First Things First

August marks my site's first anniversary.  I started this site on August 8th, 2001.  I really can't believe that it's been a year now.  My previous attempts at creating a homepage were usually over in a couple of months.  I'm glad that I've stuck to it this time.

Afterthoughts : That Dinner at Bob's Big Boy

Years ago when I was about 10 years old or so my Mother, Grandmother, and myself would eat dinner at Bob's Big Boy nearly every weekend.  We used to take the bus to Reseda, where there was a Woolworth's, and go shopping for a bunch of things we needed.  There was also a fabric store right across the street that we always went to buy some stuff.  But, that's another story.  There was always some clothes project that my mother was working on.  On the way home it would be getting to be around dinner time, so instead of going home and cooking we would stop off at the Big Boy on Ventura Boulevard to get some dinner.  I loved the spaghetti and chili bowl they had there.  It came with a tiny pair of buns, which were always toasted just right.

One night we walked in and got a table in the the dark section, as I called it, of the restaurant.  It was like a back room with huge booths that were obviously used to seat larger groups of people.  I don't know how we ended up being seated there, because there was only three of us.

What makes me remember that dinner over all the other dinners that I had in that restaurant was the waitress we had that night.  I can't say that I remember her face, because I don't.  She was a new waitress, working her first night, or first week at least.  What I remember is how I liked her.  I also seem to remember that she had black hair, and looked a lot like... oh, I'm trying to think who she might have resembled.  I'll come back to that in a minute.

For a little 10 year old, I quickly got a huge crush on her.  My mother even joked about how she was too old for me.  It was a fun night.  I almost made her drop all our food on the table because she was carrying the plates on her arms.  I went to get my food, but since there was a plate over my plate of food I would have caused the other plate to fall.  She asked me not to take my plate, and I just looked into her eyes and smiled.  I do remember that she was cute in every way.  She was nice, and had a cute laugh.  There wasn't anyone else in the dark section that night, so it was like she was only there for me and my family.  She refilled my Mother's and Grandmother's cup of coffee more than anyone else had before.

We finished out dinner and thanked her.  It really was a great night.  On the way out I got one of the Big Boy comics and looked back towards the section she was working.  I saw her standing there and I waved at her.  I hoped that the next week would go by quickly so I could be in her presence again.  It was a long week.

We went back the next week, but she wasn't there.  I'm pretty sure that we went back the week after that, but she wasn't there.  We went back a lot of times, but I never saw her again.  I hadn't thought of her in nearly 20 years, until just a second before I started to write this.

Man About Town : Los Encinos

The Los Encinos state park in Encino is a slice of what the valley was like about a hundred years ago.  The five acre park represents the only remaining piece of a 4,460 acre ranch called Encino.  The first of its four owners was named Vicente De la Ossa.  He built the house pictured below.  The Ossa adobe is an eight room house that was completed in 1850.  The walls for the Ossa adobe are made of sun baked bricks made of mud and straw.  Each of the bricks is 2 feet thick, and about five inches tall.  The bricks kept the interior of the house cool even in the summer.

The Garnier building, pictured to the left, was build in 1873 out of limestone.  It was built by the second owners of the ranch, Eugene and Phillipe Garnier.  The Garnier's operated the ranch as a sheep ranch, and exported wool to Europe.  The Garnier building was the contained a kitchen and dinning room.  On the south east corner of the park is a man-made reservoir.  It is feed by a natural spring that to this water still rises from.  The reservoir is now home to ducks and geese.  The water was formally used to irrigate the fields and to water the livestock.  Los Encinos isn't the biggest park in the valley, but it is a throwback to a bygone era.  Right dab in the middle of a hustling and bustling neighborhood lies this little park that can still transport anyone back to the past.  It is a quite reminder of what was before even the Spanish came to this land now named California.

Etcetera : Do you know who this is?

Last month I was talking to a friend of mine about this girl I knew in 6th grade.  It was the first time I had thought of her in years.  I had a crush on her, but she moved away during the semester and I never got to see her ever again.  The sad thing is that I never knew what became of her.  On my current nostalgia jag I've tried to find those people who have remained in my memories, for whatever reason.  If you know her, or you went to school with her, email me.