February 2007 – Page 7 – Half Moon Bay Memories

February 4, 2007

Conversations: I Hear From LARRY KAPLAN (Lincoln H.S. Alum) Part IV: Conclusion (for now)

Larry, It seems that I am meant to be here, right where I have been for more than 30 years. At one point there were opportunities (in the entertainment industry) in NY & LA and my parents were even going to move with me–but in the end neither came to be.

I do like where I am.
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I, too, have Hollywood stories. I’ll save those for another time….

Wanna see one of my horses F L Y I N G?
Larry
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Yes, I want to see the horse flying…..
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June,
Here’s VEGAS.

VEGAS is his call name.
His registered Jockey Club name is: Shrewd Partner
He will be seven Feb. 2… actually.
As far as the Jockey Club is concerned, all horse’s birthdays are Jan 1.

VEGAS loves to jump. The green thing in the photo is five- feet- high. The wooden poles in the photo are nine- feet- long…each!

Vegas has his Winter really bitchen’ haircut…kind of looks like a paint job.
He is chestnut… the darker color you see. The lighter color is the haircut area.
The reason for the haircut in the Winter is so that he can cool off after training and wear one of two blankets to keep warm and still cool down. He is everybody’s favorite horse at Applecreek out of ninety horses, and he will be shown in the Spring.

He knows his name and is just like a big dog…except for the poop.

He is 16.1 hands tall.

He is a sweetheart, and, VERY happy.

Larry
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Hi June,
It’s 12:58 p.m. Sunday [February 4, 2007]
This just in: Our Trainer just called. VEGAS is coming home with ribbons. He wowed them, and took a first in the hunter-jumper class. He’s also bringing home ribbons in other classes, and that is all very far out. You do remember, “Far out”?
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Definition of “Far Out” from the Merriam-Webster onliine dictionary: “Marked by a considerable departure from the conventional or traditional…”

February 4, 2007

Conversations: I Hear From LARRY KAPLAN (Lincoln H.S. Alum) Part III

Larry, I LIVED at 555-South 8th Street. Did we live in the same building? Two-story? Next door to the cop fraternity?

My original roommates were Gay Viguie & Sue Samuels. When I arrived they were about to graduate and I inherited the apt.

Yes, Bruce Orchid’s name is familiar..tell me more about him.

I’m curious: What do you want to do next? Do you have anything to do with Mavericks?

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June!

Gay and Sue were my GREAT friends!
Sue had a WHITE Plymouth Barracuda. I would sometimes ride my ten-speed bike to S.F. to see my folks on (some) holiday weekends. Sue was from the City…so, if she happened to be driving to the City the same weekend as I would be biking, she’d stop by my folk’s house on Sunday afternoon. I’d put my bike in her Barracuda, and she’d drive back to the apartment in San Jose.
What a trip!

[Ed. note: HE RODE HIS TEN SPEED FROM SAN JOSE TO SF! DID YOU GET THAT?]

Yup, the apartment was RIGHT next door to the cop frat house.
I had the apt on the ground floor in the very front…a three bedroom. There were four of us. I had my own bedroom and two guys shared another one. The room opposite mine was occupied by a guy named Tom Cameron, who left after a semester–then by a guy named Ed Coda.

This is a bit TOO weird!

I don’t have a thing to do with Mavericks…As far as surfing is concerned, we surfed all over, from Kelly’s Cove and Pedro Point to Steamer Lane….including El Granada, Half Moon Bay…all of it.

One of the most stupid things I did when I was 18 was to take a surfboard with me to Hawaii. What a hassle and for what? They had plenty of them there! Since then, I’ve had a board with me on all my sailboat and powerboat deliveries– where I knew I could expect waves.

A very dear friend of mine passed away a couple of months ago and he was building a schooner that was designed in 1929 by John Alden…a very famous naval architect. The boat is 65′ on deck and 80′ overall. The boat’s in steel and really gorgeous. I have hopes of completing her. I’m waiting for copies of the plans and other papers, etc. from his widow, also a dear friend. It will cost about $1.5 million to complete and I may have already raised the money. That’s what I’d like to dive into soon.

Beyond that I am anxious for Spring and Summer because I have always disliked Winter.

Just thought of something: If you’d like to see what I’m talking about regarding the boat, visit: click here.

She is one of the few Aldens of the same size built in steel. Most were in wood…and built in 1929 or 1930. The one I want to complete is NEW!

Larry

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Larry, I am not in touch with Gay or Sue. After SJS, I moved to the Coastside. I love it. I love the ocean. That’s why I’m here.

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June,
I read all about you, your books and your being the Historian Emeritus of the Coast. I THINK we knew each other at Lincoln.

I am in touch with Bruce [Orchid] He lives on Orcas Island off the coast of the state of Washington and has since the seventies. He and his wife have a super restaurant (Christina’s) click here and it is well known for its excellence in every way.

Google it and you will be blown away. Really.

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February 4, 2007

Conversations: I Hear From LARRY KAPLAN (Lincoln H.S. Alum) Part II

Larry,

I don’t recall your being a twin. You lived in the Sunset, didn’t you?

Your life sounds wonderful–and I’m happy that you’re doing exactly what you set out to do.

I went to San Jose State, too–but I think you used to surf El Granada Beach occasionally–and so did I–and I knew you at Lincoln. You told me you wanted to design surfboards and doodled in the notebook I was carrying (I’m a writer, you know, and that’s what writers used to do, carry paper. Now they carry laptops).

June
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Good morning, June

Remember Bruce Orchid at Lincoln? He and [my sister] Barbara dated. He was Pres and she was Vice Pres of the “Student Body.” I was “Director of Athletics” (which served to get me three lunch periods). I think we were a class ahead of you.

I consider most of what I do as “Art Projects”, and I am extremely visual in orientation.

Everything I do for my clients gets seen over and over again and it’s really important to me that it the work is appreciated. The artist in me values that appreciation more than the money received for the project. That’s true whether it’s a yacht I’ve just repaired or a piece of artwork I’ve just delivered.

Your site is fun for me to peruse, and it’s obvious that your passion for writing is abundant. I’m in contact with a few friends from Lincoln and i’ve mentioned your site.

When we went to Lincoln, we lived on 39th Avenue between Rivera and Santiago. Bruce Orchid and I would meet every morning at 39th and Rivera and walk up the hills to Lincoln…when we didn’t drive to school…I had a ’50 Ford Woody. It was blue and I usually parked it in front of school by the stop sign because the Woody didn’t have a reverse gear that worked very well and by parking at the stop sign, I was able to simply pull away in first gear, etc.

I paid $35 (thirty-five) for that Woody and sold it later for $250. Today, that car would be worth $45,000.00. I know because I look at them all the time. I want another one.

At Sanazay State, I lived at 555- South Eighth Street (a block from campus) and I was a ‘hasher” at a sorority. Pretty fun. Really fun. One of my roommates on Eighth Street was the head Ref at last year’s Super Bowl–Bill Leavy–great guy.

Well, that empties my brain.

Larry
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…Conversation to be continued….

February 4, 2007

Conversations: I Hear From LARRY KAPLAN (Lincoln H.S. Alum) Part I

Some posts back, I shared this artwork with you:

And one day I received a big surprise in the email box:

June,
I just happened upon the “What happened to Kaplan Surfboards” gizmo, and it blew my mind. Where, oh where, did you acquire my sketches for logos?

I graduated from San Jose State Univ. in 1969. You probably know I went to Lincoln H.S. I am three hundred years old now, and have played with the water my entire professional career…for money!

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Larry!
You sketched the logos in my notebook…probably at El Granada Beach (near where I still live with my husband). What are you doing now? Tell me what you mean about playing with the water professionally.

Do you remember me?

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June!!!
First things first:
YES. I do remember you. Only an idiot would not. Please feel free to read that to your husband…at least twice. Four times would be better…

Two:
Water and Professional. There’s the long story and there’s the short story. The short story is that I owned a yacht restoration company in San Diego for twenty years…yachts are just big surfboards, and I love the water.

I REALLY love the water. I pioneered some really important stuff on yachts in those days. I’ve delivered yachts all over the Pacific Coast and from Hawaii to California, etc., etc.

I am a silly and humorous person. If you re-read this e mail, you will hear laughter in the background. Listen with care…

I designed a very silly, and funny line of artwork and it sells all over the world. It’s made of fiberglass. It’s about Ducks. It’s called, “Art Ducko”, the height of ceiling art.

I continue to do custom fiberglass work and repair on boats and yachts…Yachts are boats that are for purposes of pleasure only and boats can be used for work etc., etc., etc.

I know yachts the way some people know cars.

Do you remember my twin sister, Barbara? She’s a big deal at Stanford.

I have two English Cocker Spaniels and two Thoroughbred horses. One of the horses is Seattle Slew’s grandson.

How nice to know you are there…

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…Conversation To Be Continued….

February 4, 2007

Arlington Park by Rachel Cusk

This book must have arrived in my post office box by mistake….I don’t remember ordering it, the subject matter is all wrong….but it’s a wonderfully funny (even laugh out loud) page turning short read… a novel about the queasy inner & rigid outer lives of young mothers (like the first awkward moments when they realize how much time they will be spending with their children inside the fenced playground)… and the ephiphany of one who begins to insist to herself that men (as in husbands) slowly “murder” their wives.

February 4, 2007

Arty Arty

click here

February 2, 2007

Pottery Barn Kids Preview: The Little Boy is Trevor, My Cousin’s Grandson

At far right, admiring the pretty egg in the Easter Egg basket–it’s TREVOR…..

February 2, 2007

The Inez Burns Story, Part III

Attractive to men, Inez married three times before finding a soulmate in the tall and handsome Joe F. Burns, who grew up in San Francisco’s Mission District “as one of the boys”–many of whom became police officers.

Later, some of Joe’s old pals joined him for Wednesday night poker parties where they enjoyed the card games but “payoffs” to protect his wife’s abortion mill business may also have occurred.

Inez was in control of the relationship with Joe–but she was also gracious, lavishing him with gifts, including brilliant diamond rings worn on his freshly manicured hands.

She paid for Joe’s gambling habits, poker and the ponies and she probably bought and paid for his political career.

Inez shared Joe’s love of sleek race horses so much that she boarded half-a-dozen beautiful colts on the 1000-acre La Honda ranch, including the gelding “Sun Portland”–an occasional winner at the racetracks in Seattle.

When Joe F. Burns retired as a San Francisco Assemblyman, Inez bought him “Cavanaughs”, a busy bar located at 29th and Mission Streets.

…To Be Continued…

February 2, 2007

The Inez Burns Story, Part II

Born in Philadelphia in 1886, Inez L. Burns often spoke of her family’s extreme poverty forcing her to work as a child employee in a pickle factory. How much truth there was to that story we cannot know for certain but Inez claimed the experience embittered her–she also learned the value of hard work, according to her granddaughter Caroline Carlisle.

At age 15 when Inez arrived in San Francisco, she had matured into a “natural beauty” with hazel eyes and titian colored hair. She also came armed with an ironclad will to succeed in a man’s world.

Working as a manicurist at the famous Palace Hotel, Inez met a Dr. West–whom Caroline Carlisle says taught her grandmother how to perform abortions.

…To Be Continued…

February 1, 2007

The Inez Burns Story, Part I

Photo:Inez Burns poses after “Sun Portland”, the gelding boarded at her 1000-acre La Honda ranch, wins big at the Seattle track.

In the early 1940s La Hondans instantly recognized the big, shiny black limousine winding its way on the narrow road through the shadows and light of the scenic redwood forest.

The man and woman in the automobile were making a surprise visit to the 1,000-acre horse ranch they owned near Kingston Creek in La Honda, some miles east of the Pacific Ocean.

At the wheel was former Democratic San Francisco Assemblyman Joseph Francis Burns–and seated beside him, wearing an elaborate hat with a very wide brim, was his rich and powerful wife, Inez L. Burns, also known as “the queen of abortionists.”

Inez Burns did not shrink when she heard this allegation.

For more than three decades this remarkable woman provided safe abortions to thousands of women from all over the world. In some respects, her facilities in San Francisco matched today’s medical standards–yet she practiced her “illegal” activities with immunity for much of her long career.

How was this possible? Her success coincided with the prohibition of alcohol in 1920. This event bred a climate of lawlessness, an environment vital to the interests of Inez L. Burns, one in which officials at all levels were easily corrupted.

…To Be Continued…