A GREAT DEVIATION

I went back home after my morning shift and just  sat down in a chair on the front porch.  The marine layer had not made it that far.  From the  base of the San Gabriel mountains all the way South to Down town Glendale was all down hill, and then leveled off to a very subtle loss in altitude as you travelled all the way to the beach. All of the material in the steep downhill part was an alleuvial plain ( I think)  and basically was all the material that had washed down from the San Gabriels over the millinea. My house was at about 1100 feet above sea level where as downtown Glendale was about 600 ft elevation. A few times, the marine layer gave up and dissipated somewhere between the mountain base and downtown Glendale.  While I am on this subject, I must tell you about a contest between a group of boys at Glendale High.  This was a coasting contest to see who and whose car could coast the furthest from La Crescent Blvd. and Verdugo Rd.  up in the higher lands and coast all the way to Glendale.  The route was laid out and it was all downhill until about Glendale College where you prayed you had played your cards right on the down hill part, which mainly meant if you wanted to go far, no brakes!   The rules made sure every base was covered including a guest rider to make sure you did not use your engine.  This contest was always held at 2 A.M. when traffic was nil and the cops were usually having coffee and gabbing....or sleeping!   We used Canada Ave as Verdugo was twisty.  But  Canada though straight downhill,  had stop lights....which we ignored.  The driver and car was allowed to accelerate off starting point to a spot about fifty feet down the road where the ignition was turned off.  One night when we started this, we painted a little marker on the street where the engine was turned off and we even had a person stand at this marker to stem cheating.  There was a nice big bush right at the marker so we could hide, if necessary.  Of course, the guys with hot engines got the best of the deal at the start.  But, hot engines did no good after the fifty foot marker. Then, it was a matter of air resistance and properly inflated tires.  To show how competitive this was, one kid removed his front windshield and rear window.  We had a big argument about whether adding weight to the car would help.  Some believed extra weight would help with the momentum generated at take off while others argued that extra weight would slow the car's take off.  We all agreed on highly inflated tires until one kid blew a tire and did not do very well!   This went on for months until the fuzz got wind of it and it all came to a close.  I had a 40 chevy sedan and had the second longes distance.  I coasted all the way to Doran.  The winner went about three blocks further.  Now, you see this was a deviation, but the point is that thinking and eliminating all the far fetched ideas leaves just a little pile of possibilities and less to choose from.  Jeanette had to be going to school in a car and the liklihood of it being Mary J's family car was very strong.  Now, I had to find what Mary's family car looked like.  That is my next step.  (to be continued)