Encinitas Summer of '73

Two 14 and 15 year old Palm Springs natives plopped in the back of grandma's Crysler Imperial with daddy driving us to our summer condo in Encinitas. As always, our excitement was at a fever pitch. It was about 160 degrees in Palm Springs in July, so we were thrilled to get to Encinitas, specifically Moonlight beach—and what else? Boys! It was magical.

As soon as we got there, we unpacked our suitcases and donned our teeny bikinis and headed down to Moonlight Beach. Of course I was looking around to zero in on the local surfer boys. I was away from my mom and her very controlling boyfriend.....I was in heaven!

My younger girlfriend Heidi was still naive, toddling along trusting me to be her leader. After all, I had practically raised her. Her parents dumped her on her grandmother when she was 3.

Divorced, Heidi's mother had a brand new Ford Mustang with the letters "LADY OLE" peeled and stuck in black and gold on the top part of the drivers side. 'Stevie,' as she was called, had a much older sugar daddy and they lived in Rancho Mirage in the Thunderbird Country Club, and boy was that house awesome. The swimming pool came into the house, with electric glass sliding doors that would retract open or close. When closed, we would swim under it like little mermaids, and pop up inside "The Africa Room." It was an Architectural Digest worthy house, with rich imported black slate tile on the floor where the steps and entrance to the pool was indoors. Not a bad pad to play in when youre 13 years old!

Anyway, "Stevie" would lay out topless around the pool, and I will never forget her breasts, they were shaped sort of like bannanas. I admired her bravery and at the same time I wondered how in the world she could do something like that! So, apparently Stevie felt that her golf loving old sugar daddy was more important than her own daughter Heidi.....So sad.