Goleta Boys Club vet plans reunion

ERIC LINDBERG
DAILY SOUND STAFF WRITER

Fifty years ago, at the Goleta Boys Club, Len Ramirez, Sr., and his paddle reigned supreme.
In 1956, Ramirez, then 29, had come on board as a volunteer to help run the club and its 12-and-under drum corps. With his firm hand and strict guidance, he kept the group of young boys in line and out of trouble at an age when he said they were tempted to start hanging out with a bad crowd.

Turning 80 next month, Ramirez is planning a 50-year reunion for the members of the drum corps during his eight years at the club. Glancing through his thick, black-rimmed glasses with his kind, sadly sloping eyes, Ramirez spoke of the long practices and weekend parades that kept the boys busy from 6 to 9 every evening.
The deep booming of the bass drum and the patter of the snares could be heard throughout Goleta, he said, as they ran through marching beats and prepared for parades. With uniforms bought by parents and handed down through the years, the boys piled into an old bus — along with Ramirez and occasionally a few parents — and traveled to events from Santa Maria to La Habra.
"We always won trophies," Ramirez said, "because we were the only grammar school-aged group with a drum corps."
When they traveled down to the Los Angeles area, they slept on the gym floor at local schools before waking up early to perform. Getting the rowdy boys to sleep at night was always a challenge.
"My paddle came in handy," Ramirez said.
It wasn't all discipline with Ramirez, however. On trips back from Los Angeles, they stopped off at the Santa Monica Pier, where the children went on the carnival rides. He slipped a few quarters to those who didn't have any money on the condition that they didn't tell any of the other kids.
As almost a father figure to the boys, Ramirez held spaghetti dinners at his home and built kites and footstools in the club's wood shop. His wife helped stitch the uniforms to fit the drummers, a group that typically had about 30 members.
Most of the children in the group were minority youth from an impoverished area along Fairview Avenue, he said, and one of the first problems he had to deal with was racial tension.
"They weren't a gang, but they were a tight group," Ramirez said. "They didn't like the 'whiteys' coming in to their boys club."
After he spotted a group picking on a new kid, he suited them up with huge, 16-ounce boxing gloves and put them in the ring.
"I knew they couldn't hurt each other with those huge gloves," Ramirez said. "They could barely lift them."
After they slugged it out, he took them out to the front of the boys club, then located at the Santa Barbara Municipal Airport, and pointed to the sign.
"It says Boys Club," he said, "not black, white, green, yellow, whatever. ... When they found out I meant business, I got their respect."
In addition to their respect, he also earned a nickname, "Nariz" — which means "nose" in English — for his bulbous proboscis.
Chawa Ramirez, no relation to Len, had three sons involved in the drum corps, Robert and Nash, who played in the group, and 9-year-old Frank, who helped clean the uniforms.
"They were well-educated, well-minded kids," she said. "The drum corps was the one thing that really brought them up well."
As Chawa and Len discussed the role the Goleta Boys Club played in both their lives, the conversation eventually turned to the youth problems facing the Goleta and Santa Barbara area today.
"Kids today need closer supervision," Len Ramirez said.
During the 50s, children could go to the boys club and get involved in the drums corps, wood shop or other activities. Unable to afford television, spending time at the club served as their only form of entertainment.
"That's what they need at the boys club today," Chawa Ramirez said. "They need help with crafts, to get them involved and get them off the streets."
Len Ramirez spent 30 years volunteering with boys clubs throughout Santa Barbara and Goleta, helping to build the downtown Santa Barbara and Westside boys clubs, as well as the Goleta Boys Club. Upon his retirement from running the drum corps in 1963, he was honored with the Golden Boy Award, the second-highest honor given by the organization.
Ramirez is in the process of tracking down the boys who participated in the drum corps, now in their 60s, to alert them to the reunion, which will be held for immediate family on November 10 at the current Goleta Boys Club on Hollister Avenue. To get in touch with Ramirez, call 805-964-7858 or e-mail bjcarrell@cox.net.