There Are Places I Remember All My Life, Though Some Have Changed...

Hell just froze over; I signed up for a MySpace account. I swore this would never happen, but it has to do with a recent theme in my life, which is "you know you're getting old when you reminisce about places you went in your teens, and wander around town remembering exactly where they were, and what else was there." Allow me to explain.

So today I was reading an article in Fortune magazine about this former executive of HP who's locked in a nasty legal battle with the company. The article mentioned that this guy once started a nightclub for teens where alcohol was not served, and this reference sparked a memory of Marilyn's Backstreet, a club I used to frequent in high school that was strictly for kids 16 - 21. I remember where it was and can point you to the building that used to house it, now subdivided into a Jamba Juice and a furniture store. In fact, I used to live a block away from there in later years, after Marilyn's had gone out of business. I loved that place, because it was local, safe and a great scene back in 1983 (like I said, I'm old). It reeked of clove cigarettes, and the walls echoed with the sounds of Culture Club, Berlin, The Fixx, etc., etc. So this memory inspired me to Google Marilyn's, and I found there are many more like me who loved that place. There's even a MySpace group for said people. So, of course, I signed up as a MySpace member (the one website I thought you'd have to threaten my life in order to make me join), for the sole reason that I want to read their memories. I doubt I'll use it for anything else, and I REALLY don't see myself creating a profile.

Anyway, while I was reading reminiscences about Marilyn's, one of them also mentioned The Espresso Bar. You're probably thinking "A coffee place, right. So what's the BFD?" But remember, these were the early-to-mid 80's, back in the pre-McStarbucks days. Most people did not know what a cappuccino was back then, let alone latte, chai, or — wait for it — chai latte. And The Espresso Bar was a small place, not fancy. Kind of like the old beatnik days of coffee houses, I would imagine. Anyway, I've often wondered about it as I cruise through the outdoor shopping mall that we now call Old Town Pasadena, and I never really have been able to remember exactly where it was located. Whenever I went, I just followed my friends who knew where they were going, and I didn't really pay attention. But of course, there are people who do remember, and there's even a website devoted to the idea of bringing it back. Why did it never occur to me to search the interweb before?

Before I knew it, I was on a trip down memory lane trying to recall where pieces of my past used to be located. I remembered the Good Earth health-food restaurant that used to be near Marilyn's (I think that's now a Tony Roma's), and the Odyssey nightclub where my best friend and I would go when Marilyn's was too full of the poseurs we hated in high school, and we just wanted to dance without wondering if someone was going to ask us. The Odyssey was a primarily gay club near the Beverly Center, and there were at least one or two occasions when we were the only girls in the whole place. We loved it, because we could dance solo. There was also Swensen's at the Plaza Pasadena mall, where a guy I briefly dated my senior year worked. I'll never forget the taste of a cherry phosphate soda! And I can't forget Perkin's Palace either, a renowned local concert venue. And KROQ, "the ROQ of the eighties" where I spent some mornings ditching first period class my senior year so I could bring breakfast to Richard Blade and Raymond Banister, better known to their fans as "Raymondo and The Blade" when they were on the air. KROQ is still on the air, but that was during its heyday.

Well, enough of the old-ladylike behavior. Time to start living in the present again. But it sure was fun being 17 again for a little while!