People, places and things

In an earlier blog post I mentioned that my sister Karina (who was 18 at the time) was having a relationship with the son of our landlord... Well - him and a few other guys... That was back when she was doing whatever she felt like doing - luckily, that phase only lasted 15 years or so :-)

John (that was his name) was also 18 and his family was quite well off... He once took me and Karina up to their house in the hills above La Jolla in his Dad's new Mercedes - but when we got there we had to hang out in the kitchen - his parent's were not OK with us being there... We weren't the right sort of people...
I do recall that their kitchen was bigger than a lot of people's apartments - the walls and floors were fully tiled and all the appliances were commercial stainless steel units. I also recall that he made me a milkshake using a built-in commercial milkshake machine - I had never seen one in a residential kitchen before...

But the interesting part of the story is that John broke up with Karina over a car...
When we first moved to Mission Beach he had a beautiful blue 1967 Chevelle SS 396 convertible - but he wasn't satisfied with it. What he really wanted was a Porsche 911T (that was the latest model at the time)... One day he showed up with a pile of brochures and spent hours gushing over all the technology and features... Then he announced that his parents were flying him to Stuttgart to pick up a brand new burgundy 911T at the Porsche factory - he was going to drive it around Europe for a month and have it shipped back to San Diego. There was just one catch: He had promised not to ever see Karina again. But he assured her he had no intention of keeping that promise - they just had to be really careful so his parents didn't find out...
Karina pretty much flipped out. She let him know in no uncertain terms that if he got the Porsche she would never see him again... So - he got the Porsche :-)

Next topic:
San Diego is one of those places that's close to everything. It's on the beach but still close to the mountains and desert. There's no end of places to go and things to do - and we did a lot of exploring in the Mustang convertible in those first few months. There were trips to Mt. Palomar and to Joshua Tree, Lake Elsinore and Oceanside... And Ramona...
BTW: Mom had this thing about the name Ramona - It was because of the 1936 movie with Loretta Young - it was one of her favorites... This one time when I was 3 years old I was watching Captain Kangaroo and mom came in and changed the channel because Ramona was on... Now - I figured if I couldn't watch what I wanted then she shouldn't be able to either - so I stood in front of the TV... And she spanked me... I didn't think that was very fair - being a kid sucks :-) But I digress...

Riding with mom was interesting (as always). She went really slow on winding roads but refused to pull over to let the long line of cars behind her pass... Karina and I were always afraid that somebody was going to get impatient, pass at the wrong time and have a head-on collision right next to us. When we expressed our concerns mom always said (in her Hungarian accent) "Vell... It vould be dere own fault!!"... Yeah - but does it really matter if we end up getting killed too??

Aside #1: Anyone who has ridden with me can attest that I get irrational about drivers whose speed varies, who drive below the speed limit, who drift from side to side, who go slow and won't pull over, who don't notice their lane is ending - all those things my mom used to do... It's a consequence of having spent my childhood in mortal fear :-)

Aside #2: History had forgotten how freaking unreliable those 65 Mustangs were when they first came out. Ours had less than that 40,000 miles on it. It overheated on long hills - the transmission used to get stuck in low gear when cold - the water pump failed - the timing chain failed (nylon teeth) - it was hard to start when cold (I had to fiddle with the choke while mom cranked it). And there was the infernal squeaking. You always knew when there was a Ford nearby because the cheap suspension bushings squeaked incessantly... Yeah - Ford saved a few bucks on every car... But I digress again :-)

There were loads of pomegranate orchards in that area - the roadside stands were everywhere... We'd heard of pomegranates before but had never seen one - and in retrospect I don't know why people bother with them. They're really hard to eat and they stain the h*ll out of everything they touch... And frankly - they're not that good... I suppose I'll get a nasty-gram from the International Pomegranate Anti-Defamation Association for having said that :-)

And lastly: I guess there's no better time to tell the story about the 20-something redheaded school teacher who lived in our condo building. It's really not that great of a story... Just one of the many things I've never forgotten:

One day I was on the beach and I noticed that the school teacher was out on the veranda in front of our condo building (in a very skimpy light blue flower-pattern bikini) showing the neighbors some antique thing she had bought... After a while the neighbors left so I figured that would be a good time to head over for a better look... I'll leave it as an exercise for you - the reader - to determine exactly what I wanted a better look at :-)
Now - you're probably wondering how I was able to approach her so easily given my panic disorder and the shyness and all... It's simple. I knew there was no way she would ever be interested in me - so there was absolutely nothing at stake.
Anyway - she saw me approaching and immediately invited me over. Being so shy I stopped a few feet away from her and (much to my surprise) she sidled up right next to me - we were literally touching... She was holding her new antique jewelry box (shaped like a miniature treasure chest) right in front of her cleavage (which was highly exposed and impressively ample) and proceeded to point out all the intricate little details and hidden compartments and such - and to be perfectly honest, I'm not sure I ever looked directly at the jewelry box...

Finally - she gave me this little grin and said "So ... Do you like my chest???"

I was like - WTF??? In retrospect it's obvious that the double entendre was intentional. (She was quite a flirtatious little thing.) But being so young and naive I was pretty much stunned - confused - and speechless. I spent weeks afterward trying to decide if that was what she really meant - and wondering what I should have said (also obvious in retrospect). Yeah - it drove me nuts...

But, regardless of her intent, she did provide me with one heck of a memorable experience :-)