California Memory

LA Times and NYTimes have a daily blog that includes "California Memories."

Here are some of my earliest CA memories:

In the fall of 1992 my two buddies and I had just driven from NH and were now moving into the cheapest "3" bedroom apartment we could find at Melrose and Normandy, not a nice place. We should have rented near the beach. But anyway we got restaurants jobs. Mine was at the Magic Pan in Beverly Hills. A few stars like Angie Dickinson and Linsey Wagner complimented me on my cooking. That was kind of cool. Mostly though being low-income and new to LA was hard. I got paid about $5/hour as cook. I bought an old Fiat that constantly broke down, and I had way more dating opportunities from guys than girls. After a couple months my buddies went back. I stayed and enjoyed taking Public Speaking and Shakespeare classes at LA Community College. Another highlight of this LA experience was hanging out with my new pals at clubs like the Odyssey and Seven Seas and at the beach in Santa Monica.  I loved that my friends seemed very international to me and all had names that I had not heard before: Ezra, Ramin and Chema. The "US" festival was a great time. The only day I went I got to see the Clash and Men from Down Under. I lasted nine months in LA. I then moved up to Berkeley where I eventually earned my BA in Latin American Studies in December 1988.


Condensed Version:

In the fall of 1992 my two buddies and I had just driven from NH and were now moving into the cheapest "3" bedroom apartment we could find on Melrose near Normandy, not a nice place. We got restaurants jobs. Mine was at the Magic Pan in Beverly Hills. A few stars like Angie Dickinson and Linsey Wagner complimented me on my cooking.  That was kind of cool.  Mostly though, being low-income and new to LA was hard.  I bought an old Fiat that constantly broke down, and I had way more dating opportunities from guys than girls.


Here's what I submitted to alice@latimes.com

It's about 94 words. I doubt it'll get published because after writing it I noticed that they wanted memories that are "fondly remembered or love about CA."

My two buddies and I had just driven from NH and were now moving into the cheapest "3" bedroom apartment we could find on Melrose near Normandy, not a nice place. We got restaurants jobs. Mine was at the Magic Pan in Beverly Hills. A few stars like Angie Dickinson and Linsey Wagner complimented me on my cooking.  That was kind of cool.  Mostly though, being low-income and new to LA was hard.  I bought an old Fiat that constantly broke down, and I had way more dating opportunities from guys than girls.