Day 22: Odd things around the house Part One

Many things in the house have not changed since we moved in back in June 1972. But some odd things were already in place when we moved in.

When you walk in the front door, you are confronted with a work of art by the artist Daniel Gluck, who used to live across the street. At the moment this piece is decorated, ready for a tiki party; that's my fault. And it's also my fault that I just wrote that and now will not be showing you a photo, as I cannot locate the ones I am sure that I took. That will come in part two...

However, moving into the dining room area, you will encounter the space-age VOICECASTER Intercom and radio sharing system.

I cannot tell you how many hours I wasted when we first moved in, trying to get this thing to work. It never did, and it never will. I tried again, twice, last week, but all you can hear is loud static on the radio, nothing for the intercom.

Here is one outlet, in the upstairs bathroom, next to the toilet. As it is fewer than twenty feet away, it makes more sense to just shout, or knock on the door, anyway.

The other outlet is downstairs (the house was built on a hill, so you enter upstairs and the rest of the house is below), but just at the bottom of the stairs, so again, yelling at the top of the stairs was the best option. That's what my mom always did, anyway. (My room and the family room are downstairs.)

Downstairs, not far from the intercom, you'll find this clock on the wall. It has been there since 1972, and has never worked. Never. I guess this work was not guaranteed. I think it used to read half past six until my father taped both hands. Now it is eternally five o'clock, the cocktail hour, or the crack of dawn, your pick!

Let's venture outside, shall we? Right outside the sliding glass doors you will find this on the wall. It was there when we moved in and I have no idea what building it is directing. When was the last time you saw a Gulf service station, or the last time you called a gas station a service station even? I have seen some visitors staring at this, very puzzled. But rest assured, you are NOT here. I suppose we do have a fireside lounge (or two, actually) but sadly, no coffee shop or crow's nest.
 

 Much more to come in part two, but I will leave you with my contribution to quirkiness. Let us go back upstairs to the living room, where the sofa purchased in 1984 (Hey, it actually is in quite good condition for being more than thirty years old!) lost one of its legs way back in the last decade of the previous century. On a visit here I stuck Jane Austen in place, and Bob's been your uncle ever since. Her beat up anthology was exactly the right height. Thank you, Miss Austen!

Day 21: Stuff on my Shelves Part Two

My most eclectic, chaotic shelf: More snowdomes, suffering in the California drought, some blown glass doo-dahs that belonged to my grandma, china box and cedar box, both graduation gifts from my dad's cousin (Vinton Dearing; he was one of my professors at UCLA) and Moms and Pops (Sonny and Bob) Winter, a marble egg - no idea where that came from, a couple of tikis, Bigfoot lurking, Scottish bagpiper dude caught in bottle, Nightmare Before Xmas bookmark, fossil from Knott's Berry Farm, armadillo from Mexico, jeweled elephant from my former colleague Anu, polished stone, small cactus on another stone, and a few miniature breakfast items (for humans and dogs.)

 My sister and I were given the Japanese ladies after my parents visited San Francisco (they never made it to Japan) when I was around ten. Mine is the one on the right, which lost its lid (I have no idea how, as it has always resided on these shelves as far as I can remember, though maybe not!) My sister was getting rid of hers so I took it to replace mine, but then Little My objected so I let her perch. The painting is of Pirandello (Six Actors in Search of a Character) and is by my much missed pal Tomata.

I mentioned that my brother lived in this room for a while; he left behind his Snoopy.

These things were mostly given to me - the interactive singing Ella doll (??!) and the Trailer Trash Barbie by Mary Rat, the Barbie thing, the Grand Funk Big Gulp cup and the Petsmart dog (half out of picture) by my brother.

The contents of my Hopeless Chest are on display, waiting for the time I might have a bathroom big enough to display them.

The gold art deco watch I found at the Spitalfields flea market for one pound. ONE POUND!! I was doubly thrilled because it is exactly the same, apart from not being silver, as my grandmother's watch, which I lost in 1989 when I was mugged in Leeds. (It was in my handbag.) I was triply thrilled by the fact that it worked! For about three weeks. One of these days I'll have to spend the money to get it fixed.

Various objects crowd the corner bit of the to of the dresser. Yes, that is a full set of All My Children collector cards, atop ones of Ren and Stimpy, Barbie and Dark Shadows, next to a set of Alice in Wonderland tarot cards. I collect squashed pennies; my passport is full. I used to love Zen cologne and not just because it came in a black bottle. That's a little white rabbit out of focus bottom left, and that blue mark on the yellow back board has been there since the late 60s, but I cannot remember the back story.

Day 20: Odds 'n' Ends from the Bug Room Part Three

 Delving down more deeply into the bottom of the Odds 'n' Ends box we find:











My father nearly always attended the summer meetings of the Lepidopterists' Society, both the national one, or the western states (Pacific Slope Section) one. The Chiracahua Mountains in Arizona were one of his favorite collecting spots. We went there on family trips, too.

 Don't ask me where Barton Flats is!

  Although my father was employed by Hughes Aircraft Co. in El Segundo, California, he spent a lot of time working for them in Florida in the 60s and Colorado in the early to mid 70s. Note that this pass is marked "INDEFINITE".

 

I pulled out this nifty little folding HAPPY HOME travel alarm clock, with illuminated hands. I love that font! Unfortunately, I could not get it to work; I think its time has passed. Or that somebody overwound it!

What's in this little blue box?

 It seems my father was a bonafide VIP at the Rogues Gallery, as well as a flying eagle.

 

 And it's hard for someone like me to believe, but companies actually used to give you gifts after five or ten years of service, instead of a pink slip/P40! My dad ended up working at Hughes for around 30 years; they might have stopped at ten, though.

 

 

Here's a button from another Lepidopterist Society gathering:

  

And last, and probably least, a somewhat mildewed Continental Airlines luggage tag:

Day 19: Stuff on my Shelves Part One

When we lived in Gardena I was given a yellow and white bedroom set. (My sister's was blue, and hers included a desk, but I already had my mom's old desk in my half of the room.) There was a hutch with shelves on top of the chest of drawers and I used the shelves mainly for books. When we moved to the John Street house I had my own room. It was and is tiny and narrow, but my dad built a bookcase for me that stretches to the ceiling. So ever since I have used the shelves mainly for displaying objects.

I don't believe I have any photos of the shelves in years past; people my age might remember the difficulties involved with photographing small objects (our early 70s attempts at Barbie displays come to mind), not to mention the need and problems with flash! But here are the shelves as they stand today.

This shelf still has a few of the original books on it; those were my father's childhood books, animal stories by Burgess. The poodles are new. In front of the McDonald's Barbies someone gave me is Ken the Baptist. I bought the head for one dollar at a doll show, and the silver platter at Poundland. You cannot see the dried red nail varnish the head sits in from this view - sorry! There are also a few mini Penguin books, a Midge ornament and a Barbie goes shoe shopping ornament.

And the Kit Kat Klock? No, that isn't original, although in the 60s my friend Jill had one in her bedroom which I coveted. They were on sale again from the mid 90s and I bought this one at the same time I bought one for my brother's wedding present. I don't think either lasted very long; I'm talking about the clocks here, although... ;-) The tail got lost somewhere but at least it sits nicely on this shelf.

Mostly classic Barbie ornaments; the black cats I got at Patty Duarte's yard sale in the early/mid 80s. There's a tiny one too but you can only see its ear behind the Solo in the Spotlight (black gowned) Barbie's butt.

How many little girls had a jewelry box with a spinning ballerina inside? That's what this is; I got it for Christmas when I was about 8. I wanted to live in that house! Even though it had rocks on the roof. The ballerina has long stopped spinning to "The Lonely Goatherd."

That Barbie case in another ornament, as is the 57 pink Chevy. The /Barbie Dictionary I bought on eBay in the 90s. It's atop a mini cedar chest from a gift shop at Zion National Park, 1969 or so. The rabbit creature is from Mexico I think and the round thing holds tiny earrings; I think it's from Little Tokyo. The Florida snowdome/storm/shaker is from my vast collection. I think the thimble (in a tiny glass case front left) is from Neuschwanstein, 1990, but I'll have to check. And finally, the Moomins, who used to live on my desk at Investis, are relaxing in front of the cabin.

Here is an assortment of shakies, as I used to call them; not necessarily my favorites, but ones I had on hand. (The majority of my collection is boxed up, both in London and in a closet in this house. I have no idea how many I have, but it is a lot! I used to spend time cleaning up the ones I found in junk shops and replacing the water, but then came the Internet...)

I also have collected quite a few Day of the Dead dioramas, and here's one. I don't recall where I got Thing 2 - might it have been a McDonald's toy that someone gave me? - but I love it. I also don't remember who gave me the painted egg, but it was long ago. Probably my mom, from her travels. The cat is from Mexico and I think the brown creature in the middle is from Peru, though I'm not sure.

However, you are probably wondering why I have a box of Farrah Fawcett doll heads. The answer is, in the late 90s there was a fantastic web site called Stupid.com. This was the time when every other web site was offering free email so for a while I had addresses @stupid.com (as well as @IHateClowns.com), and you didn't have to buy anything to get an email address but I did anyway, a lot of stuff. They sold Farrah heads singly, in threes or by the box. Around the same time they reissued the Jack heads at Jack in the Box which you would stick on your car's antenna. ("Car's antenna?!" I can hear the young people asking. Yes, cars used to have sticky-up antennas. My first car didn't, as it broke off, but a wire coat hanger did the trick nicely, and served double duty as a means to break into my own car when I locked my keys in it (which I did so often I started timing myself. But I digress.) Anyway, by the Jack head reissue time I was driving a Dodge Daytona that had an embedded antenna, which is just as well, as the Jack heads always got stolen, and I stuck him in the box where he looks very happy.

The Farrah heads were very popular when I had them on display in my cubicle at FutureKids, and they've been on this shelf ever since.

More to come in Part 2!

Day 18: Pacific Avenue

I have not written yet about the neighborhood, with an explanation of why the house, or rather the land that it stands on, needs to be sold. I will cover that soon, but this post is about the next street parallel to John Street, Pacific Avenue.

This street was always different than most of the other streets in the Tree Section of Manhattan Beach, because it has sidewalks. Other streets, including John Street, don't, giving it a sort of rustic look. There are no tract houses in the Tree Section, but because of the uniform sidewalk and parking strip, the houses on Pacific always looked more traditional. However, this has turned out to be its saving grace; Pacific Avenue has not changed as drastically as the rest of the Tree Section, where trees, other foliage, and old, small houses come down, and fake Italian villa multi-storeyed McMansions, utilizing every inch of the property, go up.

So you still see a few tiny bungalows on Pacific:

Though you also get this, just across the street:

There is a school (used to be two!) on Pacific, a church, and even an apartment building with two tikis, which have been there since the'70s!

There is another apartment building on a street off of Pacific with a fabulous font:

The trees along Pacific tend to be smaller, but some form shady avenues:

And there are some nice blooms along the way:

But my favorite bit of Pacific is where there are three almost hidden houses in a row, all with abundant jungly foliage in the front yards. They remind me of the houses you used to see everywhere in the Tree Section.

Even though these properties are shady (the photo makes it all look brighter), they are full of flowers in the spring.

 The eucalyptus trees along the parking strip make another nice avenue.

I'll miss this block of Pacific Avenue when I go!

Day 17: Lepidoptera!

My father was an amateur Lepidopterist, ie, a butterfly and moth collector. He was not one by profession only because there was more money to raise a family in mathematical engineering, but he devoted nearly every spare moment to this hobby. He was mainly interested in moths, mostly because there are so many more undiscovered species (he discovered and wrote papers on several, the first one he named after me.)

When you walk in the house you see this case:

which caused a young friend of mine in the early 90s by the name of Sofia to squeal: "That's so neat your father is a butterfly collector!" (She also thought it was "neat" that my mom sometimes made pancakes for dinner.) And me to think to myself: "That's so neat your father is a world famous film director who owns half of San Francisco." But I digress...

More about the equipment and collection later; I'll just leave you with a few more colorful specimens.

 The big one is a moth, the world's largest...