3314 Keystone Avenue

3314 Keystone Avenue

Gary Grissom

About twenty years ago, my sister Kathy and I decided to take a drive from Temecula, California back to a small section of west Los Angeles called Palms. It is near Culver City where the MGM studios used to be. This was going to be a “sentimental journey” for us in that we had lived with our family on 3314 Keystone Avenue from the summer of 1955 to the fall of 1958.

The house was very old and Palms was a very old neighborhood. We were the last family to live in that house. It was going to be torn down and an apartment building would replace it after we moved back to our home in San Diego. The old house was a magical and wonderful place to live. I loved the dark wood floor where my sisters would play jacks and I would attempt a few pushups. The wallpaper was faded but had some nice scenes of Victorian homes. My brother, Lee, and I shared a bedroom and Linda and Kathy shared another bedroom that was at the front of the house. Of course, Mom and Dad had the large master bedroom overlooking the backyard. The big front porch was one of the best features and we would sit on the front steps and listen to eerie ghost stories told by our cousin Carolyn, or dance in the front yard to early rock ‘n’ roll hits played on my brother’s radio. In the big backyard, there was a fig tree and my mother loved to work in the flower garden that our landlord had planted many years before we moved in. A small garage was on the side of the yard and the long driveway was unpaved. However, Dad parked our green and white station wagon in the driveway instead of inside the garage, because the owner had converted it into a workshop.

The reason we had moved to Palms from San Diego is because Dad had been hired to work at Douglas Aircraft in Palms as a technical writer. At that time, it was hard to find a good job so my parents rented our house out until Dad could be hired as a technical writer at Convair back in San Diego.

I recall Dad shadow boxing across our living room and telling me repeatedly about how he knocked out a tough fighter named Steve Bond. None of us ever complained because we knew it had been one of the favorite moments of his life.

I remember hearing someone describe Palms as the “little town in the big city.” That description fits and, in fact, several early movies were filmed there because of the small town appearance and atmosphere. Some of the films were the Andy Hardy movies starring Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney as well as Our Gang and Little Rascals comedies. While watching one old film, I saw our house in the background. Also, the street we lived on was named Keystone Avenue which makes me think of the Keystone Cops movies.

When I picked up Kathy at her home in Temecula, she wanted to drive her car and I was happy to oblige her. We were both excited and we shared our memories of Palms as we began our trip.

“Gary, do you remember the morning when we were walking to school and you walked onto a scene being filmed for a movie?”

“Sure I do. You suddenly stopped but I kept walking because I didn’t realize what was going on until I heard a man say “Cut.” Then I stopped walking and looked up at a tall, beautiful blond actress who smiled down at me.”

“I thought you were going to get into trouble or something until I heard the same man say “Take five.” We were both so relieved and we laughed and then ran the rest of the way to school.”

“That’s right. By the way, later I heard that the movie was an Abbot and Costello comedy but I don’t recall the title of it.”

“Hey Kathy, how about singing “The Way We Were.”

“Okay…sure. That is the perfect song for this occasion.”

She cleared her throat and started singing “Memories, light the corners of our minds…”

Kathy sang it beautifully and I joined in for a couple of verses. Yes, it was the perfect song for that moment.

We arrived in Palms about an hour later and parked along the curb in front of Palms Elementary School. Since it was Saturday, we thought that the front gate would be locked; but we were pleased that it was unlocked and saw a large sign stating “Welcome to the Health Fair!” We walked through the gate and memories came over me as I looked around and recalled the faces of my childhood friends and teachers. Where were they now? How are they doing? So many years had passed since those innocent, happy days.

We stopped at a couple of the booths and were handed some brochures and we told the fair personnel that we had both gone to the school way back in the ‘50’s.

“Hey that’s so cool.” One of them said. “Is this the first time you’ve been back here?”

“Yes it is.” Kathy answered. “It’s been a long, long, time. Now we’re going to walk around and look into the windows of our old classrooms.”

“Sure. Go ahead and have fun.”

Our next stop was 3314 Keystone Avenue where our house had stood. We knew it had been torn down and replaced by an apartment building from a letter that my mother had received from a former neighbor. We both took deep breaths as Kathy parked and we stared at 3314 on the front of the apartment building. The building seemed so sterile and lifeless; but at least the tall palm tree next to the curb was still there. After we got out of the car, I walked over to the palm and threw my arms around it as I would a dear old friend. It was a dear old friend and it had watched us as we grew beneath it and played childhood games with friends and cousins.

We saw a man walk out of an apartment on the ground floor and he nodded at us as he walked by. He seemed friendly but I knew he couldn’t possibly realize that he was living on what seemed like sacred ground to Kathy and me. I almost told him that we had lived in a beautiful house that had once been there…a home that had precious memories for us and for the family that had lived there for a half century before we did. Perhaps he would have been sensitive enough to understand. But no, he couldn’t possibly have grasped the deep love we had for that old house. So we simply watched him walk away.

“Hey, let’s take a walk over to the liquor store where we used to deposit our pop bottles in exchange for fudge cycles and Hershey bars.”

“Yes, that’s a good idea Kathy. Let’s go!”

The liquor store had become a barber shop and we looked into the window and watched a little boy getting a haircut.

“That little boy is so cute.”

“Yes he is Kathy. But I could sure use a fudge cycle right about now. They always tasted so good.”

“You can say that again.”

Next door to the liquor store had been a small restaurant that had sold

good cheese burgers and French fries. It was now a Mexican restaurant so we decided to go in and order some tacos. As we walked in, we saw a large photo of Sylvester Stallone sitting at a table in the restaurant.

“Stallone eats here.” I said as I headed for the empty table where he had been sitting. “Let’s sit at Rocky’s table.”

Kathy laughed and said “Of course.”

As soon as we sat down, a waitress brought us menus and we immediately ordered two taco plates with refried beans and Spanish rice. Kathy also ordered a coke and I ordered a Dox X’s.

Before we were served our plates, Kathy looked sad and so I asked what she was thinking of.

“Migsy.”

“Oh yes Kathy. Migsy was such a great little fox terrier. What a dog!”

“She was our childhood dog. She went everywhere with us. I’m so glad we had her for fifteen years. But I still miss her.”

“I do too. On early Saturday mornings, she would follow me to that little wooded area by the railroad track. She would find a gopher hole and then keep digging until the poor gopher would finally come out. As soon as it emerged, Migsy would kill it in a matter of a seconds. Then she would eat the whole thing right in front of me.”

“Oh that poor gopher! Why didn’t you try to stop her?”

“Well…I did feel sad for the gopher but since it was dead, and since Migsy looked so proud, I let her enjoy her meal.”

“Yuck! Well, my favorite memory was when Migsy and Casper would fall asleep next to each other. They were best buddies.

“Oh yes…Casper was our favorite cat. Mom named him Casper because he was solid white like Casper the friendly ghost.”

The waitress brought our plates and we thoroughly enjoyed our meal.

After our lunch, we decided to walk over to the railroad tracks and see if the small woods was still there. The woods had been our Sherwood forest, the Never, Never, Land from Peter Pan, the jungle from King Kong and an enchanted forest. Sometimes Migsy and I would watch some younger children catch butterflies with their nets and laugh with joy. As we walked, we passed a very old apartment building where one of my best friends, Johnny Nimmo, had lived with his mother and sister. They had been on welfare and his sister supplemented their income by working at the same restaurant that now served delicious Mexican cuisine.

“You remember that Johnny Nimmo used to live in that building don’t you?” I said as I pointed at the window of the tiny apartment where they lived.

“Oh yes…Johnny. He was a nice boy. Hey! I recall that you and Larry Bartone and Johnny sneaked away to POP (Pacific Ocean Park) one summer day . You didn’t get home until late in the afternoon and you got into trouble. But how could you afford it?”

“Well Johnny approached Larry and I early one morning and told us that if we would go with him to POP, he would treat us to all the rides and whatever we wanted to eat. Of course, we loved the idea and wanted to go with him. When we asked how he had enough money to afford such a great time, he said he had found $40 in a bag in the alley behind his apartment. Therefore, we caught a bus to POP and spent one of the happiest days three boys ever had. We rode every ride and especially liked a huge spinning barrel in which the floor dropped below us and we were forced against the padded wall until the floor came back up again. As promised, Johnny bought us all the hot dogs, hamburgers, popcorn, soda pop and ice cream we could eat. It’s a wonder we didn’t get sick to our stomachs.”

“Wow! You guys really had some fun. That’s so cool.”

“Yes, but I was grounded for two weeks and I think Larry was too. Poor Johnny got into real trouble, though, because he didn’t actually find the $40 in a bag. Instead, he spent the money he had collected from his paper route. The paper was going to fire Johnny unless his mother paid the $40 that Johnny had spent. When Dad heard about it, he talked to Johnny's mother and Mr. Bartone and they agreed to split the cost three ways.

“Oh that’s so sad. I wonder whatever became of Johnny.”

When we arrived at the railroad tracks, we were disappointed to see that a chain link fence was along the bottom of the tracks. Therefore, I looked to see if there was a break in the fence so that we would be able to squeeze through.

“Gary, look over there to the left. There’s a hole at the bottom of the fence that’s big enough to crawl through. Why don’t you try it?”

“Of course I will. I really need to see if the trees are still there. I’ve dreamed about those trees for years.”

I walked to the hole and managed to squeeze through it.

“Come on Kathy! I’ll help you crawl through.”

“No, you go ahead. I’m afraid I’ll get stickers on my clothes.”

“There’s no stickers. Come on!”

“Nope. I’ll wait here.”

I took a deep breath in anticipation of seeing the woods again as I climbed up to the tracks. But when I got there, I was shocked and stunned to see that the woods no longer existed. The land on which the woods existed was also gone. Instead, there was nothing but Interstate 405 (I-405) below me, and it didn’t even look like a new highway. It looked old and for the first time in my life, I felt old. I closed my eyes and remembered how it looked long ago and saw the children chasing butterflies with their nets; and how Migsy used to look up at me after I had climbed a tree and would bark until I came back down.

“Well, did you see the old woods? Is it still there?” Kathy asked as I crawled out of the hole in the fence.

“No. It’s been replaced by a damned freeway.”

We then walked over to Rose avenue to see the apartment where the Bartone family had once lived. We knew they had moved to northern California, but we still wanted to see the beautiful red bougainvillea that had hung over the railing. When we got there, we were pleased to see that it was in full bloom and it brightened our spirits again.

“The Bartones were a great family Kathy. Tom, Larry’s older brother, was the original cool cat teenager with his ducktail and his white 1950 Ford, with the big foam dice hanging from his rearview mirror. I think he had white wall tires too. I idolized Tom and I appreciated that he never looked down on us because we were younger than him.”

“I had a huge crush on him. All the girls did! He was handsome enough to have been a movie star.”

“Yeah, and let’s not forget the gang that Lee and Tom started. They looked so cool in their blue jackets with “The Continentals of West LA” on the back.”

“His parents and Larry were cool too. Mrs. Bartone made the best spaghetti sauce I ever tasted. And his father was the best barber in Palms.”

“Yes, they were a great family.”

Finally, we decided to visit other places that held fond memories such as the little public library near our elementary school, Palms Jr. High, Palms Theater, Culver Center and MGM. Well, the library had closed, Palms theater had been demolished (a Post Office is now in its place), and MGM was now SONY. But Palms Jr. High is still going strong and Culver Center is still operating with several businesses.

“Sis,” I said after we did a little shopping. “It’s time to go.”

“Yes, it’s time to boogey back to Temecula.”

“As Thomas Wolfe wrote, “You can’t go home again.”

“Yeah Gary, but we can always visit it again in our dreams and memories.”

“Yes, and as Bogie said to Ingrid Bergman at the end of Casablanca, “We’ll always have Paris.” And Kathy, we’ll always have Palms.”