After 30 years of spreading joy from a street corner, Serra Mesa man’s neighbors are giving back

Every weekday morning for the past 30 years, Serra Mesa residents along Sandrock Road have grown accustomed to a cheerful start to their day.

From 6 to 9 a.m. Mondays through Fridays, local resident Bruce Ingram, 54, stands at the corner of Sandrock and Glenhaven Street to wave at passing cars, blow kisses and sometimes bust out a few dance moves. Ingram, who lives a few houses from the corner, isn’t looking for money. He’s just hoping for smiles, waves and the occasional car horn toot.

Ingram, who is developmentally disabled, says he heads to the corner each day because he loves making people happy, and that being out there — hot or cold, rain or shine — is his job.

“I’m just doing my thing,” he said one morning last week while waving at passing cars and greeting pedestrians with the words “Hey baby!” and “beep-beep!”

Among the walkers who stopped to visit on the morning of April 15 was Kira Finkenberg, who has lived in the neighborhood for 20 years.

“He has just always been there. He’s an icon,” Finkenberg said. “He’s never in a bad mood and he always puts a smile on my face.”

Bruce Ingram poses with some of his neighbors and friends on the Serra Mesa street corner where he has been waving to passers-by for 30 years.

(Jarrod Valliere / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Ingram’s nephew, Steven Glasker, said his uncle was born with learning disabilities and hearing loss, which impacted his speech development as a boy. As he grew older, his hearing improved and he became a natural athlete. But his mother didn’t want him to get hurt or bullied, so she didn’t let him play sports and he stayed mostly at home.

But she did let her son run errands for her by walking to the nearby supermarket and other shops. Neighbors grew to recognize him on his daily trips and they’d call out greetings from their cars as they drove by. He enjoyed those interactions so much, that eventually — despite his mother’s disapproval — he began spending every weekday morning on the corner. His mom passed away in 2014, but Ingram lives in the same house with his sister, Ann, who doesn’t mind his daily ritual, Glasker said.

“He’s a person who is genuinely filled with happiness and joy,” Glasker said. “We grew up in very poor surroundings, but money never mattered to him. He just enjoys being alive and making other people happy.”

Three years ago this month, Serra Mesa resident Sabrina Wilkerson took a different route to work one morning and spotted Ingram for the first time. She wasn’t quite sure what to make of him and, at first, she thought he was homeless. Sometimes Ingram shows up on the corner in a bathrobe, and he almost always wears a plastic bag on his head. Glasker said his uncle likes wearing the CVS and Wal-Mart shopping bags as a reminder of his teenage days when he got a Jheri Curl perm on his hair and a plastic bag was required to help the curls set.

After driving by a few times, Wilkerson decided to stop and meet Ingram. Then she met his sister and got permission to take him out to dinner. Since then, they’ve become good buddies. She has taken him to the San Diego County Fair a few times, out for manicures and pedicures, to meals, to Target and to sporting events. When she started sharing her outings with Ingram on her Facebook page, her neighbors, co-workers at Cox Media and her friends in the Chihuahua rescue community, also started bringing him gifts.

Sabrina Wilkerson, left, and Bruce Ingram on a trip to the San Diego County Fair in 2018.

(Courtesy of Sabrina Wilkerson)

In June 2018, she started a “Honk for Bruce” Facebook page, that has expanded to Instagram. She said the goal of the pages and the “Honk for Bruce” sweatshirt she had made for Ingram is to educate the public on who he is and why he’s out there each morning.

“I just wanted to spread his story,” she said. “There have been times we’ve been out and people recognize him. He’s a celebrity now and he gets a big kick out of it.”

Wilkerson’s friend Sabrina Paul of Lemon Grove runs the social media pages. Paul said the pages have attracted nearly 1,000 followers from 10 countries who are all attracted by Ingram’s “spirit of joy.”

Betsi Van Fossen lives on the same street with Ingram. A few years ago, Ingram gave her 5-year-old daughter, Emily, one of the stuffed animals he won at the fair. On April 15, they walked to the corner to give Ingram a new stuffed animal, a tiny pink and blue llama. She said neighbors are always bringing Ingram coffee, doughnuts and other treats.

“The first time I saw him standing out here I thought ‘what’s going on here?’ But it didn’t take long to realize everyone in the community knew him,” she said.

Wilkerson said Ingram never asks for anything but she has noticed that he spends most of his afternoons and evenings at home watching TV. She’d like to get him out of the house more for some exercise. On April 11, she created a “Bike for Bruce” GoFundMe page to buy Ingram a three-wheeled bicycle. After she shared the link on Facebook, her $500 fundraising goal was surpassed within 30 minutes. It now has drawn more than $1,400 in donations. Many neighbors have expressed plans to go on daily rides with Ingram once he gets his bike.

Cara Hartwell, who has lived in the neighborhood for 10 years, said she and others have grown so accustomed to seeing Ingram each morning that they worry about him on the rare occasions he takes the morning off for doctor’s appointments or illness.

“Bruce brings me so much joy,” Hartwell said. “When I first saw him waving at me years ago, I thought that I was special and he was doing it just for me. It wasn’t until later that I realized he’s out there for everyone.”

To learn more about Ingram visit facebook.com/honkforbruce, instagram.com/honkforbruce or gofundme.com/f/a-bike-for-bruce.

Bruce Ingram dances on the corner of Glenhaven Street and Sandrock Road on Thursday, April 15.

(Jarrod Valliere / The San Diego Union-Tribune)