Nation: Richard Nixon Slept Here

For the ninth time since he acquired his California seashore spread, Richard Nixon last week was ensconced in his Western White House in San Clemente. For the President, San Clemente is more a change of scene than a change of pace. He still starts his office appointments at 8:30 a.m., and it is often 6 p.m. before he can get away in his golf cart to the nearby villa. Cabinet ministers, aides, politicians and Republican candidates churn in and out of the small city (pop. 17,000) as the business of state continues. Nixon's changes of scene, of course, inevitably alter San Clemente's own scene for both good and ill. To assess the changes, TIME Correspondents Simmons Fentress and Timothy Tyler collaborated on this report:

BEFORE Nixon's arrival in 1969, San Clemente was just another sleepy oasis on the luxuriant Southern California coast, a little-known haven for retired naval officers, wealthy businessmen and occasional refugees from smog-bound Los Angeles. Its most well-known citizen was Patrolman Bruce Crego, a red-haired giant known as "the Red Rider" for his prodigious feats with the summons pad. Until his retirement three years ago, Patrolman Crego handed out more than 5,000 speeding tickets a year to motorists passing through town on El Camino Real highway, which links Los Angeles with San Diego.

Only Twice. Now, when Nixon is in town, San Clemente hums with the business of the most powerful nation on earth—and of the camp followers. Camera-laden tourists by the hundreds cruise the once-quiet, mimosa-lined boulevards in the hope of spotting the President. The San Clemente Inn provides maps of the quarter-mile route to the gates of the Western White House, but all the tourist gets is the gates; a grove of palms hides Nixon's offices and home.

"I doubt that there are 200 people in San Clemente who've actually seen him," says Mayor Walter Evans. "We never know he's in town unless we've been reading the papers," adds W.E. Buckmaster, a longtime resident. Indeed, Nixon has only been in San Clemente proper twice. Once, when he and Bebe Rebozo were driving in the President's white Continental, they stopped off at Taylor's Pharmacy on Del Mar Avenue so that the Chief could buy a box of Russell Stover candy for Pat. Another time, the two dropped into the Bay Cities Ace Hardware Store, where Nixon bought three beach balls.

Awake Nights. San Clemente is doing its best to take a resident President in stride. "I personally think it's kind of small-town hinky-dink," says Mayor Evans of the big welcome banners that used to greet Nixon on arrival. Still. Nixon watching is a full-time occupation for many. Mrs. Doris Dennis, a San Clemente housewife, last year waited for two hours at Nixon's helicopter pad in hopes of taking his picture, and was doubly rewarded when he shook her hand. "After that, I wrote Mr. and Mrs. Nixon, and I told them that they liven up the town," Mrs. Dennis says. "Then they sent us an official picture. They're hard to get, you know."