Shortly after arriving in Los Angeles, I became involved with the Canadian Society which hadn’t been very active. The association was mostly social but did host one of the first Canada Day activities in California in 1989 after I became President.
Shortly before my departure from Southern California, Joan Winser’s term as Consul General was concluding and she was returning to Canada. Our office, along with some local Canadians, held a fitting farewell. According to one of the organizers, we sent her off in style.
Los Angeles also had a small business presence in the oil and gas industry. Bakersfield, about 2 hours to the north, was a major producing field and management of these companies were in LA. For obvious reasons I joined the petroleum club in downtown Los Angeles and organized the annual golf tournament in 1988.
The State of California requires anyone wanting to obtain a driver’s license to take both a written and road test before issuing a license. Not having done either for more than 20 years was a challenge but in the end I succeeded.
Living in Los Angeles wouldn’t be complete without experiencing a major earthquake and being a baseball fan having 25% of 2 season tickets to Dodger games was the least to expect.
It was just after 6 AM when the earthquake struck and I was in the office trying to figure out in the span of about 15 seconds what was going on watching a half full cup of coffee, slopping from side to side, spilling on my desk. I ran and sat in the doorway experiencing aftershocks that were terrifying for 30 to 45 minutes. While the quake took a half dozen lives fortunately, we did not have any damage to our office building or at the house.
As one might expect we had quite a few visitors from Canada. Three members of the fastball team that I coached arrived for a week’s vacation. On the way to the airport to pick them up I needed gas and foolishly left the keys in the ignition while going inside to pay. A guy had been wandering around the parking lot, jumped in and drove off. My wallet was in the car and someone in east LA found it a few hours later missing only a small amount of cash. The car was retrieved late that evening when the driver was arrested for speed racing in a shopping mall parking lot. I was subpoenaed to appear in court, but fortunately the guy pleaded guilty.
My parents came to visit and drove as far as the outskirts of Los Angeles following a route that I mapped out. I met them outside the city providing an escort on the freeway to our house. The route was purposely mapped through scenic route Colorado with lots of mountains, trees and rivers. On arrival I asked my dad if he liked the scenery. Remember, Fred could be difficult to please most times. This would be no different. He was not impressed because he had hoped to see “wheat fields.”
On the farm Fred was always attempting to grow fruit trees, generally with little success. Suffice to say the lemon tree in our backyard did impress him. They also got to see Disneyland and a few other southern California tourist attractions that would never have happened if we didn’t live there.
We had barely settled into our house in LA when Cody fell off the monkey bars in a park and broke his arm. We had medical insurance coverage but no actual card to present to the UCLA hospital. They kept him comfortable but wouldn’t admit him until I was able to come up with an Alberta government cheque for $5000 U.S. Fortunately, within a couple hours his arm was repaired and he was sent home.
Cody also insisted on playing hockey in a part of the world where standing around in a cold ice arena made little sense to dad. The home rink in Culver City, the Los Angeles Kings practice facility, was about 20 minutes from our house. The drive down the 405 freeway could be as long as an hour if games were late on a weekday afternoon. A two-hour drive to San Diego and 90 minutes to Lake Arrowhead were also required as teams in southern California were few and far between.
Cody also played Little League baseball and I helped coach. This sport made a whole lot more sense than hockey. His Reds team in Sherman Oaks also included Actor Allan Thicke’s son. Despite his celebrity status, Thicke could be counted on to be in the stands for every one of his son’s games.
The arrival of Gordon and Jean Coombs was a blessing, and they were such wonderful people. Our house did not have a pool but their place in Laguna Beach did and in just one afternoon Gordon taught Cody how to swim. Unfortunately, even though we worked in the same downtown office building our residences were, with no traffic issues, an hour and a half drive one way.
Living in Los Angeles and raising children clearly had its challenges but the experience was once in a lifetime.
Cody was just entering elementary school when we moved. Behaviour at school was a challenge and in the 4 years living in LA he attended several different schools. We met with different psychologists/doctors and no one could solve our problem. He was even confined at one point to a mental ward at a hospital. One of the most difficult evenings in my life was walking away from the hospital and seeing our son in the window crying and waving goodbye. That scene brings tears to my eyes today.
Kylee was 14 when we moved to LA. She made friends easily in junior high and the last 3 years at Beverly Hills high school. The area had a high Jewish population, and she attended several bar mitzvahs. These were elaborate events generally held at the Beverly Hills Hilton with several hundred guests. In most instances the young man or girl was given a new Mercedes as a gift.
Kylee never expected us to compete but being free-spirited she took a different path. Rebellious would probably be the right description. On several occasions she would run away from home for a week at a time. There is no way to describe how parents feel not knowing where in Los Angeles their teenage daughter is for days on end. It was a very difficult 4 years with Kylee in Los Angeles and made our stay much less enjoyable than it should have been.
Kylee was at her best friend’s house one evening when U.S. government officials stormed the residence and arrested the father.
Hoffman was later convicted and sentenced to two years in prison and a fine of $250,000.
We became very good friends with Dick and Jean McClure who had also just relocated from Edmonton. Dick saw the announcement of my appointment in the Edmonton Journal and then contacted us after arriving in 1986. Unfortunately Dick passed away a few years ago.
Linda bought her first convertible in LA, drove it back to Calgary and hasn’t driven anything but a convertible since. The vehicle she drove back was traded in for a new Honda convertible and ironically ended up on the local news.
The only American born in our household was Boo-Boo. He returned to Canada with Linda and Kylee and lived a good life mostly in Canada of 15 years.
Living in LA had its challenges but we made the best of it doing things like fighting the traffic for 2 hours just to get to the beach on a Sunday afternoon to spend the day as a family. Our kids got to go to Disneyland and other things that many Canadian kids can only dream about.