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[lagunie]

response to Martinis at 8

Actually, that was the only time I didn't go to school in southern California. I spent my jr. high school days in Oakland at McChesney Jr High - which I really hated. When I returned to Hollywood and entered HHS I also started working at Grauman's Chinese as an usher. So school was half days and I had more friends at work than at school.

Martini - I'm one of the older members on the board. When I was a kid we used to sneak into an old castle on Franklin and Argyle to play, which I later found out was the home of a silent Japanese movie star. The last I knew it had become a gas station.

I remember the old Hollywood Hotel and the red cars. I learned to drive (before I was old enough to even get a permit) on the roads leading to the Griffith Observatory. We used to hang out there and then I saw REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE. Hadn't seen the Observatory since then and I am told I wouldn't recognize any of the area. Hollywood was actually a safe place to be a child. Mostly midwesterners and southerners. It seemed everybody was an extra or something. It was during the sixties that the big influx of New Yorkers started and everything changed. Was glad to leave when the time came.

 

[Martinis at 8]

Actually, that was the only time I didn't go to school in southern California. I spent my jr. high school days in Oakland at McChesney Jr High - which I really hated. When I returned to Hollywood and entered HHS I also started working at Grauman's Chinese as an usher. So school was half days and I had more friends at work than at school.

Martini - I'm one of the older members on the board. When I was a kid we used to sneak into an old castle on Franklin and Argyle to play, which I later found out was the home of a silent Japanese movie star. The last I knew it had become a gas station.

I remember the old Hollywood Hotel and the red cars. I learned to drive (before I was old enough to even get a permit) on the roads leading to the Griffith Observatory. We used to hang out there and then I saw REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE. Hadn't seen the Observatory since then and I am told I wouldn't recognize any of the area. Hollywood was actually a safe place to be a child. Mostly midwesterners and southerners. It seemed everybody was an extra or something. It was during the sixties that the big influx of New Yorkers started and everything changed. Was glad to leave when the time came.

Don't know how old you are, I am 51. L.A. was decent back then. I have one aunt/uncle still living in the actual city. They are in the area known as The Oaks. This in the hills that sit above Immaculate Heart High School (my mother went there, MTM was in her class) on Franklin and Western. Trendy area now. Bronson caves are right around the corner from their home.

The only castle I remember on Franklin is this one http://www.magiccastle.com/about/index.cfm. I used to sneak into it as kid also, but now I am actually a member of it. It is a private dining and entertainment club now. I've given guest passes to a few members here at FL.

The Griffith Park Observatory looks pretty much the same to me as it did in the 60's. When we were kids we used to ride our bikes up there early on a Sunday morning. We would try and get there at dawn. Then we would race down the hill, past the Greek Theater and keep on racing down Vermont Avenue. We would run the red lights (which is why we would do this early in the morning). The idea of the race was to see who could get down the furthest without having to brake for the cross traffic. On the flip side of the hills, they were still raising cows. I mean San Fernando valley was still pretty rural, but building fast. Made a trip there with some HH older boys. Some of them used to race cars there in a club called The Street Racers. This was an Anglo gang, as opposed to a Latino gang. Though the Latinos used to go out there and race too. Nobody was quite as good as The Street Racers, however. Those were the days!

Like I said, I was born in downtown (the hospital is on Venice and Flower), and for the most part raised in that area around Washington & Figueroa. Tough neighborhood even back then. We eventually moved (a couple of times) and I wound up at LeConte Jr. High. Which was a feeder school to HH. I did a summer school at HH before we moved again, this time out of the city. We had quite a few celebrity kids at LeConte, some who later became actors. Later I wound up on the East Coast and everywhere else. L.A., however, remains as "home".

Laguna Beach, nice. We knew a few painters back then who moved out there. If I recall their names these were Jean Parkhurst and David Mandich. Still have some of their paintings, but they are in my mother's house in DC. I remember when Dana Point was built. Weird how all that area has gotten built up and all. San Juan Cap was actually a hick town back then!

Actors sure were accessible back then. Martin Landau used to stroll down the street regularly. George Takei used to live with his parents on Gramercy Dr. He used to come out and throw a football with us.

Things change.

 

[lagunie]

for Martini

I took an acting class at UCLA (history major but I later ended up working in television) and I did a scene with George Takei. We weren't friends, just classmates and I only saw him after on television. Small world. Got 20 years on you. If you tell me you were also in the Coast Guard reserve I'll know you planted a bug in my computer.

 

[Tango Yankee]

I was born in Los Angeles and grew up in South Gate. When I was 19 I was living on 6th Street in Long Beach. At 20 I joined the USAF, flew off to Basic Training, and since then have only been back to visit family and friends. I decided in 1987, after taking over three hours to get from Whittier, where my brother lives, to Palos Verdes to pick up a friend for dinner (I was an hour late, and I'd left at 3pm) that I wasn't going to go back there to live.

A lot of my high school class left the state, it seems, and are scattered around the country. I wound up in southern Ohio, in an area that's a bit too rural for my taste but it's a house on 10 acres that used to belong to my wife's grandparents.

I do have great memories of growing up there. Summer classes at the Los Angeles Museum of Science and Industry, trips to Fern Dell and Griffith Park, going to Disneyland every year , growing up with a bunch of similar families up and down the street, the great weather (and the Smog Alerts), being able to ride my bike anywhere (I once rode with a couple of friends from South Gate to Long Beach and back along the Los Angeles River), going to the beach, lane-splitting through stopped traffic on the freeways, Acres of Books in Long Beach, and on and on and on. It just got too crowded, too expensive, too hectic. There's lots about it I miss, but not enough to go back to live. It's been 29 years now.

In my home town, now that my father has died (last October at 81) I don't know anyone. Everyone I knew there while growing up has left. For me, it's now the rare vacation destination more then anything else.

I suppose I wouldn't feel that way about it if I'd not joined up and left, but who knows what I'd have wound up doing. At the time I enlisted I was a laid-off roofing materials factory worker with my brother trying to talk me into going into chef's training with Norm's Restaurant--a Southern California icon, if I'm not mistaken. Both my father and my brother managed the Norm's on Sunset in their time, as well as others around the county. He saw me as the youngest Norm's manager in the company's history. I turned it down--I'd spent too many holidays having my dinners there because Dad was working.

Ah, well... I've rambled on enough, I suppose. Perhaps some time when I'm out to visit family I'll be able to time it with a Lounge get-together.

Cheers,
Tom

 

[Martinis at 8]

I took an acting class at UCLA (history major but I later ended up working in television) and I did a scene with George Takei. We weren't friends, just classmates and I only saw him after on television. Small world. Got 20 years on you. If you tell me you were also in the Coast Guard reserve I'll know you planted a bug in my computer.

No, I was an Army officer. However, if I was smart, I would have chosen the Coast Guard instead. Hey get this, a lot of us didn't even know George was Mr. Sulu! lol His mother told us!

The real trip was Martin Landau. This was back when I was at a Catholic school down on 9th and Norton before going to LeConte. Landau used to walk past the school to a Benihana's to dine/lunch (this was before Benihana's got all fancy and stuff, I think it was the only one in L.A. at the time and was in a small store front on Olympic and Norton). Can't forget the guy's smile. I mean when he would chuckle it was really unique. We used to pester the hell out of him. Never saw Barbara with him.

 

[Martinis at 8]

...
I do have great memories of growing up there. Summer classes at the Los Angeles Museum of Science and Industry, trips to Fern Dell and Griffith Park, going to Disneyland every year , growing up with a bunch of similar families up and down the street, the great weather (and the Smog Alerts), being able to ride my bike anywhere (I once rode with a couple of friends from South Gate to Long Beach and back along the Los Angeles River), going to the beach, lane-splitting through stopped traffic on the freeways...

Gosh we used to go fishing for crayfish at Fern Dell park. That was a hoot! I wonder if there are any critters left in there.

So you were another bicycle vagrant too! lol Man it was a like a culture out there, and the L.A river was bicycle heaven! Ever have the cops chase you out of there?

Okay, one more L.A. story then I will shut up. So I ride up to my cousin's house on my new Huffy Stingray clone.

Me: Let's ride over to Uncle Richard's house (my other uncle who lives in Cypress).
Him: Cool! Let me tell mom.
Me: No! She'll say no.
Him: I'll ask anyways.
Me: Well?
Him: She said no, but let's go anyways. Route? Do we go through Watts?
Me: No. We ride to the Santa Monica pier. Hang out there for a while, then go explore the abandoned P.O.P. Then take the coast highway to Long Beach. On the way we can go exploring the old LAX airport, then we can visit the Navy at Long Beach. Then we will turn inland and should get to Cypress (in OC) by the end of the day. Will spend the night at Uncle Richard's, have Aunt Connie make us dinner, and ride back the next day, etc.
Him: When do we go?
Me: I'll show up at daybreak.

We were like 12 years old. Next day we did the big adventure. We were trashed by the time we got to Cypress. We got chased out of P.O.P and the old LAX by caretakers. Got into a fight with some other kids that were visiting the USS Decatur, a navy destroyer visiting Long Beach.

When we get to my Uncle's house, my aunt calls and is furious. She came and picked up my cousin. Threw his higher quality Stingray clone in the back of the car and drove back without me. I asked Uncle Richard if he would give me a ride back as I didn't think my legs could make the return trip. He said sure but I had to pull weeds and move the lawn first or no deal.

Fast forward about 40 years.

Me: Hi Auntie you remember that bicycle ride that me and Eddie made when we were kids. You got really mad.
She: Of course I remember. How could anybody ever forget that?
Me: Well I just bought this new motorcycle and I have been riding it down into Mexico. You think I can talk Eddie into making a ride with me down there?
She: <click>
Me: Hello? Hello?

lol

 

[John in Covina]

Baseball in So-Cal Rancho Cucamonga Quakes Sunday June 14th 2009

Hi Fellow Southern California Loungers!

Just wondering if you’d be up for a little FL TYPE of Baseball trip to see the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes on Sunday June 14 game time around 2pm. The stadium is small so the views are good from almost all over. They re-did the seats so it’s pretty comfy and the costs are much lower than a major league game with the Dodgers or Angels. The stadium is pretty close to both Ontario Mills and Victoria Gardens if you need an excuse for shopping or fine dining. The food & beverage prices at the stadium are not astronomical either.

I went last year and had a good time, while the Super Boxes are really close to the field, they put up a net to keep the in-attentive from getting hit by foul balls which ruins the view. The next level up regular CLUB section has a good direct view, plus is still really close and recommended by friends that have gone many times. I was thinking of along the 3rd base side so the sun will slip behind us.

The website is at www.rcquakes.com to see the seating chart and prices etc. I believe you can order tickets on line too.

They are a minor league team under the California Anaheim Angels.

***I have a dedicated thread here in the EVENTS Section to discuss it, I hope you’ll consider coming.

John in Covina

 

[Corky]

At night, exit the 10 Freeway at Robertson or La Cienega...

At night, exit the 10 Freeway at Robertson or La Cienega in West L.A. near Culver City and head North towards Beverly Hills. On most nights, you will see a helicopter circling a block or two with a million candlepower searchlight knifing through the sky. Drive towards the light.

When you hear the crackle of gunfire, look for a parking space. Then get out and follow Marshal Murat's dictum: March To The Sound Of The Guns. Keep your eyes peeled for a 1920s Spanish house with a big picture window dominated by a massive bison skull over a fireplace, decorated with Lakota Sioux feathers and symbols.

There might be an occasional homicide around here now and then, but the place has a certain Raymond Chandler/Dashiell Hammett type atmosphere. Plus most of my neighbors' ammo is supersonic, so by the time you hear a shot, the bullet is already far past you.

Our house is located on what used to be the animal compound of the old Hal Roach Studio Ranch. And, in case anybody's interested, we hold the rights to drill for oil beneath our property.

 

[Miss 1929]

I am curious, why is this thread in Events? Shouldn't it be in the Observation Bar? I am not seeing much in the way of events on it...

 

[John in Covina]

At the time it was started it was to get an idea of who is on the West Coast and who might be intersted in West Coast events. It wasn't see as a new folks step forward type thread as in the Observation section.

 

[Teabag1927]

Ontario, Ca, 91762.

 

[FinalVestige79]

Orange County, Anaheim and Ontario California.

 

[MissJeanavive]

WEST Oakland, California 94607 (ya you see us on the news a lot)

 

[chanteuseCarey]

San Jose, 95123

The entire family is up for any and all vintage and dance events. We're members of the Art Deco Society, and we all volunteer for the California Pops Orchestra.

 

[J.J. Gittes]

Cheviot Hills, West Los Angeles, 90064.

 

[Kilted_Surveyor]

Tracy, California 95377

 

[Lady Jessica]

Do I have to put my city? I live in Southern California.

 

[John in Covina]

Do I have to put my city? I live in Southern California.

We spoken to the FBI, no you don't have to put your City.

However if you want to alude to the county you live in....

 

[Widebrim]

Born in the Echo Park section of Los Angeles, lived just off of Sunset in Silverlake, and moved to the nearby city of Glendale, when all of those areas were mostly European American. When the 134 Freeway was being built, I took my Penney's bicycle and drove on the empty lanes to the Los Angeles Zoo, with a neighborhood dog following me the whole way. No city workers or officials saw us the whole trip. Have resided for the last 20 years in the Glassell Park district of Los Angeles, 90065. I'm Los Angeles to the bone.:eusa_clap

 

[Lady Jessica]

We spoken to the FBI, no you don't have to put your City.

However if you want to alude to the county you live in....

Riverside, I think.
But don't hold me to it, I'm not quite sure. I don't get asked what county very often.