GLENDALE WITH BLYTHE....STORIES

1982,,,Glendale, California.....The radical change of Glendale was already in progress.  The phone book was already four times thicker than it was ago.  A large number of immigrants from Armenia had moved there and brought their money with them.  The first hints of big business were manifest in an ever growing number of tall office buildings downtown.  The Pacific Electric Rail Cars were gone.  Even the beautiful Verdugo Hills were being raped by terraced lots and big homes....climbing higher up the hills every day.  I told Blythe that I wanted her to select the place where we would stay a few days.  I always felt better having a place nailed down.  We found the old Glendale Hotel was still in business....We looked at a few rooms and decided they were way passed their hay day and we passed on that one.  I then remembered the May Lane Motel up on the corner of Foothill and La Crescenta.  It was a landmark of sorts and even a few movies had been filmed there.  We drove up and it was still there.  We parked next to the office and no one was in sight.  No cars in the parking places.  A yard sprinkler was on and throwing water over the very green grass.  There were little pin wheels stuck in the ground and they twirled when a breeze came their way.  There was a profusion of flowers everywhere.....Yellow flowered Hibiscus, Camelias....It reminded me of some one's hobby..just own a Motel and flavor it to the owner's delight. We decided to sit in a lawn swing and just enjoy relaxing....We were facing  South towards Glendale and Los Angeles....it was downhill all the way...sloping down from the base of the San Gabriel Mountains to where it leveled off quite abit around Glendale College.  There was a draw between where the Verdugo Hills met the ground and the smaller San Raphael Hills which ran North to South.  A cool Sea breeze  was blowing up the draw and we could see the gray Pacific fog way down there..moving in for the evening blanket over us.  A sudden breeze sent the windmills into a happy moment of fluttering their little "wings".....A waft of the Roses planted along the front of the lawn....A humming bird stopped in mid air right in front of us and his wings gave us a little buzzing concert..and then he was gone.   Blythe said:  "This place is pure magic..I sure hope the rooms are decent"   Then, the land lady sent us a hello from the office.  We waved and walked to her.  She showed us a room in back and it was, in its way, what the grounds were in their way.   Old, but maintained,  sinks and plumbing probably original, but they worked and were shiny from cleaning.  There were the most beautiful pictures on the walls.....many faces, and still lifes.....We said we would take it and would be staying for maybe five days.  We went to the office and I signed the paper work and paid her.  She told us something about May Lane.  Her Father built it in 1940 and it had remained in the family all this time.  She said she was not aggresive in renting out as she kept it more to keep a memory alive than to make it pay for itself.  She also told us that there were visitors who sometimes strolled across the lawn at night and faded away.  "There is a rumor that the place is haunted and the frightening stories have been around for forty years and the curiosity renters often leave in the middle of the night.  I guess it was too convincing for them"   Neither Blythe nor I was particularly afraid of ghosts simply because neither of us believed in them, so we took it with a grain of salt.  The lady said that "No one has ever been harmed here and these apparitions are very friendly....just wanting to visit places in their memories like many of us do.   They do not intrude into the living spaces, but several reports on them peeking in the windows late at night.....don't worry, there are nice curtains on the windows."   Blythe and I looked at each other and said....."This is our bag"    (to be continued)