Monday, September 28, 2009
Narramore Years Part 16
By far South Pasadena was the nicest area that I had ever
had the privilege of living. South Pasadena is just west of
San Marino which is a high rent district similar to Beverly Hills.
The house we lived in was an older mansion type of dwelling
that supposedly was the servant's house to an even larger house
that was no longer there (or that was the story). The street the
house was on was tree covered with many large mansion-type
dwellings. It even was the site of the filming of several movies
including the cult favorite, Christine, a demon possessed car.
During the 1970s a group of art school students rented the
house (they attended the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena).
Vance Sanders was one of those former students and was part
of the singles group at Sierra Madre Congregational Church
(Koinoia). We referred to the house as the Cal Trans House.
It was owned by California Department of Transportation
(Cal Trans) and was on a proposed freeway extension route.
Cal Trans also owned other properties in the area. However,
local resistence, over the course of a couple of decades,
prompted the state to abandon their plans for the freeway
extension.
I moved in to the South Pasadena house in July 1989 and
was there until the end of November 1996. At this time
Cal Trans had abandoned their efforts and were in the
process of selling their properties back to private owners.
The married couple who lived in the upstairs was able to
put together the financing to purchase the house.
However residential regulations now called for this to be
a single family dwelling so the rest of the house mates
were forced to move out and find to other living quarters.
This was the longest resident (almost 7 1/2 years) I'd had
since leaving Washington in 1971.
had the privilege of living. South Pasadena is just west of
San Marino which is a high rent district similar to Beverly Hills.
The house we lived in was an older mansion type of dwelling
that supposedly was the servant's house to an even larger house
that was no longer there (or that was the story). The street the
house was on was tree covered with many large mansion-type
dwellings. It even was the site of the filming of several movies
including the cult favorite, Christine, a demon possessed car.
During the 1970s a group of art school students rented the
house (they attended the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena).
Vance Sanders was one of those former students and was part
of the singles group at Sierra Madre Congregational Church
(Koinoia). We referred to the house as the Cal Trans House.
It was owned by California Department of Transportation
(Cal Trans) and was on a proposed freeway extension route.
Cal Trans also owned other properties in the area. However,
local resistence, over the course of a couple of decades,
prompted the state to abandon their plans for the freeway
extension.
I moved in to the South Pasadena house in July 1989 and
was there until the end of November 1996. At this time
Cal Trans had abandoned their efforts and were in the
process of selling their properties back to private owners.
The married couple who lived in the upstairs was able to
put together the financing to purchase the house.
However residential regulations now called for this to be
a single family dwelling so the rest of the house mates
were forced to move out and find to other living quarters.
This was the longest resident (almost 7 1/2 years) I'd had
since leaving Washington in 1971.
Monday, September 14, 2009
Narramore Years Part 15
I lived in an apartment in Montebello (821 N. Wilcox) from
shortly after I moved to the San Gabriel Valley in the summer
of 1982. This served me well as a place to began work on the
Valiant newsletter and the starting of the Alpha-Omega apa.
At the San Gabriel Union Church where I was attending I met
through the Singles class Jeff Masching and Greg Baker. Jeff
and Greg rented a medium-sized three bedroom house in Temple
City (directly north of Rosemead). During the spring of 1985 they
approached me about becoming their third housemate. At first
I was reluctant because I liked having my own apartment. I had
been living alone for around five years and it was working for me.
I had done the "housemate thing" from 1972-1980 and didn't see
the need to go back into that mode of life. Also the bedroom
I'd be occupying was very small, probably a kid's bedroom.
However, they were persistent and I ended up moving into
the 6011 Agnes St., Temple City home in April 29, 1985. Jeff was
an employee in the mailing department at Focus on the Family
headquarters and Greg worked for Thrifty Drugs. My relationship
with both men was cordial though not necessarily close. This house
was the location for a number of meetings with Ralph Miley
and Charles Whitley and our endeavors with Valiant Efforts.
About three years later Greg moved out. In 1989 Jeff announced
that he was getting married. This came as somewhat of a shock
(though he had previously mentioned he was starting to date
someone at his work) as I had seen him as a life-long bachelor.
There were no other potential roommates in the offing so
I began looking for other housing situations. By the end of
July 1989 I had moved to a large house (really a mansion)
in South Pasadena. I attended Jeff's wedding on August 12, 1989.
By late 1986 I was looking for another church home as the
singles group at San Gabriel Union was changing into a
divorce "recovery" group. I attended several other churches
and during 1987 found that Sierra Madre Congregational
Church was a good fit. The pastor Richard Anderson was
an excellent Bible teacher and the church had an active
singles ministry called Koinoina.
shortly after I moved to the San Gabriel Valley in the summer
of 1982. This served me well as a place to began work on the
Valiant newsletter and the starting of the Alpha-Omega apa.
At the San Gabriel Union Church where I was attending I met
through the Singles class Jeff Masching and Greg Baker. Jeff
and Greg rented a medium-sized three bedroom house in Temple
City (directly north of Rosemead). During the spring of 1985 they
approached me about becoming their third housemate. At first
I was reluctant because I liked having my own apartment. I had
been living alone for around five years and it was working for me.
I had done the "housemate thing" from 1972-1980 and didn't see
the need to go back into that mode of life. Also the bedroom
I'd be occupying was very small, probably a kid's bedroom.
However, they were persistent and I ended up moving into
the 6011 Agnes St., Temple City home in April 29, 1985. Jeff was
an employee in the mailing department at Focus on the Family
headquarters and Greg worked for Thrifty Drugs. My relationship
with both men was cordial though not necessarily close. This house
was the location for a number of meetings with Ralph Miley
and Charles Whitley and our endeavors with Valiant Efforts.
About three years later Greg moved out. In 1989 Jeff announced
that he was getting married. This came as somewhat of a shock
(though he had previously mentioned he was starting to date
someone at his work) as I had seen him as a life-long bachelor.
There were no other potential roommates in the offing so
I began looking for other housing situations. By the end of
July 1989 I had moved to a large house (really a mansion)
in South Pasadena. I attended Jeff's wedding on August 12, 1989.
By late 1986 I was looking for another church home as the
singles group at San Gabriel Union was changing into a
divorce "recovery" group. I attended several other churches
and during 1987 found that Sierra Madre Congregational
Church was a good fit. The pastor Richard Anderson was
an excellent Bible teacher and the church had an active
singles ministry called Koinoina.
Tuesday, September 08, 2009
Narramore Years Part 14
The Origins of Valiant Efforts Part 3
Perhaps one of the problems was both Ralph and Charles were
character creators not story generators. Charles the writer and
role playing guru had loads and loads of characters, but little in
terms of actual plots. Eventually we decided to recycle a plot I
had written for the revival of my Protector that appeared in a
then recent issue of Alpha-Omega (#12, January 1987).
This story dealt with child pornography.
We spent time working on a script and actually doing the artwork.
Ralph and I did pencilling and we both did some of the inking as
well as David Transue. David, artist then living in New York state,
whom I interviewed for the Valiant newsletter several years before.
I had kept in contact with Dave by correspondence since that time.
Jack Martin also did some inking on this first issue. The story was
way over written (Charles was our scripter) and concerned one of
Ralph's characters the Crippler. The creating of the story was a fun
experience (and some of the enthusiasm for the characters came
though) but it was very rough and not great comics by any means.
We were able to do a lot of the production work in the NCF print shop
and it was printed there.
The second issue of Valiant Efforts (September 1989) was a much
better effort. Instead of one long story we decided to do an anthology
with three different strips. The issue consisted of Ralph Miley's
Street Fury, Charles Whitley's Dragonstrike and my Golden Protector.
Ralph's work had grown a lot (he was a college art major) and was
enchanted by Mark Poe's excellent and detailed inking. Mark was an
early member of Alpha-Omega and a later Center Mailer for the Apa.
Charles strip had breakdown's by Billly Leavell and inking by John Tigne.
Billy was also an early member of Alpha-Omega (and three time
central mailer) and a minister to the deaf in Tennessee. John was one
of the Santa Monica comics discussion group who lived south of me.
Billy did some very good layouts (which John doing some minor changes).
John did some excellent inking on the story. I pencilled and wrote the
Golden Protector story with Dave Transue doing the inking.
Dave did a good job on the inking. This issue overall was a much
better effort that the first one and it was also printed in by the NCF print shop.
Both of these issue Ralph, Charles and I promoted to comic shops in
southern California. We compiled a list of shops and spent several
Saturdays traveling around the greater Los Angeles area from Santa
Monica to San Bernardino talking to store owners about carrying our
books on consignment. We not only produced the books were were
also involved in distributing them to regional comic shops.
Perhaps one of the problems was both Ralph and Charles were
character creators not story generators. Charles the writer and
role playing guru had loads and loads of characters, but little in
terms of actual plots. Eventually we decided to recycle a plot I
had written for the revival of my Protector that appeared in a
then recent issue of Alpha-Omega (#12, January 1987).
This story dealt with child pornography.
We spent time working on a script and actually doing the artwork.
Ralph and I did pencilling and we both did some of the inking as
well as David Transue. David, artist then living in New York state,
whom I interviewed for the Valiant newsletter several years before.
I had kept in contact with Dave by correspondence since that time.
Jack Martin also did some inking on this first issue. The story was
way over written (Charles was our scripter) and concerned one of
Ralph's characters the Crippler. The creating of the story was a fun
experience (and some of the enthusiasm for the characters came
though) but it was very rough and not great comics by any means.
We were able to do a lot of the production work in the NCF print shop
and it was printed there.
The second issue of Valiant Efforts (September 1989) was a much
better effort. Instead of one long story we decided to do an anthology
with three different strips. The issue consisted of Ralph Miley's
Street Fury, Charles Whitley's Dragonstrike and my Golden Protector.
Ralph's work had grown a lot (he was a college art major) and was
enchanted by Mark Poe's excellent and detailed inking. Mark was an
early member of Alpha-Omega and a later Center Mailer for the Apa.
Charles strip had breakdown's by Billly Leavell and inking by John Tigne.
Billy was also an early member of Alpha-Omega (and three time
central mailer) and a minister to the deaf in Tennessee. John was one
of the Santa Monica comics discussion group who lived south of me.
Billy did some very good layouts (which John doing some minor changes).
John did some excellent inking on the story. I pencilled and wrote the
Golden Protector story with Dave Transue doing the inking.
Dave did a good job on the inking. This issue overall was a much
better effort that the first one and it was also printed in by the NCF print shop.
Both of these issue Ralph, Charles and I promoted to comic shops in
southern California. We compiled a list of shops and spent several
Saturdays traveling around the greater Los Angeles area from Santa
Monica to San Bernardino talking to store owners about carrying our
books on consignment. We not only produced the books were were
also involved in distributing them to regional comic shops.
