It was off to the San Fernando Valley to spend a bit of time in the past—the valley’s past and our past. My husband and I visited the recently refurbished North Hollywood train depot so I could take some pictures. This station is of particular interest because it provides a setting for my upcoming book, By Light of Day. It’s a terribly historic building, one of the oldest in the entire valley, constructed in 1894—maybe. Let me explain.
I stopped across the street to read a sign about the history of the depot. Unfortunately, the information was not what I read on the internet. I ended up doing more research, which only served to further muddy the waters. At one point, I had four references with four different years. I probably shouldn’t be overly concerned about this kind of trivia, but I do like to be accurate. I ended up searching old newspapers, my go-to whenever controversy erupts. I never got an actual date for the opening of the station, but I did find two real estate ads that gave me a definitively useful year. I am writing fiction; I keep telling myself that. The refurbished station looks like its former self, aside from the word Lankershim on the side of the old station. The first chapter of By Light of Day can be found under the Excerpt tab.
Our next stop was the market where we got some flowers, then headed for Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills. That site was used for many early movies and the set for D.W. Griffith’s classic pro-Ku Klux Klan Birth of a Nation. No doubt the film is also the reason most people assume D.W. Griffith donated the land for Griffith Park. Actually, that land was donated by Griffith J. Griffith, who gained notoriety by running an ostrich farm, furthering local aviation and shooting his wife. I have come to greatly enjoy history.
It was definitely funeral day at Forest Lawn. I could see five well-attended interments occurring as we drove up. There wasn’t even a place to park.
I don’t know why, but my mother wanted two urns on my parents’ grave. We actually purchased enough flowers for both urns this time. We didn’t have any trouble pulling out the urn on my dad’s side—I don’t know why I think of it that way, but I do. We could not get my mom’s side out for anything. It was really in there tight. She always was a stubborn woman. We ended up putting all the flowers in one urn.
My mom and dad fought vigorously over their final resting place. All my dad’s family is buried at Valhalla, near the Burbank Airport. Forest Lawn is a lovely place. My mother got her way. She always had good taste and as I said, she was a stubborn woman.
From there, we went to Henry’s for lunch. It’s wonderful when things taste the way they always have. Finally, we decided to go by our old house. It looks so different. It’s been over 30 years since we left the valley and that house. It turned out to be a lovely day, full of nostalgia.