Geography of My Childhood (Detail)

This is where I grew up in Panorama City, CA. My neighborhood was bordered by Osborne St. on the north, Woodman Ave. on the east, Chase St. on the south, and Van Nuys Blvd. on the west.

The houses were built by Kaiser Steel shortly after WWII. The company also built a hospital, where I was born, just out of the lower-right corner of the picture. It was a working class neighborhood, with many families working either for the GM plant down Van Nuys or the Anheiser Busch brewery out on Roscoe Blvd.

It was a good place to grow up. It was safe, aside from the Night Stalker summer, where everyone felt they had to sleep with their windows closed for fear of being raped, robbed, and stabbed by a crazy satanist.

One Saturday night when I was 10-years-old, I was listening to KIQQ-FM. The DJ dedicated the song “Funky Town” to Panorama City, he said, “Los Angeles’ funky town.” For some reason, this elated me. I thought we would all wake up famous the next morning.