hollywood and vine

early 80s
there was no brickwork at home and i had heard there was work in california.
i called the phone company and ordered a yellow pages book from california, then got on the phone and called brick conractors in california and found out that there was some work there.
soon i was on the road and really had no idea where in california i was going..
i lived near hwy 97 in lumby bc canada, i had gone north  on  hwy 97 as far as it went to fort st john, so i thought it would be neat to follow 97 as far as it went south.  it ended in northern california, but that wasnt warm enough for me so i kept on heading south.
i noticed a sign on thw freeway that said, hollywood,, i had heard of that place before so figured it would be a good place to start looking for work.

next thing i knew i was the intersection of hollywood and vine, i had heard many tales of this place on tv or whatever. i was impressed that i had come to this famous place so far away from home...
i found a house made into a motel a little off the beaten path( it was cheap) and got me a room.
i remember the guy at the desk being so worried that i was going to use too much water takeing a bath, he had instuctions on how to take a bath instead of a shower becuz the price of water was so high.
 then i walked back to hollywood and vine and went into a bar, right there on the corner of hollywood and vine. where i had heard all of the movie stars hang out
 i soon found out that it was true, the stars did hang out there, but that had been many years before.
it turned out this was a sad time in hollywood. a lot of the stars were still there, but they were old and u couldnt tell who they were, sadly a lot of them were drunken has beens.
hollywood itself was old. the famous hotels and stores at hollywood and vine were now old and run down, had bars on the doors and windows and some of them were now apartments for the elderly.
when sitting in the bars people would come up and introduce themselves and shake your hand in hopes that u would recanize them and buy them a drink.  these were people that had been in the movies years before and were now trying to live off the fame they ounce had
 i was haveing a drink at the bar with a guy that was sitting on the next stool. he asked why i had come to hollywood,  i said, to find work, he kind of giggled and said he had done that also, many years ago. i asked what kind of work, i said , brickwork,  i got a surprised look on his face, and said,  well u will proberly do better than most that come here looking for work. most come here looking to work in the movies :)
 he went on to tell me how he and most others had come there trying to get into the movies and had taken a job ( as a book keeper ) to suport himself while he was waiting to be discovered and make it big time in the movies
there were bars there , where they had shows everynight, it was open to anyone who wanted to perform or show off there talents as actors or singers.  many people got up on stage every night and performed in the hopes they may be discovered,,,,cuz u never know when there might be a scout in the crowd looking for somebody for a movie part or whatever.
 i met a young guy who called himself elvis, he was an elvis look alike, dressed , talked, and sang like elvis,  he said, well, elvis made it big time and im just like him so there must be hope for me. that poor bastard is proberly still n hollywood doing exactly the same thing. i did notice that many people did buy him drinks, i couldnt aford my own drinks so he never did get one from me  :(
 in another bar i met fillis dilar,  i really did think it was her except i couldnt figure why she was a bartender, of course she was just a look alike. these people used the actors names and i sometimes felt likr\e they really thought they were the people they were impersonateing.
 while walking from one bar to the next on hollywood blvd, i was impressed with the inlaid stars in the sidewalk, there were many, i was most impressed with  the star of johnny cash.
a ways down the road, just outside a bar there was a man lying on the sidewalk who was obvieously haveing a problem, there were crowds of people and they just walked around him and ignored him.  of course i went by him and into the bar, after a while i heard somebody say,   hey philis, somebody had a hart attack out here on the sidewalk.   she went camly to the phone and called 911, gave the address and went back to work, nobody even went outside to see what was goin on. i guess it ws just a eeryday thing, and there was so many people there , whereever u went, i was caught up in it also
 i was there overnight and left sometime the next day, several people had told me there was building going on in luguna beach and that was where i went, and did find work, brickwork :)