The Chatty Connection

I found out at an early age that I liked girls.  Plain and simple.  Girls were great.  Not that I am saying my preference is to be forced on others, just me.  Girls were the way to go.  Sure, hangin' with the guys was mandatory.  But even then, if a young lady passed us by, it could stop whatever we were doing 'in our tracks'.  And of course, our friend Danny was the one to find the way to be the first to say 'Hello'.  What can I say, in this case, girls liked Danny. I think it was a confidence thing.  Danny always seemed to know what was what.  (He went on to develop 'Frisbee Golf' before it became the New Now Thing...)  But anyway, before I even knew Danny or the rest of our Running Crew, there was Our Neighbors. When my family moved into Our Home in Downey, CA(Downer as the locals referred to it...)it became apparent I would be surrounded by girls on both sides of us.  Karen and Trudy on our left(they later became my Sisters...figure that one out.. I'll wait... OK, got it? OH,BTW Karen became a Flower Child and we shared our love of music... saw many Dead shows with she and Rod... Trudy has a PHD in Child Behavior, altho is still working on figuring me out) and on our right, Jenny, Sally and little sis, Cathy.  This become a hangout for me after our houses both suffered personal loss of Our Fathers passing from Heart Attacks.  My older brother, of 4 years while attending Long Beach State, worked part time and my Mother full time as a RN at Rancho Los Amigos, and later Kaiser.  Sooooo, I was by myself ALOT.  That's where Mrs Luntz stepped in and I became an unofficial family member.  If they were going to the beach, I was always welcomed... and so on.  I would help out around their home, like say if I was mowing Our lawn I would just keep going and trim theirs as well. So, to say, I spent alot of time there.  Sometime in the early 60s, Sally, the Middle sister, received a Chatty Cathy doll(which this year 2010 celebrates her 50th anniversary... just in case you are looking for something to celebrate). That was my first introduction to June Foray who was Cathy's voice and is a legend in Character voices... Rocky the Squirrel and so many others. Just pull the ring and Cathy got chatty... "I Love You" "Please take me with You" "May I have a cookie?"  Unfortunately that phase stuck in my brain.  Just a moment... ahh, I had to get a cookie. I thought, WOW, someone got paid to do that?  I would REALLY like to do that.  Of course, I had already thought about this long before since being influenced by the amazing talents of Mel Blanc(You know Bugs Bunny and a thousand others..)whom I would someday study with.  More on that later....