Day 33

After graduating from high school, working for a summer waitressing in New Hampshire I headed to Pasadena Playhouse. My late Aunt Mary, subsidized the cost and I was grateful but was truly flummoxed about how to fit into a family. The Playhouse was generally a great experience and I made lifelong friends including Frederick C. Jackson and Barbara Stellman. The playhouse had a strict dress code. We needed to wear heels and stockings every day. Most of the guys were gay-became friends-and the straight ones were very competitive. I began dating a cutie named Bo-kind of a first romance until he left me for Karen who got pregnant. My roommate was Penny and she soon began to sleep with lots of guys. Her parents were very strict fundamentalists and when she got pregnant knew that would be the end of her time in Pasadena. Somehow she found an abortionist who arrived with what looked like a bottle and screwdriver. I don't remember much more about this but Penny was soon gone. 

The Rose Parade was coming up and a group of us snuck out to secure a place for the parade. Unfortunately, a prowler was in our dorm and the dorm mother discovered that we were missing. Next day 5 of us were expelled and the school protested. We were reinstated but that was it and several of us soon moved to Hollywood. By this time I had rarely seen my Aunt Mary who wrote me a really angry letter. Later she apologized understanding that I had no idea what family meant having been virtually on my own forever. We made peace.

Hollywood was fun, Fred left Pasadena too and we lived in the same apartment. Days were spent at several jobs, and seeing the city. I got my first cat Sabina and decided to go back to NY. I wrote my father for money for a ticket and he refused. Somehow I sent my clothes back east and basically had a shorty nightgown. Anyway,  got to NY with a cat and no Idea. Somehow, a new day began I roomed with 2 girls Fred (who moved to New York) found  and  we were OK, but struggling.. Hence the headshot... this story is a bit convoluted by time passed.. however it is a miracle that I survived with humor and enough intelligence to make good friends one of whom became a Pulitzer Prize winning author---I was courageous and sad- people said that my eyes looked like an opened wound--they were but nevertheless the spirit persisted.

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