On that day in 1980 - 25 July

I think I mentioned in a previous post from this year that in the spring I had been beaten up by some HB jock fake punk thugs at the Fleetwood in Redondo Beach. This girl from Huntington Beach - never found out her name though I later heard that she committed suicide - started it all; set the thugs upon me.

I was living at the Manor and at this time my housemates were: Shawn and Mark Stern, Elliot, Kevin, Jason... and I think Keith the Vietnam vet had not left in a huff yet, though I doubt he was around at the party. [Yes, just noticed his name a few days later when he evicts De De from the house...] I was the only girl for the first few weeks there. [Though a few days later I start mentioning a Laura... Who was Laura? LATER: Of course! I cannot remember her last name but she was Tiger's ex-girlfriend who had moved down from Portland and was staying with someone in the house.]

I think I was moping around and driven to drink too much to forget that I had not heard from Michael Murphy since the 13th (which I posted) - an eternity when you're that young! He did come to my rescue with a tire iron (I had to change a tire and he gallantly did it for me) a couple days after the party and all was back to normal, briefly. Both he and Michael Livingston joined Ella and the Blacks after the Mcdonalds were kicked out. The Michael I keep mentioning in the post is always Livingston; I had not yet started calling him "Mikey"...

The Misterrogers record I refer to was actually just an album cover, which I had hung on the wall. I recited the lyrics to one of the songs at Record Club a few years ago; I was about to go look for the thing but I found the lyrics online, of course. They have nothing to do with anything in this entry, but I shall give them to you anyhow, as they are the most fabulous set of lyrics EVER!

Parents Were Little Once Too

It's great for me to remember
As I put away my toys,
That mothers were all little girls one time
And fathers were all little boys.

My daddy seems so big right now.
He must have grown a lot.
Imagine how he felt one day
When he was just a tot.

My mother's not so big as Dad
But bigger than my sister.
I wonder if she ever had
A little fever blister.

Daddy didn't even have
A real electric fan.
He had to wait a long time, too
'Til he became a man.

My mother used an ironing board
And play irons that were colder.
She often wished for big folks' things
But she waited and got older.

So knives and plugs and hot things are
OK for Mom and Dad.
'Cause when they were a girl and boy
They played with what they had.

25 July 1980

Everyone kept calling and asking about the party at my house. Huh?!! At first I was a little pissed off cause I'd sort of wanted a "quiet evening at home", but then I thought, it might be kinda fun.

Well, had to pick up Jennie, and Gerber and Rob Henley, and we stopped at the Whisky. Some people were there; talked to Gloria and Critter. Then when I was crossing the street I saw her - the girl who started it all at the Fleetwood!!! Now that I saw the real person, how could I have EVER thought it was Gloria!!! I was gonna round up a bunch of people to get her but she left.

Jennie kept nagging to leave. Peanut Killer [Danny Shades, who lived in an apartment around the corner from the Whisky] told me that Cliff Hanger had knocked on his window and had passed out in the alley. Well, I had to go rescue him! I walked right past him at first... Then I brought him back with me and he kept wanting me to go have a drink with him but we talked him into coming to the party with us.

Everyone was hanging out in the street and parking lot. I went to talk to Dewey or somebody and never saw Paul [Cliff Hanger] again.

Inside my house Aretha [Mary], Janice and Jeannie were playing jump rope and Michael Livingston was sitting there, looking like he was on acid. I told him to come and see my room [he had helped me move in, weeks ago, but had not seen it since I had painted it - all black, including the floor and ceiling]. We drank wine, and for the rest of the party, except the few times I ventured out (there were hordes of people!!!) we had our own party in my room: me, Michael, Aretha, Janice, Jeannie, Tyrone [Jeff], Frankie, Elliot, Bosco, Jennie, Jimmy [Brat], Tracy... (Not all at one time!) It was fun but later when I thought of it, what was the use of even having a party?! Oh well. Who cares.

Michael loved the Misterrogers record and the lyrics. [Greg, who Mike had replaced in the Mau-Maus, had given it to me.] I showed him a picture of Greg and he sat there and stared at it for about five minutes - like he fell in love or something. He said he liked his hair. Actually I think that from what he'd been told about Greg, he expected someone quite different looking. Cause he stopped putting him down after that!

No Crisis played [there was a stage in the living room right outside my door] - they were OK. In Kevin's room I saw Michael talking to Dede [Troit] and remembered what Jennie had told me.

Dewey was with another girl. [What a ladykiller!] The one who likes Todd. [???] [LATER: Oh, I think that was Roxie, who went out with Scott "Scunt", later of the Mau-Maus and a good friend of Dewey's...]

Some time later Michael and I went to Mayfair for a quart of Rainy [Rainier's Ale, The Green Death]. And we were just like we used to be... [I don't think we had been in a fight or anything; he had just been acting weird!]

When we came back I found out Frankie had told Jennie I'd gone home and she was all upset and Shaun was kicking everyone out but a few people came in my room for Tracy's birthday cake. I didn't have any; just drank more [next day's entry reveals a killer hangover] and then Michael said he was leaving and I can't remember exactly what happened except that I ran after him and said that he couldn't. Well, it's such a long walk! I guess I sort of made a fool of myself. And I went back in and almost everyone had left and i was sitting on the couch talking to Mark who had a black eye from Jason [???!!] and he put his arm around me and I was scared he was gonna try something and I didn't care. But then Elliot came in and laughed at my make-up being all smeared and I stalked off to bed.

I don't remember taking my contacts out or anything after that but Elliot said he knocked on the door and I let him in and yelled at him. Then Jennie said she and Bosco tried to cheer me up.

This wasn't at the Manor; it was at Jennie's house, but it was around the same time. Photo by Jennie.