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Getting Ready for the Party

Writer's picture: Feef MooneyFeef Mooney

Our house was built in 1941. Constructed on a lot of land, tract houses were built to accommodate returning soldiers, and their families who came to work for Lockheed. The houses cost $25,000. Government aid was available to help veterans buy these homes, and jobs were available. The houses were less than 1000 square feet, with two small bedrooms and one bathroom.

The big sell was the back yard. The California lifestyle meant that your garden and yard was part of your living room, so to speak.

Afternoons were spent outdoors, on weekends, gardening, puttering about, or sitting in a lawn chair, sipping an ice tea. Dewey and Virginia owned our home. They lived the California dream, planting fruit trees, harvesting loquats,grapefruits, persimmons,tangelos, oranges, peaches, lemons and sugar canes.

Dewey was a builder and put together this little house, or Lanai, as it is called. Dewey and Virginia and their neighbors Elaine and Richard liked to drink and play cards in the Lanai. They had a wet bar, a fountain, even a chicken rotisserie.

Years later, the Lanai was in sad repair. Its old stone floor was chipped, uneven and impossible to clean. The old walls were sagging and falling apart.

We had lots of discussions about the Lanai. Would it be better to just tear the whole thing down, and have more open land?

A sucker for old things and history, I fought that.

I wanted to create a place for exercise equipment, yes, but also the potential for a party house again.

The pandemic has hit us hard. No one is coming over right now. And the neighborhood is changing. Can we keep knowing our neighbors? will we be able to gather together again?

I hold the Lanai open as a possibility for future parties. Some nights, that is what keeps me going, and reaching out to know new people, even if right now my conversations are online, Facebook, Instagram, socials.

We were fortunate enough to afford a house in 2003, and I always hoped it would be a welcoming place. for musicians. Artists. Neighbors. Parties. I will keep putting the lights on and looking forward.

And you will be invited. When the time is right.

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