Lambiedog

Bench news

    The plaque memorializing Andrea Loeb Smith was recently removed from the Samulon bench site.

   It now graces a new bench on a new site at the western end of the bluff.

Memorial-stacking causes anguish

 
    Last week's Palisadian-Post featured an impassioned letter to the editor from Peggy Calamaro, the widow of Fino Calamaro, expressing her frustration and dismay at the L.A. Parks Foundation's (a) replacing her husband's memorial bench without consulting her, and (b) affixing to the replacement bench a plaque memorializing another person.                                                                      

As Lambiedog readers may recall, back in August 2010 I surfaced my own concerns about the LA Parks Foundation's thuggish practice of stacking an additional person's memorial plaque on a bench site that was originally dedicated to a single individual.  Ironically, at that time I identified Mr. Calamaro's bench as the only replacement bench that had not yet had an extra 'tenant' added, and quipped that perhaps the Calamaros had paid the Parks Foundation to leave their bench alone.

In fact, soon thereafter a plaque honoring a lady named Marge Lynn Currie was added to the replacement Calamaro bench. Although Mr. Calamaro's plaque remains in the rear of the concrete base of the bench, most people coming to sit on the bench will read it as a bench in honor of Ms. Currie since her plaque is affixed to the front of the bench itself. 

 So, where do things stand now?

 
  May 2009                                August 2010                                January 2012

Most of the original benches have been replaced, and all those that have been replaced have had a  plaque memorializing a second person added to the front of the bench, while the original plaque honoring the original dedicatee remains embedded in its original concrete pad, behind the bench.

The only ones of the old benches that have not been replaced (and, therefore, haven't had an additional dedicatee added) are the Anna Walker Steere bench -- probably because it is so close to the edge of the bluff that it was deemed unsafe or pointless to replace, the Stirling bench (no idea why it was spared),  and the Berman-Yoshpe bench, which was perhaps left alone because the dedicators live across the street from the bench and were or would be quick to complain. 

The one new-style bench on the bluff that has only a single 'tenant' -- the Melodie Mooz bench -- did not replace an earlier bench memorial.  Rather, it was an addition to the bluff, in a spot where there had not previously been any bench.  Presumably the Parks Foundation charged substantially for the privilege of single tenancy. [Revision - 2-6-2012:  For some reason I've been ignoring the Saul Stark bench, which was also added around the time of the Mooz bench.]

Perhaps the saddest story is that of the bench honoring David Robbins, who died of epilepsy in 1994.  His parents are gone, and no one is left to stand up for him or complain that the replacement bench bears a shiny plaque honoring Ed and Donna Betts, while the Robbins plaque sits dirty and unattended in the foundation behind the new bench.

A further tragedy here is that, by adding the additional plaques to existing memorials, the Parks Foundation has turned Marge Lynn Currie and the other bench piggybackers into unwitting carpetbaggers.  In fact, Ms. Currie sounds like a lovely person.  Like Mr. Calamaro, she was a resident of the El Medio Bluffs area.  She was a runner and a supporter of Heal the Bay; a children's book author and L.A. Unified School District administrator who grew up in Queens, New York and died young at age 59, after 37 years of marriage and four children.  (In her letter, Mrs. Calamaro took pains to note that she bears no animosity towards the Currie family, who had nothing to do with the decision as to where to situate their memorial plaque:  "I don't blame them; they did not know the history.")

The full text of Mrs. Calamaro's letter to the Palisadian-Post follows:

I write from complete frustration and sadness.  I am one of the victims of the memorial benches that were destroyed along the Asilomar bluffs, which Howard Kern wrote about last week in his letter "Memorials at Asilomar" (December 29).

My husband, Fino, died in 1996 and as a family we decided to put up a bench where we had his service, directly at the end of El Medio on the bluffs.  It is where our whole family has enjoyed many a sunset.  We have lived in the same home since 1961 and all of our family has enjoyed that spot.

About two or three years ago, I got a call from a friend who told me Fino's bench was being bulldozed down.  I couldn't believe it.  I raced down but it was already gone.  I was never ever consulted, nothing.  It took me quite awhile to find out what happened,

A woman who works for the L.A. Department of Recreation and Parks took it upon herself to replace all the benches -- not ever consulting the owners. When I finally spoke with her, she was very uncaring and all she kept saying was she felt the benches were old.  Fifteen years, which is hardly old, and then she kept saying, "Well, what do you want from me?"  I said, "I want my husband's bench back."  She said, "It has been destroyed."

Dear readers, how would you feel?  She did not want this conversation.  I told her I paid quite a lot of money for it and she should reimburse us for his bench.  She did in fact destroy it.  She said fine.  Now the story gets worse.

I can barely go down there knowing it isn't the bench I picked out (which by the way was one of the first down there).  As a family, we decided to grit our teeth and accept the bench she chose.  That is when to my heartbreak I saw she had sold it to some other person.  So now, our bench is dedicated to someone else.  I don't blame them;  they did not know the history.  So now, every time one of my family members goes to think of their father, or one of his many friends goes there, they are sitting on someone else's bench.

I have held this in for such a long time and I have cried so many tears over it.  I hope, dear readers, this doesn't ever happen to you.  

No new tricks

    Kai was looking sedentary on a bench while his owner made phone calls.

I encouraged him to hop over and interact with me.

  

He found that daunting.

So we tried to fit him through the open area between the seat and the bench.

I did my best to coach him.

But some dogs aren't meant to do new tricks.

 

Misty, moody afternoon with my mates

My BFFs and I went out to the bluff to hang out.
 
 

We tried to give Genny a modicum of privacy when she got a phone call.

   

 
        She scarcely knew we were there.

Contemplating the sunset with Thomas

It's great to have him home.

Subjected to scandalous conditions

    The bluff these days is a war zone, filled with sharp prickly pieces of straw, foxtails, and burrs that get stuck in my paws and make walking painful.

Is it any wonder that as soon as I get there I seek shelter on a concrete bench pad?

    The place is an arid wasteland right now.  It's a disgrace that dogs are expected to congregate under such conditions.  I demand sod.  Or possibly personally-fitted booties.

Dance performance at the bluffs

        When I went out to the bluffs yesterday I was pleased to see a ballet production unfolding. 

It's well known that I am an active patron of the arts. 

 

        For some reason, though, this performance did not completely captivate me.  

 

         Truthfully, I was in a bit of a rush to get back home and watch the NBA All Star game.

Solid citizen

    When I visited Dr. Galea last week to seek help for my recurrent ear infection, talk inevitably turned to my weight (18 pounds 2 ounces).  Dr. Galea's first thought was that I was eating too much, but after favorably reviewing my diet, he changed his analysis.

    He felt my abdomen and commented that he could still feel my ribs easily, then had me stand on the floor while he checked out my profile, which also met with his approval.

    His conclusion?  

    I am not overweight -- just built sturdily. (Or, as Mma Ramotswe in the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series would put it, I am a 'traditionally built' dog.)  

    This is what I have been trying to convey to my detractors* for months, perhaps even years!

    Dr. Galea provided some practical advice:  We should keep my diet as it is, avoid the treats I so enjoy when I go to Willy's house, and try to add more exercise.

    With his words in mind, I will be taking up scenic hiking.  Stay tuned. 

 

 *To be fair, they are not really detractors.  They carp about my weight because they want me to live long and healthily.  In that sense you could call them some of my biggest supporters.

My beautiful life

    We've been benefitting from some remarkable sunsets recently.

 The soft late-afternoon light is flattering to dogs of all complexions.   

Even a casual frolic ends up looking Gap-commercial-worthy.      

It's the effortlessly photogenic life of a California dog. 

Kerry

    Kerry and I have a special relationship.     We are both quiet individuals who enjoy getting together at the bench and observing the world.  Still waters run deep, that sort of thing.

 Sometimes Kerry brings treats to the bluffs with him.

     

And of course that's quite exciting.  But even when he forgets to bring treats, I do enjoy spending quality time together with him. 

         

    We appreciate one another.

Summer's end

            

              

I look into wrongdoing

 When I got to the bluffs the other morning, I could tell immediately that something was not right.

 The day had begun like any other.   I had crossed the wide expanse of Asilomar Boulevard towards the bluff, prepared to take on whatever the day might throw at me.

(Because, let's be honest, you never know what you're going to encounter. Admirers, construction trucks, dead squirrels, little children, dogs wearing muzzles who attack you and knock you over so that you're humiliatingly rolling through the dirt to get away from their cruel jaws and unkempt visages while visions of your demise roll past your eyes and you think, I may never get to lick my family again, and you think, oh god another bath looms because I've gotten dirty through no fault of my own, and you think, maybe I should reinvent myself as an attack dog....)  But I digress.

   In this case, it was something about the air, or maybe something in the stillness of the bluff, that put me on the alert and told me, "Lambie, be careful!" 

    So I investigated.

           

I stopped in my tracks when I realized that the Anna Walker Steere bench had been defaced.

 Nosing around, I noticed a clue.

 
      It was a cigarette butt. 

Only a few days earlier, I had noticed this very brand of cigarette thrown behind some bushes.

     Were the smoker and the defacer one and the same?

 Was I assertive enough to do the right thing and ask the hard, probing questions?

Sometimes it feels like I'm carrying the weight of the world on my shoulders.

 

I'm just one poodle mix trying to stand up to evil.  

Surprising revelation from Bruno

Bruno and I were having a nice time playing.

 Noticing that he is rather more sleek than me, I sought to normalize the situation by casually alluding to my epilepsy, and to the pheno barbitol that has caused me to gain weight.

   

I should have pulled out another excuse.

It turned out that Bruno too has epilepsy, and that he is also on pheno barbitol.  

 

Obviously he has an exceptional metabolism.

The plot thickens

 

There is method behind the madness of the L.A. Parks Foundation replacing those old benches at the bluffs with new ones. New dedication placards are being fixed to the new benches -- and they do not match the dedication plaques that remain in the original concrete foundations.   

 So the bench site previously dedicated to the memory of Henry Adam Samulon now serves double duty as a memorial to Andrea Loeb Smith.  The bench site previously dedicated to the memory of David Robbins now is also a memorial for Ed and Donna Betts.

According to the Parks Foundation's Donate-A-Bench web page, 

Donations start at $2,500 for a new bench to be placed in a city park or recreation center of your choice. A personalized plaque can be purchased for placement on an existing city park bench for $1,000.

I wonder whether the loved ones of Ms. Smith and Mr. and Mrs. Betts understood, when they donated money for the 'personalized plaque' 'on an existing city park bench', that that existing bench would also have an existing dedication to someone else's memory.   And I wonder whether the Samulons and the Robbinses were informed that the bench sites they endowed many years ago will now be shared.   

Only one of the new benches -- that sitting on the foundation with the Fino Calamaro plaque -- does not (yet) have a bench plaque honoring a different person.  Maybe the Calamaro family coughed up extra money to keep the Parks Foundation from re-dedicating their bench in someone else's memory.

If the Parks Foundation wants to take multiple bites at the apple going forward, fine. But to me it seems wrong to water down a memorial that was established under a different understanding.

Bench modernization

 

 Last week the character-laden Samulon, Calamaro and Robbins benches mysteriously disappeared from their bases.   

   

  Today they are being replaced with standard pseudo old-fashioned benches.  That's progress for you.

 The Stirling Family bench now takes on an extra layer of significance as the only remaining link to the past.