PAINTIN' ON THE EDGE IN LAGUNA

After the bottom fell out of the oil business back in Louisianne, I returned my houseboat to the bank and Diane, Honey Bear, and myself journeyed west, We stayed over night with brother Ed in Morro Bay and moved on up the coast to San Francisco. Back in Denver, in 72', through Ham & Carey, I met George, who had just finished a tour in Viet Nam flying medi-vac helicopters and although he almost never spoke to anyone, he was pleasant enough. At that time I had about a thousand albums alphabetical order and I told him he was welcome to bring his new Teac cassette deck over and hook it up to my new stereo and record what he wanted during the day when I was at work.

Here it is 12 years later, 1985, and George has migrated with Ham and Carey to Marin County and got himself a job flying tourists in a Jetstar helicopter at Pier 39 in San Francisco. I mentioned to George that I had a good video camera and had been shooting video for a while and would love to shoot from a helicopter. If I came over to Pier 39 the following Sunday, any time he didn't have more than 5 passengers, I could ride along and shoot some video.

With Diane in tow, I was there with bells on. We spent the day riding with George and various and sundry "paying guests" and here's what I was able to assemble from two hours of shaky camera work.





After a couple of months painting track houses in Santa Rosa for $22 per hour, it finally came time to send Dianne home. She was missing her kids and Louisianne in a big way and as I had promised her earlier, when the time came I would fly her home. She was a great gal and had really pleasant kids, I hated to see her go but there was nothing else to be done.

I decided to take a leasurely tour of Southern California, as I had spent most of my time in California in the San Francisco Bay Area. I thought I would have a good look at the Palm Dessert where it's so warm all winter. The reality is you can fry eggs on the sidewalk in the summer. From Palm Springs I drifted on north to Laguna Beach and my old KFML buddy, Scott Coen. By now Scott was a successful real estate broker in Laguna and I came up on him just as he had gotten married. His folks had gifted him with a house across the street from the beach and he was in the middle of remodeling. I moved into the guest house and started painting the place.

Once I finished Scotts projects I moved on down the street and repainted a $6 million mansion on the water. It was built in 1929 for the movie director, Ed Griffith. It had two man-made salt water swimming pools, refilled with the incoming tides. There was a light house that started at the main level 70' to the breakers below. I'll never forget standing on my knees on the crown of the lighthouse, painting the weather vane. I swore I would never find myself that high off the ground painting again. I've kept that promise.

When I finished Scotts house, they moved in and I migrated to the Capri Laguna Motel in downtown Laguna Beach. I soon arranged an apartment in trade for painting the exterior piece by piece as the stucco repairs were to ensue and my arangement was to paint each section as it became ready.

I read once that Mae West said, "You can fall in love with a rich man as quick as you can fall in love with a poor man, it's just a matter of who you hang around with". I can tell you, it works both ways. Living in the Capri Laguna exposed me to a wide range of beautiful women who came and went over the space of most week-ends. Women would fly in from all over the country, recently divorced and anxious to enjoy a weekend in paradise. The opportunities were so abundant, I soon formed up weekend forays to the Hotel Laguna, sharing the expenses, taxi, etc. and taking as many as 3 or 4 single women, dining and dancing, dutch treat.

There was a one-legged Viet Nam vet singing and playing requests on the piano at the edge of this enormous dance floor that was sided with bay doors to the patio that straddled the beach with lights on the roof that lit up the breakers. What a joint! Pretty soon I met the McMurray clan and found a temporary home for my unsettled heart. Glenn and Murray Mcmurray were brothers, Glenn lived in eastern Canada and owned the largest carpet operation there. His brother Murray had made his life as a General Contractor, building homes in Laguna Beach. For many years their mother lived with Murray in Laguna and Glenn would fly down and visit regularly.

An opportunity arose for the McMurray boys to buy a five thousand square foot carpet showroom on the Laguna Canyan road and thats what they did. It meant Glenn could spend two weeks of the month in Laguna with his brother and mother. One day this affable, Irishman shows up at the Capri Laguna and rents a two-bedroom suite up on the top floor, beachside, with his beautiful daughter Teri in tow. He brought her down from Calgary to do the bookeeping. She had left her boyfriend Doug back in Calgary, and the family was pretty happy about that, as they found him arrogant in the extreme.

It started with me taking Glenn along with me to my favorite haunt, The Hotel Laguna, and soon evolved to my dating Teri. We "kicked the gong around" for a month or two and I was about as happy as I could be. Then one day, Doug sells his house in Calgary, and with 150 pound dog in tow, drives down to Laguna. Surprise!!! Teri asked me to go see my brother in Morro Bay for the weekend and give them some time to sort things out. I did, and when I returned the following week, Doug had won back her heart, and that was that.

Doug and I became fast friends, having Teri in common, and turned out to be a fairly interesting fella. He had a hobby building model ships and was quite good at it. He was an accomplished tennis coach and had earned a good living as a ski instructor. We all started eating together a couple of times a week and when they were headed back to Canada that fall, they stopped at my brother's in Cayucas on the way and camped out in a tent in the empty lot across the street from my camper. I think if we all lived in the same town we would have remained friends for life.

When Honey Bear and myself were bounced from the Capri Laguna, after several joyful months, Murray McMurray invited us to plug our new camper into the carpet store on Laguna Canyan Road. The owner of the Capri Laguna was a Greek gynecologist who lived in Downey. On occasion he would make surprise visits to the motel in an effort to catch his employees in the act of doing something sneakey. He was a very noisey fellow with limited speaking skills and a penchant for hollering at anybody that got in front of him.

On one of his surprise visits, he happened to be standing outside of my little apartment and when he went "off", Honey Bear didn't like it at all and pulled the curtain back and gave him "what for". He starts screaming, "That's a dog, what's a dog doing in there?" Nancy, the manager told him, "its ok, that's Ed's dog, it's ok, he's the painter". "I don't care about that, there's no dogs here, period, he's got 24 hours to get off the property, and take that dog with him". Nancy tried her best to explain to him that I owed him paint work for my rent, but he wouldn't hear it. She finally gave up and let it go at that.

Across the parking lot from the carpet store was the studio of Wyland, world famous artist and painter of the "Whaling Walls" all over the world. I helped Murray install a hardwood floor in his house in Laguna. In the lobby of his studio, he had a 250 gallon salt-water fish tank and he allowed me to take some video of his Lion Fish. By putting the camera lense in micro phase, I discovered that the effect was like getting inside the tank. You just had to focus with the zoom, not an easy task. Here's what I was able to salvage from 45 minutes of taping.