1973: Settling In

My Brother, a boyfriend, Hobie our dog, and me. Huntington Beach

We moved into a housing tract where my new Middle School was to be built so, for the first half of my 8th grade I had to go to another Junior High over flowing with students already. The bike ride to school was pretty far so I was glad when the new Sowers Middle School was finally finished and I could walk home for lunch.


Since I didn't really know anyone yet I tried out for cheerleading and the softball team. I made both. Socially, I didn't fit in with the whole cheerleader thing. The softball team however changed my life. On the team was another girl who was learning to surf. From the day of our meeting we were Ethel and Lucy, like in the I love Lucy show. That's what my mom call us anyway. My new friend also had an older bother that was a drug dealer.

Ethel and I did everything together. We'd ride our bikes up and down the Santa Ana River. Sometimes we'd ride all the way to Anaheim where Disney Land is, and we'd skateboard at a skatepark my brother's high school friend worked at. Sometimes we'd ride up and down the beach trail. If we went north, we'd turn around at Seal Beach. If we went south we'd U turn somewhere around Laguna Beach. I was big into riding my green Schwinn ten speed. It was my freedom, my independence. To this day I ride a bicycle for exercise.

Ethel and I also surfed together. We became Newland St. locals. Countless weekend mornings, sometimes before the sun and wind came up, Ethel would tap at my bedroom window and wake me up. With wetsuits on, our boards under our arms, and socks on our hands (because early mornings can be cold in So. Cal), we'd ride the three blocks to the Edison Power plant and surf Lifeguard station #5. We quit school softball (I still played Bobby Sox though) so we could surf after school too. I stayed with the Cheerleading because it made me popular with the boys who surfed. That gave me waves even though I wasn't any good yet. I could paddle out pretty well by now, but I still could not Duck Dive. When I found myself in the impact zone I'd bail my board like a girl. Once out however, I could catch waves and snap up, but I couldn't hold my regulor-foot stance for very long and I always wiped out. When I surfed I spent most of my time paddling, and even though this built my arms up, the fact that I was a rookie kept me from going out on bigger/better days. Honestly, there were a bunch of times I though of quitting. Ethel was right there with me. My brother however, had come unto his own. He was in high school surfing the prestigious Brookhurst St. meeting friends with cars! He made fun of my surfing all the time so I would leave him alone. I took it as a challenge. This particular year we were in different worlds.

Ethel and I saved babysitting money to buy our first used surfboards and used wetsuits. My board was a heavy light blue opaque 6'8" single fin Infinity, and my wetsuit was a Bailey Long John under a Bailey Beaver Tail. In the summer I wore a Bailey Short John. All my wetsuits were thick and dry-rotting at the seams but I was in heaven. Now I could stay out much longer in the cold Pacific Ocean.

                                     Also, in 1973 I learned about Acid, LSD...and cocaine.