Neighbors reunite for Altadena badminton night that’s been going since WWII

On a balmy summer evening, neighbors started trickling into Bonnie and John Hedrick’s house on Lincoln Avenue in Altadena.

“Good to see you. Crazy times. How are you?” a neighbor said as they exchanged hugs.

In front of the house was a green and red badminton court with plastic lawn chairs lined up on one side — somehow untouched by the Eaton Fire in January.

 ”It's a blessing to still have a house,” Bonnie Hedrick said. “I'm grateful every day and our neighbors are starting to come back. It's beginning to feel a little more like normal.”

Bonnie and John Hedrick pose with their grandson Leo at their house, which survived the fire. The couple took over hosting duties of the game in 2002.

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Brian Feinzimer

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LAist

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Todd Hedrick, left front, shakes hands with his mother, Bonnie. Todd, who also lost his home in the fire, had been inviting new players to the game.

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Brian Feinzimer

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LAist

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The Hedricks were hosting the 81st season of a badminton game that started with a group of Altadena neighbors back in the 1940s. Many of the players are still displaced after the Eaton Fire.

“It’s nice when they can come here and sort of reconnect a little bit because it's tough," Hedrick said. "They're all rebuilding, more or less. But it's tough."

Deb Halberstadt, an Altadena resident since the late 1970s, lost her and her husband’s house a few blocks away.

Scudder Nash, a longtime resident of Altadena, originated the neighborhood badminton game at his house to celebrate the end of WWII in 1945. He died in 2004, but neighbors have kept the game going.

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Courtesy Tom and Bonnie Smith

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“These are all my friends. The society of Altadena is what’s keeping us all together — our friends, not the structures,” said Halberstadt, who came to the game with her husband Jon Hainer. “It's friends and lots and lots of people want to come back — and badminton is part of it.”

As the story goes, the first game started on a summer evening in 1945 at another house on East Marathon Road in Altadena as a way for neighbors to celebrate V-J Day, the end of WWII. As it happened, the owner of the house, Carl “Scudder” Nash had a badminton court.

“They had such a good time that night, they did it again the next week, and they did it the week after that,” said Jon Hainer, who lived across the street from Nash. “This is now the 81st season of the neighbors doing it over and over again.”

Nash, a longtime Pasadena and Altadena resident, turned hosting duties over to the Hedricks in 2002; they poured concrete onto their driveway in the front of their house, painted it, and have since carried on the game. Nash died a year-and-a-half later at the age of 98.

Nash’s original house with the badminton court also burned down in the fire.

Hainer, who joined the game in 1990, remembers the original players — who are no longer alive — sharing their stories courtside about WWII, and how Pasadena was first electrified.

“It really fills my heart, you know, that the game is continuing strong. When we first came, the World War II vets and the Korean War vets were our age now, so suddenly I am in that role. How many things in life are like that?” he said.

An old photo shows a sidewalk leads to the badminton court at Scudder Nash's old house in Altadena, where he started the badminton game in 1945.

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Courtesy Lily Kaskiewicz

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The house burned down in the Eaton fire. Remnants of the badminton court's blacktop remain.

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Courtesy Lily Kaskiewicz

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Since the fires, the Hedricks’ son, Todd, has started to invite a younger generation of players. He himself is temporarily living in Arcadia because he also lost his house in the fire.

“This year definitely feels a little bit more important so people don't forget about it. So hopefully as the rebuilding happens, more people feel more willing to go,” he said.