“California Dreaming” The Mamas and the Papas
Chapter 7 - In the Valley of the Sun
Dave’s mom was at the house when we arrived. The house was a modest
ranch in a neighborhood made up of modest ranch houses built on slabs.
Basements were not at all common as they were back in the east. We
unloaded the trailer, the car, and unpacked the wet gear left exposed to
the elements in the trailer. I rolled the bike behind the house and
locked it up.
Dave’s mom had a simple dinner waiting for us. I took a hot shower and
changed into some dry clothes. All of us had bags of dirty clothes
accumulated on the trip, so we started cycling them through the washer.
I was content to lie on the floor and watch TV, going on the nod from
the warmth after dinner and a couple of cold beers. Riding out on the
highway in the cold rain was now just a distant memory. Dave and his mom
chatted and caught up, she was glad to have her boy home from the Army.
She wanted to know about us, his friends, and how we chose the school we
were going to attend. She wanted an answer to the age-old question that
all mothers ask: what are you going to do now, with your future and the
rest of your life? How long are you home for? What are you going to do
while you’re here? I fell asleep listening to them talk. I woke to find
Dave standing over me and nudging my foot. “Come on,” he said with a
smile, “I’ll show you where a bed is.”
The next morning was sunny and warm. After coffee, we returned the
trailer to a U-Haul outlet, and then Dave gave us a tour of the area. We
saw downtown, Mesa, Tempe, Scottsdale, and many of the local sites
around each. We drove up to South Mountain; the overlook at the top gave
us an incredible view of Phoenix and the surrounding environs. Dave
identified points of interest from this high vantage point. “We’ll come
up here at night,” he said. “Wait until you see that.” We headed back
into Phoenix and met some of Dave’s friends at a local pizza joint for
dinner.
While we were at Dave's he took us through his
extensive collection of music, albums and tapes. He was the first person
who really turned me on to Frank Zappa. He was lyrical about Zappa's
musicianship, his attitude, his sense of humor. I really did enjoy it,
and it was fun to have this insight into Dave's charachter.
We saw a lot of Dave’s friends, as many as were around. We went to clubs
with some, and we visited at houses and parks; they were good people
all. But one thing was becoming clear; people had moved on with their
lives, everything in Phoenix was a little different from the youth and
life that Dave had left behind him some three years ago. Dave had
changed in those three years in the Army, just as Gerry and I had. I
think we all felt the temporary nature of our situation. In a few
months, we would all be going our own way, forging a new and different
path for ourselves, making new friends in an old environment. We all had
the big questions in front of us: what to do for a career, where to
live, how should we approach the shaping of our lives in this period
following the Army? That seemed to be just over the horizon of our
future. Right now, we were content to live together in the context of
our present adventure. All things would come in their own time.
This was a wonderful time of relaxation and relief. It was good to be in
such a friendly environment with no restrictions; it was wonderful to be
out of the Army. One day I took the bike to a local Honda dealer and had
the oil changed. When they were finished, I cruised around the canyon
roads leading up out of the valley. The weather was beautiful, and the
mountain scenery compelling. Later, we made that trip up to South
Mountain at night; the view was every bit as breathtaking as Dave had
described. Dave pointed to a ribbon of light heading out away from the
valley below. “That’s the 10,” he said. “That’s the highway to Los
Angeles.”
“Los Angeles,” I said softly. What had started out as a dream was now a
day’s ride away up through the desert and down to the coast. It was time
to get ready.
We had enjoyed a fine week in the Valley of the Sun, but Los Angeles and
Hollywood beckoned us on, and we were eager to begin that part of our
adventure. We spent two days pouring over maps and reading the LA papers
to get an idea about apartments and rents, and to learn the lay of the
land. Dave got the phone number of an old friend who now lived and
worked near downtown Los Angeles; we arranged to contact him when we
arrived there.
The forecast for the morrow was perfect: clear, warm and windless. This
was it, we would go early in the morning and, if all things went well,
we would have a place in LA tomorrow night.