Me on the first stoop 1596 Townsend Avenue, in an early bad mood! But it WAS summer.
It's been a tad warm in Los Angeles this early Fall. In the 80s today, but as is more rare, fairly humid. When I left the office, in the gloaming, and got in my car, I decided to go up Pico Boulevard to avoid a protest that was over by MacArthur Park. Pico has always reminded me a bit of my Bronx, circa 1960's, well populated, and just a little seedy, but in a way that somehow is nostalgic. I was thinking though that I can always tell a scene in the movie where LA streets stand in for NY streets. It looks mostly the same, but there is just something that usually isn't precise about the buildings, or the sidewalks, or the general feeling.
Tonight, with the humidity and the lingering heat I found myself feeling like I was there, in the Bronx, after a hearty game of "Freeze Tag" that meant lots of jumping and leaping off the stoop that we were now resting on, summing up the summer day. We might be eating a pomegranete--this was before health was the measure of all things and it was just fun to peel and pick at the red seeds until your mouth and fingers were smeary red.
We were still sweaty from the running, and because the sidewalk radiated the day's sun still. The sidewalk gave off a smell that I suppose should have been unpleasant, a combination of heat, dirt, garbage gathering nearby mingled with cat or dog pee, but somehow wasn't. Old folks were taking their evening walks, a neighbor in the first floor window talking to another still on the street, kids making the last throws of their pink spauldings as high as they could as long as he dusk light lasted. A few kids still at a game of "Skully" with wax filled bottle caps on the chalk made street board. A couple of middle aged guys wandering down to Louie's, the laundry man, so they could place an illegal bet in the back. It was just before we'd be going upstairs to watch a favorite TV show on our black and white TVs, maybe the "Mod Squad" or "Honey West" (well, that was probably only me) or something like that. Maybe mom gave us some money to get a couple of hot dogs each with mustard and sauerkraut and a knish down the block to bring back for dinner.
Yeah, that's what came to mind as I went up Pico tonight. And I had to do Google Maps and "walk" the old neighborhood. So much has changed (my old apartment building is no longer there and is a public school), but so much hasn't. You can get really close up with the satellite stuff and I went all the way up Mt. Eden Avenue and to the Grand Concourse tonight,and all the way down to the Jerome El, 175th Street stop, just moments ago. I took a deep breath and marvelled at how much time has passed.
If I ever miss the Bronx, that's the one I miss.
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