Griffith Park
This story began as only a couple of thoughts about Griffith Park. But it got a bit longer. A place more important to me than I thought.
There are three train areas in the park. The earliest trains in my memory are the live steam engines. They are small trains that children can ride. Walt Disney was a main booster of this area. When I was three or so my dad took me there and uncle Walt was there taking care of his steam engine. He talked with me a bit.
Don’t think we ever got to take our children there, but we tried a couple of times and we peeked through the fence.
Next-door to the small steam engines are actual large, real steam engines and locomotives in Travel Town. A locomotive museum! A rare opportunity and wonderful place to run around, climb, and explore trains. We did take the kids there many times. There is a rideable train there, too
The third train is at the Los Feliz entrance. We rode that train so many times.
And then, right there were the pony rides. Here there are so many memories. There were four riding levels. One for infants with the ponies on a roundabout, and the parents could walk along. Then out on the field there was a path where toddlers could ride, and the parents could walk along with them in the infield. And then there was a second track that slightly older kids could ride by themselves. And another track when the kids learned they had some control, they could get the horses to do a little trot. And then there was an outer ring where older kids could ride real horses. Only Thea ever got to do that.
My dad and my uncles and aunts along with my cousins and my brother, took me to the pony rides. The pride when I moved from one size pony to the next. The emotions when our six kids got to move up, the memories are still moving.
Then came the day when foolish and arrogant animal rights people came along and took away this one place where city kids could interact with horses. I spent a whole morning writing emails to City Council people and Parks and Recreation people to protest the closing.
Unreasonable self righteousness won.
If only we could take Enzo, Eve, and Zephyr there today.
There are stables by the Los Angeles River across from the park where there are horses for rent. And there are bridle trails throughout Griffith Park. For a couple years, once a week you would find me on a horse. Riding a horse all the way to the top of Mt. Hollywood was an adventure and a proud pleasure.
We were speaking of Walt … the legend is that the Griffith Park merry-go-round is where Disney had the first idea of making Disneyland. The very bench he sat on is on display at Disneyland.
The merry-go-round is old, a little tired, but so beautiful.
Behind the merry-go-round are the remains of the old L A zoo. It was a sad, badly designed place. One visit there with my tio Lalo and my cousins, we saw a gorilla in a cage far too small for him. The ape made eye contact with me, and he was so sad and depressed. I started crying. My uncle belittled me, and I told him what they did was wrong, and that I would cry. On another visit to the zoo, a bee stung me. A man came up, unwrapped a cigarette, told me to spit into the tobacco, pressed it on my swelling finger, and it calmed right down! A miracle cure! Years later, another sting, I borrowed a cigarette, and it worked!
Sarah and I went to the new zoo with the kids. A superior zoo. We found a place where you could see a Bengal tiger in its den, not outside in the public environment. The tiger was pacing back-and-forth in front of a large glass window. It was amazing how large she was. The tiger looked at the children with great hunger in her eyes. Then she looked at Sarah and me with such a look of incredible hatred. I felt true fear.
My dad took me to astronomy classes at the observatory. The classes were after the regular observatory show, at 11:00. We were shown things on the planetarium dome, and then we went up on the roof to use the telescope to see the things that we had just learned. The moon, Saturn, Mars, other planets, other moons, unusual stars, and a comet.
In the 70s, they had something there called Lasarium, there was music like The Planets, by Holtz, often Pink Floyd, and other music, then on the planetarium screen there were patterns and movements created by lasers.
Real psychedelic man.
And while we’re at the observatory, there are two objects there that are among my favorite things in the world. One is a 10 foot globe of the Earth, but without any water on it. You can see all the ocean floor. For years this was at the old Science and Industry Museum. Then it moved to a stairwell at USC, and I used to visit it there. When they rebuilt the observatory, it moved there. From a certain angle it looks like a bite has been taken out of an apple. Without the water, the Earth is not a sphere.
How many hours have I spent looking at this globe?
The other object is a gamma ray detector. The little tank is about 2 ft.² In it is refrigerated alcohol, it appears as mist, and when a random gamma ray passes through, you can see the trail. It is an example of how there is truth and then there is Truth.
A bit down the hill from the observatory is a tunnel. In the movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit that tunnel was the entrance to Toon Town. After the kids saw the movie, then taking them to the tunnel, it was wonderful seeing how wide their eyes got as we entered, and the possibility that maybe they would be entering Toon Town.
In 1968 there were Love-Ins in Griffith Park. A friend and I took the bus to the observatory, but nothing was going on. I found out it was completely on the other side of the park. Two hippie girls came up to us, they were a few years older, and asked us if we knew where the love-in was. I told them, and they asked us if we wanted a ride, sure, and we got into the back seat of the convertible of the two hippy girls and drove to the spot. Lots of drum circles and clouds of pot.
Over the years, hiking, riding horses and my bike really allowed me to get to know the hills, roads, trails, and bridle paths of Griffith Park.
From the parking lot of the observatory is the path to Mt Hollywood. More about that soon.
And now, a bit of history
The 4,500+ acres of park was given to Los Angeles in 1896 by Colonel Griffith J. Griffith, as public recreation space for "the plain people". It is one of the largest municipal parks in the world.
I can hear you!
To compare,
Golden Gate Park in San Francisco is 1,017 acres.
Central Park in New York is 843 acres
I saw many musical artists at The Greek Theatre, but heard even more because you can hear the music from the Griffith Observatory. For a few years, there was a path you could walk down and actually see the stage of The Greek Theater. Then they fenced it off. My cousin Lizzie and a guy she was dating went to see Roxie Music and I dropped them off. I parked with the limos and got to hear the whole show.
The funds to build the Observatory and The Greek Theater were part of the charter in the original gift. There was the condition that the admission fees there would be minimal, and that there shouldn’t ever be an admission fee to the park, even though they tried. For decades that included free parking until some crooks figured a way around the charter. I’ve given up hope that there will ever be free parking at the observatory again.
There are three golf courses in the park. One 18-hole municipal golf course is the oldest public course west of the Mississippi, opened in 1914, and one of the oldest in the world. There is a second 18 hole and a large 9 hole course. I went with a couple of friends to the larger of the 18 hole courses. All three of us had very minimal golfing skills. It didn’t stop us from playing all 18 holes. But we got many people angry at us. We probably let a dozen foursomes play through.
I never found it, but rumor was that the amazing Los Angeles character Gypsy Boots lived in a treehouse in Griffith Park. When I made his acquaintance, he lived in a house on Beverly Blvd. He was a health food enthusiast long before it became popular. He is credited with "inventing" the granola bar and the smoothie. He also opened the first "hippie" health food store, when beat-niks were the thing. We would exchange Hellos whenever the kids were at Dr. Fleiss. Every morning he would bring a box of fruit, kind of in barter for the doctor looking after his kids. He always pretended to remember me.
If you ever heard the song Nature Boy by Eden Ahbez, it was then made popular by Nat King Cole in 1947, the song was about Gypsy Boots.
M And there was Dante’s View, one of my favorite places on earth. See the story below.
At some point in life, the world's beauty
becomes enough.
Toni Morrison