Mission Beach

We took an early morning flight from Denver to San Diego - I think it was either September 14th or 15th of 1968.

Now, if you've never landed in San Diego from east to west you've missed an interesting experience. The plane follows the contour of the hillside down to the airport (at least it did back then). Yeah - we weren't very far off the ground for a good part of the final approach - there was a lot of turbulence... Then as we were approaching the touchdown point I looked to the left and all I could see was the bay. It was a little bit disconcerting... But the flight was otherwise uneventful :-)

As soon as we got our luggage mom bought a newspaper to look at the rental ads and started making phone calls. There was a 2 bedroom beachfront condo on Mission Beach available immediately. The rent was a bit high but we had enough money for the first month plus the security deposit. (This was before "first and last month" became the norm...) So - we tossed our luggage in a cab and met the owner at the condo - and just like that - we had our new home...

I have to admit that it was the coolest place I've ever lived... Back in the 1960s Mission Beach was home to a rather eclectic mix of Bohemian types, surfers and bikers... And there were women in bikinis everywhere :-) The weather was perfect almost all the time and the beach was right out the front door... It was nirvana...
BTW - I tried to locate that condo using Google maps. There are detailed images of the beachfront area and I'm fairly certain that the building has been replaced. It was in the area of Kennebeck Court and not much of anything around there looks the same as it did back then...

The main part of our unit was on the second floor of the building and had a balcony facing the ocean. There was also an upstairs bedroom with a door into a small private "tanning area" - it had walls but no roof - I assume so you could get an "all-over" tan in privacy. There was also a door onto yet another balcony... Sigh - I never got tired of watching the sun set over the ocean...

OK - this somewhat of a non-sequitur: One day while we lived in that condo I got a migraine and there wasn't any aspirin so my sister offered me a Midol. I initially rejected it - I was afraid I might grow boobs or something - you never know :-) But my headache was so bad I finally relented. Now - I don't know what they put in Midol back in the day, but that was the best stuff I'd ever taken! It not only got rid of the migraine - it made me feel wonderful :-) But I digress...

Our condo unit was owned by a family that lived in the hills above La Jolla. They had an 18 year old son who immediately took a liking to Karina... His parent's were not pleased about their relationship - but that's a story for later...

Across the hall there were two DJs at an "easy listening" radio station. One of them was named Jeff. I don't recall the other one's name but they both drank a lot of Coors... (I didn't get it - compared to Canadian beer Coors tasted like plain water to me.)
Karina had a relationship with Jeff too. I recall that he drove an MG Midget - he used to give me promo copies of records - and he taught me how to body-surf (there is a trick to it). And most important of all - he's the one who convinced me to start using shampoo again. I hadn't used any type of soap on my hair for 3 1/2 years and it was starting to get a bit greasy :-)

The only other resident I remember was a school teacher who lived in one of the downstairs units. She was a 20-something redhead who drew quite a bit of attention in a bikini (if you get my drift). Fortunately, that's what she wore most of the time (when she wasn't teaching, of course). There will be a story about her later :-)

BTW - since I've mentioned radio stations: I used to listen to "Wolfman Jack" every morning before school. He was a legend back then and his reputation was well deserved... But in the afternoons I listened to KPRI - an underground FM progressive rock station. They didn't adhere to any particular schedule and sometimes they'd just put on an album and forget about it until a while after it ended (resulting in "dead air"). But they always played good stuff (not top 40) and some of the commercials were hilarious, like: "Everyone likes getting leather presents for Christmas! ... [monotone voice with a lisp] Oh lookee - I got a leather present for Christmas." Yeah - that one always cracked me up... But I digress...

Those days were so bittersweet for me... I was living in paradise...
But I missed my friends... And I missed my band... And I had never felt more alone...