Ahh, the Lovely Jacaranda

We DO have seasons in Los Angeles and this is my favorite time of year, partly because of the glorious blooming jacarandas in my neighborhood. Here's Roosevelt golf course in Griffith Park. 

We're sharing the tee box of the Par 3 seventh hole with a jacaranda in full bloom.

Even the parking lot at Roosie becomes lovely when its jacarandas are blooming. Although you might prefer not to park beneath them when they shower down their deep purple petals...

 
 

Griffith Park Bear

For years I passed by the bear, paying little more attention to the statue than to a tree or street sign. But in 2011 I started to take notice.  Sometimes on cold days the bear wore a hat or a scarf.  On Valentine's Day 2011 he could be seen with a pink and red crocheted vest.


At the beginning of this year curiosity finally compelled me to park the car on Fern Dell and check out the bear's story. The Griffith Park Bear resides at the corner of Los Feliz Boulevard and the Fern Dell entrance to Griffith Park.  On that day, he was in his natural state.

From the base of the statue I learned that Berlin gave the bear statue to the City of Los Angeles.  At this point I assumed Berlin chose a bear because it's an emblem on the California state flag.  Later, of some research, I realized Berlin's mascot is a bear.

This year on Valentine's Day I was a little disappointed to see the bear without the pink/red granny square vest and only wearing a couple strands of mardi gras beads and a floppy hat.  On St. Patrick's Day he looked more cheerful with a jaunty green boa and a crocheted sash.

Now that the Griffith Park bear has become part of my neighborhood family I feel bad I didn't stop by yesterday.  I wonder if the bear was carrying an Easter basket.  Or wearing a fancy bonnet.

About a Squirrel in Hollywood

Last spring I wrote about an orphaned owl we found near our house and brought to a wildlife rescue center.
It's only February but the wildlife around here has decided it's springtime again. One day I spotted a tubby squirrel hopping onto our deck. I'm guessing it was a "she" in nest-building mode.  I'd been wondering what bird or animal was unraveling my cotton rug.  It had been hanging on the deck rail to dry after a day of rain.

I made the rug for my dog but she never really liked it - Pebbles has an artistic sense - I think she objected to my sloppy crocheting - the rug, intended as the usual rectangle, turned out to be more of a trapezoid.  I haven't seen the squirrel for the past week.  I hope the ex-rug cotton makes a comfy nest for her kittens.

My New Neighborhood

My new neighborhood is Maxton Falls, the setting of my recently published e-book.

Long ago I inherited my sister Karen's collection of Nancy Drew.  She graduated from H.S. when I was in second grade and is the youngest of my three sisters.  Her N.D. mysteries stayed behind after she left home. And I couldn't wait to be able to read them.  In the early 60s I discovered another series with heroine Trixie Belden.  Last year I donated most of my Trixie Belden collection to a thrift store in Cambridge, MN where Mom lives and where my Belden tomes have lived.  I saved the first two of the series as mementos - the covers of these shown below:

 

Trixie and her girlfriend Honey are the girlfriends shown on the covers.  Their neighborhood included the nearby town of Sleepyside.

Jade and Nettie are my girlfriend detectives. I'm happily working on their next adventure.

WINTER - SILVER BAY - 1962

CHEERS TO ALL,

SOME PHOTOS TODAY.  THESE WERE SHOT AT MY HOUSE ON BANKS BOULEVARD IN SILVER BAY.


MY NEIGHBOR IS HELPING WITH A SNOW PERSON.  BELOW THAT A VIEW ACROSS BANKS TOWARDS OUTER DRIVE - I THINK THE CAR MUST BE OUR 1952 FORD.  THAT NEXT SPRING WE BOUGHT MY FAMILY'S FIRST NEW CAR - A 1962 CHEVY BEL AIR.   THE THIRD SHOT SHOWS OUR BACK YARD - A VERY STEEP BANK INDEED - I WONDER HOW MY DAD EVER MANAGED TO MOW! 

Children's Theatre in the Campton Gym

Oh, how I wish I had a photo or program from the first play I ever saw.  It was in the Campton Gym where, even before the dance recital on its stage (written about in a previous blog), I experienced a production of PINOCCHIO.  For me, a life-changing event.

During that school year, 1956-57, most students beyond 6^th grade attended classes in houses on Bell Circle.  Seniors (and perhaps juniors also?) rode the bus to the high school in Two Harbors. Kelley High was not yet finished.  And yet, in the midst of what must have been a challenging teaching experience, someone began a drama club and produced a children’s play. I don’t know how or where PINOCCHIO was advertised.  I don’t remember hearing anything about it in class.  Just that one afternoon Daddy drove me to Campton School to “see a play about Pinocchio.”

We sat down on steel folding chairs set in rows on the polished, wood floor facing the stage—on the end of the gym nearest the kindergarten classroom.  I think music played on a phonograph to one side of the gym.  After a few minutes, the lights in the audience faded.  The gold pleated drapes were still shining as they parted in the center and moved slowly to each side.  Geppetto’s workshop stood there before me.

Perhaps there weren’t any boys interested in the Drama Club. A girl named Francine Williams played Pinocchio’s creator and father, Geppetto. The following Sunday I was thrilled to recognize the actress when I was leaving my church after Sunday school.  She was walking toward the church for the morning service.  She was with her mother, later my high school Home Ec teacher.  I stared at Francine as we passed each other on the cement walkway.  I wish I dared say something about her wonderful performance.

Last month I was in London for vacation, with a two-day side-trip to Stratford-upon-Avon.  Walking down Stratford’s Chapel Street I passed a group of uniformed boys— probably students of the old, prestigious King Edward VI grammar school which is right in the middle of town.  Seeing these boys I couldn’t help but think how different it would be to attend school in a village with all that history about you.  A quick check on the internet tells me that the original charter of Stratford-upon-Avon dates from 1196.  What a different perspective it must be to grow up in a village with all those Shakespearean reminders around than in a brand new town like Silver Bay.

In Stratford we saw two plays. One was a new children’s play titled ROBIN HOOD'S HEART with Marion as a funny, swashbuckling heroine.  Parents and grandparents in the audience probably all worried that the production might occasionally be too gruesome for young people.  I know I did.  But the children in the audience laughed at the slapstick, cheered the hero and heroine, and booed enthusiastically at dastardly King John and the evil Nottingham sheriff. Some girls that looked about twelve wept at the end when Robin and Marion, on trapeze, gazed at each other with rapt fairy tale true love.  And I remember how I also cried in the gym of Campton School in Silver Bay as Pinocchio and Geppetto were reunited, and Pinocchio became a real boy.  A life-changing event.  My journey to Shakespeare’s home town began that day, when Daddy took me to see that play about Pinocchio.

Narta Ramberg and her Pen Pals

In the past few weeks blog visitors from Europe and Asia prompted me to open a shoebox of memorabilia that includes letters from my childhood's foreign pen pals.

In March of 1961 President Kennedy, by executive order,  established the Peace Corps.  The Corps was authorized by Congress on September 22, 1961.  

I read about the Peace Corps at school in the Weekly Reader.  In the midst of the Cold War the idea of promoting world peace and friendship - Kennedy's words about the purpose of the Peace Corps - seemed a good idea.  But I had just turned 10 - too young to join. However, somehow I read about "Children's Plea for Peace" an organization based at the World Affairs Center at the University of Minnesota.  At least part of the Center's mission was uniting children around the world through letter-writing. Soon I had two foreign pals, a girl from London, England, and a boy from from Accra, Ghana. 

Above is the postcard I received after my pen pal request.  The date on card is 31August 1962.
Alas, I think I only exchanged letter for a year or two.  Probably stopped writing once I began junior high school.


Still, on the odd chance that someone reading my blog knows or has known these two youngsters of the 1960s, I include my nickname at the time - Narta  - as well as the names of my childhood pen friends:

  Celia Richards  of London, England 
  Richard Amable of Accra, Ghana

More about pen pals in future.