Living in a tiny world in Los Angeles in the 1980s


Here in Phoenix, Arizona, where I've lived since 1989, when I mention living in Los Angeles, most people imagine a gigantic place, which as near as I can tell by listening to people who have never been there, or have just been there briefly, stretches from just north of San Diego, just south of San Francisco, and just west of Palm Springs. Including, of course, Disneyland.

Well, Los Angeles is big, but it isn't that big. Although it's been big for a very long time! In old Bugs Bunny cartoons you can see him standing next to a sign that says "Los Angeles City Limits" in New Mexico. So make no mistake, LA is big, and it was big even back when I lived there, in the 1980s.

But my world was small. I lived in a suburb called Canoga Park, and spent most of my time in a triangle that was no bigger than a few miles - my apartment, where I worked, and the gym.

If you're familiar with Los Angeles, there's really no way that you would describe Canoga Park as being LA. Technically it is, because legally it's a part of the City of Los Angeles, but really it's the far western edge of the San Fernando Valley. Real Angelinos wouldn't consider it to be Los Angeles. But when I moved to Phoenix these fine distinctions were lost. My resume proudly proclaimed that I had worked in Warner Center, in Woodland Hills, which means a lot in the greater Los Angeles area, but is meaningless in Phoenix. So I changed it to say "Los Angeles".

So if you're picturing me back in my twenties driving the LA freeways, or hob-nobbing with celebrities, think again. I was like most of the people there, I just got up, went to work, and enjoyed what leisure time I had. I'm a homely person, and always have been, so going to Hollywood parties never interested me (I did go to one, but it was a little quiet party). My apartment was about the size of a broom closet, and there wasn't a swimming pool to hang out nearby so I just mostly slept there. My gf had a nice place, out in the Thousand Oaks area, and I liked to hang out there with her. I suppose if you include her place, my world was a square - but she always said that I lived in a triangle!

I've always been interested in history, so when I did wander around, it was to places like Los Encinos, or maybe over to the Sepulveda Dam, or to the La Brea Tar Pits. My friends who visit Los Angeles nowadays ask me if I've taken the tour at Universal Studios, or stuff like that, and I haven't. I did go to Disneyland, though (which isn't in Los Angeles, not even in LA county, it's in Orange county - and so is Knotts).

I liked my tiny world of Los Angeles, and I now know that it could have been anywhere. Home is where you feel comfortable, and that's a choice that only you can make.
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