False Point - La JollaPatti and I have known each other since sometime in 1993. We worked together. I was working as a government contractor and she was a federal employee.
At the time we met, I was working in the NISE WEST (now SPAWAR) San Diego office which consisted of a few people (all guys) who had come down to set up an office, ahead of the bigger move which was to take place in a year or so. Mare Island, which was a base up near Vallejo, CA would be closing and this division would be moving to San Diego. Patti came down to San Diego to help set up the office which she would eventually be working in when she moved down in a year or so.
She and I became friends right away. She was single at the time, but was open to meeting someone, if the right person came along. Since Charlie was a naval officer, she jokingly encouraged me to get Charlie to “set her up” with an admiral. Since Charlie is not the match making kind, the request fell on deaf ears.
One Saturday morning, not long after Patti moved to San Diego, she was sitting at the counter having breakfast at a restaurant near work. Next to her was a man who was reading the paper. His “pick up” line was something about the new 100 dollar bill which was being revised to foil counterfeiters. It worked. He and Patti started talking. They exchanged phone numbers. A few days later Bob called and made a date. That’s how they met.
Completely unrelated, my computer crashed on March 1. It took a couple of weeks, but I finally got a new computer and my files were all backed up. The other day I was going through my files to see if I could organize them better. I came across the following story which was written by Bob, describing his marriage proposal to Patti. I had forgotten that I had a copy of it, which Patti had sent to me.
With Bob’s permission, I am putting it in my blog:
FALSE POINT - TRUE LOVE
By Robert Kruger
In the north, the promontory, known as False Point, serves as the beginning of high cliffs that, over a distance of two miles, lessen from one hundred feet in height down to beach level. This section of California coast provides a stretch of mostly wide and sandy beach. Towards the Point, the last one-fourth mile becomes rocky. Along this beach, my first permanent lasting memories began.
It was July 1948, when I first saw the Pacific Ocean. I can recall the newness, the blue sky blending into the horizon of the ocean, the steady cool breeze coming straight from the west, the smell of the salt air --- sensations all new to and exciting to me. The portion of bluff I was standing on was only about 50 feet high, but the panoramic view gave it the appearance, or I should say, the feeling, of a much greater height. Maybe it was the slight build of an eleven-year-old versus the grandeur of nature. All I know is that I can still remember the excitement I felt that day --- even after all those many years since then.
The spot in which I stood was a small longitudinal-sized park not more than 40 feet wide and 300 feet long. Its restroom and path to the beach, beside the view, were the main reasons for its existence. It was located in Pacific Beach, a community of San Diego. As I looked north, or to the right, since I probably didn’t know my directions that well at the time, I noticed that there appeared to be some sort of buildings and a tall tower-like structure on top of the Point. I wondered what it was. That was the first time that I ever saw False Point.
My family had just arrived from Wayne, Pennsylvania. All during the trip out west, my two older brothers, Teddy and Marty, and myself, peppered our dad with questions (Joe and Pete were too little to have any useful opinions). We didn’t know what to expect about California. To me, it was as intriguing as a foreign country. Dad didn’t help much, because he always said “Yeah, sure”. When we asked him specific questions like: are there cowboys and Indians? “Yeah, sure”, as he frantically tried to pass a semi on a two-lane highway. Horses? “Yeah, sure”, etc., etc. The only thing that I had to go on was the movies and my imaginations, limited as it was.
So we drove up to our new house in Pacific Beach, went in, looked around and cut out to the beach....to this ocean we’d heard so much about. We found it two blocks due West. Boy, was that big, big, ocean neat! And little did I know that for the next ten years, basically, it would be my home away from home.
For whatever reasons, Teddy and Marty, after an initial couple of months of interest, sort of drifted away on to other interests, probably girls. I didn’t. I was fortunate to become friends with Andy, Dickie and Damon. Andy was the prototype outdoorsman. He knew everything about fishing, hunting, diving---everything. Because of these pals, I got to learn to experience and to love the ocean and all the neat things associated with it.
From my house, to reach the beach, you crossed Mission Boulevard and went down the path through Tourmaline Canyon to the beach. Or you could walk south to the Palisades Park on Law Street and get to the beach from there. Tourmaline Canyon had rattlesnakes, so.... we always went that way. Our days were filled with swimming, bodysurfing, fishing, surfboarding, abalone diving, spear fishing, lobstering (at night) or beach combing. Wow! What a life for a young kid! Remember, this was in the 40's and early 50's - so, no people on the whole north end of that long stretch of beach.
I don’t know exactly when we first explored False Point, but I think my brothers and I ventured up that way soon after we noticed it. To reach it, we had to walk along the beach over high mounds of kelp and seaweed brought in by the tides and piled against the foot of the cliff, which defined the north end of the beach. In front of the kelp were large rocks, that you hopped from one to the other if you wanted to go along the shoreline without stomping through the fly-infested kelp mounds.
On this particular day, when we reached the foot of the Point, we saw barbed wire fences all around the base. Great concrete slabs also littered the rocks. We found a path that went to the top and climbed up. It was really interesting, many concrete buildings, sunken concrete rooms that had small windows with metal flaps looking towards the sea and, of course, the tower. After climbing the four-story tower, which had no railing or walls, just floor areas, we realized this whole area had been an Army fort (actually a coastal artillery emplacement). What we had discovered was the first line of defense against a Japanese invasion. Looking to the Northeast, we saw other gun emplacements on the hills of Bird Rock. At any rate, with World War II still fresh in my mind, this became the perfect place for John Wayne to re-fight the war. We played for days at the old fort, but with so much to do, the days of make believe ended. False Point remained a large part of my life, though, from that time forward.
The Point became a place where my buddies and I hung out. One time Andy and I rowed his homemade ten-foot skiff all the way out to the kelp beds, then north to La Jolla Shores, about ten miles distance. We then called Andy’s older brother to come and get us in his old pickup truck.
As I grew into my teens, I used to walk on the rocks from Tourmaline Canyon north to the Point, pondering why life was so unfair at times and why my folks didn’t understand me. Eventually, I started walking up there with girls - holy mackerel - where have you gone, John Wayne! The old fort became a lover’s lane, because a road eventually found its way there. It was demolished and became a subdivision. But, the Point never changed from the seaside. It always was there no matter where I was in my life.
As I grew into adulthood, married and fathered two beautiful daughters, I had another chance to go back to my childhood through my children. I would show them how to jump rock to rock as we worked our way towards my past. It didn’t work. I suppose that girls and wives don’t think and feel the same as boys and fathers about certain places and things. Sitting on the rocks, skimming stones and trying to explain how it was for me, at that spot, just didn’t sell. Time moved on like it was supposed to, I got older and my girls married and started their own memories. And, in time, I forgot most of mine.
Recently, however, I got the chance to re-visit the place of so many of my early life’s experience. I had retired relatively young and was dating this lovely lady and decided to ask her to marry me. What better place to start my life over again than where I had begun my formative years? So, after obtaining all the necessary ingredients, I hatched my plan.
On our 19th month anniversary of dating (how’s that for a nice round number?), I asked Patti to take a walk with me on the beach toward False Point. As we strolled along the beach, I slyly deposited a wax-sealed bottle into the surf. Knowing women’s natural curiosity, I mention that there appeared to be something in the waves. Patti looked just as the water took the bottle out and away from us. She asked that, if I could get it without too much trouble, please do so. Just then a large wave saved my bottle and washed it right up to my feet. Patti, by this time, had swallowed the hook. I handed her the bottle. By now she was excited because this amber-colored bottle looked old and the wax seal was protecting something paper-like inside.
As Patti broke the seal she exclaimed, “There’s a note inside!” I said that is was just probably one of those deals that happen when you’re on a cruise ship and when you finish your wine, you seal a note in the empty bottle and toss it into the ocean. “What does it say?”, I asked. She started reading........
‘Hi Beachcomber, I was captured in this bottle many years until a nice man found it and freed me. I gave him three wishes. He chose serenity, happiness and love. I gave him the first two wishes, but, I told him that love took time to develop.
So, I told him to put this note back into the bottle and to cast it into the sea of time and that someday his true love would find it and he was then to ask her a question-
Patti, will you marry me?
If she says yes, then my third wish has been delivered.
What say yee, Beachcomber, won t you help an old genie out?’
I should have video taped her reaction. It was classic!
What, what -- do you mean it?, crying and experiencing a sudden shortness of breath. Are you serious? (Like I never had a serious thought before!)?
How’s this for serious? And I produced a ring box; opening it and showing her a solitaire diamond engagement ring.
I then said that she still had not answered my question. For once in her life, Patti was semi-speechless, but with gentle prodding, she responded with a squeaky “Yes”.
My day was won. I had found that spark to regenerate the excitement I had first felt on that July day so long ago. I had also come to realize something very important - no matter how beautiful God’s Nature is, no matter how awesome His wonders on this earth, it’s always more fulfilling to enjoy it with that special someone you love.
False Point probably will never change, but the one constant in life is change; and for me that change, once again, is for the good.........
Patti and BobPalm Springs 2004
Patti retired in 2002. She and Bob have been living in Palm Springs for the past several years. They just celebrated their 11th wedding anniversary last month. I wish them many more. We are going to meet them in Temecula for lunch next month. Temecula is about an hour’s drive and the half way point for both of us.
Oh, and I couldn't resist posting this picture of Taz. After all, it is still his blog. I'm just managing it for him.
"....and then, I called him a name and.....he's behind me, isn't he?"More later.........
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