Memories: Miles of Blue Canvas! When I was about eight, our next-door neighbor was MGM Culver City’s head cameraman. In his backyard, behind the garage, he and May, his wife, built a “cocktail lounge:
The lounge was the size of a garage, perhaps 20×20 feet. In the corner was a beautiful bar (which he got from the studio lot after a movie shoot). The room was painted red and black and had several neon signs on the walls, most of which I do not remember but probably beer signs. Outside there was a neon sign saying “Rooster Lounge.”
On one wall were perhaps 20 magnificent perfect miniature military models; trucks, tanks, artillery pieces, etc. These we used in the military films he shot in his career. I loved going over to Brownie’s and visiting the models.
One afternoon, Brownie came over and talked to dad, and a few minutes later, days said, “Pop in the car; we are going to the studio.” That sounded like fun. When we for there, we drove through the gates and into the backlot. MGM had a giant outdoor screen, probably 150 feet long and 100 feet high. On this screen, they would paint backgrounds. That day it was sky made of blue canvas and white paint. The men were taking it down and about to toss it in the dumpster.
Brownie talked to them, and they cut off several pieces of solid blue canvas. They were large pieces, perhaps 80 x 20 and another 60 x 40, and several smaller pieces. We all helped fold the canvas and put them in the back of our station wagon.
For a long time, the kids in the neighborhood and I would play with these canvas sheets. We made theaters with curtains (throwing them over a clothesline) and made tents from anything we could find. Those canvas sheets made a lot of kids happy!
Chuck and Lisa are departing for North Carolina today, and we will miss them. They are excellent house guests, and we are happy to help in their time of need (the main reason for the trip was to attend a celebration of life for Lisa’s younger sister).
We had a PT appointment in Tustin at 8:30 AM, so we departed the house at 7:30 AM, and the ol’ Grey Ghost raced down the 55 to John Wayne Airport quickly. We did the dropoff and returned to Tustin with ten minutes to spare before Mary’s PT appointment.
We went to Rockwell’s for breakfast and shared corned beef hash, plus I did a side of ham. It was cold outside, so we both had hot coffee, and it warmed our hands and insides.
We returned home to give Scout his medicines before going out again. We came inside and could not find him! We panicked, then we heard paper rustling; he is such an intelligent dog.
Smarty!
After walking the garden, we settled in for a day in the office. How does paper stack up like this? We had two weeks without working in the office, and then, we had to fight our way into the office. The place was buried in mounds of envelopes and bills! We spent from 10:30 AM until 7:30 PM in the office and were 99% done.
We managed to cut our bills in half. We haven’t saved any money; we just became a bit obsessed with my scissors.
Scout was dreaming when we went to the family room, so we woke him up. He wouldn’t say precisely what he was dreaming about, but we have an idea.
He was probably thinking about yesterday when we tried on his “cone of shame.”
We enjoyed an exciting dinner called warmed surprise! Whatever was in the frig was heated, and we ate it. NOTE: All science projects were removed two weeks ago! We had Greek Dolmades from the Greek restaurant, and they were outstanding.
We rolled the TV into the breakfast/dinner table and watched “Shooter,” season 2. By 11:00 PM, we were ready to crash.
