Happy Birthday To Me
Back in the '60s, my mom's best friend from high school, Gloria, and her husband, Ray, bought The Villa Del Mar Motel at South Lake Tahoe. We had been going to Tahoe for quite a few years - always staying at The Kent Motel. The folks would leave us with my older brother in charge - and they'd head off to the casinos - almost always coming back with a bucket of nickels. Yes, back in those days, they really were one-armed bandits - you put real coins in, pulled the handle, and (hopefully) real money came out.
But I digress...
That changed when Gloria and Ray bought the Motel - we now stayed with them - at a slight discount... We were up there for a few days in July, 1969 and their son, Mike - a year younger than me - and I convinced both sets of parents that I should stay up there for a month and help work at the motel - cleaning rooms, working a PBX switchboard, actually taking reservations - and having fun doing it! Ray and Gloria had 4 kids - Mike was the oldest - but everyone worked. They had no outside staff. It was totally family-operated.
The bottom level, back in those days, was pretty much just storage. Mike and I took the bottom right room - looking at the picture - and turned it into our own little (actually, quite large) teen-cave. We had TV, mini-fridge, beds, clean sheets and towels... It was rough.
There was a drive-in theatre a mile or so from the motel and we'd walk over there and sit in the lot and smoke pot and watch movies. I think I saw 2001: A Space Odyssey a dozen times that summer. And we'd swim in the lake, clean rooms, answer phones, pick up cigarette butts and trash in the parking lot...
And in the middle of all this fun was my 17th Birthday, so I sent my parents a telegram to congratulate them on having me. Yes, I am so old that not only do I remember telegrams, I remember when they were delivered to your house!
Always something silly...
I think I was up there one more time the following winter. That hill next to the house led to a boat dock. That winter, we took sleds and shot down the hill, onto the dock and into the freezing water. Our parents tried to act unamused, but really did see the humor in it.
Fast-forward to 1976... Ray and Gloria had sold the place, and had moved to Grants Pass, Oregon. I was living on the North Shore working first at The Old Post Office in Carnelian Bay and then at the Hyatt Lake Tahoe - in Food and Beverage. I had my fill of room cleaning.
At some [point, the Villa Del Mar became an office building and about 5 or so years ago, it became The Idle Hour Wine Bar. What a difference.
Next time I make it to Tahoe I will definitely be stopping by! The only thing that hasn't changed is that remarkable view.....
Christmas Carols with the Mayor of San Francisco
December 18, 1962 - a date which will live in infamy - for me, anyway... It was the day I presented San Francisco Mayor George Christopher with a book of Christmas Carols in the City Hall Rotunda!
Imagine, if you will, 400 children on those steps. Me, at the bottom - a nervous 10 year old who has just forgotten his speech. I was stammering... my mind was a complete blank... My short life was flashing before my eyes... I was doomed...
I started out "Mayor Christopher" ::clears throat:: ... "Mayor Christopher" ::clears throat again::
Gladys, our playground director, was doing a stage whisper shouting "On Behalf" "On Behalf" Finally, it came to me:
"Oh, yeah!!!"
Mayor Christopher,
On behalf of the Children's Chorus of the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department, I would like to present to you this Book of Carols for you and Mrs. Christopher.
That was it - the five-second speech that caused a near-death experience!
Mayor Christopher laughed and gave me a big hug. I had persevered and done my job. The festivities were officially started.
I don't really know how I was chosen to do this. I kinda guess it happened to be South Sunset's turn to supply the kid and I was such a little dweeb that I was a natural.
I spent a lot of time at South Sunset Playground back in the day - it was my safe haven. I was picked on and bullied at school - St Gabriel's - 1200 students in grades 1-8. The largest Catholic school west of the Mississippi River. We were taught by nuns - in long black habits, white guimpe and wimple, black veil... very medieval... The fact that I was a straight-A student and more often than not a Teacher's Pet did not win me any bonus points from some of my classmates.
At the playground, I was in the ukulele group taught by Mrs Daniels - Hawai'i had only been a state for a year or so. Mrs Daniel's was also the organist at the church and I was one of the children's choir members. I soloed Ave Maria - Shubert's, in Latin, of course - at Midnight Mass somewhere in '62-'64. Yeah... not popular amongst my peer group but encouraged and accepted by a few adults who weren't relatives.
Here's a photo of the Ukulele Group since I don't have one of the City Hall Christmas Carols... It was probably around the same time...
I contacted the SF Public Library about how I might locate a photo of the event, but, alas, it seems that no photo exists. They did send me a couple of newspaper clippings that they had, but a search of Rec & Park files as well as Mayor Christopher did not show any actual photos or other documentation of the event.
And that's okay... The memory of being that nervous little kid 60-whatever years ago brings a smile to my face. And, in the grand scheme of things, that's all that matters.