Thursday, February 24, 2011

special delivery


The torrential rainstorm that tore through Santa Barbara last weekend, brought with it the first tornado warning I've seen in 30 years of living here.

The morning after the storm, I awoke to bright blue skies and a rare Santa Barbara sight: mountains dusted with powdered sugar.

4 comments:

  1. Anitra,with all this talk about chocolate and mountains dusted with powdered sugar, it's no wonder why you're such a "sweet" lady.

    I've been to California many times. Landed in San Francisco and drove down to LA (caught a taping of TPIR)and ended up in San Diego. Santa Barbara appears to be real beautiful from your photos and someday again when I'm out there,I'll pass through and see it.

    I'm happy the tornado is gone and you now once again have great weather........Jonathan

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  2. Hi Jonathan,

    As always, it's nice to hear from you. Sounds like you've covered a lot of California ground. I'd like to know what era it was when you caught TPIR, and how seeing the taping compared to watching it on TV.

    As far as our weather, we are getting pummelled by rain. A big storm passing through that might bring snow as low as 500 ft. My daughter told me that it might even snow tonight on the Hollywood sign.

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  3. Anitra,wow! I can't imagine snow on the Hollywood sign. That's incredible!

    I caught TPIR in the late 70's. I remember being in a restaurant by the name of "Su Ling" on La Cienega Blvd. I ran into Johnny Olson and introduced myself. When he spoke,you could tell by the quality of his voice what an incredible announcer he was. He was really nice and invited me to "Come on Down" to a taping of the show. Well,yours truly ended up in the very first row right behind contestants row. The studio,stage,really everything looked exactly the same in person as on TV. The only real major difference was how close the cameras were on Bob Barker,the pricing games,etc. Right before taping,Dian Parkinson's sleeve somehow got entangled with Johnny Olson's watch. I also remember standing in line for about 4 hours and seeing the producer cracking all of us up on line.(I think it was Jay Wolpert at the time).He was real funny.

    Anitra,I was curious as to what you thought of Dennis James as the night time host?

    Jonathan

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  4. Hi Jonathan,

    So enjoyed your story about your TPIR experience. You painted such a clear picture of the way it was.

    Dennis James was a real pro and a kind, warm person. He only taped a few shows every six weeks or so, whereas Bob Barker taped every weekend and just swam through the show. I felt that Dennis never really got warmed up in that sense -- and because of that was at a disadvantage.

    Good to hear from you Jonathan, take care.

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