Well, dear readers, cousin Dee Dee sent me a link to an obituary just a few minutes ago, to see if she was right in thinking the person was whom she thought it was. Sadly, she was right.
What do you say about a girl with whom you had a short but intense history? I met Robbie Herron at LACC. I think she either was hanging out there and just happened on the theater building, or she and her friend, Caren Koch, had seen a show there and come back after. I became very friendly with both of them and they began hanging out regularly when we were doing shows. At some point, I put on a little two-night revue at the Assistance League Playhouse, which I have little memory of other than our very own PennyO was in it, and so was Caren Koch. I believe Robbie and Caren were all of thirteen when I met them. I was, as were most of my LACC compatriots, very poor in those days. I bounced around from apartment to apartment. I met Robbie’s mom, Kae Herron, and we became fast friends. Kae wrote songs and she loved that I did, too, and I visited their house several times, both of us playing our songs for each other. I met Kae’s husband, Bob, but I don’t think he cared all that much for Kae’s creativity, and I don’t think he cared all that much about me. I also met Robbie’s sister, Melody, who was older than she was. I was very enamored of Caren, but even though she and Robbie turned fourteen soon after I met them, I was nineteen so there was that, although back then it was not so crazy as it is now, in terms of that kind of thing, that five year difference.
In a particularly difficult time, Kae invited me to live with the family in their very cool house, which was located off Vermont near Third Street, if memory serves (I could probably find the house just driving around that area). The house was one of those old 30s style affairs, two stories, and huge. They had a guest bedroom next to Robbie’s room and they moved me in there, which was a huge help to me and relieved a lot of stress. By that time, Caren’s parents had packed her up and taken her and their entire family to Alaska. I remember well my last visit with her, which played very dramatically (I was very dramatic back then). I’ve always wondered what happened to dear Caren. Anyway, Robbie and I became very close. She had a wonderful dog she’d named Dog, and we went to movies and plays and she visited LACC all the time. She must have gone to school, too, but I have no memory of that at all.
She used to come in my room (we were connected by a bathroom) and yak with me and sit on the bed with me. One night she was rubbing my back and she said, “Want to feel something great?” I was always up for something great and said sure. She then pressed on my back with her hands and my entire back cracked so loudly I couldn’t believe it. It was an amazing feeling and I became hooked on her back cracks, which I made her do every night. After doing the hand version, she had my lay down on the floor and she walked on my back, which was even better. I had and have terrible posture and that just relieved so much stress – it was amazing.
Robbie, even at fourteen, was more experienced than I in terms of, well, you know. I, at nineteen, was, in fact, a technical virgin. Oh, well, why not – that ended with Robbie. She just came into the room one night and that was that. She told her mother about it, and Kae talked to me so sweetly and although she was taken aback by it, she was ultimately fine with it. I’d expected her to throw me out of the house. I lived there for about six months, I think. I don’t remember the circumstances of moving out (it may have been at Robbie’s father’s request, or I may have finally found an apartment I could afford). After that, I still visited and had occasional dinners, but I was moving into my final time at LACC, had a new girlfriend who I would soon marry, and then I moved to New York. All of this would have ended up in a Kritzer book had I written a fourth volume, but since my first memoir began WITH my marriage, this little episode, along with a few others, remains unwritten about.
When I came back from New York and began working in television, I heard from Kae, who somehow found me. We got together a few times and I asked about Robbie. Robbie had become a born-again Christian and had moved to one of the beach communities. I wanted to see her, so Kae and I went down there. She was so involved in her “stuff” that it was very strange, although I did get her to laugh and saw the old Robbie spark. But then she and her group of people began talking in tongues and I was out of there in a heartbeat. Kae and Bob had, by that time, moved to a nice house in Studio City – actually just a few blocks from where I live now. I visited there a few times over the next couple of years. Then I didn’t hear anything from Kae until the mid-1990s, when she called me at Varese one day. She’d read the big article about me in the Calendar section of the LA Times, and just called to say how proud she was of my success. She wrote me a couple of letters and sent me some of her recent songs and we stayed in touch for a few months.
I thought about Kae and Robbie over the years, but time got by, and I figured Kae had to have died. According to the obituary, that was indeed true – both Bob and Kae died, as well as her older sister Melody. I’m sure Grammy, who also lived in the house when I lived there, died long ago. Some people you never forget – Robbie Herron was one of them. I thought for a brief moment of going to the little memorial they’re having, but I won’t know anyone and I’m not sure anyone there would want me to share my little stories. According to the obit, she’d married, becoming Robbie Frandsen, divorced, had a son, who, I gather, had a lot of problems and ended up in jail, and she was finishing a memoir about her son and all that stuff when she passed. I hope it gets published. She was a bright, sweet, independent spirit. Rest in peace, dear Robbie. You played a very important role in my young life.
Yesterday was so windy I thought I was going to blow away. I didn’t, so that was good, but it got so bad at one point I yelled at the sky, “Stop it and calm the HELL down!” It’s not so bad right now, so maybe I had an effect. Otherwise, it was a perfectly okay day. I had a bit over eight hours of sleep. I added one little thing to my commentary, answered e-mails, listened to the final four tracks of the new master and approved it, then I went and had a patty melt and some chicken soup, since the damn mucus and phlegm were still hanging out like so much fish. After lunch, I did some banking, then went to the mail place and picked up no packages (the Ontrac hadn’t arrived yet, so I’ll get that this day). Then I came home and did some work on the computer, had a nice chat with a composer of film music, and then I sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I watched Atlas Shrugged, Part Two. Okay, so – I very much liked part one despite knowing it wasn’t a very good film and had not very interesting actors. It was the ideas I responded to, the fascinating Ayn Rand ideology on view. It made me read up on Miss Rand, watch two long documentaries about her, and get her books. Part two is really not much better than part one in terms of its script or moviemaking. The weird part is that if you’re intent on making a three-part film, wouldn’t you at least lock up your key players to return? But part two has an entirely new cast in every role, so you have to get past that part first. The actors in part two are better than in part one, so that’s helpful. But it’s paint-by-numbers Ayn Rand, even though it hits all the salient points. But again, I just didn’t care if it wasn’t well done, and I really enjoyed watching it because so much of what this woman went on about in 1957 has absolutely come true. The Wall Street Journal three years ago, just when the first movie was starting to come together, did a long piece about just how many things from the novel have come true, especially in today’s government and economy, with plenty of examples. From what I’ve read, they do plan to make part three this year and release it in 2014. I hope so. The transfer was fine.
I then found out we have over eighty reservations for the Kritzerland show, which is amazing this far ahead. So, only twenty more seats to fill. Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I must get a good night’s beauty sleep.
Today, I’m lunching at Musso and Frank with my author pal, Dick Lochte. Even though he’s blurbed many of my books, I haven’t seen him in almost a decade. It will be fun to catch up. After that, I’ll hopefully pick up some packages, write some liner notes, and that kind of thing, after which I shall relax.
Tomorrow, I have the steam cleaners coming, and then a potential evening out if I’m feeling up to it. Saturday night I’m seeing a show, and Sunday is, of course, our Annual Oscar Bash, the only place you’ll want to be for the most fun Oscar watching partay of them all. I do loathe the fact that an event that used to take place in April, keeps moving earlier and earlier in the year. I find it completely nauseating.
Let’s all put on our pointy party hats and our colored tights and pantaloons, let’s all break out the cheese slices and the ham chunks, let’s all dance the Hora or the old-fashioned waltz, because today is the birthday of dear reader Matthew. So, let’s give a big haineshisway.com birthday cheer to dear reader Matthew. On the count of three: One, two, three – A BIG HAINESHISWAY.COM BIRTHDAY CHEER TO DEAR READER MATTHEW!!!
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, have a lunch, hopefully pick up packages, write liner notes, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What person at a young age had a profound influence on your young life – an adult, a friend, a professional, aside from your parents? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, where I shall undoubtedly think of Robbie.