Santa Monica, Third Street Mall

I use the quality of the meat to classify each beach city in California. I call Santa Monica and its beaches a cut above the rest. Santa Monica is the filet of steak meat while the others are rumps and for the rest. 
  And I consider myself an expert since I played two-man volleyball from 2089 until recently in the same cove that many of the greatest body builders did their routines or lifted weights. Of course a visit to the piers merry-go-round as a kid will always be remembered. 
   Yesterday, Sunday, I visited my daughter who lives on Pico
Blvd across the street from the Museum of Tolerance.  I enjoyed my visit with my daughter and helped her buy a new cell phone. Just like Verizon, Sprint charges a restock fee, even is you bring the gadget back five minutes later. I became upset when we dove to return the cell phone, and wish to apologize to the staff at Sprint. 
   I would travel by bus to God's favorite playground, Santa Monica Beach. My Mom Edith took me and brother Mel there every day in the summer. In the forties I carried the punch bowl, my brother the sandwich bag, and Mom the humongous umbrella. We did not know about skin cancer then, but used it for shade only. But today, over seventy years later the Santa Monica Third Street Mall beckoned.  .
   The Big Blue Bus picked me up on the corner of Pico and Roxbury at three in the afternoon. The old Owen's market is no longer and another is about to take its place.  The cool brisk westerly told me mountains to the north were plummeted with mounds of snow. I paid my senior fifty cents and sat down holding my brown lunch bag.
   I ate the remainder of my chopped liver on rye and opened up several tangerines. The first of the morning liver came from Nate and Al's and the fruit from the Glatt market. It was fabulous not to drive my car in a city pock-market by streets  bruised by too much traffic and always street maintenance.
  In back of me two lovely young Latinos practiced kissing, another worked on her eye brows, and one  needed to shave the mustache over her mouth. The bus lumbered on and crossed Lincoln, Colorful jerseys told me a football game was in progress at Santa Monica High School.  The bus made a right on Fourth Street and charged down the boulevard to Santa Monica Blvd, where I tumbled  off and strolled to the rest room on the Palisades. 
  The temperature was about five degrees warmer with no longer a heavy wind. The city sits in a bowl, walled off from extreme temperatures -- it is always moderate here. No longer a cold wind lashed at my face. I needed another piece of cloth inside my black turtle nicked sweater. I headed  to the large thrift shop on the corner, across from the new city library.
   I tried on a T-shirt that was too small for my large shoulders. Inside the try-on room sat a well used skate board. I asked a few kids if it might just be theirs.
   "My God thank you sir. Can I buy you a drink somewhere?"
    "No but find me a extra large t-shirt and we will call it even."
    "Got the one for you. Try this one on."
    "Don't need to, it looks perfect."
   I paid my one dollar and ninety cents and pulled it over my other shirt. Yes it was a two-shirted day today. I looked up at the bus stop and noticed that the Rapid Purple bus stopped there.The neon signs now showed the times of the arrival of the next buses..I treated myself to a special blend tea at Philz and then entered the Corner Credit Union Bank.
   The manager schooled me in now the bank handles liens and levy's.  He was warm and cordial an told me to watch out for computers of our government. "The computers withdraw your money when nobody is looking."
    I then walked to the only Barns and Noble store of of Third and Wilshire .A couple of guitar acts were in progress and after Victoria's Secret,  I saw that the Tesla car that runs on batteries. . I could no get over how black and shiny it looked. Why is headlight beckoned me to enter but I needed to buy a book at Barns and Noble.
    Everyone smiled, as every store glittered with the sun bounding off the ocean and Mr. Sun playing peek-a-boo with the sun.  . I bought a book without coffee and  returned to the Fourth and Colorado for the long,  one our,  bus ride home. Why I felt like a babe bathed by Mom with talcum again, so was the infectious smile of the Mall.
    But before entering the bus, I needed to drink water. Britannia's' Tavern.  was the ticket for a coke a water only two and change. Football games flashed on several screens.
   "What you having sir?"
   "Coke and nother glass of water?"
    "That'll be two fifty five sir?"
    Now that my thirst was quenched I spoke up a conversation with the stool next to mine. He appeared to be a young lad of thirty-or there-abouts.
    "Where you from Lady?"
     "Bolder...Got tired of showing people how to sky or working inside hotels...Brother is into interior decorating and needed help in his Hollywood store."
     "Where you livin?"
      "One bed on twelve and Santa Monica...Rent is high at sixteen a month...but worth it...I love it here."
       While we chatted, my other eye, my stomach, had its mouth open for the delicious fish salad next to me. I told my gut to wait till next week. I needed gas money to return to Surf City.
        'One bottle for each...its on the house. Thirty hands jumped on deck, all except mine."
    After a trip to the Men's I went to the fourth street pick up spot to take me back to West Los Angeles. Just like Tesla, my battery had been recharged at the best mall on the coast.
   I walked to the Big Blue Bus stop, across the street from the new Salvation Army building. What looked like a curled up dead body slept beside a store. I've seen it before. It happens every day in California.  
   The Rapid Blue came and picked up passengers. Some would go on the downtown bus that links the Blue Metro with the other arteries. Oh yes, a police got the man to stand and escorted him to the nearest park -- out of sight and out of mind. 
   Back at my daughters, we had a few swags of mocha and then I sailed home back to Surf City. 


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