Living in Canoga Park, California in 1987


When I decided to move back to Los Angeles in 1987, after spending several years in a "dead-end job" in Santa Barbara, I decided on the San Fernando Valley. You know, where the "Valley Girls" lived, and shopped at the Sherman Oaks Galleria, and the Good Girls who lived in Reseda were, that Tom Petty sang about. But I couldn't afford those nice areas, I moved without a job, just up and left. I knew that sending resumes from 60 miles away would be the best way for them to get thrown in the trash and I knew that I had to be there, and that's how I ended up in Canoga Park.

If you know the greater Los Angeles area, especially the Valley, you probably cringed at the mention of Canoga Park. And you may be wondering if it was nicer way back in 1987? No, it wasn't. In fact in many ways it was worse than it is now. The only advantage to it was that it was the cheapest rent I could find and still be near places like Woodland Hills, Thousand Oaks, Encino, etc. My plans were to get a job, and get a nicer apartment. In the meantime, Canoga Park, at Saticoy and Mason, was my home.

Sure, there were gunshots, and car alarms all of the time. And yes, most of my neighbors were kinda shady characters, who were always "between jobs" but still seemed to have money. I really had never seen people like that, I had only read about them in books by John Steinbeck, so I did my best to see them not as sinners, but as saints. In their minds they were doing what they had to do.

The apartment complex had absolutely no place to sit outside, it was simply a building and a parking lot. So if you were a young man who just wanted to hang out with friends you did so in the parking lot. Most of the people who lived there went directly from their cars to their apartments, and bolted the door, but I decided to hang out, and meet some of my neighbors, all of whom were dangerous in their own way. The guy standing next to me in the pic up there, who I'll call "Cory" (since that's his name) absolutely had no fear. He was my friend, and still is, and when you're next to him you feel as if nothing can hurt you either. Not even bullets. No, we never got shot at, but he yelled at someone who brought out an automatic and Cory just threatened him to use it, laughing. Bravest, or stupidest, thing I've ever seen.

I only lived in Canoga Park for a couple of years. Yes, I did get a great job, but before I could start looking for a nicer apartment, I was laid off, along with everyone else in my department. I sent out resumes for a while, but my heart really wasn't in it, I was done with California, and I came home to Phoenix.

I live in the suburbs now, and often people find it hard to believe that I had ever lived in such a place as Canoga Park. I was glad to get out of there, but I'm glad that I lived there.
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