We remember renting a boat on MacArthur Park lake, Petula Clark singing at the Cocoanut Grove, the Bonnard, van Gogh, exhibits at LACMA, recoiling from dinosaurs at the tar pits as a child on first visit from Boston, radiant Audrey Hepburn strolling past Saks in blue jeans and a man's shirt, carrying a tiny dog; late dates at Ships, and most fondly: dressed up at the Artists' and Models' ball, Ebell; our 1965 wedding at the Sheraton-West [now Town House] Garden; our daughter Danille's 2004 wedding to Jimmy Pardo in the garden of the Ebell.

During the late 1950s, '60s, and maybe '70s, Sutro Realty, a one-story building on the south side of Wilshire, used to feature actual live reindeer atop its roof every holiday season. There they were, in a specially built pen, dressed in bells and red harnesses, stopping traffic on Wilshire for a few months each year. Wilshire was less congested then. I wondered about the animals' well-being, of course.