A Year of Transition...

The year I was 27 was a good one. I dated...I moved...into a wonderful triplex in an amazing area. It was a bright, airy one bedroom with hardwood floors and tons of charm. I was in heaven! I started buying furniture and felt like Mary Tyler Moore.. on my own and loving life. The man in charge of acquiring the prizes for Hollywood Squares owned the triplex. He'd bought it to house his ex daughter-in-law after she'd been unceremoniously dumped by his son. I was the excited third tenant.

The triplex was across the street from Bob Hope's house in Toluca Lake. Mr. Hope owned half of the San Fernando Valley and I'd heard the other half was owned by Fred McMurray. Truthfully, Mr. Hope's house was a giant old fashioned Tudor that didn't appear to have central air conditioning. You could see through the gate that the windows were always open. The lot on the other corner was empty. Rumor had it that Mr. Hope owned that, too, and upon his death and that of his wife, Dolores, the house would become a nunnery for the Roman Catholic church about a mile away. Dolores Hope was the major donor. As I write this, Mrs. Hope is still with us. The triplex was sold years ago to house Mr. Hope's caretakers and I guess the nuns are still waiting for their new home.

Halloween was amazing in Toluca Lake. Buses arrived with kids - I kid you not - from other neighborhoods because trick or treating in this area filled with celebrities,incredible homes and full size candy bars. Christmas time was amazing - the lights, the creches, the huge lit trees filled with decorations. It was also about three miles from NBC which made for an incredible commute to work.

My work schedule was erratic, time-wise. Different shows taped at different times. For instance, Wheel of Fortune was a late call - and late out. Midnight Special - very early call and very late out. But Midnight Special was FUN! Wolfman Jack was the host and for Christmas that year even us "cops" got beautiful silk and satin "Midnight Special" baseball jackets. However, the fly in the ointment of scheduling was Susan - the office administrator who made sure we all knew she was the "boss of the schedule". She was six years older so I didn't expect all the perks she had but I did expect fairness. Not so much. Susan would get annoyed and then Susan would get petty. She didn't like the friendship that had developed between me and one of the other young women in the office. So, we never got to work on shows together. And, if we misbehaved, i.e., hanging out together after work hours, one - or both - of us would find ourselves working a graveyard shift show with an early show turnaround. Silly, but true. It's always something, isn't it?

Our boss worked out of NBC in New York...his name was - and still is - Sam. He wasn't much older than we were and had a great sense of humor. When he came to town we would have fun - and heaven forbid we didn't include Susan. That would guarantee working the worst shows at least a couple of weeks. We were salaried - not hourly - so it didn't matter how many hours a day we'd work. Susan saved the best for herself - but more about that later.

I was loving life - except for the pending divorce. I'd gotten an attorney, I'd filed the papers but didn't follow through. Why? Well, the attorney had said there was a chance I'd have to pay him alimony. Huh??? During the past year Jake had lost his job, sold the boat and moved in with a new girlfriend. No income meant I made more. Ah, equality for women. So, the divorce was on hold which drove my father nuts. Just about everything I did drove my father nuts and had forever. But, again - that's another story.

I'd spent just about every Christmas holiday - married or not - back in Locust Valley. My mom had insisted. To be honest, it was the continuity in my life that I craved. I loved where I'd grown up - I just didn't want to still live there. A visit was exactly what I needed at least once a year. In May of that year my younger brother was graduating from college so I was summoned for the ceremony. I groused but agreed it was where I should be.

Let me explain my mom in greater detail. She was the warmest, funniest woman I knew. My friends all loved her and she always welcomed them graciously with kindness. Slumber parties were the genre of teenage entertainment when I was growing up and I had more than my share of them at our house. My mom was my friend and as I explained earlier, my savior when it came to leaving home and finding an entirely different way of life than the one I was programmed to expect. She encouraged my independence.

My mom was a "crier"...Father Knows Best could send her into spasms. Happy tears, she'd call them. The Hallmark greeting card commercials were good for several Kleenex. I laughed at her over the years...really laughed. Yet, at my brother's college graduation I found myself crying...a lot. She looked over at me and said "ha, you've got the gene."

My brother was 7 years younger than I was..having left home for good at 21 meant he was only 14. I didn't know him well. During childhood those seven years were huge and meant I was the designated baby sitter during times when that was exactly what I didn't want to be doing with my weekend nights. But I liked him. So much so that I asked him to come spend the summer in California with me following his graduation. He'd majored in history but really had no clue of what to do next. Spending the summer with me seemed like a good time for both of us. I wasn't dating anyone special and I knew he'd get along with my friends.

So Jody came to California where we spent the last best summer of our lives.