Teenagers in the 70’s. Your thoughts?

Amy and I were in L.A. last week. I took her to see Dirty Dancing at the Pantages Theater in Hollywood.

Yes. A totally chick flick umm… I mean stage show night and we had a fantastic time. ("Nobody puts Baby in a corner!")

Of course, being in L.A. a week after the Lakers' Championship win was interesting and I made a few observations about that which I mentioned to Amy.

ME: "Can you believe all the murals of Kobe (Bryant. Lakers Guard and M.V.P.) all over the city?  L.A. is All-Kobe-All-The-Time-Town now!"

Here's Kobe and his five story face covering the Staples Center:

This next mural takes up the entire side of the Upper Deck building. (Which incidentally happens to be on Hollywood Blvd. across from the Pantages so how could we miss it? I'm pretty sure it's done by the Mr. Hope-and-Change-Poster guy, but that's not important right now.)

ME again: "Look at all these cars flying the Lakers flags. They look like Diplomatic Vehicles Gone Bad."

(And excuse me? Mr. Uber-Laker-Fan, sir? We have a hands-free law. Thanks for caring.)

I grew up in L.A. and now that we were chatting about the Lakers, I mentioned to Amy that I hadn't been to see a live Laker game since they used to play at The Fabulous Forum in Inglewood.

Those were the days. (I was waxing a little nostalgic…)

I remembered the Laker players of the early 70's: Jerry West, Elgin Baylor, Gail Goodrich, Wilt Chamberlain, Happy Hairston, Pat Riley.

And how cool it was to sneak into the Forum to watch the games, and…

Oops…that was probably an over-share.

She pulled the car over and stared at me.

"Sneaking into Laker games? Who are you?? And what have you done with my mother???"  (Her question mark usage totally escalated as her questions grew more and more pointed.) "What else have you never told me????"

In my own defense, I wasn't quite the young vandal this makes me sound like.

I had a friend (okay, a boyfriend. Shut up.) who worked there who opened a door for a group of us occasionally (okay, every Tuesday night, but that's soo not important right now).

So now that I was on the spot I felt like I had to bare my soul and confess to her my other teen indescrecions, such as going up to the Griffith Observatory on concert nights at the Greek Theater. We would then hike down and sit in the trees and listen to whoever was in concert.

NOTE: My Cuban parents were fine with me going out as long as I was in a group. And because as a teenager I always traveled in a pack, I guess it was okay. In retrospect, I think they were either really evolved, or (more likely) just tired of parenting (I am the youngest of six). 😉

I remember the Greek Theater nights fondly. In fact, sneaking into the trees at the Greek was on our list of things to do every summer. I know. Shut up.

We sat in the trees and listened to a very young Elton John (his first U.S. tour – Take Me to the Pilot and Your Song days), Neil Diamond (Hot August Night Album), and Chicago (when they were still cool and only had one self-titled album). 

No alcohol. No drugs. Just a group of innocent teenagers (and yes, such beings existed!) wanting to listen to music under the stars.

I told Amy my teenage sneak stories and really, they sounded pretty innocuous once I explained.

And I laughed and shook my head as I remembered how silly and innocent and fun-loving we were as teens. And I realized that after Amy's initial shock had worn off, that my Parental Coolness Quotient had gone up just a few notches.

Was I sneaky? Probably.
Was it fun? Totally.

And yes, I'd do it all again in a heartbeat.  (Go Lakers!) =D

"I was so naive as a kid. I used to sneak behind the barn and do nothing."
                                                                                    ~Johnny Carson