Beach houses...

I drew these beach houses when we lived in Hermosa Beach in the 1950's. My uncle sent these to me recently, along with some other drawings that I did when I was about 5 years old. When I look at the little fabric houses from a previous post....I see that my art hasn't changed much over the years!! Another little drawing of me and my imaginary twin...my mother sent this to her sister and put the note on the side. I remember having imaginary playmates, but didn't know that I told my mother about it. And that is vintage scotch tape on the sides....yuk!

My father, who was a teacher in the L.A. area wisely purchased our beach house right on the ocean. We just walked across the Strand and there was the sand and ocean. Some of my favorite childhood memories are of the days spent playing all day in the water, riding waves, bike riding, listening to live music on Pier Ave... all the cool jazz musicians came and played at The Lighthouse and there was another neat place called The Insomniac that had live music and a big open air bookstore with bins of art prints and people who sat and played chess all day. There was also a great bakery and my mom actually did most of her grocery shopping by bicycle.

I try and take my boys down to Hermosa at least once each summer for bike riding and a swim in the warmer waters of the Southland and a stop at Mickey's Pizza, which is still there and still has the best pizza in town.