Los Angeles Fire... and a Guitar

I was in L.A. last week. Here is a real life story which I picked up from a friend, while the fire was still raging.

They were among the lucky ones, who's home in Altadena survived, they lost nothing, their work-place survived too. They will be able to move back into their home in a few months, after it had been decontaminated, after the water was potable igen, after the electricity and gas is back on. They are supported by their friends and the community in the most amazing way. They are good.

One of their friend isn't as lucky. The friend, a musician, and his family lived two blocks away. He was a musician, he had a fully equipped studio in the back of the house, brimming with instruments. A big collection of fine guitars. His life's work, his livelihood, his love. He had no idea what was coming as he left a few days earlier to stay with family, outside L.A. And now there wasn't time to get back to the house and pick up their most important personal items, before the strict evacuation order was put in place. So he called my friend who was still in Altadena, about to leave with wife and daughter and begged him to break into his home, go to the studio and pick up one guitar, his favorite, which he described in detail. That guitar meant the world to him. Under normal circumstances a pretty weird request, but my young friend obliged. He broke into the house, made his way to the studio and picked out the Gibson. The Gibson was now safe.

Within an hour the house and studio was on fire. It burned to the ground. House gone. Studio gone. Guitars gone. The only one thing they now have from their past life is the Gibson. The one thing they now cling on to as they start rebuilding their life.

No, it's not just a guitar. You all, who are musicians, good ones or bad ones, you all can relate. No, it's not just a piece of wood. That fret board, those pick-ups, the keys...they tell stories of love, of hope, of sadness....and thank God the Gibson was saved to tell another sad story.

California Dreaming (The Mamas and the Papas) was in my head as I was walking around Long Beach. Most of you know the song, but maybe you don't know it was written by Papa and Mama Phillips in New York on a winter day in 1963. About how California is the land of hope. I remember hearing it for the first time sixty years ago.I loved it. But today it's just a different song.

"All the leaves are brown, And the sky is grey

I've been on a walk, On a winters day

I'd be safe and warm, If I was in L.A.

California dreaming, On a winter's day

I stopped into a Church, I passed along the way.

Well I got down on my knees, And pretended to pray

You know the preacher like the cold, He knows I'm gonna stay

California dreaming, On such a winter's day.

All the leaves are brown, And the sky is gray

I've been for a walk, On a winter's day

If I didn't tell her,I Could leave today

California dreaming, on a winters day......."