For days, Dan had been wondering what happened to his boyhood home at 732
Greentree Road in the Rustic Canyon neighborhood of Pacific Palisades. And
whether Camp Josepho, where he'd had so many wonderful experiences as a young boy, was still standing.
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| April 16, 2016 |
In the summer of 2016, Dan drove to Los Angeles with his son, Craig, and grandsons Taylor, Noah, and Beau to visit the Greentree house, the lodge at Camp Josepho, and his elementary school. It was a rare outing to places where Grandpa had lived and gone to school when he was closer to their age. We were thrilled earlier today to discover the house survived (ca.gov/fires), just south of the perimeter of the Palisades fire. A high hill separates Greentree like a geographic shield from busy Sunset Boulevard, where the flames were contained. Unfortunately, Camp Josepho was lost in the apocalyptic tragedy the world has been witnessing in West Los Angeles this past week. The images on TV and online have brought back so many memories, not just for Dan, but likely for thousands of Boy Scouts and former Scouts who spent their formative years at the Camp and its two other camps in Catalina and Sequoia.
It was 1944 when Dan's parents, Marcy and Duane, packed up two young toddlers, along with blankets, towels, and toys, after a day at the beach near Sunset Boulevard. They had learned about a lot for sale in nearby Rustic Canyon, a largely undeveloped area of Pacific Palisades. By the time the young couple surveyed the empty land and returned home to their apartment near Duane's parents in central LA, they'd decided to buy the vacant plot which had served as polo fields at one time, and build a house for their young family.
For the next three years, Dan recalls many weekends playing with his brothers all day long at Greentree while his dad dug giant holes to plant the saplings that would grow into mature trees for shade and food. There were pine trees, a redwood, magnolias, avocado trees, and a variety of fruit trees. Duane bent over his desk at night to draw the floor plans for the house. Eventually, he contracted with a builder, and construction started. In 1947, with a newborn baby, Sanderson, and brothers Dan and Tom, the family moved into their new home on Greentree, bringing the Rustic Canyon neighborhood to a total of thirteen houses.
I met Dan at a New Year's Eve party in 1985, and can remember a story he told me when we were dating, about his childhood "growing up in the boonies." Months after we were married, he drove me past his boyhood home. There was no evidence of the hardscrabble life I'd pictured. He did attend a two-room elementary school with two portable buildings for extra classrooms, and his graduating class was 19 students. Canyon was the second-oldest grade school in Los Angeles. And he rode his bike seven miles to junior high school in Santa Monica, before Paul Revere opened in the Palisades. He also graduated from University High in West LA, before Palisades High was erected. Putting aside the lack of schools nearby, the family was obviously in excellent company. Early settlers included Governor Earl Warren, who'd become Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, actors Robert Mitchum, James Whitmore, Johnny Weissmuller (Tarzan), and James Arness (Matt Dillon on Gunsmoke), who lived in a house around the corner. There was a bit of mischief, too. Johnny Weissmuller Jr. gave Dan a bloody nose on his first day of school at Canyon! But on the other hand, Robert Mitchum asked Duane if Dan might audition for a film titled "The Kid in Left Field.". It never happened, but the gesture remains a topic of family lore, along with the Sepulveda family who were early settlers in Los Angeles on his mom's side of the family.
One might think the celebrities had a big impact on Dan growing up in the Palisades. But they would be wrong. It was Camp Josepho, the Boy Scout camp and its sister camps, which led to endless outdoor activities, achievements, adventures, jobs, and memories for Dan and his brothers. They attended events and Order of the Arrow banquets at the Josepho, its enclave of buildings and recreation areas tucked in the Santa Monica Mountains, an urban range of forest about three miles from Will Rogers State Park on Sunset, which burned in the fires as well. When Dan turned eleven, his dad established the Boy Scout troupe he and his brothers would attend. Duane led it for the first five years, introducing his sons to a whole world of wilderness training and exploration. There were frequent weekend camping trips and weeklong Boy Scout camps at Emerald Bay on Catalina Island, and Wolverton in Sequoia National Park. At fourteen, Dan was the youngest ever staff member to accept a position at Wolverton where he would work for six weeks every summer the next three years. The staff of young recruits led their Boy Scout charges and a train of stubborn burros, food and camping supplies loaded on their backs, along mountain trails to the camp. The eager youngsters backpacked their own gear for a full week of hiking to lakes and sleeping overnight in the backcountry, just as Dan had done as a young Scout.
Dan's early experiences with outdoor adventures in nature spilled over to his son, Craig, and his daughter, Laura. He enrolled Craig as a young boy in Indian Guides, an organization similar to Boy Scouts. Every June after Craig joined the Pawnee Tribe in Manhattan Beach, the three of them traveled from San Pedro Harbor with other Pawnee dads and kids to a camp on Catalina Island where they celebrated Fathers Day weekend. Dan and Craig, and the grandkids have continued the tradition.
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| Emerald Bay Boy Scout Camp on Catalina |
Like salmon swimming upstream, he led us through the forest, along trails buried beneath the snow. Steep declines and ascents stretched over seven miles of wet, sometimes crunchy terrain to Heather, Aster, and Emerald Lakes where Boy Scouts had hiked and camped for decades. After trodding seven miles back to our car, I had to admit, the excursion was exhilarating, but exhausting. For Dan, it was so much more. Magical moments and memories surfaced as he scanned the winter landscape and recapped details of dozens of previous journeys. It had been twenty-five years since he'd made a trip to Wolverton. It was the summer after he'd graduated from college. He'd volunteered to be the chaperone for a group of Boy Scouts who needed an adult to accompany them on their weeklong summer camp.
Why not? Dan didn't hesitate. It was another opportunity for another chapter in the wilderness, just as we'd experienced together that Halloween day.
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