HIGHLAND PARK

HIGHLAND PARK

.....is in the N.E. quadrant of L.A. N. of downtown,

b4 you get 2 Pasadena.  I lived there in the 70's.

I use to hangout @ a place called the Copper Witch Antiques on York Blvd.  It was a antique/second hand store.  It was run by  Ed Dudley and his brother.  His brother had half the place and called it Tall Corn.

They fought constantly over the smallest thing.

Ed would buy estates.  Especially oak furniture.

He would break them down and strip them in a vat full of paint remover.  He would then sell them @ the Pasadena Flea Market.  He did so well he 

bought properties on Mt. Washington.

Greed bit him in the butt.  The fumes from the chemicals burned his lunges.  In his 30's his face looked like a road map.  Capillaries didn't get much oxygen.  I think it compromised his immune system.

I've Googled his name but got nothing.  I'm pretty sure he is gone by now.

It became the center for social gravity for the local hippy scene.  I stayed there after returning from Europe in 81.  Another artist, Tony Mafia an American Indian also stayed there for awhile.  Tony is collected by the Louvre in Paris France.

So now I'm in L.A.  I had looked for the place the last time I was here but couldn't locate it.  Gonna' try again.  I drive down York Blvd. (I called him the Duke of York) I located the post ofc that it was next to.  Walla, there it was.  There was a parking place in front.  I parked and got out.  On the front of the Bldg. it said;

NAMASTE' HIGHLAND PARK

Namaste' translates into;

I recognize the God within you.

I had to go in and talk to them.  They were having a yoga session so I returned later.

I did.  It was a yoga studio. A woman named Sondra
Young was there (She just works there.  Vanda is the owner)

 Serendipity 

Sondra

We had a good conversation.  She was interested in the history of the place.  I eventually sent her old photos of the place and told her the story

NAMASTE"