Reliving the past and "Heeeeeere's Jay!"

This was day 2 in “Maybe you can go home again.” Joan has heard endless stories about my life and growing up in the greater Los Angeles area and these couple days are simply my chance to show her all the places she has heard about.

The new homes in my old Encino neighborhood

Yesterday, we visited La Crescenta and Glendale, this morning we went back a little bit earlier and visited our home in Encino. Except when I showed up to the street – Andasol Avenue – where our house used to be I discovered that at some point in history all those little post-war starter homes have been leveled and new McMansions erected in their place.

Not sure when this all happened, but clearly someone along the way decided those 800-900-square foot homes were worth more as empty lots rebuilt with million dollar homes instead of those cozy little bungalows that many of us grew up in.

I was so shocked by the change I called my Dad in Virginia to make sure I was on the right street, which I was. They basically just replatted the entire area after flattening all those cute little homes.

Me on the steps of the chuch where I was baptized

While we were in the area we stopped by a historic old church – St. Nicholas Episcopal Church – on Ventura Boulevard which is the place I was baptized. The church records show I was baptized on June 18, 1950 by Fr. Harley Smith. My father was my Godfather, my aunt Judi and my grandmother Ardath Ann Lovingood stood in as my Godmothers.

It was nice to know those old records still exist. The church looks the same, and as I recall, back in the early 1950s was the home church for stars like Roy Rogers and Dale Evans. Dale Evans even mentions Fr. Harley Smith in her memoirs.

There is a plaque on the church honoring Fr. Smith that was erected in 1957. The beautiful bronze doors had panels honoring the various sacramental rites of the church.  So after the disappointment of not finding my little house, seeing the church still standing and well did my heart good.


On the porch of my grandparents' home

Following that adventure we fought the heavy Los Angeles freeway commuter traffic back to the Hollywood Hills to visit my grandparents’ home on Dundee Drive. These homes were in the high rent district and most of them still look the same as when my grandparents lived there.

The home looks the same, but the front yard is an overgrown jungle and it appears that the interior of the house is undergoing renovations. The chandelier in the dining room appears to be the same one that was there when my grandparents lived there. I have so many fond memories of that house and many of them came flooding back while I was standing on the porch.

Across the street a mansion on a hill still has the elevator used to bring people to the house from the street level. Unlike when my brother and I used to run in and out of the tunnel that led to the elevator the new owners have a locked door on the street level to prevent little urchins like we were from using the tunnel as a fort.

Grandma's gravesite at Forest Lawn

Down the street from the home there used to be an overgrown traffic island that made a perfect hiding place/fort/pirate hangout/hole-in-the-wall-gang place/African safari destination/ or any other place my brother or my imagination would take us.

Today the island is cleared of brush and it is a tidy little park like setting that would never prompt any imagination like we had when we hid and played on the island.

From there, to kind of wrap up the nostalgia trip, Joan and I ventured on to Forest Lawn Cemetery, on the other side of the hill from my grandparents’ home, and paid a short but respectful visit to the grave of my paternal grandmother, Ethel Tyson Smith.

I recalled that we carried Grandma’s casket down the hill to the spot and after a short search I located her gravestone. It is hard to believe in has been 43 years since she died. She was a wonderful person and, if you don’t mind me saying so, the best darned grandmother a guy ever had.

If yours was better, you’ll have to prove it to me.

Waiting to get into The Tonight Show with Jay Leno

Then we headed for our appointment with Jay Leno. OK, not exactly him, but we had sent for and received free tickets to the live taping of his show for tonight.

You have to really want to go because it’s a half day marathon, mostly of waiting in lines, to get inside to see the taping. All the folks connected with the show are friendly and accommodating and they made the long waits very doable.

We started waiting at noon in the outside waiting area and were finally ushered to the second waiting area about 2 p.m. There we sat in numerical order along long benches outside the studio. Because of our early arrival Joan received the Audience No. 1 card and I received the No. 2 card. So we knew we were going to get in the show.

Once inside the show you had to turn off your phone and you were not allowed to take photos inside the studio.

About 3:50 p.m. Jay Leno, dressed in levis came out and thanked us all for coming, told a few jokes had some fun with members of the audience and then said “Excuse me, I’ve got to go back inside and put on one of my ill-fitting suits and come back out for the show.”

At dinner at Castaways

Because of our low audience numbers Joan and I were seated on the floor of the studio in the second row of chairs and were part of a small group of the audience asked to come up to Jay when he came out to open the show.

The guests were Amy Adams, a four-time nominated actor, Adam Corolla, a comedian and a country singing star, Hunter Hayes. The Tonight Show band was great and kept us entertained during commercial breaks and very quickly the hour was over and we were out of there.

For dinner I surprised Joan by taking her to the Castaways Restaurant in the hills behind Burbank. It was the place I used to take my prom dates in high school. We didn’t go there often in those days because a complete dinner and valet parking would set you back nearly $20. It was a little more than that on this visit, but a wonderful treat nonetheless.

After dinner we headed back to the hotel room to relax and watch the same show we just saw taped earlier that day.

I’ve added a few extra photos in the post below this one.