Fifty-year friendships renewed at Park La Brea reunion
REUNION GROUP outside one of the Park La Brea towers where they lived: (from left) Michael Carrillo, Craig Little, Mark Stevens, Charles Holloway, Kevin Howe, Rob Kaplan, and Kelly Howe (missing, Miguel Dilella and Clay Redwood).
Back in the halcyon days of kids having unlimited freedom to hop on bikes and explore the world, a group of boys living in Park La Brea bonded for life. They stayed in touch through marriages and moves, but it wasn’t until last summer that nine of the original 12 or so friends (and a few wives) returned to their home turf for a reunion.
“Most of us grew up together in Park La Brea in the ‘60s, ‘70s, ‘80s, and beyond,” said Kevin Howe, one of the ringleaders of the self-described band of brothers. In fact, his parents were living there when he and his younger brother Kelly Howe were born, and so was his grandmother. Rob Kaplan, another friend from the group, was a playmate of Kevin’s when he was still in a crib. The others moved in later.
SUPER BOWL SUNDAY football group, circa 1970s, Chris Smith with two photos from past friend games (in front); (second row, from left) Craig Little, Kevin Howe, and Chris Ryan; (back row, from left) Michael Carrillo, Steve Carrillo, Rob Kaplan, and Fran Anderson.
Kevin Howe organized the July 31 reunion, but the idea was suggested by Charles Holloway, who now lives in Atlanta. A fan of Blues guitarist Joe Bonamassa, Holloway realized that the cost of flying to L.A. for Bonamassa’s concert at the Greek Theatre was less than seeing him in Atlanta. Holloway suggested the old gang build a reunion around the music legend.
BREAKFAST at the Original Pantry, circa late 1970s, (from left) Kelly Howe, Craig Little, Charles Holloway.
CHARLES HOLLOWAY (from left) and Kelly Howe in the Holloway PLB apartment.
BOWLING BOYS (from left, the four in front) Rob Kaplan, Steven Cornell, Kelly Howe, Michael Cornell.
The first night of the reunion they attended the concert. The second was all about nostalgia. The friends had all lived in one of two adjacent towers at Park La Brea, and they arranged to hold their reunion in one of those tower apartments, which they noted seemed smaller than they remembered, but had the same parquet floors and kitchen cabinets.
The friends brought photographs and spread them out over the coffee table, prompting a flood of sentimental and humorous stories of hi-jinks, friendship, and freedom. “It was a different time,” said Kelly Howe. “We left the doors unlocked. Nobody thought it wasn’t safe. Park La Brea was like having the world’s largest backyard.”
They attended different schools but met every day at a recreation center. They’d hang out in the Howes’ apartment, because Joy Howe was the “cool” mom—if they left a box of cookie mix on the kitchen counter, fresh-baked cookies would soon appear.
The friends explored the Tar Pits and Town and Country
THE HOWES at Park La Brea Halloween, circa 1967, (from left) Kelly, mom Joy, and Kevin.
Shopping Center on their Sting-Ray bikes. When older, they’d ride their 10-speeds to Malibu, using dimes to call their mothers from a pay phone to say they’d arrived safely. That was the extent of their supervision. They played basketball at the recreation center and football every Super Bowl Sunday. Most of them worked at a local Italian restaurant and several made deliveries for Chuck’s Liquors, where Kelly Howe, still underage, was the manager. One night the store’s alarm sounded, and Howe ran over with a baseball bat and chased off the intruder.
They also got into plenty of scrapes. Michael Carrillo remembers that residents would complain when they would race wildly around the complex playing hide-and-seek on their bikes, but security guard Ed Tawny liked them and just pretended to discipline them—even when they found his walkie-talkie and blasted rock ‘n’ roll music through it. Other times they went to the top of the towers, which wasn’t allowed, and threw water balloons off the roof, which really wasn’t allowed. They went too far when they made a dummy stuffed with newspapers with one of their mom’s wigs stapled to its head and threw it off the roof, horrifying a resident who saw the “person” fall past her window. This time Tawny didn’t look the other way, setting them straight with a tour of the grounds to see places where suicides had really occurred. They continued breaking the rules, though.
“We had our first loves and first breakups together, got stoned together for the first time. All of life’s marker events,” Kevin Howe recalled. “I don’t think any of us gave a thought to race or religion. We took care of each other and loved each other. We had each other’s backs then and still do.”
Category: People
