Muscle Beach
After walking for an hour, we finally made it to Muscle Beach. Then I found out that the original Muscle Beach was in Santa Monica so, really, that sign that said Muscle Beach was a 4-minute walk was probably correct.
Thanks, Frank
There would’ve been no Muscle Beach in Socal without the Great Depression. President Roosevelt put a lot of people to work around the country and this included building an outdoor exercise area primarily for acrobats and gymnasts just south of Santa Monica Pier. It was popular. In fact, it was so popular that in 1959 the city of Santa Monica quietly dismantled all the equipment one night. They were tired of the loud, muscle-bound, athletic youths disturbing the tranquility of their nice, quiet, little town. That’s when the party moved 3 miles south to Venice Beach and that’s where it remains today.
“Why Can’t You Be Cool Like Your Mother?”
These guys approached us to sell us something. Maureen suddenly blurts out,” Let’s go, Mom!” She took off down the street in high dudgeon, when one of them called after her, “Why can’t you be cool like your mother?” “Yeah, Maureen,” I told her later, “Why can’t you be cool like your mother?” God, I loved this one little opportunity to be cool in someone’s eyes in front of her. Thanks, buddy. This, of course, sent her into fits of fifteen-year-old fury because there is no way that I can be cool. Just no way.
She tried to explain to naive me that, “It’s all a con! Can’t you see that?” Yeah, well it may or may not be but at least I had the grace to extricate myself with some finesse instead of charging off like a mad bull. I mean chill, girl. Or, as they say, up in Quebec, “Calme-toi le pompon”. Meaning calm your pom poms.
A Real Live Surfer Girl in Southern California
I asked this girl how the surfing went. She said, “It was gross!” “Why?” “Because the water is all brown. It’s really gross.”
Gross Water in California
I took this picture at the beach in Ventura just up the coast.
It would be like swimming in coffee or cocoa or caca. Pick one. People are discouraged from swimming near the Santa Monica Pier and other beaches along the coast because of high bacteria counts. I wouldn’t swim in it. Not only is it filthy but it’s cold, only 50 degrees. And there are big man-eating fish called sharks. I just read today that 55% of America’s beaches are filthy or “covered in poop”. That is beyond gross.
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