Saturday, January 07, 2012

ME AT THE UNION NEW YEARS PARTY

No, that's not our party above, but if feels like our party felt. It was wild, and I enjoyed every minute of it. 

On arrival, the first order of business was to find the food area and do some serious chowing down. The problem was, I met so many friends on the way to the food that it took forever to get there. I confess to  hoping that girls I'd known in the past would take me aside and admit that they'd secretly lusted after my body way back when but, alas, nothing like that happened. 

What did happen was that I met lots of old friends who I sorely missed. Half were out of work and half were doing just fine. The guys who weren't working put on a brave front, which was about all they could do.


I forgot to say that all this took place in the Gene Autry Museum, and I gradually made my way to the area where the exhibits were. What I'd hoped to see was their retro boys bedroom from the 50s, and I was not disappointed.

Holy Mackerel! There it was, the cowboy bed I had when I was a little kid! The chenille bedspread with embroidered lariat thrower,  the wheel headboard...I almost broke into tears. What was missing was the arsenal of cool plastic guns that every kid had in those days. No kid would dream of leaving the house without packing. You needed a Derringer water pistol at the very least.


The exhibit was full of photos of armed children. Here's (above) a lucky kid who had the complete line of Hopalong Cassidy merchandise. Those films were made way before I was born, but TV gave them new life, and I and every other kid watched cartloads of cowboys chasing each other around the Chatsworth Hills. I'll add that we watched them on  tiny screens that required constant vertical and horizontal adjustment.



On the way out of the exhibit area I stumbled on staggeringly beautiful pictures like this one (above) by Thomas Moran. 


Or this one (above) by...er...I don't know. 



Or this one (above), by...I'm guessing...Thomas Moran again. It's called "Slave Hunt."


The museum also owns this picture (above) by California watercolorist Phil Dike. Wow!  Autry had good taste!


Back in the main hall (above) the party had really caught fire, and was even getting rowdy in spots. A couple of people I didn't know recognized me from pictures of myself on Theory Corner, and that was great. Unfortunately I punished them by going on and on about things they were only vaguely interested in. 

Oh well, I guess a party isn't really a party unless every guest makes a fool of himself at least once. 




4 comments:

  1. Anonymous4:37 AM

    Neat story. Some very popular people at my school have been throwing these kind of parties too, with some illicit underage alcohol use, from what I've heard. My parents also threw a New Year's Eve Party about a week or so ago and I loved it. Hope you really had fun there. Did you try to draw or caricature anybody at this party?

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  2. John A6:37 PM

    Those ladies in the last photo make me want to take up finger painting.

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  3. Anonymous2:27 AM

    Hey Uncle Eddie, long time lurker of your blog here.
    It'd be realy cool if you did some sort of Q&A on 4chan's /co/ (comics and cartoons) board.

    They'd love you over there and it'd be interesting to see you interacting with them.

    The thread would probably be archived and everything, given your credentials. It'd be a real treat.

    -anon

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  4. Of course, California watercolorist, Phil Dike, was a key color artist, theorist and teacher at the Disney studio from 1935 through to WWII. Many of the after hours Disney lectures were controlled by him.

    ReplyDelete