Sugar the Shetland Pony

The other day we were looking for a park in the area. We had relatives with two kids visiting from Germany. We had just picked up one of their friends from the train station in Chatsworth. Where to go?

I knew of a few parks in the West Hills area. To get there, we drove west on Roscoe Blvd. and needed to turn south on Woodlake Ave. I remembered a shortcut to Woodlake Ave. Just before going up the hill on Roscoe, one can take a left turn (south) on Jonathan St. Not a big shortcut but the memories came flooding back.

When we were growing up, that hill was four blocks from our house. The hill had a long driveway that paralleled Jonathan St., which led to a house. The hill was home to Sugar the Shetland Pony and other animals. During my elementary school days, there were many times I’d either walk or ride my bike to visit the pony. On Sundays, I would nab a few sugar cubes from the church coffee hour, or a carrot, or an apple from the fridge to feed Sugar.

My eighth grade year in junior high, that hill (the intersection of Woodlake Ave. and Jonathan St.) is where my friend and I were pulled over on our bicycles, on our way to school, by a police officer. We had apparently rolled through the stop. Unbeknownst to us then, we had come to a California Rolling Stop. We got tickets. I rode on to school but my friend when back home.

The same intersection was the place where, I eventually learned, a boy I had a crush on in ninth grade, lived. Later, after high school, I recall driving my red VW squareback and stopping at that intersection on my way to a performance at the church. I had curlers in my hair and that same boy was out on the sidewalk. I wanted to die!

Looking back, there were many “I wanted to die” moments. Every time I saw that boy from the intersection, I wanted to die. He was in one of my ninth grade classes at Columbus Junior High. I think we spoke five sentences to each other on five separate occasions over a five year span. Yes, every time I spoke to him, I wanted to die. It was the crush I will remember from my youth.

The shortcut to Woodlake Ave. has gone through big changes over the years. Most recently the house on the hill has been removed and replaced with a huge fancy retirement home. The road that curves around the hill has been straightened a bit, perhaps to prevent a blind curve. I wonder how many others remember that shortcut from years gone by.

Doesn't know sh*t from Shinola

At my Dad’s memorial service on Saturday, January 17, 2009, when I got up to share my memories of Dad, I said, “I remember Dad taught me how to shine his shoes. He'd pay me 35¢ and I was thrilled.”

My Dad would say to me, “How would you like to earn some money?”

I knew exactly what he had in mind. He’d bring the shoeshine kit down from the cupboards in the service porch, place a bar stool in the middle of the kitchen, and sit down, hoisting a foot up on the little shoeshine kit. I learned much later in life, he made that wooden kit.

I was taught there was a system to polishing my Dad’s shoes. He’d select the color. First, one shoe up on the foot stool. Apply the polish. Shoe is lowered. Other shoe up, apply polish. Go back to the first shoe on the “last.” Use the brush with bristles. Alternating shoes, after the brush, was the fuzzy buffer and finally the big long rectangular soft cloth. It was rolled up when not in use. To use it, one would unroll it so both ends were exposed. Then rolling a little bit of each end, it was held in both hands. First, moving it swiftly back and forth across the top of the toes, the tip in front, each side respectively and then the heel. Sometimes I had a hard time with the heel and my Dad would help take over.

In an effort to clear the clutter, I’m going to make the wooden shoe shine box into a plant holder in the backyard. In researching what to do with old shoe polish, I discovered that shoe polish can go in the trash. Yes, some of these canisters are very old. Some of the cans have 33¢ painted right on the canister. Lincoln and Kiwi brand is now up to $4 a canister. I will empty most of the contents in the trash but keep a couple of the canisters to reuse for something else.

This is my Dad’s legacy he’s passed along to me. I will think of him often, when I look at the shoeshine box in our garden.

Wrapping Paper Woes

I’m cursing my parents right now! Why did they convince me into thinking that wrapping gifts was a creative outlet for me?!!!

Every Christmas, once I was old enough to cut and tape, I was the go-to person for wrapping presents. I loved wrapping presents. My brothers jumped on the bandwagon and before I knew it, I was wrapping their gifts for others, too.

I would come up with extravagant ways to tie bows. Now, I leave the bows off. But, I can be distracted by beautiful expensive ribbon.

Currently, I do the green thing and wrap everything in post product or recycled brown paper. I’ll enhance the brown with a strip of wrapping paper. Not only am I conserving on wrapping paper, I’m also helping the earth. Yay!

My curses are because of the way my parents treated wrapping paper. I remember many birthdays and Christmases where we were not to crinkle the wrapping paper so it could be (gasp) reused. Yep, reused. Which makes it hard (My husband would say for me—impossible) now, to toss away any scrap of wrapping paper or ribbon.

But my “tossing away” phobia continues with shopping bags of many different sizes–paper and plastic. Not to be used for a gift but used, eventually, somehow, someday. It’s horrible; I can’t recycle them–they need to be reused. Just when will that day come?!!!

When my dad moved into assisted living, he took with him the family wrapping paper and bows box. That box (see photo above) could always be found in the cupboard in my room at Burton St. (Check out the tape holding it together.)

That box is long gone (recycled). But, the wrapping paper habit still lingers on. I need to shut my eyes and just recycle the scraps or come up with a new system to keeping scraps. Ta-da! I think I’ll wrap them on used paper towel and toilet paper rolls.

Hey! I’m feeling really green today! Woes be gone!!!