My Life Above the Carousel in Santa Monica

During World War II there was a serious housing shortage in Santa Monica, a sunny, laid-back beach city in southern California. In 1944,my family moved there from a small town in Rhode Island after my artist father, Eric Jones, was hired to paint and beautify the historic carousel which dwelled in a shabby, run-down building known as the Old Hippodrome. A small apartment above the carousel in this domed Byzantine styled structure would be my home for all my teenage years. The book is a collection of stories based on actual events from this postwar era from 1944-1951. The narrator of the stories is a young version of myself. My life changed as soon as I stepped on the sands of Muscle Beach and saw beautifully tanned young volleyball players, gymnasts, bodybuilders and surfers. I felt like a pallid newcomer from the backwoods in my regulation gym shorts and wondered if I would ever fit in. Within months I overcame my fear of the ocean and attempted the ancient Hawaiian sport of surfing. My teenage sister and I became members of the Manoa Surfboard Ballet. We went moonlight fishing for grunion; danced to the music of Spade Cooley's Western Swing Band; ran 'The Kiddie Rides', selling tickets and operating the rides by ourselves. I learned the secret to catching the brass ring when I worked as ' the ring girl'. Although, living on the Pier was not the best neighborhood, it was in the middle of all the excitement, contests and festivals during this postwar era. This book describes it well.