By Al Graham

The blue house looks as if it was once used as a set for an episode of the Twilight Zone.  In reality, it really has stopped as if frozen in time, and in a wonderful time, when things were simple and people were happy.

Mike makes the coolest belly boards.  He also crafts unique jewelry, fantastic wood carvings, and he even custom makes his own bicycles.

Back in the day, Mike built an electric car.  It was an air-cooled, VW beetle.  The batteries gave it enough charge to drive to Imperial Beach and back only.  But, by god, the man was way beyond the times because today, battery-driven cars are ubiquitous on Coronado city streets

This old house is painted sea blue and has a vegetable garden in front.  There was once a big brick barbecue pit in the back lovingly built by Mike’s dad; and even though it started to crumble, Mike saved all the bricks and uses them here and there around the house.

Mike’s wife Pamela is an artist and a champion hat decorator.  She lovingly shows off the brightly colored one she won first prize for at the Hotel Del Coronado.

If Mike and Pamela were birds, they would be love birds just like the ones they keep in the front room, who incidentally have been given enough space in the living room for a thousand birds to gather.

The house is a living monument to peace and happiness and it sits like a 1960’s hippie house amidst a sea of new construction of not-so-fine houses.  Unlike their beautiful, cheerful beach cottage, these houses are built using every square inch of land leaving very little lawn or a place to grow things.

The old days are long gone but Mike and Pamela are loving custodians of a house full of tender memories.  Take a sweet walk down memory lane to a time when people were nice to each other.  A time when we built things with our own hands and the world seemed far less complex.

Memory Lane
By Al Graham

Do you recall
We sang all the while
Your afternoons they were golden
Everything had a reason.

Memory lane
No ones in pain
Time has stopped turning
Roses fragrance last forever.

Someone just called
They’re so far away
And the rain comes crying down
Bringing the dreams back to life again.

Memory lane
Is calling again
Sail there when the snow flies
All your dreams are around you.
Memory Lane…Memory Lane… Memory lane