A long way to Santa Fe…

Fremar Kennel - early 60's

 Yesterday as I was driving west towards a late afternoon yoga class at Santa Fe Community College my thoughts were with the track-of-the-sun, the Jemez Mountains and beyond. I have resided here now 2-dozen years, 6-years longer than my boyhood haunts called the “Southland” (Southern California, or SoCal). I still have so many pleasant memories of the homes I had there. This time of year especially, I make the mental journey back to memories of our place in Malibu. We had a kennel on North Lima Street in Burbank and in early 1960 one at Pacific Coast Highway & Puerco Canyon Road.

Calvin Nursery location

I was twelve when we moved there, an excellent match, but I had relationships with my baseball team in Burbank that I didn’t want to lose; more about that in a few moments. We’d had a champion Bedlington Terrier (Fremar’s Cable Car) make the cover of Sports Illustrated early in 1960, and an opportunity arose where our family kennel, Fremar (for my parents Fred & Margaret), expanded. We were located next to Calvin Nursery and Bowman’s African Violets, and I relished seeing Cindy Bowman’s long red hair & Casey Calvin’s blonde ponytail. Ah, youth at the beach and in-the-canyons… what great times. Positive memories became motivations to return to the area during my National Park Service career.

Now back to some 12 & under baseball memories. I was fortunate to play with some athletic & talented teammates on the Aerol Red Devils: Bill Kuzma, Ken Ziskin, Joe Baldino, Kim Cannon, Steve Ross to name just a few that I can remember (wish I could recall all). On game days I’d get a break from mowing lawns (we had six) and weeding flowerbeds. I’d rise early and commute with my dad to Burbank. He to his job as an engineer with Pacific Bell Telephone, and I to Kuzma’s house off Glenoaks & Buena Vista where we’d “hang” until game time. Bill was our primary pitcher, and Ken our catcher. I backed up both of those postions when not roaming-the-outfield, and Bill & Phil would have some light pre-game warm-up sessions those days: good times. After all these decades I still remember Bill Kuzma’s no-hitter that I caught. Unfortunately, a runner (walk or error) had scored on a wild throw and I noticed their slide left them a couple feet short of home plate. Being new to baseball (2^nd year) & relief-catcher I was unsure what to do, so without looking at umpire, keeping eye on mound and Bill, I initiated a one-way dialogue to the umpire that the runner had never touched home. After the inning, he went to my manager and explained the procedure I needed to follow. Bill was disappointed and I felt bad: lesson learned (the hard way).

Our big rival was Pizza Pantry, led by John Peterson. The 1^st time we played them John pitched his team to a one-sided victory over us, hitting two round-trippers over-the-chain link-fence at McCambridge Park field #2.  Afterwards, my dad, who’d pitched at Glendale High, US Navy & briefly post-WWII, noted to us that John had hit out pitches at his knees and we should try pitching him at-the-letters next time. We did, and rematches were much more competitive from then on (including the 13-16 League).

When I mentioned above that my teammates were talented, they also worked very hard. Bill was our class “Music Man” and “leader of the band,” taking lots of discipline. Ken pursued one of the sports that Burbank High was famous for: swimming. Ken was an All-American at USC. Joe Baldino too always worked hard and became the Bulldogs signal-caller before going onto USC. I was always slow to evolve, but THANKS to so many teammates along the way I’m still playing (of course nowadays its usually with incident management teams at emergencies). I hope ALL our former colleagues are well and continue to do-good… As for me, I have some more musings to contemplate about looking over the wall and PCH to the Pacific.