Ten More Childhood Vignettes II
Ten More Childhood Vignettes II - In other words, using Sora AI (with all its many limitations) to bring to cinematic life things I actually did as a kid. Sora doesn't let me put my features into these - so you get a bunch of different-looking kids. All of these took place in Burbank, California.
1. 1965, Trains in the Night. I recall my first night in Burbank. As I lay in bed almost asleepo I heard the sound of a far-off (two blocks away) freight train, and thought to myself, "I'm going to find that railroad track tomorrow!" I did, and it became a favortie haunt in those early days. A somewhat dangerous haunt, but a haunt.
2. 1965, Power off! Like Ringo Starr in Yellow Submarine I am a born lever-puller - who later became an engineer. There were a bank of levers behind a commercial block of businesses down the block from where I lived, and one day, on a perverse whim, I pulled them all and clambered atop the roof to watch what happened next. (Corner of Lincoln St. and Victory Blvd. in Burbank, where Leslie's Pool Mart is now.)
3. 1970, Wind storm. We bought a cheap tin lantern at the Akron and affixed it to the outside of what we called the Den. On windy nights it occasionally howled like an owl. The first time it did this Dad and I - watching late night TV - looked at each other in surprise.
4. 1965, Wind storm commentary. Guest-starring the petite blonde my age across the street, Viki. In December 1965 we had a dramatic night of big wind storms, which blew one of our shutters off the front of the house. I recall talking about it with Viki in the middle of the street; it scared her. And me, a little. It blew our stuffed Santa off our fake chimney.
5. 1967, Diane, the isolation breaker. My 5th and 6th grade teacher, Miss Johnson, once angrily disapproved of one of the many things I did and told me to sit at a library table all by myself as punishment. It was humiliating. But then, when she left the room, Diane Manley came and sat at the table with me. She gave me a quick smile, and I was smitten by this generous act. I've hoped to see her at high school reunions but she never attended one. (Sora has it wrong - we didn't say anything and simply sat down kitty-corner from me, not next to me. I can't seem to get Sora to represent this.)
6. 1968 Shopping cart ride. Viki again. I had Sora represent this in an earlier video, but there's a new storyboard feature I used this time. We were twelve.
7. 1968 Up a tree. I had a favorite tree at Vickroy Park I used to like to climb, and I did carve my name into the seat-like branch where I perched myself. It was a good spot as I could see the entire neighborhood. The tree is sadly gone. I couldn't get Sora to understand that I was about thirty feet up, not thirty stories. It got my wardrobe correct, though: white tee shirt, jeans and black knock-off Converse high-tops.
8. 1968, Buena Vista Tunnel. When Richard Springer and I were in our Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn days as twelve year-olds we lit newspaper torches and ventured into the Lockheed Wash up Lincoln Street from where we lived. This was near where I played near the railroad tracks. It led under Buena Vista St. to daylight the other side of the street. (By the way, Buena Vista Street in Burbank is where Disney is located and provides names for many of the company's business ventures.)
9. 1970 Car emergency. I was fourteen. My father and I were in his Karmann-Ghia heading down some avenue in the San Fernando Valley when I saw a silver Porsche 356 take a right turn too hard; the door opened and a passenger flew out! I yelled at Dad to make a U-turn to go back to help, but when we did there was no trace of a Porsche, a battered passenger on the road or anything else. It was very weird, and to this day I don't know if I actually saw this or hallucinated it.
10. 1970, Christmas lights. This was another use of Sora's storyboard feature. In 1970 I got the idea to line the roof of the house in red-only Christmas lights; I was so proud of the finished product that I took a photo (scroll down). And yes, I did damage the roof. My parents were entirely too trusting!