M*A*S*H

I was watching a M*A*S*H rerun and once again I remembered that I really miss So Cal from time to time. The opening shots were filmed at Malibu Creek State Park - not that far from where I spent most of my high school years.

I don't know...I got to like those ugly brown hills after a while. Of course, for us, those hills were something to drive through to reach the beaches - which are the true glory of Southern Califoria. Crowded as all hell, but man were days at the beach fun...

For trivia's sake, some stuff that was filmed right down the street was... The Fall Guy, Chips, and the special effects for a crappy movie called Meteor. The Fall Guy and Chips did car chases and crash stunts in my neighborhood. That was neat and a half. My friend's dad was prop master for the Chips show, so we got to go under the ropes and on set. That's right, I've seen Eric Estrada up close and personal. Go ahead and be jealous...

Come to think of it, Eric's dad (my friend Eric - not Estrada, who never had the chance in his illustrious and busy career to befriend me...poor guy) had some cool stuff. He had a box of pipes from the movie MacArthur, some cool blasters from Battlestar Galactica, and some Chips stuff. I bet he wishes he snagged more stuff now that eBay is so huge. Oh well...we had fun messing with blasters. The pipes were sort of off limits.

If I was drinking now, I would raise a toast to the brown, brown hills of California and a second to the matching brown air...