The Beach at La Jolla, California
I have come to believe it is true: Once a California girl, always a California girl.
I mentioned in the last post that I wanted to insert some memories and good times with some of my California friends. I've had such a good reminiscing time. My medical school classmate, Dave Hodgens, whom you'll meet in a few minutes, shared these thoughts about friends you make early in life.
When one is young, and in school, and surrounded by hundreds of peers from whom to select friends, you really gravitate to those with whom you truly connect .... who truly share your interests, personality style, values, etc. Often those whom we meet when we are older are friends of convenience ..... neighbors, church friends, parents of your children's friends, etc., and so you spend time with them. But when we are back in the company of those early friends, the friendships seem so basic and so satisfying.
I've had this experience in spades over the last 4-6 weeks.
Kathy and Jim Dexter
Kath Lou (Kathryn Louise Hutchinson) and I met at Rio Lindo Academy, a Seventh-day Adventist Boarding school in Healdsburg, California, in 1965. We were juniors, and both in band and wind ensemble (she played percussion; I played the clarinet). We were closer our senior year, and I remember so many wonderful times at her home with her parents in Santa Rosa, only 16 miles away. It was a home away from home. We then had a chance to room together for a quarter at Pacific Union College, near St. Helena, CA, but I attended most of my college years at La Sierra College, Loma Linda University, in Riverside, CA.
She and Jim (then a medical student) were married December 18 (my birthday), 1971 (I think), and I was her maid of honor. She and Jim have lived in the Loma Linda/Redlands area since then, and raised their two children (Kym and Scott). They lived right down the street from my mother and she functioned as a special Grammy to the kids and I was so happy they included her in their family activities as I was far away in Minnesota. Kym and Scott were both in my first wedding. So I was so happy Gary, Liz and I could spend at evening with them in their home on February 12. We drove up to Redlands, and arrived about 5, I think, and had a nice long visit with Kathy before Jim, a pulmonary specialist, at Beaver Clinic in Redlands. She had a delicious vegetarian dinner of bruscetta-like open face garlic bread, tomato and mozzarella sandwiches, tomato/basil soup and salad. This was the evening of the opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympics and we had such a good time watching it and visiting. They are wonderful friends.
Corinne Petersen Bainer
Corinne joined us for dinner at the Dexter's. She has become a really close friend of Kathy and Jim's, but I'm certain I knew her first. She's a native Minnesotan, but I met her at college at La Sierra in 1970.. She was pre-med from the get-go, and even though I was a class ahead of her in college she started medical school at Loma Linda in the class ahead of me because I didn't decide definitively on medicine until after I had graduated with my Bachelor's degree in English. She is an OB/GYN specialist, works for Kaiser in Fontana, and has two great boys: David who is a dentist and recently married, and Jon, who will graduate soon with a business major. I was so happy she was able to join us for the evening as well. We sometimes have a chance to connect in Minnesota in the summer as she now owns her parents' (who are gone) cabin on Mille Lacs and comes for an annual visit. It as so great to see her, too. She is on the left in the above picture.
Dr. C. Joan Coggin
Joan has been a family friend for years. She is nearly 80, and her mother, Nanette Coggin, was one of my mother's friends, though a little older. Joan is a famous cardiologist at Loma Linda. She trained in Toronto as a pediatric cardiologist, and has lead the overseas pediatric cardiac cardiology program run by Loma Linda. For decades she would organize foreign trips overseas to places in the middle east and Afghanistan. The team would go in, evaluate and diagnose adults and children with cardiac problems, and perform any necessary surgery in-country with a state-of-the-art team from Loma Linda. She has been active in the medical school, and also in some government programs: she was the medical director in the early 1970's of Regional Medical Program (RMP). RMP, an LBJ program whose goals were to reduce mortality from heart disease, cancer and stroke, and I worked with her there before starting medical school. It was my first exposure to the public health model: health for the populace, in addition to the individual patient. It was after that that I also entered the Loma Linda School of Public Health and ended up with both an MPH (Master of Public Health) along with my M.D.
Joan is now retired, and still active in fund raising and many activities. When we visited on Friday afternoon, the 12th, she was getting ready for a tea on Sunday afternoon to benefit the Redlands Symphony. Gary took our picture with Joan in front of her fireplace flanked by elephant tusks from a big guy she shot on safari in the 60's. Her place in Loma Linda, which she has built since I last visited her, has a 270 degree view across the valley to the San Bernardino mountains and Mt. San Gorgonio. It was so great to see her, and to see her doing so well.
Linda Olsen and Dave Hodgens
Linda, Dave and I were all classmates in the Loma Linda University School of Medicine Class of 1976A. We graduated in June, 1976, and another class finished in December. Linda and I had know each other at La Sierra College, and were happy when we were both accepted for the same class in medical school. Dave was one of the kids: he was a couple of years younger, and was part of a brainy group of young guys who were accepted into medical school after two years of college, and were awarded the Bachelor's degree along with the M.D. when we graduated. Dave was a leader from the start: he was an excellent student, and was very involved with organizing study groups and helping any and all of the students who were having trouble. He ended up being the President of our class. I was the "social vice-president" (I don't think that was an official office; I just kind of organized things!)
Linda and Dave married a couple of years after we graduated, and have led an remarkable life together. I believe they won't mind me sharing with you their extraordinary story. In about 1978 or '79, they were in Europe (Germany, I think) visiting Dave's parents His Dad was a Navy officer who worked for NATO. They were riding in a VW bus, which, unfortunately, stalled on a railroad track. All were able to escape except Linda. She suffered incredible trauma: both of her legs and her right arm were amputated. It was overwhelming and unbelievable. The National Health Service from whom she had a large student loan, forgave it because they didn't expect her to work in the future as a physician. But, she did. She finished her radiology residency and took at job with UC San Diego and has had a beautiful career: now a full professor specializing in breast imaging. She and Dave had two beautiful children, and now a two year old granddaughter. Her strength and courage are truly inspiration to so many who kow her; and not just Linda's. Dave's as well .... they are completely in this together, and her strength just inspires ore love and commitment from him. They just returned from Patagonia where they saw everything in their most basic format: Dave carrying Linda in a backpack. She weighs (with the pack) just about 90 pounds without her prostheses, and Dave (a unbelievably solid 5'8", 155 pound (my estimate) guy) carries her up and down trails.
We drove down to their home in La Jolla (they moved to the beach from Mission Bay area in San Diego about 5 or so years ago; they've always loved the beach), where we drank delicious wine and they grilled delicious steaks for us. We took a stroll down the beach before dinner, (see cool sand sculpture) and just had such a good time reminiscing and talking about how "old friends are the best friends." Hence, Dave's comment I referenced above. Being with them was another experience that made me so happy to be in California again.
Carolyn (Madsen) and Dick Hebbel
Carol (those of us who knew her before she was married call her Carol; she started going by Carolyn after she was married because is sounded so good with Hebbel) and I have been the best of friends since 6th grade. That's when she came to our school (Glendale Academy), and I liked her right away. I didn't have any sisters, and her little sister was 10 years younger. She and her mother had great taste, and she had the "cutest clothes." She was very pretty, too; even my twin brother Jim thought so. He asked her to the 8th grade banquet.
We have stayed close friends for the ensuing 48 years. We roomed together in college, and had exactly the same schedule. She would often spend Christmas holidays with me and my family when we would drive to Sun Valley, Idaho, from Glendale, California, for ski holidays. I was her maid-of-honor; she was my maid-of-honor. She married a wonderful guy, Dick Hebbel, (you met him in a November post when we were out to California then) over 41 years ago, and they managed their family's convalescent hospital in San Diego, Kearny Mesa Convalescent. Her three great children are grown, and now there are three adorable Hebbel grandsons. So fun. You've seen more of their beautiful family in an earlier post when I stayed with them last November, but on February 15, we went to the desert to have a mini-celebration of our 60th birthdays. We stayed at The Spring in Desert Hot Springs (they had the best bed I can remember sleeping on), and lounged by the pool and had a great massage and facial. The weather was simply gorgeous ... a bit warmer than usual even for the desert in February. It was the definition of "quality girl time"; we still have SO much to talk about! Simply the best!
Posy Krehbiel
Posy is not my longest-term friend, but she is a very dear one. She was first my patient, probably back over 15 - 20 years ago. Then her husband John became my patient, and they have both become very dear friends. They gave me the best day of my life: my wedding to Gary at their home in the White Garden in Lake Forest, IL, on August 21, 1999. It was beyond belief ... beautiful, intimate, warm, delicious, fun, etc, etc, etc. I can never express my enormous gratitude to them. You met them in our first post, as we began our Adventure at their home on July 24, last year. They have a home in La Quinta, CA, and on February 17, Liz and I had a chance to drive out for the day and visit with Po and her daughter Meg, Meg's husband James and their adorable daughters Grace and Luisa. It was such a lovely low-key afternoon. Liz drew and colored with the girls while we visited and ate delicious salads. Po is a tremendously talented gardener, and their flowers and pots were lovely. Liz and I had such a nice afternoon.
Miramar Hotel, Santa Monica
On Thursday, February 18, did a whirlwind around LA, which I'll share in the next post, but as we were driving toward Pacific Coast Highway on Wilshire Boulevard, we rounded the corner and said, "Oh, here's the Miramar Hotel (now the Fairmont Miramar); this is where my parents spent their wedding night." They had been married in Ontario, in the garden at my father's home, and traveled to Oregon to meet my mother's parents and honeymooned at Crater Lake. But my mother had told me they spent their first night in Santa Monica. So later in the day we parked, went in, and had a little happy hour in their lobby bar. It is lovely, and it was so fun to tell the waitress that my parents had honeymooned there 77 YEARS AGO! She said she'd had others come in and tell her that, but that 77 years was the record for her! There are still little bungalow rooms in the front, beautiful landscaping and ponds, and a gorgeous Australian fig now in the circular drive entrance. It was fun to be there.
Sherry and Marty Wieler
We went to Catalina Island on Friday, February 19, and were able to leave directly from Newport. I'll write about that in more detail in the next post, but we were able to get back in time for dinner with our good friends, Sherry and Marty Wieler, who live near Dana Point. Sherry and I have been friends since the 4th grade. Our parents were friends, and we spent a lot of family time together. Many Christmases we would drive in tandem together up to Sun Valley for our holiday ski trip. We also did a lot of jeeping together: Sherry's dad John Gettys and my dad would take us out into the hills or the deserts and go exploring ... just day trips, not camping! I was a bridesmaid in her wedding in 1972 our in the Palm Desert area. Marty is a great guy .... main partner in a radiology practice in the Newport/Orange County area. We had a lovely evening together at their home with a delicious dinner. On the right is a picture of Liz with the Wieler's rescue greyhound, Brady.
Jesica Lyn Baker
I call her Lyn; everybody else who has met her since she was about 18 calls her Jesica. We met at Glendale Academy in the 9th grade, and became close friends when we were "bathmates" (shared a bathroom) at Pacific Union College near St. Helena our junior year. I was rooming with Kathy Hutchinson (see above), and Lyn had started calling herself Jesica. She is a wonderful friend, and we had more single years together than some other of our friends who married early. Lyn is a LA native, and still lives in the heart of LA and has worked her way creatively into a great job: she is a consultant to her company's health insurance sales function regarding providing health promotion services to the insurance clients. For years she was in sales, which is always demanding, and now has this consultation function. It is always great to see her. This visit was too short, due to conflicting schedules, but we met on the Santa Monica pier and had a nice visit.
Smoke House restaurant/Glendale Center Theatre
One of the things I remember doing when I was a teen-ager and beyond is seeing a play in our little repertory theater in Glendale: Glendale Center Theatre. At first, GCT simply performed in a converted garage in a residential neighborhood on Doran Street. Then they built a nice theater on Orange Street with the stage in the middle. I loved going there, and I remember for my 16th birthday, my mother made dinner for me and 4 or 5 girlfriends, and then we all went to GCT. So I was thrilled when I was able to obtain tickets for the February 20th performance of Kiss Me Kate. We went from Santa Monica to the Hollywood Freeway (Hwy 101 through LA), and got off where we could get a good picture of us with the Hollywood sign (see later post). It turned out this was quite near Barham Boulevard which is the road that leads into Toluca Lake and one of our family's favorite spots: The Smoke House. This is a lounge type restaurant that is right across from a number of movies studios, and you sometimes see celebrities lunching there. We would very often go for lunch on Saturdays, after attending church (remember I was raised in the Seventh-day Adventist Church; we attended church on Saturday). They had a great chopped salad with blue cheese dressing, and as proclaimed by the menu and by popular acclimation, the "world's best garlic cheese bread." I think it is. We had a prime rib dinner, the garlic bread, and a good time.
We arrived at the Center Theatre in plenty of time and had nice seats near the stage. I would have to say it seems to be favored by seniors, I guess such as myself these days! Gary was impressed with the quality of the performances; I presume that there is access to high quality talent in Glendale being so close to Hollywood and the entertainment industry. We had a really good time.
Wayfarer's Chapel
When I lived in California, particularly during college and medical school, I would love to drive along the beach, and one of my favorite spots was Wayfarer's Chapel. This is a glass chapel right on a beach bluff in Palos Verdes, built by the Swedenborgian's. I had always said that I would love to be married there ... but it wasn't the right thing when the time came for either of my weddings. But I wanted Gary and Liz to see it, so we drove up there on Sunday morning, February 21. Palos Verdes is a steep bluff area along the coast where there are gorgeous homes, just north of Long Beach. It is kind of a little round peninsula.
The chapel is glass and set among beautiful flowers and trees. A baby was being Christened that day.
We left and drove to Loma Linda to see our friends, the Longo's. We were stunned to see this road sign as we left Palos Verdes. California is slide country!
The Longo's
My twin brother Jim was first married to (April) Celeste Longo, and our two families really got along well together and enjoyed being together. Larry Longo is a world class perinatal researcher, originally focusing on intrauterine respiration of the fetus, and has moved on to molecular and other projects. He is still very active in his lab at Loma Linda University Medical School, and at 80 we had to plan a visit on the week-end in order to catch him away from work. He and BJ have lived in Loma Linda for decades, and I spent scads of time at their house while I was in medical school. It was my home away from my apartment. At that time their two youngest daughter, Lisa and Camilla, were in high school and grade school, and it was fun hanging around with what were like two sisters. I adored them. BJ was always the most welcoming, was a fabulous cook, and I hope, by osmosis, I picked up some good taste pointers from her. She has the most fabulous taste, and has used that to own her BJ's Antiques business in Redlands, which she also, at 82, still runs. So we drove out and met them at the store since they both "man" the store on Sundays. It was so wonderful to see them, and brought back such memories of good times, homey times, and family. Fortunately, we have remained friends even though Jim and Celeste have divorced and both remarried. Lisa, now 50!, worked for Nordstrom for years in Seattle, but last year bought a home in Redlands, and moved down so can be a help to her parents when they need it. We had a chance to see her 1920's stucco charmer in Redlands after our stop at BJ's Antiques.
Later, as we moved up the Pacific Coast and were visiting the Sonoma and Santa Rosa area, we had a chance to get together with Celeste Longo Abbott de Tessan. Celeste and Francois live in Sonoma, and she is doing real estate. She's been in the flower and biscotti baking businesses, and she's really happy in this, which is so great. Francois is into food and is a consultant to restaurants who are reinventing themselves or starting up. I love it that they we have stayed (imperfectly, I would say) in touch, in spite of her split from my brother, and when we see each other we feel like sisters again. She is one person who knows how desperately I wanted a baby, and is so happy for me when she sees me with Liz. We met for dinner at Sea Thai Bistro in Santa Rosa on February 28, when I had a delicious scallops and rice dish. She's hoping she and the youngest Longo, Camilla, who lives in Las Vegas can hook up with us when we go to Zion National Park.
Palm Springs/Palm Desert
Like many Southern California families, even though it's not that cold in the winter (especially when you compare it with Minnesota in the winter!), our family liked to spend time in the desert in the winter months. My father's neurosurgical practice partner, Dr. Philip Vogel, had a house in Palm Springs off Vista Chino, and we would come down for week-ends, especially President's Day and Easter. We would sometimes bring the jeep, would bring our bikes, and would hike ..... sometimes up in Andreas Canyon at the south end of Palm Canyon Drive. I also remember going up the Palm Springs Tramway, probably shortly after it opened in 1963. So we did a little sentimental journeying here as well.
We had picked up Polly and Chris' daughter, Sierra, in Ashland, Oregon, and brought her down to Southern Cal for her spring break. So she and Lizzie had some really fun times together. On Monday, March 22, we decided to ride up the Palm Springs Tramway. It had undergone
a renovation a few years back, and now the floor of it rotates slowly around 360 degrees so that you can slowly take in the entire view. It was totally cool! We had a beautiful day, and the girls really liked having lunch and taking a mini-hike on the path through the snow.
During this spring break, we got to spend a little more time in the desert which was always a fun thing to do over spring break: go to Pam Springs, lay out in the sun, swim, shop, and have fun. We were able to spend another week-end with Sherry and Marty Wieler at their desert motor home park near La Quinta the week-end of March 27-29. They have a beautiful Country Coach, a gorgeous blue and chrome coach built on the cadillac of chassis for motorhomes, Prevost. They have a permanent site in Outdoor Resort Indio, and it's all set up with an outdoor kitchen, party lights and fountains. We had a great time catching up and sharing outdoor motorcoach stories.
On Sunday, my dear friend Carolyn Hebbel drove out to join us for one final visit before we start to move on out of California. Of course, she is also a friend of Sherry and Marty as we all went to parochial school together in Glendale. I remembered that we had hiked a number of times at a canyon south of Palm Canyon ... and after misremembering the name, we finally made it to Andreas Canyon. It really was a little beauty with gorgeous rocks and Palm Trees along a little creek.
Ontario, California
LATER: Now I am up to late March and am still adding a few things here to the Roots post. It really wouldn't be complete without a report from Ontario, California. My father, while not born in Ontario (about 45 miles east of Los Angeles), grew up there, and my parents were married in the garden of his parents home on July 16, 1933. He joined his father and brother in general medical practice there in the late '30s and early '40s before he went to Mayo to train in neurosurgery. My parents built a house there at 329 Armsley Square inn about 1938, so it is 72 years old, and that area of Ontario has now been designated an historical, preserved area. I was able to recognize the house (from the pretty window that wraps around a corner in the front), and for the first time I was able to look around inside. A very nice young woman and her husband and their two teen-agers are currently living there, and they have rehabbed some of the house They replaced the original oak floors with dark wood, and put in some quarry tile. But the bones are intact. The entrance was on the side, and there was a beautiful living room with lovely paned windows along one wall. The kitchen was small, as they were back then, and there was an interesting angled hall to the bedrooms. The current owners have the original plans show three bedrooms, one labeled "Maid's room" and then "Boy's room" for my older brother, Ken. The master bedroom was in the front with that pretty corner window.
It was fun to see the original plans which had been passed down through owners of the house, and also see a built in shoe shine station in the back hall. The "legend" had been reported that "the good Dr. Abbott" never left the house without his shoes perfectly polished. I believe that would be true.
We really appreciated the current owners letting us in; the woman (I can't remember her name) had actually grown up right next door, and her mother came over, too. Her mother was from Ely, MN, of all things!
After our visit there, we went to Bellevue Mausoleum where my parents are interred. My father's parents are there, too, and his brother. It's always sad to see the finality of their final resting place. I still miss them very much.
Finally, we stopped at Graber Olives .... a delicious grower and preserver of olives. Some of you have had dinner at my home and been served the delicious tree-ripened olives which have not been chemically oxidized and turned black. There are simply delicious and I'm told the Grabers were patients of my grandfather and uncle. Ontario is definitely a place of Abbott roots.
Mammoth Lakes/Mammoth Mountain
The Abbott connection with the Sierra Nevada mountains goes back generations as well. My grandfather Frank Abbott loved Yosemite and the mountains, and loved to take a summer holiday there. But Laura, his wife, was very fastidious (a trait very much appreciated by and in her daughter-in-law, my mother, Mariann), and wouldn't camp. So starting as early as the 1920's they pulled a travel trailer over Tioga Pass which is only open about 3-4 months a year in the summer. It is VERY steep and windy. So my father loved the Sierra's, and we had a wonderful family vacation there at Lake Mary in the Mammoth Lakes in about 1964. We stayed at Crystal Crag Lodge (see snowed in Crag below!) where we fished, rode horses up to Crystal Lake (it REALLY was), and bought western clothes at the Toggery in Bishop. We also skied frequently at Mammoth Mountain, both with school groups and sometimes with my parents. While they most frequently took us to Sun Valley, we did go to Mammoth sometimes, and in fact my parents had just taken us there for semester break in 1968 when two months' later my father died of previously undiagnosed heart disease. Retrospectively, my mother told us he had had chest pain up at Mammoth at the 8,000 ft altitude!
So when we decided to pass up Yosemite (for now) due to snow predictions, we drove up US 395 to the west side of Death Valley, and the eastern slope of the Sierras. In Bishop, we found The Toggery, and the clerk confirmed that the store had been there since the 1920's. Liz got a beautiful black leather cowgirl belt, and a turquoise bandana. We looked around at a couple of art galleries looking for some work by Stephen Willard. He was a photographer born in the 1880's and surviving until 1966. He took beautiful desert photographs, and then enhanced them with oils. My parents had a large work, entitled The Mesa Road and it is beautiful with bluish-green sagebrush desert in the foreground, a beautiful dusty road leading across the desert, with the purple snowcapped Sierra Nevada mountains in the back. The painting hung in my father's Glendale office for years, and after he died, my mother kept it in our den. When she died, it went to my brother older brother Ken, and fairly recently Ken sent it to Jim. He has it in his den now. I love it, and hoped to see if I could find something similar up in the Bishop/Mammoth area. I didn't have any luck, but did find a gentleman in the Mammoth Gallery who knew of Stephen Willard and said there are many of his pieces in the cabins at The Lodge at Lake George. I'll have to pursue that line of investigation. There is also an occasional one on EBay or other art auction houses. So finding Stephen Willard was part of our agenda when we went to Mammoth. See on the left Mammoth Mountain and the very snowy Crag above Lake Mary the road to which was still closed and impassable due to snow. I'm going to have to make my sentimental journey back to Lake Mary in the summer!
There were so many good times with so many good friends that took me back to my California roots. It was a totally enjoyable sojourn, and one I really didn't anticipate.
Now I have to get back to business, stop reminiscing, and tell where else we've been for the last 6 weeks.
Thanks for reading,
Julie, Gary and Liz
