Bringing Life Experience to Law – Looking Back

by Stephanie Elgin

Born at the Queen of Angels hospital in Los Angeles in 1951, Gina MacDonald spent most of her childhood years in Burbank, later relocating to the San Fernando Valley and eventually making her way here to Santa Clarita in 1977.   “I go back quite a ways,” states Gina, “I remember Dilenbeck’s Market which was a real Mom and Pop grocery store off of Sierra Highway where the Albertson’s shopping center is.  I also remember the ‘Mustang Drive-In’, which is where you turn from Soledad Canyon Road to reach Golden Valley.”  Apparently this was the place to be other than outside of the bowling alley or Plaza Theatre on Lyons Avenue.  
Gina also remembers the Honey House, where she would take her daughters Kristie and Brie, to see how honey was made.  There once was a time when she could smell the onions growing in the fields that are now Central Park, or see all of the carrots grown by “Bunny Luv” which is currently home to the Hart Pony League.  “If you wanted a good shopping trip,” states Gina, “you were either going to Kmart or J.J. Newberry’s for your local shopping trips and if the kids were good, you would then go to the coffee shop that was right next door.  The Backwoods Inn was the ‘go to’ restaurant– where the waitresses wore square dancing dresses and crinoline  ‘poofies’ underneath!”
Looking back, life in Santa Clarita was being able to drive down Soledad Canyon Road from Langside Avenue until Bouquet Canyon Road without any signals, College of the Canyons was a very small campus, and the weekends were spent at the Saugus Swap Meet and the car races.  “I remember one year,” states Gina, “when we had had so much rain that one-half of Soledad Canyon Road was undermined by the water from the Santa Clarita Riverbed.  Being that it was the main thoroughfare, it meant there was only one lane each way until they could shore up Soledad Canyon Road and change how the Santa Clarita River was draining!”
“My late husband, Dan, and I made a great choice when we decided to move out here.  The Santa Clarita Valley was perfect.  It had a great school system, the children could walk to and from school, the teachers were very accessible,” states Gina.  Our daughters graduated from Rio Vista Elementary School, Sierra Vista Junior High School and Canyon High School.”  Gina and her daughters also graduated from College of the Canyons.  “The caliber of the professors was excellent.  I have great respect for Dr. Dianne Van Hook, she has done wonders for the College of the Canyons with her vision and commitment to the school.”
In 1985, Gina began law school and in 1993, just a few years after the passing of her husband, Dan, she started her own practice.  “I understood the Santa Clarita Valley.  I had worked within the community and thought, having lived through the loss of my father, who passed away at 72, and Dan’s death, I could bring not only my legal background, but also my life experience to helping my clients.  Having worked for attorneys for so long I felt I could blend a common sense approach to the practice of law to help clients understand their options in not only a legal, but practical way.  I live and work in this Valley because I like this Valley.  I like the people of this Valley and the fact that it is a family centered community doing its best to provide for the entire population.”