A fabulous day in the neighborhood

Generally speaking, I usually refer to Suffern, NY as my hometown. The reality is I only lived there for little more than a decade. From when I was 11 years old until I was 22, graduated from college and spent every last dime I had to get away from Suffern and my parents. 

In retrospect, I wish I had spent more time with them, particularly now with the hindsight of my own abysmal parenting skills. 

"How hard is it to put away the dishes?"

But I can't, because with $99 in my pocket I bought a one way ticket to Los Angeles, knowing no one, having nowhere to sleep and no job to go to, and I never looked back. I literally spitballed the rest.

Truth is, Culver City is my hometown. And it's why I love when the local CC Facebook page digs up old photos of this once sleepy and ignored suburb of Los Angeles.

The picture above is a race driver rounding the turn and gunning it up the straightaway of what is now Jasmine Ave.

Here's another cool pic.

What I wouldn't give to jump in one of these jalopies and bury the gas pedal into the floorboards. 

You see, prior to the housing developers swooping in and turning this fair city into the real heart of Screenland -- now home to two major studios, Sony, Culver, plus Apple, and Amazon -- there was a motorway on the land I call home.

And prior to the motorway that perfectly encircles my neighborhood, there was an oval-shaped horse-racing track. The current streets mirror the old track.

In fact, while excavating a section of my backyard, one of the crew pulled an almost-pristine horseshoe out of the ground, which we had mounted for display and had brought us a host of good luck. 

Until the year 2020.

My favorite picture in this collection of historical photos is the overhead, which in the absence of drones or helicopters, must have been snapped by a barnstorming yahoo who had mastered the biplanes of the era. 

I like to think his name was Red. Or Bessie, a hard drinking woman who picked barfights in what is now the Backstage Cafe, where Bogart and Cary Grant were regular patrons.

Here's a look at my neighborhood from 1000 feet above sea level.

And finally, here's one last photo taken years later, when the track was disassembled and the homebuilders built their fortunes. You can see one of my neighbor's original Spanish style homes as well as the aforementioned location of the local watering hole.

Look closely and you can  even spot the Y in the road and the street which is now Jackson Ave, home of the legendary Jackson Market. If you ever come to my neighborhood, I highly recommend a stop there for the best custom made to order sandwiches. 

Mine is the Panina-pressed oven roasted turkey sandwich on ciabatta with cheddar, pepperoni, sun-dried tomato, avocado, and light aoli-mayo. 

Mmmmm, melty.