Kite Staff

My family bought a home in Echo Park the year I was born and we moved in when I was eleven months old. All the while I was growing up - six years behind my brother Mel, I got to witness the nearly daily miracle of light refraction from the ocean - miles and miles away from those beloved hills where we lived. When I was older, I imagined all sorts of stories while watching the light on the sea from my vantage point at the top of the old Eucalyptus tree.

In a previous blog entry, I remember sharing how sure I was that the poor fish out there would be cooked as the sun dropped into the ocean at day’s end. I knew without a doubt that it was the sun’s descent into the water that made it feel warmer after sunset than it had during the day.

Other fantasies included pirate ships, Tinkerbelle, Peter Pan and the Lost Boys - thanks to a Disney record we had with colorful cartoon images emblazoned on the plastic LP itself.* Mary Martin’s role as Peter  inspired even more imaginative play and sword fights - using for lances - the plentiful bamboosa that grew at the base of the old Eucalyptus. They showed that old Kinescope Movie of Peter Pan on TV once a year for several years - until it was lost.

Kite staff was also home to several forts built by hollowing out the five foot high crop of late summer weeds. We’d make a tunnel through the weeds - much like the entrance to an igloo - by trampling a clearing, bending the side weeds into an arch and weaving them down into the ones growing on each side. We found an old rusted-out mattress-inner-spring and put a sheet over it to serve as a couch. Great plots for saving the world or overcoming enemies were hatched in that club-house by Peter, Angelika, Jeffrey, Gary and me. Sometimes Jacky would join us and more rarely Johnny Mayfield. They lived in farther parts of Echo Park - a long walk.

When the weeds were dry enough, we’d take cardboard boxes and slide down those steep Echo Park hills... the closest thing we had to snow-tobaggoning in dry Southern California. It’s a wonder we didn’t all break our tail bones!  It’s also a good thing we never crashed into the Jakonvich’s wood-siding-paneled house at the bottom of the hill!

The only negative experiences on Kite Staff were the occasional cases of Poison Oak, rare fires - one that burned awfully close - well, one wall of our house, and a few back scrapes and bruises on the jagged cracked-off part of the trunk of an old tree that held the rope swing.

Kites? Yes, we did fly kites when anyone had money to buy one. There was a mysterious pipe stuck upright into the center of the level part of Kite Staff. Sometimes we would tie a well-flying kite’s string to it and then keep it from slipping off the end by taking turns standing (balancing) on top of the pipe. The pipe was only three inches in diameter, but it must have gone directly to the center of the earth, for as many rocks, pebbles and handfuls of dirt as we dropped in over the years, it NEVER filled up! 

On a recent Monday, I hiked with a friend in Ferndell. We wound up driving to the Planetarium. From there, the view was lovely. Although the Observatory is closed on Mondays, and I have yet to see the newly rennovated interior, I was so glad to see that magical strip of ocean reflecting sunlight and dreams - just as it used to do in my childhood in Echo Park.

It’s comforting to know that some things never change. Can you see the pirate ship just taking shape on that gleaming horizon?

*LP record stood for "Long Playing" or thirty-three-and-a-third RPM (revolutions per minute). They were about the size of a pizza for two, hence the name "Licorice Pizza" for one recycled record store! The other name that caught my fancy was "Vinyl Resting Place." If all the music sources you know are from CDs, MP3s or iTunes... treat yourself to a stroll in one of these old fashioned record shops. I swear the analog music will nourish you differently from digitally produced CDs!

Treat yourself also, with a trip to the Observatory some clear-day pre-sunset afternoon!