Where the heck is Topanga? I remember following the directions - take Pacific Coast Highway North, turn right on Topanga Canyon Blvd. and go up the hill.......
I'm winding up this canyon road, in the very dark, quiet night. I roll down the window and inhale the sweet smell of sage. That smell of the brush, the dirt, and the ocean breeze are a fine relief from the usual, stuffy suburban aroma.
I pull up at the house, and climb the stairs that gradually take me up to the front door. It's not so quiet anymore, with the sounds of the crickets in the creek singing backup to the chorus of frogs. It's June, my best friend, Lisa, has just graduated, and I'm here for her celebration in this place that she constantly talked about, but that I, an L.A. native, had never heard of before I met her.
Topanga
This canyon, located between Santa Monica and Malibu on the south and the entire San Fernando Valley, is an L.A. treasure. This wonderful spot that seems miles away from the metropolitan area, is just minutes away from city life.
I had a great time at my friend's party. It was all Lisa's family friends who went way back with each other. These people knew how to have a great time! As Lisa's former roommate, I had spoken to the party hostess, Thekla, on the phone a few times. Thekla was the grandmother of the other person I knew there, a younger girl, Karen, who had visited Lisa at college. Karen introduced me to her mother, Gretchen, and she and I talked for a while.
I didn't know it at that time, but I had just had my first conversation my mother-in-law.
Karen and Lisa had gotten the idea in their heads that I would be great for Karen's big brother. I met her brother the next day and I can now blame those two matchmakers for twenty years of marriage (and counting!) to my amazing guy.
I also didn't know on that night that I had just climbed the stairs to what would be my own front door. I didn't know that it was the start of the next phase of my life, and that phase would be here in this beautiful canyon, full of beautiful, dark nights and bright, mountain mornings.
My children are the fourth generation to live in this house, the one in which my husband and his mother both spent their childhoods. My children look through photos of our home as it was then and see their great-grandparents as a young couple, with a group of laughing friends around our table. They see their grandma as a young girl, in her prom dress in front of our windows. They see their dad and their Aunt Karen as little kids, on our front steps. They see themselves in our home, with our family.
I married into Topanga. This is my home. I found a place to truly live, a community I truly love.
I consider myself blessed to be a Topangan. I'll have to tell you all about it.
Copyright 2008 Elaine Hanson, All rights reserved
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