Day 32: Pool Party Pics Part One

The first shots are from my May 1989 pool party. I had recently returned to John Street after being abroad for three straight years. But even without the Internet, I had kept in touch with most of my LA friends and they were still willing, at least then, to make the trek down the 405.

I had another party that year just before I left at the end of the summer, too.

 Yep, I still have that playsuit. I was examining it yesterday to see if the elastic had enough stretch left to allow the garment to be sold on eBay (without the buyer complaining, that is!)

Too many friends to list here, but most are tagged in my Facebook album with this shot. RIP, Bill Bartell, drilling a hole in Jeff's head with a corn cob. Jeff wore his Partridge Family jacket to a Laura Nyro concert that summer and Madonna, who was with Sandra Bernhard, pointed at it and nudged Sandra. (It makes me like Madonna more to think of her watching The Partridge Family in her suburban Detroit home.)

Lisa with young Gomez/Andy, the late (but never to the party) Kevin Wood, and Mary Rat. This may have been from the late summer party. Also in the background on the left is Suzanne Williams, my friend of 14 years at this point, who I never saw or heard from in the 26 years since. Her last number and address in Signal Hill was not valid in 1991; if anyone knows whatever happened to her, let me know.

 Andy looking wistful; another shot of Kevin Wood in the background. That's the back of Suzanne's head and the front of her new husband, whose name I can't remember. Norikazu is in the center background. Looks like someone was playing Password.

One last shot of the lost Suzanne. My former brother-in-law, Berndt, seems to be pondering something while eating peanuts, and my sister... Well, if looks could kill!

Day 31: Springtime in the Tree Section Part One

The house is in the part of Manhattan Beach called the Tree Section. But as I mentioned before, even though some of the trees are protected many are disappearing. But until all the original houses are torn down, you can still find some little houses with big gardens.

These photos are from April of 2014 when the drought was not quite as bad as this year; again, many were taken on Pacific Avenue.

Gigi

Day 30: Parties Inside the House Part One

We had a few inside parties, usually around the holidays (and my sister's birthday which is between Christmas and New Year's) or my birthday in March. I sometimes made Glogg or egg nog, and bought a lot of cheap records or tacky items from Pic 'n' Save for a gift exchange.

This was the invitation for my party in 1994. I don't seem to have any photos from this party however! It was a memorable one, though. We had recently found Frankie Marley, alive and well in San Francisco; everyone had lost touch with him in 1984. He flew down for this party and he and Dez Cadena took over the house for a couple of days. "Chicken fried steak on the poop deck at oh seven thirty!"

Going back almost ten years, my sister made this invitation in 1984. I had just quit my job in Culver City and I returned to Leeds a couple of days later.

My birthday party in 1983. I had just taken a calligraphy class.

Here I am at that birthday party, sitting in the Eames chair in the dining room. I have no explanation for my expression except that I think I was still very jet lagged. I have no explanation for my hair-do except that it was 1983.

Fast forward to Christmas 1983. Here I am with Joe "Mama" Zinnato in the living room. I still have that dress. See below!

Here's the dress in 2009. But that's in Henry Peck's old house... Back to John Street...

Joe Mama poses on his own...

Here he is in the living room again, but at a different party. The cushion he's half peeking from has giraffes on it. It's no longer here, but that couch is. In fact I am sitting on it right now, writing this, and trying to figure out what the picture is behind Joe's right arm.

Same chair, end table, record rack, different Christmas. This was my Christmas / Going Away party in 1984, invitation above. Mikey looks thrilled. To the right of the beer can is my mom's Christmas sun visor with flashing lights. No, I was not wearing it; it would have clashed with my outfit.

What have we here? My sister on the living room couch (currently in the family room) with Steve Wynn trying out a bare midriff look. Two days later she turned 21 and Steve took her for a drink to celebrate. Trader Vic's or Kelbo's?, he seems to be pondering. This would have been my Boxing Day Bash of 1981. I believe that's Jim Allan in the background.

 Same party; later in my sister's room. I believe it was Karl's idea to wrangle her.

My German pen pal, Christel, came to the party. I have no idea what Karl is doing but it involves some fancy footwork. By the way I like that beaded lamp; it disappeared once this room became the Bug Room.

Oops, I guess this photo should have been first. I gave Karl enough rope, as Steve looks on.

We move festively and firmly forward into the 80s. Beware the savage jaw of 1984.

Day 29: Photos Taken In and Around the House

There are a lot more party photos to come; here are a few taken around the house in the previous century.

1984: I am wearing my mom's wedding dress; I used to wear it out a lot. Anyone who has been in the downstairs bathroom can attest that it looks pretty much the same; the faucets were replaced at one point, but that's about all.

Standing in front of the house on 19th Street in 1982. I can date that because I bought the ghillies I am wearing in the spring of that year. I still have those trousers; just put them in the Goodwill pile yesterday. The car is a '63 Ford Fairlane which belonged to my grandfather; I inherited it after my Nova was totalled. I called it The Klunk because it liked to stall suddenly in the fast lane or if you were starting to make a left turn.

 Standing by the pool in the mid 70s. I still have that satin jacket. Every time I wore it Rodney Bingenheimer would tell me he used to have one exactly like it.

 Yeah, I used to take selfies, when they used to be called self-portraits. You used a mirror and no flash. I think this is late 1979 or maybe sometime in 1980, in the upstairs bathroom. I had four tails with fishbones on them I had got at an African fair.

Here's another shot of the wedding dress; I'm sitting in the family room. I can't remember what we did with the bumper pool table at that time; the couch is now gone and that's where the pool table is now. The lamp is still there though!

 Lest you think I've gone all solipsistic, here are some other people. That's my dad and Helen in the living room at Christmas. Helen was a family friend; her parents were my mom's parents' best friends and neighbors. We didn't have many blood relatives in California so she was like an aunt, and my parents would invite these "fake relatives" to join us on holidays.

 I think this was the same Christmas, which would have been 1980. Mikey had just rejoined my band. He had spent the night on that sofabed and I was just about to take him to his mom's, after I finished my Falling Spiders video game, in which I was engrossed. This is downstairs in the family room. I believe that same sleeping bag fell off a shelf in the garage the other day.

 This was a party, but it would have been one that my parents threw; I can tell by the food and punchbowl. They often had an Open House thing around the holidays. This is Jim Allan stroking Zoe, our cat, in the dining room. The fancy flocked wallpaper and shutters are all still there; I am sitting in almost exactly the same spot right now at that very table.

 

In the living room; a later Christmas, 1985. I was home from Leeds, visiting. I think I still have that outfit in my storage unit in London, though I may have donated it in recent years. It's crushed velvet and was made by my friend Cleo.

Day 28: Valley of the Dirty Dolls Part Three

 We'll start with one who is just a little bit scruffy.

 However, if you think this is as bad as it gets, you ain't seen nothing yet!

 Maybe I should send her to the institute of tropical doll skin diseases.

 She does look almost peaceful here.

OK, I think this girl wins the prize.
 



 Let's take an even closer look...

At least this little redheaded girl has all her white measles spots clustered together...

Let's return to almost normality before we close today...

Day 27: Butterflies and my Parents

My father collected butterflies (and moths), and my mother collected or at least bought butterfly objects. Or decorated the house with the same. There are more butterfly things than ever these days, so I have carried on the tradition. However, it was my mom who put up this wallpaper back in the 70s, as well as the metal butterflies.

I think this wallpaper, in her bathroom, was from the late 80s. But that tulip lamp was always there.



I had seen this book on the living room bookcase for years, with its scotch-taped slip cover, but when I took it off the shelf this card fell out.

The book was published in 1957, the same year my parents got married.

 Love those fonts!!! Why don't they make cards like this anymore? The "Fly to me" bit seems very appropriate.

Here's the inside. My mom later signed all her cards and gifts to my dad as "Madame X", but I never knew she had started this early.