Karen Sandler

Tag: beach boys

  • On the Back of a Winged Horse

    All through grade school, I had one best friend–Suzy. We were in the same class from kindergarten through 6th grade. The summer before 7th grade, I moved with my mom and two older sisters to the San Bernardino mountains about 100 miles east of Los Angeles. Suzy and I kept in touch via letters and would get together when I’d go back to L.A. to see my dad or grandma.

    We were pretty much glued at the hip during elementary school. We’d hang out at her house or mine (they were about a block away from each other), stroll around the corner to the house where Carl, Brian, and Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys lived just to stare at it, or go to the little neighborhood store for wax lips and candy cigarettes. Sometimes we’d head over to the school that was nearer to her house (our school was nearer to mine) and sneak under the fence to play in the playground. It’s a little hard to see, but at left is a particularly flattering picture (ahem, not) of me with my sweatshirt snagged on the fence while I’m trying to shimmy through.

    One thing we definitely had in common was a love of books and stories. We hung out in the school library so much that the librarian fell in love with us. She liked us so much she took me and Suzy to Marineland over in Palos Verdes, a fabulous (but now defunct) aquarium/marine life exhibit on a bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

    And Suzy and I loved to make up stories. I remember sitting in Suzy’s garage one time while she created and told a story that involved us flying around on winged horses, traveling around the clouds (they were solid so we could walk on them). Another friend of ours, Janet, was also featured in the story with us. But at some point, Janet fell off her winged horse and was killed. We had nothing against Janet; that was just the way the story went.

    Of course when we got to school the next day and Janet was absent, we were a little freaked out. Luckily, it wasn’t our fictional death that did her in. She was just sick for the day.

    When I moved to the Lake Arrowhead area for those four years, I did make a new friend (Virginia), but I kept in touch with Suzy. I hadn’t realized how many letters I wrote to her until a few years ago she sent me a cool spiral-bound book filled with old photographs (like the ones above) and several of my letters. The one at left is pretty typical. I loved playing with words even then (a cackle of witches, a waddle of ducks).

    Suzy attended my wedding 30+ years ago, then we lost touch for a long time. I think it was my mom’s death that reconnected us (which is when she sent the book). Then with the miracle that is Facebook, we’re at least virtually back in each other’s lives. I keep hoping that one of my trips to L.A. we’ll be able to meet IRL.

    Meanwhile, I’ll just unreel the memories from time to time and keep that winged horse handy.

  • 10 Things You Might Not Know About Me

    1. When I was a kid, I lived a couple blocks from The Beach Boys. One time when I trick-or-treated at their house, I saw all their gold records hanging on the wall. Dennis Wilson’s girlfriend was our babysitter. (okay, that’s 3 things, but all BB-related)
    2. I was mostly raised by my grandmother.
    3. When I was 8 or 9, my family would stand me up in front of relatives so I could spell out antidisestablishmentarianism, which was the longest word I knew from the dictionary.
    4. In 1965, I went to the World’s Fair in New York City and saw the “It’s a Small World” exhibit before it ever went to Disneyland. So I’ve had that song stuck in my head much longer than most people.
    5. In 6th grade, I wrote an epic poem called “The Bell of Happiness” that my school principal read aloud at a PTA meeting.
    6. I attended Rim of the World Junior/Senior High School from 7th through 10th grade and learned how to walk to school (to the bus stop actually) in the snow, uphill, both ways.
    7. For my 15th birthday, I went to the Forum in Los Angeles (where the Lakers used to play) and saw Jim Morrison and the Doors perform. It was way cool.
    8. I was 16 when I graduated high school (Hawthorne High–where the Beach Boys attended!).
    9. While working on my MS in computer science at UCLA, I took a year’s worth of courses in queuing theory and networks from Leonard Kleinrock who, unlike Al Gore, was one of the actual inventors of the Internet.
    10. I have three Kevin Bacon-type connections with Steven Spielberg: (1) My Uncle Irwin and his partners financed Spielberg’s first movie (a short film called Amblin’), (2) My mother-in-law has volunteered for Spielberg’s Shoah Foundation and once met him and (3) Back when Dreamworks was first created, they considered my movie script, ICER (which they passed on–alas). ICER gave me the germ of an idea for what became my YA dystopian novel, TANKBORN.