Sunday, August 27, 2006
Cannibal Cows ... Good Times
Way back in the mid-80s I worked at Camp Redwood Glen, a summer camp/conference center in Scotts Valley, Calif. Late one summer night a couple of the cool staff bundled a bunch of soon-to-be-cool staff into a couple cars and drove us off to cool staff initiation: walking in the dark up a long road to an estate formerly owned by Alfred Hitchcock. Or so they said...
I mean, really, they could have said that just to spook us. It may have been Lawrence Welk's place for all we knew. But we dutifully hiked along, certain that at any moment one of the cool staff would jump out and say, "Boo!" (They never did.) At one point we passed some cows. "Cannibal Cows," someone said. Probably someone destined not to be cool no matter how many midnight hikes they took, as someone else -- was it me? -- said, "Then we have nothing to worry about; cannibal cows only eat other cows." If it wasn't me it was probably Lynette; she was snarky like that, too.
Eventually we reached the end of the road. Y'know that giant gate in Jurassic Park? There was a gate that felt about that big. We peeked through and saw a very big house.
Hitchcock's? I've always* wondered.
Last night I started reading Footsteps in the Fog: Alfred Hitchcock's San Francisco. In the introduction, mention is made of Hitch's S.V. estate. I found the section of the book dealing with it and sure enough, the estate was right where we went.
None of the photos looked familiar, but then again none were taken at one in the morning. Still, it's nice to know that we did in fact break a bunch of camp rules -- not to mention trespassing (private road) and defamation of livestock -- and hadn't been on an updated version of a snipe hunt.
<sigh> Good times.
*Well, not always, as I probably would've Googled it by now.
I mean, really, they could have said that just to spook us. It may have been Lawrence Welk's place for all we knew. But we dutifully hiked along, certain that at any moment one of the cool staff would jump out and say, "Boo!" (They never did.) At one point we passed some cows. "Cannibal Cows," someone said. Probably someone destined not to be cool no matter how many midnight hikes they took, as someone else -- was it me? -- said, "Then we have nothing to worry about; cannibal cows only eat other cows." If it wasn't me it was probably Lynette; she was snarky like that, too.
Eventually we reached the end of the road. Y'know that giant gate in Jurassic Park? There was a gate that felt about that big. We peeked through and saw a very big house.
Hitchcock's? I've always* wondered.
Last night I started reading Footsteps in the Fog: Alfred Hitchcock's San Francisco. In the introduction, mention is made of Hitch's S.V. estate. I found the section of the book dealing with it and sure enough, the estate was right where we went.
None of the photos looked familiar, but then again none were taken at one in the morning. Still, it's nice to know that we did in fact break a bunch of camp rules -- not to mention trespassing (private road) and defamation of livestock -- and hadn't been on an updated version of a snipe hunt.
<sigh> Good times.
*Well, not always, as I probably would've Googled it by now.
Mikesell
