YET ANOTHER ANNIVERSARY WITH LOS ANGELES!

After so many years of celebrating the very date that I arrived in Los Angeles in my teen-age years, is there anything left to say about it in this e-zine?

Discover Los Angeles–that’s just what I did lo those many years ago! Photo by Karen Salkin.

Of course there is! Probably not anything new, but I’m happy to report that my love of my adopted city is still going strong. I hate a lot of what’s been going on here in recent years, (homelessness, lootings and robberies, random physical attacks,) but my love affair with LA, (not the residents,) has never waned.

One of my best friends, who recently moved from New York to Florida to escape that city’s similar issues, loves to keep telling me that sooooo many people are leaving LA, too. She thinks that somehow I’ll be bothered by it, but no—instead I’m thrilled to have fewer people here! I wish half of them would get out!

The lovely beach scene coming down PCH. This was in 2022, but it really could be ANY year! (And how unreal does that little sailboat look?!) Photo by Karen Salkin.

And idiot “celebrities,” such as Mark Wahlberg, are proudly making a show of leaving here for Vegas. Hey—good riddance to ya! And good luck with all that deadly heat!

On a happier note, I still do my yearly ritual of driving up PCH to a bit past Malibu, and then driving down the entire coast to the 10 freeway, then taking it and the 405–(I guess I am one of The Californians from SNL)–to Westwood, going through the village, and ending up at 501 Gayley Avenue, the first place I ever stayed in LA! And all the while, I play the song that I heard on the radio the most back then, and say only things that I would have said that day. And I view the entirety of the scenery through the wide innocent eyes of my youth. I love it all!

Very casual Karen Salkin, (in not her best look,) in her annual anniversary pic last year. Photo by Mr. X.

I have my picture taken in front of that building, and, if I can get into the now-locked little apartment complex, even one hanging over the balcony. And when all that is completed, I can then be current-year Karen again.

And that somewhat refreshes me for the next year.

The weird thing is that when I ask other people when they came here, they have no idea! Well, actually, they possibly know the year, and perhaps the season, but rarely the exact date. I can even tell you the time of my own arrival on that long-ago July 27! And I can recount every single moment of at least my first two weeks here! Where I went, with whom, what we ate. You name it—I have the answers.

So now all that’s left for me to do is to wish a very Happy Anniversary to Los Angeles and Me!!!

And to continue the festivities, I think I’ll take tomorrow off, as well. I kind-of have to because truth be told, I must put off my yearly ritual until then because I have to rest-up today for a special event in town tonight. But I’ll meet you all back here on Monday, with a fun review of that continuing event, so that you’ll still have time to go to it yourselves. (So, that time, once again, It’s Not About Me!)