Taos, New Mexico

Taos, New Mexico

The next exploration for my yellow station wagon was to take Pat Quinn and her two sons to Taos, New Mexico.  Pat was an actress that played the part of Alice Brock in Arlo Gutherie’s movie “Alice’s Restaurant.”

Pat was good friends with Marlon Brando and he wanted her to go to Taos and find him a house to buy.  Marlon thought that the west coast would fall off into the ocean at some future date but that Taos would be safe because it was so sacred.  He financed our trip.

We spent the first couple of weeks staying at Marlon’s house on Mulholland Drive in Los Angeles.  Marlon was in the hospital at the time losing weight for his next acting roll during our stay.  There were numerous telephone calls between his secretary at the house and his hospital room.  I drew a nice picture of a desert scene and had it sent to him which he said was peaceful and that he liked it.

Marlon had a large den that overlooked the San Fernando Valley.  It was filled with Indian memorabilia.  When we were there an animal control agent came by and said that there were too many wolves living on the property.  

Russell Means came by with a group of Indians and wanted to come in.  Marlon said to tell him to go back to the reservation and start getting ready for winter.  Marlon had let Russell and his friends in before and they made a mess of the house, leaving banana peels under the couch cushions, etc. 

Harry Dean Stanton came to visit us there.  Harry Dean liked to play the guitar and was very good although he is known for being an actor.

We eventually took off for Taos and stayed at the Sagebrush Inn.  It is such an incredible hotel.  We had fire places in our rooms and we were treated very well as Marlon was paying for our stay.  We stayed for about a month and then rented a house on the outskirts of town.  Marlon bought a house from the owner of the hotel.

I stayed in Taos for about four months, learning ceramics from a local artist named Fred and going on a large circuit of craft fairs to surrounding states with him as an assistant.  I sold my wind chimes, which were glazed with Fred’s special turquoise glaze that his pieces were known for.   I even got to condition the clay that was used to make a chalice for the San Francisco de Assisi Mission Church. 

I met many artists there and also viewed some exquisite ceramics collections but winter was coming and my money was getting low so I returned safely to Hollywood in my yellow station wagon. 

Back To Acting

Back to Acting

When I returned to Hollywood I began living in my station wagon with all the props from a play that I was now acting in called “The House of Bernarda Alba.”  It was directed by my friend, Michelle Van Hessen.  I played the part of Amelia and it was sort of like being in “Little Women,” as the play was about a family of women.

We performed the play in an upstairs Hollywood apartment.  The audience was set up at one end of the living room facing an open dining room and the performance took place in the other end of the living room and the dining room.  The off-stage areas were the balcony, the hallway, and we changed in a bedroom.

Every performance was well attended by about thirty people at a time.  Allen Garfield attended a play with John Barrymore, Jr..  Allen rushed backstage while I was dressing into my normal clothes saying how much he liked my performance.  He said he had seen the play by other actors and I played my part so well.  Considering who was complimenting me, I was happy to get his feed-back.

After performing I would go to Dan Tana’s  Italian Restaurant next to the Troubadour and hope that someone would feed me.  I was always invited to sit and enjoy a meal ordered just for me as it was a gracious thing for successful actors to help “starving actors,” especially after they just performed.

I was working for Sandra Peluce for her home-based catering business called Mother Moon.  She was married to actor, Virgil Frye and they just had a daughter, Soleil Moon Frye.  Sandy catered on movie sets to provide meals for the cast and crew.  She currently was working for a movie  called “Missouri Breaks” with Marlon Brando and Jack Nicholson.

My job was to help prepare the food for the truck.  I chopped fruit and added yogurt, a brought out huge cooked animal bodies out of the oven to cool and ready to be served.   And I babysat Soleil.  She was a small and active child with a sweet nature who crawled around everywhere.  Later she was in a successful television show called “Punky Brewster.” 

I also had contracts with three different record companies to send them talent.  I was being paid an automatic monthly retainer to send to the first company who paid the most, then the next, who paid less and so on.

I would go to song workshop performances instead of the A&R personnel and I would just let them know that a particular musician is scheduled to see them.

I was socializing with Tommy Smothers and after he left town to be in “Play It Again Sam, I hung out with Ed Begley, Jr.  for awhile.

That’s when I got the call about the Doctor.  Eric Doc Hord.  Band leader and lead guitarist for the Mama’s and Papa’s.  The Mama’s and Papa’s had been broken up for almost ten years and Eric had been out of town, most recently from Oregon, and needed to get reintroduced to business contacts and could I help?

And so began my life with a frustrated and fun artist and music historian.   

Blithe Spirit in Hollywood

Blithe Spirit in Hollywood

I stayed in Hollywood for about seven more years and have many memories that stand out.  I do wish I had kept a journal as I’m sure that much of what I experience has been forgotten and important details were never captured.  I had begun my interest in gardening and alternative healing.  I proceeded to work in many jobs and carried on with my image of being a blithe spirit with long hair and a soft and gentle manner.

I met so many new people and could never remember all their names.  Had I not been so shy I would have taken photographs along the way.

I remember making Mumu dresses for Barbie dolls to be sold as souvenirs in Hawaii for awhile and then I got a job as the welcoming hostess and cashier at a new nightclub on Sunset Strip called the Rainbow Bar and Grill.

It had just opened and was the “hot” club to go to.  Many celebrities were there.  The top level was called “Over the Rainbow” and that’s where most of the exclusive patronage hung out.  I remember having a drink with Warren Beatty.  He made me very nervous because he had such a reputation as being a womanizer.  At least I caught his eye and he showed some interest in this “woman.”

One day Gary and Louis came into the club and were very friendly.  I wound up staying with Louis in a charming cottage above the Sunset Strip on Ozetta Terrace.  I had entered a new world of acting and actors.  Louis was an actor from New York and had made friends with other actors in the films and plays he had been in.

 Louis liked to go “on the rounds” and visit various people and go to several clubs and restaurants to see other actors and get any news on auditions.  We frequented Barney’s Beanery and Dan Tana’s next to the Troubador.  We knew the owner of the Troubador, Doug Weston, and were there when the Smothers Brothers performed a “Comeback” appearance after many years of not performing. 

Doug asked me to be a hostess to them backstage, getting drinks, fending off fans, and I gave Tommy a neck-rub as he was tense and nervous.  I was still up in the balcony looking down to the stage below when they began performing.  There were many notable people in the audience including Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Helen Reddy, Cliff Robertson, Lily Tomlin, Peter Lawford and John Lennon and Harry Nilsson.  John and Harry were very drunk and John kept heckling at the start of the performance and of course Tommy Smothers would answer back.  They’d start over and again John would begin heckling again.  This occurred several times.

All of the sudden there was a huge brawl.  It was an instantaneous combustion with John Lennon in the center.  Louis ran downstairs and told John to collapse onto him and he would lead him out.  

John, Harry and May Pang went back to our house with Louis.  Doug found me in the club and said I’d better call Louis right away.  I did and he said to get home.  I casually went up to a friend eating at Dan Tana’s next door and said “If you’d like to meet John Lennon, can you give me a ride home?”  I never saw someone whip out their credit card and pay for their meal so fast before. 

We spent the rest of the evening playing piano together and eating homemade hamburgers.  Later on Phil Spector arrived in a beautiful silver Rolls Royce to pick the group up.  A few days later we were visited by attorneys asking Louis to sign that John did not hit anyone so that he would not be asked to leave the country.  The criminal charges were dropped but John paid money to the supposed victims to avoid civil charges for his behavior.

We were close friends with Gary Rethmeir and Richard Rust.  They lived near each other and both had an entourage of various actor friends.  We were friends with artist  Brice Wood and his wife Carol and Genie Riley.  Genie’s mom Roberta was a seamstress and I helped her sew expensive custom clothes for people to wear on cruises.  I would bead paisley fabric by the hour. 

 I went to acting classes and helped put on plays at the Actor’s Studio.  Louis’s brother-in-law was Richard Donner who directed the Omen and the first Superman Movie.  We would visit his house high in the Hollywood Hills often.  I would give Richard my massage treatment and he would fall asleep.  Then I would be a hostess for the various people that would also be there.

I gave Jin Shin Do massages to several clients including Fay Dunaway who was a good friend of Hedy Sontag.  I knew Hedy from the Actor’s Studio.  Fay would be exhausted from being in so many films back to back and she had a bad cold from being in a lingerie shot for too long, surrounded by all the cast and crew.  She would also fall asleep and get much needed rest, until the phone rang again.

Louis’s ex-girlfriend was Anitra Ford who was one of the original models on the Price is Right.  She was the Bee lady in “Invasion of the Bee Girls.”  We became friends and she taught me how to know which contestant would be the winner of a game show judging by their attitude.

Owen Orr would come over and collect us to go visit Michael Green down at the Rodeo Grounds in Malibu where there would be a group of musicians and various actors enjoying each other’s company.

The writer of “No Place to Be Somebody,” Charles Gordon was a frequent visitor.  I helped train his crew regarding stage lighting at a current production of the play and got higher credits than Richard Roundtree.  Tyne Daley was one of the actors.   I had learned about lighting at the Strasburg Studio.

Wavy Gravy (Hugh Romney) would stay with us when he was in town.  He always arrived with an entourage of ladies as well as his wife, Bonnie Beecher.  One of them gave me an Emilio Pucci designer dress that I loved to wear.  It looked a lot like this dress:

We went to visit Wavy and Bonnie at the Hog Farm and got to see inside Ken Kesey's famous bus that carried “The Merry Pranksters” which was painted with stars in the interior.

.  

One thing that Louis did for me that I will always be grateful for is that he built me a huge garden on the side of the hill we lived on.  The garden grew beautifully and I had followed the instructions from an organic gardening book, not even knowing that it was a new concept.  It was just normal for me to use companion planting and use natural compost and bug sprays.  That began a life-long love of gardening for me.

We both helped Roberta Higgins son Michael remodel a new restaurant called Lost on Larrabee.  Louis did a lot of the carpentry work and I watered the many potted plants that were brought to for the décor.  I swept a lot of sawdust up also.  The restaurant was a big hit being frequented by many actors and musicians.

Life with Louis was exciting but also a little bit crazy for me so I eventually moved along.

Summer Vacation 2015

July was the month of the travel vacation for me starting on the first day of the month.  I left for Cove, Oregon from the South Lake Tahoe foothills.  It was 104 degrees when I left.  I covered my garden with some lacy fabric  to act as shade cloth so that, hopefully, something would still be alive when I returned back home and it did all survive nicely.

The first leg of my trip took me through the back country of where I live.  It was a fantastic unfoldment of farms and woods winding northward over rivers and gaining in altitude until I turned onto the major freeway taking me over the top of the majestic Sierras and down and through Reno, Nevada on my way to my evening destination of Winnemucca.

The weather was in the triple digits everywhere except the highest elevations.  I had packed snacks in a large cooler and would move some foot out of it and next to the drivers seat at each baking rest stop that I frequently stopped at.

In about four hours I was checking into my motel room.  At the time three planets were snuggled in the twilight together; the moon, Venus and Neptune.  I went across the street to a casino and won $20, had dinner and came back to soak in the tub and relax.  It had been a hot day and the air conditioners were humming in all the rooms.

The next morning I filled my thermos up with hot coffee and took off with a full tank of gas and drove directly north to cross into southern Oregon and head n/e into Idaho.  Leaving Winnemucca, until I reached Jordan, Oregon, I was driving up a valley floor between two long mountain ranges that seemed about twenty miles away on either side. 

The road was well-paved but a small two-lane highway without any curb area or pull-outs.  Cars had to pass one another.  There were wide farms all along the way until we hit the Oregon border.  Then it was unmarred by man, excepting the road, until the outskirts of Jordan, where I again filled up the gas tank.  Being from California I’m used to filling my own gas tank so it took me by surprise that an attendant helped me out. 

I put some new snacks in the front seat and took off to soon enter an isolate Idaho with wonderful hill formations and then a long curve ride down, down the hills into Idaho farmland surrounding Boise.  From there I found the freeway taking me back up to the east side of Oregon. The weather outside was 104 degrees and I passed a road crew resurfacing part of the freeway.  Somehow that seemed inhumane.  Hope they got extra pay for that. 

 I was getting really sleepy and watching for signs for food and lodging and pulled off the freeway to find a real coffee shop.  I had a vanilla latte and was ready to finish the drive which was actually about to happen after driving five hours already. 

I had seen a lot of countryside that day that was mostly blond with dry grass but had just driven up a steep grade of pine covered mountains, and now was in a large valley of farmland.  The GPS lady guided me off the freeway and through the farmland toward the mountains in the east.

As I saw the town of Cove, population 552, I was in wonder as it looked like a German village snug up against and in the shadow of 7,150 foot Mt. Fanny and built into it’s lower curving base on the eastern slope of the Grand Ronde Valley.  The houses had pointed roofs and many streets were covered with gravel.  It had a charming air about it.

I finally pulled into my brother's driveway and was able to stretch and give and get hugs.  Two days and ten hours of driving was a lot for me to do by myself and I was very happy to be there to finally see my brother Dan and sister-in-law Maureen’s house and small farm.

Cove is where cherry trees grow and I have arrived to help pick the trees.  Each tree has to be cleaned of the succulent fruit or the authorities ask that you cut the tree down to prevent infestation affecting the other orchards.  Dan has six trees, three large Lambert cherry trees, a Queen Anne tree and a couple of smaller trees, one with sour cherries for making pies.  We picked the sour cherry tree first and Maureen made the most delicious cherry pie made perfect with a touch of almond extract.

Last year was a much larger harvest than this year.  Two hundred and fifty gallons of cherries were picked as compared to fifty gallons this year.  We even helped a neighbor pick a tree to get that many.

We used tall ladders that were shaped like little Eiffel Towers that had a third pole to keep it steady.  I made it up to the fourth rung while Maureen was on the top if not in the tree itself.  We put the cherries in cut-off plastic milk jugs and then dumped them into a large cooler.

We used a pitting device on many of the cherries so that we could dry them in a couple of dehydrators.  I was given a couple of huge bags of fresh cherries and dehydrated cherries to take home and share.

Another highlight of my trip was suiting up and helping Maureen check on her bees.  I was wearing a hat with netting that tucked inside my clothing, gloves, and socks over my pant legs while timidly standing beside Maureen while she pulled out slabs of honeycombs stacked sideways in the boxes.  She showed me the queen and the larvae, as without gloves on her hands.

Maureen will be selling her bee’s honey at the next Cherry Festival in Cove this August.  She is going to have Dan help her build a shack beside the gravel road to sell jars of honey as well.  We visited a nearby shack that sold vegetables and spruce tip salt and vinegar.  I bought some of the flavored salt and put my money in the slot of a mailbox-like box with a locked lid.

There were also a couple of apple trees that were covered in clusters of small fruits.  We filled a bucket of apples we thinned out of a tree for the resident critters:  two alpacas, two furry goats, two sheep and several chickens.

Maureen had planned several outings for us.  The first was going to the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center to see a concert and a museum.  The concert was amazing with historical references and information.  Did you know that cowboys sang to the sheep so they would stay calm and not stampede, which could be deadly?

Then we had a picnic at Anthony Lakes high up in the Malheur National Forest where Dan had taught beginning skiing for awhile.  Nearby Grande Lake was smaller and encircled by fishermen on outcrops.  It was an image that made me smile and one that I would see at other lakes we visited.

Another day we went to the farmers market in Le Grande and then had a picnic lunch by nearby Morgan Lake.  Food tastes better when you eat it outside.

We also went to Joseph City in Wallowa County.  I have always like Chief Joseph from the Nez Perce tribe and was happy to be in the valley that they had lived in before they were forced off the land illegally by the American government.    We visited a memorial of Chief Joseph’s father who died there and was touched by the simple items that people placed around the decorative tombstone.

We went to artisanal stores in Joseph’s quaint downtown and then on to Wallowa Lake.  We took a tram up to the top of Mount Howard and looked down on the lake and the valley below.  It was less scary going down in the tram after having a champagne mimosa to relax while on top.

All in all, during my stay in Cove, we had good food, played board games, drank iced-coffee and homemade currant wine, watched the distant fireworks show across the valley at sunset (which took place at 10:00 PM), watched my brother build a foundation for a pool/spa, helped work around the farm and went on great field trips.  Not bad for a wannabe farmer.

It was time for me to leave and go back to California and I wanted to go a different route in order to see more of the countryside.  I drove through the middle of Oregon and then down toward California.  After driving on a curvy mountain road for a couple of hours through the Whitman National Forrest I thought I was getting a little dizzy as the fallen logs between the majestic trees began to resemble large lizards and dragons.

I decided to pull over to a café and have some coffee and spice cake and rest a bit before taking off again through a high valley to my evening destination at a hotel in Lakeside, Oregon.  While driving through the valley I was mystified by the small clouds that seemed to be dancing around distant volcanoes.  Then there was the hugest, darkest black cloud that I called the “mother ship” that I had to drive beneath.  I was really hoping it wouldn’t decide to dump it’s load of rain on me when I felt a hundred miles away from anywhere, by myself.  I probably only saw four cars pass me in this long highway so far. 

In the distance I could see streaks of rain falling at the edge of the large cloud and it made it look like an underwater scene with sun streaks pouring through.  I half expected to see some fish flying by in the sky.  (What was in that spice cake???)

Just before arriving at Lakeside I drove beside a beautiful lake.  It looked so beautiful I had to stop and take pictures.

After spending the night at Lakeside I re-entered California and continued enjoying the mountains and valleys until I reached another brother’s home high up in Quincy.  I spent a few days there enjoying his family and left to visit another brother at the bottom of the mountain in Oroville, following the magnificent Feather River all the way down.  It was by far the best river of the many that the highways I traveled seemed to run along.

Finally I drove up the Sacramento Valley to home, feeling quite happy inside, like a special flavor that I have been savoring ever since.

Happy Earth Day 2015

When I was growing up the world seemed incredibly huge.  The sky was so big and the ocean so deep that they seemed to go on forever.  But I do remember not being able to play at recess because the smog in the San Fernando Valley was so thick.  Even then, my lungs would ache walking home from school.

We used to burn our trash in an incinerator in the back yard but that was outlawed.  As more and more cars drove the Los Angeles freeways, more and more smog accumulated between the inversion layer that would occur usually during the change of seasons.

It got one to thinking about living more naturally.  There were many years as an adult that I would not even drive a car.  I carried many heavy bags home from the grocery store, having to stop at the end of each block.  I rode busses and pushed my laundry to the laundry mat in grocery carts up and down hills with my son in tow.

My shoulders are all but shot now.  I use a heating pad every night on them.

When Saddam Hussein lit all the oil wells up in Iraq, I said to myself, “What difference am I making with my sacrifice?” and started to drive a car again.

I had a garden that was full and lush in my mid-twenties using entirely natural means.  Companion planting, compost and natural pest control.  Who knew that would make me feel like a major rebel of my time?

I garden naturally with pride now knowing that any small act effects the entire whole.  I even have a successful nature blog that is viewed internationally.  We need to trust that life can heal itself if we will only get out of the way.

I also spend a little extra money to buy organic food and in a glass container or from the loose bins, if possible.  Every dollar we spend is a vote for the kind of experience we wish for the earth’s inhabitants.

Happy Earth Day 2015

La Conchita in the Summertime

In the summer I went to stay with Grandpa and Grandma Westcott at their beach house in La Conchita for a week or two (just me, not the whole family).   We would spend hours collecting shells from the wide beach but then we would hear Grandma yell:  “Come up, the tide is coming in!” and we would walk up the stairs and go inside.  In a short while the ocean would be on all three sides of the house down below where it was perched on a sand berm.

The living room had a loft.  I would climb the ladder and lay in my loft while the surf pounded all around the house during high tide.  Later Grandpa moved  to the other side of the highway and railroad track, before the sand eroded the berm even more.

The new house had a root cellar that was cool and fun to play in and there was a small store that sold candy a couple of blocks away that we were allowed to walk to.  I would buy candy cigarettes and Red Hots.  Maybe a pink bubblegum cigar too.

 

This was the same little town (La Conchita “Little Shell”) that was known to have had previous landslides and later did have a series of terrible landslides.  The soft California hills slowly melt and here in La Conchita, they melt toward the ocean and occasionally block the train and highway and bury the homes along with a few residents. 

The town consisted of twenty-eight acres divided into 200 plots only 850 feet wide along the coast and it was without a water source. The area became settled with founding multicultural families consisting of railroad workers, farmhands, and oil workers who were used to making do with less.  La Conchita became a unique multicultural, working class, coastal neighborhood.

As a child I was happy to be walking in such a small town next to the huge ocean and the wide sky and surrounded by the rolling verdant hills.  The biggest thrill was going to get huge blocks of ice from the ice house in Carpinteria for the ice chest (refrigerator).  And of course, playing marbles or jacks with visiting cousins (while chewing gum) and eating Grandma’s cooking.  Tea was every afternoon at 3.  Sugar and milk.  Scones with jelly, thank you.

 

A Nice Saturday

Today was a fun day going to the Farmer’s Market with a friend in Old Folsom, eating lunch out and buying new shoes for tomorrow’s hike which will be led by volunteer naturalist Chris Connard (from the Audubon Society).

I bought a phenomenal salad mix and a Feverfew plant at the market and my new shoes are turquoise blue with acid green shoelaces.

I gave my friend a small planter of new lettuce seedlings I had transplanted yesterday when she dropped me back to my house.

At dawn I had driven a seven mile horseshoe shaped road through the hillside adjacent to the block I live on and was charmed by the trees, vistas, farm houses, deer, horses, pigs and sheep.

Our neighbor said there was a second sighting of a mountain lion on our street yesterday morning and there were three deer in the front yard.

I helped block a fence that the neighbor’s goats were getting through into our yard (which has long delicious weeds and grass) by securing the grates and placing a tarp over the fence and tying it like a quilt in several places. 

The pony was hysterical.  I figured that she (Cupcake) had adopted the young goats and was beside herself when they left the yard.  Cupcake was prancing around and winnying and snorting and quite upset until the little Houdini’s were returned to her side.

Then I started reading the books on birding that I got from the library as prep for tomorrow’s hike while listening to the Coachella music festival on YouTube.

What a nice day.