Chrono 3


Chrono 3



on Saturn street
 


     The Seventies were chock full of adventures for a mostly broke bunch of guys. We left off at the expulsion from Church lane due to a lack of funds and the move to Club Virginia. In Greg time the mid-70's featured a year in Frisco, a cross-country jaunt with cousin Smitty including Chi-town after brother Jack's wedding, a move to memorable Saturn street and graduation from UCLA. 1977 was another cross-country trip that ended in the historic meeting with the great Fred Exley after hi-jinmks in Kentucky with Mister Bobcat and cousin. Yet, this era was all about Club Virginia, a diy back house near South Gate High School. While the neighborhood had its drawbacks the rent was just right at $140 per. There was always cheap wine, plentiful pot and music playing from 8456 1/2. The only thing missing was female companionship and South Gate was not exactly a prime spot for meeting nice women. Timo proved us wrong by finding his soulmate at the Bank of America and he was gone from the Club by 1980. There were nibbles and an occasional broken heart but stoned life went on after I went to library school and found stories at the Herald-Examiner but little money. Greg went back and forth to the desert and his tales of life in the Palm orchard were classic. Later, Greg got a job in the corporate world examining legal documents but sitting in a windowless room reading fine print drove him back to Evan's influence and made him a drinker. Back in LA we met up occasionally for lunch at Darm's market or Phillippes but Club Virginia was where the soul-searching took place. When I got my dream job at Central Library in November of 1979 we both compared notes about the dear dirty LA we loved and all the color of downtown. Coming back from Palm Desert Greg rented nice apartments, first on Lemon Grove and then on Tremaine where he seemed to be set for life. I left a party at his pad in 1983 and set into motion events that included my marriage, a daughter and a new life beginning in December of that year. By the Summer of 1986 Greg had worked at a couple of good architectural firms and finally for Gensler where he met Lissy at the opening of MOCA in 1986. He sometimes brought his deligthful new girlfriend up to my place on Holly Knoll with my very own bar and den. The search had ended and my dear compadre tied the knot in 1988, then moved just 8 miles up the 2 freeway to the magical land of La Crescenta. From Gensler the old architect found his favorite job with Dan Dworsky where he served happily for the next 13 years. In 1988 the Dodgers won the World Series, Greg called the Dump house home and my marriage disintegrated.


                                                           at Club Virginia


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Athletic Club Flower shop

Image
  Athletic Club Flower shop      This phrase is actually the telephone greeting at Greg's uncle Johnny Tassano's flower shop at 808 W. 8th street near Flower street in downtown L.A. Greg loved the place and culled many a story and line from his experiences at a place he worked and visited fondly. Even when he wasn't employed he drove around with cousin Kent (Kevin Smith) and they had a ball observing the absurdities of modern living in the Southland. The phone was answered by different employees and each had a unique turn of "Athletic Club...flowershopppp" There was owner John Tassano, right-hand man Ronald P. Lord, "Speed," a delivery man, and Carmen who cut flowers and told odd anecdotes such as the origin of pizza. I believe Greg and Kevin could go on for weeks about the people they met on their deliveries as they set forth across the city of the angels to spread floral joy. This might include places to eat, fascinating neighborhoods, cemeteries, lone...
Read more

Oil and gas crowd

Image
  Oil and gas crowd       This one comes from cousin  Kevin's bold political action volunteering for the Fred Harris presidential campaign in 1976. Kevin got a terrific piece on the campaign published as an editorial in the Los Angeles Times and also developed an imitation of the candidates speaking voice. Fred Harris was everything you would want in a public servant  and had come close to being asked to be Vice President but his brand was not widely known. Despite representing Oklahoma as a senator Harris managed to be an admirable liberal who favored the Great Society and economic democracy. Way ahead of his time Fred wanted to wrest control away from corporations and millionaires. He travelled in a recreation vehicle wth young Smith aboard to cut down on costs and was as grass roots as it gets. Fred was married to native-american LaDonna and to this day we have buttons stating "LaDonna for First Lady." Kevin would repeat the phrase from Fred's speeches a...
Read more

alright mother

Image
  alright mother- “You can find poetry in your everyday life, your memory, in what people say on the bus, in the news, or just what’s in your heart.” —Carol Ann Duffy  Greg was always delighted by a story told by his mother in law about a "sortie" dinner party attended by a Doctor "Putty" Putnam who had been forced to attend an opera by his wife. When asked by a clueless guest if he enjoyed the opera, his response was  "fuck you!" When I was visiting Bear Cove and sitting next to the matriarch Greg goaded her into telling the tale. But a rum n' coke had loosened "Minnie's" tongue and when she got to Putty's answer she blurted a rather hard FUCK YOU!  Roy, hearing his bride curse thusly said across the table "Alright mother!"
Read more