What's for Dinner? Not this.....

My intention was to post a truly incredible meatloaf recipe. I think it figured strongly into my husband's decision to marry me. Really, it's that good. While looking for the recipe I came across this clipping from 1971. I forgot about meatloaf and began to take a trip down Memory Lane. This is more interesting than the meatloaf recipe, although I admit it's not as useful.

Just click on the image to see a larger view.



I lived in this house with my father and mother and sister, from 1967 to 1976. I don't know for sure if Jean Harlow had lived there. Maybe the author of this article was wrong. I do know that tour buses stopped in front quite often. I remember my dad searching the attic, looking for clues. He never found any.

It was a beautiful old house with a huge yard and redwood deck. My sister and I had our rooms upstairs, and my parents slept downstairs. Part of the roof was flat and there was a door at the top of the stairs which led out to this flat roof. Strangely enough, the strongest memory I have is of my closet. It was huge! The size of a lot bathrooms. It had built in drawers and a window!

Across the street was the back portion of the North Course of the LA Country Club. Our neighbor to the right was a stock broker. To the left, a sweet retired couple. Jean Stapleton (AKA Edith Bunker) lived two houses down and drove in the neighborhood carpool. Two houses down the other way was the home of Arthur Hill. There was a retired Army general and his wife. At the end of the block lived a woman named Fanny who was so obsessed with her lawn she was known to patrol every square foot with a pair of manicure scissors.

We had moved to California from Illinois when I was seven. My father went from being a dentist in a small town to being a Beverly Hills dentist. He had many celebrity patients, joined the country club, and was never the same again. I took Clark Gable's dentures to school for show and tell. Freddie Prinze committed suicide at a hotel on Wilshire just blocks away. Halloween meant hot chocolate or cider and homemade cookies from the neighbors. My mother tried to keep the family together. In the end my parents divorced and the house was sold. Mom had saved the article all these years, and recently sent it to me.

I will post the meatloaf recipe tomorrow......