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24 Beverly Hills Gothic
WITH BIRDENE
After graduating from John Burroughs Junior High School, my father sent me away to La Rew School, a boarding school for girls in Azusa, and for three years I hardly ever saw my mother. We wrote to each other, but many of my mom’s letters were full of bitterness and accusations, saying I didn’t love her or I would have been able to get my father to “come home.” Occasionally, one of her boyfriends drove her out to visit me.
I don’t know how she got along, but I think she received a small amount of alimony. I know she sold special gold-toned pins she fashioned to form girls’ names and then analyzed handwriting on the Ocean Park pier. It saddened me to realize that she once had a beautiful home and status and had been reduced to working at the pier.
However, there was one memorable summer when my father allowed me to stay with my mother. He didn’t know she had rented out half the two- bedroom, two-bath apartment to a gay couple. The men were friendly, and as far as I was concerned, it was fine. My mom and I got along really well with them. The problem was, after that summer, instead of returning me to La Rew School, she enrolled me in Fairfax High School.