never not home

It was June of 1977. College friends drove me to Logan Airport and I took my first plane ride – Boston via Kansas City to Los Angeles. I was bound for a new life, and it would begin crashing on my friend Bob Zimmerman’s bedroom floor in a cottage he shared with others just off the Boardwalk in Venice Beach, CA.

Bob was the person I considered my best friend. He had been my boss in a runaway house on the grounds of a crazy hospital north of Boston, and then the program closed and then he moved to Los Angeles and then a year later I followed. A month or so after my first gonna-live-here-forever move to CA we rented an apartment together in Santa Monica. And one night from there we went to see “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” at the Nuart Theater on Santa Monica Boulevard. It was my first time.

A short while later Bob introduced me to his boss, Dr. Douglas Martin, the Exec Director of The Westside Center for Independent Living, which he had founded. In very short order Doug became my second best friend in the world, and one night Doug and I (and maybe Bob) went to see “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” at the Fox Venice Theater in Venice. That night there was a character costume contest, and Doug – with polio since the age of six and everywhere in his battery-powered chair -rolled up on the stage and captured the look-alive prize for Dr. Everett Scott. You can see him, Dr. Scott, in his blue shirt and wheelchair bellow, and Doug kind of had it made in the shade.

Back in Massachusetts I went to see “The RHPS” at the Exeter Street Theater in Boston, where it ruled the midnight roost for just about ever. I can’t remember how many times I saw it there.

Doug died in 2003, Bob in 2010. My heart broke each time. I believe Tim Curry and Susan Sarandon are still alive and well and causing good trouble. Just like me. The show and all those wonderful times with great pals came to me out from the cobwebs Tuesday morning. I’m never far away from all of its wonderful songs – I could sing ’em to you now. Perhaps my favorite is here below.

And I’m for sure never away from my friends.