Audrey & Garrett on Willow Drive, Glendale, CA

 

This is certainly not the best picture I have, or maybe any member of the family has, of Audrey and Garrett's beautiful Spanish style Moorish home at 1726 Willow Drive in Glendale.  Gary passed in September 1985 at age 82; a year later, Audrey passed in April 1986 at age 78.  Their home was sold a year later in 1987.  I'd left UPS in 1986 and returned to school, starting at PCC.  It is funny about life.  Once you're out of a town or out of a circle of people, people forget about you.  But once you're in a new town, plant yourself into a new circle of folks, people want to start up with you, even start a life with you.  It is interesting. 

I wanted to write something about Audrey and Gary and their gorgeous home in Glendale, and how each was a gracious host to my dad, mom, and siblings.  

So many things to love about Audrey & Gary's home on Willow.  One, there was a basketball hoop with backboard nailed to a telephone pole at the north end of her street, and Tom, Joe, and I would regularly go down to it and shoot hoops.  Another was Audrey's basement.  It was the only basement I knew until one year while in Denver we visited our Aunt Geraldine on Dahlia Street.  She had a basement.  But Audrey & Gary's was the first one that I'd known.  Or maybe not.  The Solana Beach beach house also had a basement with a shower where we'd shower each time we walked home from the beach and sand.  Besides the basement and the end-of-street hoop, we also played in the park behind Audrey's home, called Glorietta Tennis Park. 

I can't recall what Audrey's favorite drink was, but I believe that Gary's drink was gin and tonic.  But one indelible memory at Audrey's gorgeous home was that how she prepared a halibut dinner for everybody.  I will never forget the heavenly smell of baked halibut.  Halibut was my mom's favorite fish, and I found out why.  It was delicious.  With the tartar sauce, it was pure refinement at a young age.  

This was inspired by a post that my brother, Joe, put up on Facebook.  A question came up about our cousin, Dorothy, who was a beauty queen.  Here is a picture of her from 1936: 

One surprising response came from Larry Cusack, a cousin of ours.  He wrote 

Dorthey Mulligan was my Mother. John, Audrey, Bill, (Patricia's dad) Jim and Joe were her siblings. Margret and John Mulligan were her parents. She was the Queen of the Santa Fe Railroad float in the Rose Parade sometime during the middle 30's. All four of the brothers served in WWII. Bill got stuck in the Aleutians. John served on an oil tanker in the So. Pacific. Joe saw combat in the Philippines. While stationed in Kansas, Jim was hit by a bus coming out of a bar. He spent the duration of the war in traction and rehab. My Grand Mother said he was the only one she didn't have to worry about. She knew where he was and that he was being taken care of. 

I love this photo of Audrey and Dorothy, 1932:  

From immediate family members on November 4, 2020, I solicited their affectionate memories of Audrey and Gary's place on Willow.  Dan replied that very afternoon:

A few of my memories are:  The huge trees in the front and back yard that provided so much shade.  The one in front was the Christmas pine like the ones on Christmas tree lane in Altadena.  The one in the backyard was an avocado, I believe.  The old garage.

Watching baseball games, because that is what Gary liked to watch.  The layout of the "spanish style" house.  The steps on their back porch, which was how we usually entered their house.  Saying "hi" to Joe, whenever he was around.  Gathering with the Mulligan families - David, Patti, Larry and his 1st wife Judy, Danny and his Amber (? not sure), Dorothy and Clyde, Bill and Margaret.  Listening to Dad, Audrey and Gary (aka Gae Gae) chatter on about nothing of interest to us kids.  Dad and Audrey really seem to be best friends of all his cousins.  She was the easiest to engage in good conversation.  That is about all I can remember for now.  Dan 

Dan nailed a lot of the great memories of Audrey & Gary's home and their house.  One memory I will never forget, in part because Mom put such a positive stamp on it, was when Audrey placed a score of Van de Kamp's halibut fillets in the oven and it infused her entire home with home goodness.  The idea of fish and tartar sauce, maybe chips, was one memory seared in my mind indelibly.  To this day, the associated comfort of her home was punctuated by the slow-cooked fragrance of baked fish without the unpleasant aroma.  

Mary replied shortly thereafter:

Yes, I do.  I was just thinking about them the other day. . . .  Thanks, this is a real treasure.  Mary. 

But it was by phone that Mary shared the details of her years at Audrey's.  

I recall the koi pond in the northeast corner of Audrey's backyard.  Audrey bought me 3 multi-colored, polka dot dresses when I was 12. Oh, and she bought me shiny black dress shoes. She poured on the blessings.  You know I had to go to church then.

One thing, among many things, that I liked about Gary was that he watched TV frequently in his den, where he kept TV trays to eat on while watching a ball game or a fight.  

In his den, he had a painting of wild horses running in a storm.  I don't know the name of the print or who painted it, which has made finding it online difficult.  The painting gave me such comfort.  

Gary had a recliner in the den in the southwest corner of that room.  He let me sit in it, while he sat on the love seat on the right side of the room.  I will never forget watching the Final Four of the NCAA Tournament game with Louisville's Jim Price, the highest-scoring guard on the team, where they played and lost to UCLA, 96-77.  I loved Louisville because of Jim Price.  Denny Crum, their head coach, had a good name, too, back then.  I'd forgotten that Wes Unseld, former Baltimore Bullets player, played his college ball at Louisville.  

The other thing that I loved about Audrey's place was the Formica bar top that folded down from the wall with small inlaid shelves.  On those shelves, she had tiny porcelain animal figurines, like turtledoves, playful cats with long, curling tails, and so forth.  Always nice to see someone add beauty wherever.  And who can forget her exclusive alcove with desk?  Wonderful.