest hour, “a resident or service vehicle would enter every 10 to 15 minutes,” he said. Today, vehicles enter constantly. Willner reminisced about deer crossing El Toro Road and cattle breaking out of their pasture where Gate 7 now stands. He enjoyed every minute of working while on the force and felt he learned a lot about human nature on the job.
Among Willner’s other memories were the buses taking residents to Alexander’s Supermarket in Tustin, the closest market at the time. Other recollections included seeing the occasional fox, a red-headed vulture and UCLA paleontology students digging for bones and fossils.
