Friday: Lost in the Jungles of Tarzana

Friday was a business day for Danton. He had scheduled interviews related to the new Warner TV young Tarzan series and then had to travel to Santa Barbara. I did more photocopying during the morning: WWII Sydney, Australia newspaper stories on a visiting ERB, a Tarzana Story booklet, ERB writing notes and book reference titles, photos, etc. A few free hours gave me time to sightsee around Tarzana, go to a few yard sales, check out book stores, and finally visit Norman's Rare Guitars at Ventura and Topeka. Quite a shock to see so much of my guitar collection displayed on their walls... at outrageous collectors' prices. I left the premises with an item I hadn't expected to see in their shop: a black leather sport coat with a Fender logo tastefully embossed on the lower left pocket flap -- a one-of-a-kind clearance. The next logical stop was Tower Records where I found some good boxed sets on some early blues-related musical influences: Lonnie Donegan, Lightnin' Hopkins and Elvis.

John Westervelt had invited me over to see his car collection so this was my next stop. Inside the huge entrance gates was an amazing assortment of delux vintage autos -- all in running condition. Inside the living quarters were huge piles of rare photographs and books. I was starting to think that everyone in Tarzana shared my own obsessive collector syndrome -- a lifelong malady that has filled two houses. Following a guided tour of the premises and a short jam session on guitar and 5-string banjo, we shunted cars to clear an exit path for the huge deluxe '30s Packard. This time Daisy was allowed to come along and she jumped into the passenger cockpit in the rear where she had her own windscreen and leather seats. This is not an easy car to drive: great bulk, overlong, limited visibility, few mirrors, no power steering or brakes, difficult gear shifting... but John expertly chauffeured Daisy and the crazy Canuck through the busy streets of Tarzana and Ventura. ERB at one time had a fleet of similar Packards and during his regular jaunts around Tarzana he must have attracted fascinated stares of many a passer-by -- as did we.

After a stop at a camera shop to pick up the scads of photos that John had taken at the JCB vault, I returned to my lowly Toyota and sped over to an Internet Cafe on Topanga. I had missed a prearranged phone call from Sue-On so decided to make contact via e-mail through my Brandon University Webmail service. Back home they were experiencing a heat wave in the 80s and 90s, quite a contrast to the cool 70s of Tarzana. Touching home brought on a mild bout of homesickness which could only be assuaged by a late night feast of Cantonese cuisine -- first meal of the day.