Rockridge and Katy
In most of my adventures, there is no sideways firestorm.
Gone for 12 years, I didn't know anybody in the Bay Area construction world; Gary Cohen and Mark Taylor were long gone. I would have to start all over. I had my California contractor's license, my tools and a pickup truck with a phone in it. I answered ads in the newspaper and I signed up with a temp agency, Contractor's Labor Pool, CLP.
During the first week, I stayed at motels, and sometimes at Dick Latvala's house. He and Carol had split up, and he had remarried. I visited Carol, across the bay in Marin County. By this point, Dick and Carol were both working for the Grateful Dead, and I was arranged tickets and backstage passes whenever I wanted to go to a local show.
I was on my way back down to Santa Barbara when my truck phone rang and it was my first job in the Bay Area. CLP sent me out to help with a simple remodel of a classic Berkeley bungalow, just a half block from College Avenue, about 10 blocks from where Mark's hot tub showroom had been. The job went on for 3 weeks.
For lunch, my routine was to walk down to a burrito shop on College Avenue. About the third time I went there, who should pop out of the shop next door? Katy Flick! She was the proprietor of "Head to Toe", a very girly store with earrings and toe rings, bracelets, scarves, hats and sandals. So I started spending my lunch break making time with Katy. It turned out that besides the jewelry store, she was managing an apartment building in the heart of Rockridge, not far from where the hot tub showroom had been. Not only that, there was a vacant studio right next to her own apartment.
I moved right in. Besides being next door to Katy, the other great thing about my studio was that it had a big window in front of where I set up my desk and my AutoCad station. There in front of me was a hillside panorama of the entire October 1991 firestorm's scar of ashes and rubble.
I lived there about four months. In that time I shamelessly pursued Katy, though I had a hunch my efforts were going to go nowhere. She felt rather "dumped" when I went back to Hawaii in 1979 and didn't invite her to come along. I guess that I had done just that. Having met failure on my two previous attempts, I didn't want to arrive in Hawaii with too many responsibilities and risk a third flop. I had to succeed that time, and I did.
It was fun letting her tease and taunt me and "get even" for getting dumped. She had another purpose for me besides our playful fun. Her dentist boyfriend was serious about her and jealous about her seeing anybody else. She warned me that he could get violent. I often felt that our get-togethers had a subtext of their effect on the dentist.
Every few months she would completely redo the Head to Toe shop and front window with a new seasonal display or just a change of theme. She was really good at it. One night she had me down there helping her after hours, and the phone kept ringing. It made little sense for anyone to be repeatedly calling this little jewelry store after hours unless it was the dentist trying to find her. She just let it ring. Finally, the calling stopped. Ten minutes later, the boyfriend was at the front door of the shop, tapping on the glass. That was the only time I met him face-to-face. He came in, we were introduced, and after a few minutes I excused myself to let them talk privately and to let him help her finish the redecoration. Though at times our dates got steamy, there was nothing that happened that I would have to pull the curtain on, but the dentist was going nuts thinking that there was.
One day Dick called me up. He was breaking up with his second wife and did I want to be roommates? Yes, probably, there was just one thing I needed to know about Katy. I knew she wanted to have baby. I had to know, was she angling for me to be the father? I was relieved when she said no. She was trying to get the dentist to come to that conclusion. I had had fun playing my part in her scheme.
Dick and I got an apartment in Richmond, and eventually a house in Petaluma. This time leaving Katy behind was definitely not a disaster.
Copyright © 2022 John Oliver
All Rights Reserved
mail@unclejohnsweb.com
Gone for 12 years, I didn't know anybody in the Bay Area construction world; Gary Cohen and Mark Taylor were long gone. I would have to start all over. I had my California contractor's license, my tools and a pickup truck with a phone in it. I answered ads in the newspaper and I signed up with a temp agency, Contractor's Labor Pool, CLP.
During the first week, I stayed at motels, and sometimes at Dick Latvala's house. He and Carol had split up, and he had remarried. I visited Carol, across the bay in Marin County. By this point, Dick and Carol were both working for the Grateful Dead, and I was arranged tickets and backstage passes whenever I wanted to go to a local show.
I was on my way back down to Santa Barbara when my truck phone rang and it was my first job in the Bay Area. CLP sent me out to help with a simple remodel of a classic Berkeley bungalow, just a half block from College Avenue, about 10 blocks from where Mark's hot tub showroom had been. The job went on for 3 weeks.
For lunch, my routine was to walk down to a burrito shop on College Avenue. About the third time I went there, who should pop out of the shop next door? Katy Flick! She was the proprietor of "Head to Toe", a very girly store with earrings and toe rings, bracelets, scarves, hats and sandals. So I started spending my lunch break making time with Katy. It turned out that besides the jewelry store, she was managing an apartment building in the heart of Rockridge, not far from where the hot tub showroom had been. Not only that, there was a vacant studio right next to her own apartment.
I moved right in. Besides being next door to Katy, the other great thing about my studio was that it had a big window in front of where I set up my desk and my AutoCad station. There in front of me was a hillside panorama of the entire October 1991 firestorm's scar of ashes and rubble.
I lived there about four months. In that time I shamelessly pursued Katy, though I had a hunch my efforts were going to go nowhere. She felt rather "dumped" when I went back to Hawaii in 1979 and didn't invite her to come along. I guess that I had done just that. Having met failure on my two previous attempts, I didn't want to arrive in Hawaii with too many responsibilities and risk a third flop. I had to succeed that time, and I did.
It was fun letting her tease and taunt me and "get even" for getting dumped. She had another purpose for me besides our playful fun. Her dentist boyfriend was serious about her and jealous about her seeing anybody else. She warned me that he could get violent. I often felt that our get-togethers had a subtext of their effect on the dentist.
Every few months she would completely redo the Head to Toe shop and front window with a new seasonal display or just a change of theme. She was really good at it. One night she had me down there helping her after hours, and the phone kept ringing. It made little sense for anyone to be repeatedly calling this little jewelry store after hours unless it was the dentist trying to find her. She just let it ring. Finally, the calling stopped. Ten minutes later, the boyfriend was at the front door of the shop, tapping on the glass. That was the only time I met him face-to-face. He came in, we were introduced, and after a few minutes I excused myself to let them talk privately and to let him help her finish the redecoration. Though at times our dates got steamy, there was nothing that happened that I would have to pull the curtain on, but the dentist was going nuts thinking that there was.
One day Dick called me up. He was breaking up with his second wife and did I want to be roommates? Yes, probably, there was just one thing I needed to know about Katy. I knew she wanted to have baby. I had to know, was she angling for me to be the father? I was relieved when she said no. She was trying to get the dentist to come to that conclusion. I had had fun playing my part in her scheme.
Dick and I got an apartment in Richmond, and eventually a house in Petaluma. This time leaving Katy behind was definitely not a disaster.
Copyright © 2022 John Oliver
All Rights Reserved
mail@unclejohnsweb.com
All Rights Reserved
mail@unclejohnsweb.com