This week I’ve been spending some time reminiscing.  Several close friends have recently been diagnosed with terminal illnesses, and I’ve been sharing with them my recollections of our happy times together.  I appreciate how precious those memories are, and I’d like to think it cheers up my friends to remember them.

So here are some of my own recollections I’d like to share with you.

Does anyone remember Art Linkletter?  He hosted a TV show called House Party.  One popular segment of the show that aired on CBS from 1952 until 1970 was “Kids Say the Darndest Things”.  I was one of those kids. Art often gave children a big word to use to see what they would make of it.  I wish I could remember the word he gave me. When I look back as an adult – I remember it sounded like masturbate, but I know that wasn’t it.  I do remember the audience laughing.

That wasn’t my only childhood TV appearance.  My father played French Horn with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra.  They broadcast a live program for children every weekend, and during intermission they conducted a musical quiz for kids.

I was chosen to participate in the quiz, most likely because of my dad.  I still remember one of the words I learned in preparation for the quiz – impresario.   When they asked what the leader of the orchestra was called, I showed off my newfound knowledge and confidently answered, “Impresario.”  I had overlooked the simple and correct answer, which was conductor, in favor of something incorrect and more arcane.

Today I stay with simple.

I remember when my brother David and I used to race our bikes through the hillside neighborhood we lived in.  If any of my kids sped down steep streets like I did then, I would confiscate their bikes immediately.

I also remember my dad in his late 50’s telling me that because several of his friends had died, he planned to make new friends who were twenty years younger so that he wouldn’t outlast them.  That turned out to be a very good idea because he lived to be 104.

When I founded ACF Property Management, Inc. on March 1, 1968, I never thought for a moment that I would still be sitting at my desk fifty-four years later.  I also still don’t quite believe that I’ve been married four times and have six biological children.  Holy moly!

As they say, life is what happens while you’re making plans.

I’m still making plans, and new memories in the process, so I must still be alive.  Daveen tells me she expects at least another twenty years out of me.

Holy guacamole!

Alan

OMG.  I’ve attended two parties in the past two weeks – parties at which many guests seemed to have forgotten their masks.  Both gatherings were indoors/outdoors, and at each one, I chose a table open to the wind.

I had forgotten how much fun a party can be.

In March of 2020 I was ready to host a retirement party for Cathy, ACF’s excellent general manager.  On the Tuesday before the Saturday event, it became clear to me that we would have to postpone.  No one was happy about it.  Cathy had been a beloved employee for many years and deserved a festive sendoff.  As it turns out, we cancelled one day before the deluge began.  The very next day the National Basketball Association modified its entire season to accommodate COVID 19 and soon after that the entire country went into lockdown.

But we humans are inherently flexible.  During the past 29 months most of us have adjusted to COVID.  Today I enjoy working from home two days a week, as do many others.

Even though COVID is still with us, people are getting out and about.  From what I’ve read, travel related companies, notably including airlines, are scrambling to meet the high demand.

As a general policy, I refuse to worry about a future I can’t do anything about.  This started in the 1940’s, when for a few years I worried about a nuclear bomb bursting into a mushroom cloud over Los Angeles at any given moment.  I finally calmed myself by realizing my energy was better directed to problems I could do something about, and not those potential events entirely beyond my control.

I will continue to take precautions in response to COVID.  I will mask in public, remain ten feet away from people I talk to in the office, and continue to enjoy more solitary pursuits such as reading and watching sports on TV.

What I will not do is retreat from the world.  There might be fewer parties to attend, but that is the best reason I know to enjoy each one even more.

And yet, we must remain careful.  Daveen attended a wedding last Saturday evening.  The post-wedding brunch was cancelled because on Sunday morning the groom tested positive for COVID.

Perhaps the new rule in life is to have fun – but at a respectful distance.

Alan

That’s an impressive anniversary.  It wasn’t mine, though hopefully it will be in about another twenty years.

As a freshman at the University of Southern California in 1957, I met fellow students Joe and Barbara.  He became the Editor in Chief of the Daily Trojan, and Barbara followed him in the same role.  Both enjoyed long, successful careers in journalism, and Joe, now in his early 80’s, still teaches at USC.  This past weekend we attended their 60^th anniversary celebration.

Because of Covid, Daveen and I haven’t appeared at many parties during the past 30 months, but this was one we didn’t want to miss (and our table was partly outside which gave us some comfort).

Sixty years.  As the universe turns, that’s almost nothing.  But for a human lifespan, it’s significant – perhaps 75%.

I value long term relationships.  A new relationship is often fun and exciting, but a relationship of more than half a century has survived the biggest hurdle – the test of time.

This past week we’ve been celebrating long standing relationships.  Daveen and I visited Jill, who now lives in Oregon.  She and I lived together about fifty years ago.  We also connected with John, who was my first real estate investor in the 1970’s.  Nancy and I have been working on writing projects together since we met in a poetry class in the early 1990’s.  Several ACF employees have worked with me for more than thirty years.

Life is like a stream emerging from the mountain tops, flowing to the ocean, accumulating the strength and warmth of friendships along the way, and it is these friendships that provide our lives with connection and meaning.

To Joe and Barbara – I wish you a happy 61^st year.

I hope to continue enjoying our shared journey for many years to come.

Love,

Alan