October 7, 2015
I lived in southern California in the early 60s. It was my favorite place of all the places we
lived. The early 60s were great years to
be there. The weather was perfect, the
communities and roads were not yet overbuilt and overcrowded. We lived in Camarillo which is north of L. A.
and near Ventura. In those days it was a
quiet little place. My mother once sat
next to Hermione Gingold in the beauty shop (bet most of you have to look her
up.) And Mom was a census taker for the
60 census. In those days the census
takers went house to house recording the information. She took the census at James Arness’s and Eve
Arden’s homes and Eve told her to bring the kids over to swim. (We did not do so.) A classmate of mine lived next door to Steve
McQueen. We would jump on his diving
board trying to peek into Steve’s backyard.
And I was a Beach Boy’s fan and had to include one of their songs. I decided on Surfin’ U.S.A. I have depicted a beach with surfers, as it
might have been in the early 60s. This painting brings back a lot of memories
for me. And even if you did not visit
the California beaches in the 60s, the Beach Boys and surfing songs were
popular all over the country.
