Valley (April A2Z ~ Misty Memories)

Me, in Burbank around 1983

Welcome to my April A2Z posts! This time, I am officially signed up on the challenge sheet and will be visiting other bloggers on the list. My theme is "misty memories," which will include a bunch of rambling about old stuff in my life, and hopefully some of it will be accurate, but if not, there's no one around to contradict me. Today we continue with V for Valley.

When my parents and I moved to Southern California in 1983, we settled in Burbank. We spent a month in a hotel until our place was ready, and that was fun. Though Burbank has often been the butt of jokes, it is (or was) a perfectly nice suburban area, not too far from all the cool things to do around Los Angeles. Burbank is on the southeastern edge of the San Fernando Valley, and so just like that I became a “Valley Girl.” Totally! I liked the townhouse my parents bought, and I loved my little sky blue Renault Alliance, which was their bribe to join them.

Reader, I would have moved without the bribe.

My first priority was to hang out at the Sherman Oaks Galleria, and it did not disappoint. As in the movies, it was loud and bright and full of bitchin' stores with a zillion cute things to buy. I liked to get a slice of pizza and a soda and sit in the food court and people-watch. Eventually, I found all the other malls, but the Galleria was by far the best one.

I had a variety of jobs after we moved and before I returned to college: computer tape librarian at Avery Label in Pasadena, insurance admin at a family owned agency close to home, secretary to a group of weird psychological testers in Los Angeles, and finally assistant to a pension plan designer (also in Burbank). That guy was so mean to me that I decided to quit work and finish my degree at CSUN. (I was lucky in that my dad had always been willing to start paying for my education again.) I ended up getting married and starting a family before I embarked on a career, which is not ideal. But here we are!

These days, I don’t go to the Valley much. My youngest daughter and her children live in LA, which is already a big trek, plus I don’t have a reason to go “over the hill.” The last time I went was several years ago to attend a birthday party at her in-laws house.