A fascinating series of emails regarding a 1974 mini Herbie The Love Bug

From: Doug
To: Drew, Allen, Craig
Sent: Tue May 18 17:20:44 2004
Subject: Herbie

Drew,

Hello there. My friend Angela R... is directing the new "Herbie
the Love Bug" movie. I told her that she has to get them to make
"Herbie" go-carts. Do you or Todd have a photo of the "Herbie" that
you owned ?

What ever happened to that baby? I remember that every request to
ride it was usually denied. I recall only two or three times that it
was ever driven on Park Hacienda.

I am serious about this, so please let me know what you can do.

Thanks,

Doug

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From: Craig

I remember that we would all wait until Doug went back down to Park
Alisal and then we would ride Herbie for hours and hours.... For the
life of me though I can't remember what happened to that baby
either....

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From: Doug
To: Craig , Allen, Drew
Subject: Re: Herbie

I knew that was coming. My Moped was faster than yours.

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From: Craig,

I can't argue with that....

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From: Drew:

Brett - do you remember what ever happened to Herbie.

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Subject:
Herbie!

From:
Brett

Date:
Tue, 18 May 2004

We got the Herbie go-cart in 1974 (the liscene plate had the year). Our dad owned a theatre, and Disney gave it to him as part of a promotion for the film.

I think Dad gave it to Bill S…. (his friend in Calabasas) for his kids in the late 80's. We have tons on great Herbie pictures--from New Jersey when it was brand new, and also from Park Hacienda.

Drew, you should scan a couple next time you're in the Marina.

Hope all is well with everyone,

Brett



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This is a letter sent to "The Last Waterbed Salesman in the Bay Area," who I found and wrote about for the New York Times. After the article, he got a lot of letters like this, which he has posted on his website: http://www.americasbestsleep.com :

Hi Roland,

Just read the article about you and your waterbed life story and just had to write and tell you, I can tell you the almost exact same story. I saw the article in the Orange County Register where my ex Mike now has only one store left in Fullerton. He started business back in 1973 in the Orange Circle. That's because he had a bean bag mfg/dry cleaner/head shop. He lived in this store and slept on a waterbed and customers became interested and wha laa. In 1984 I joined him and we lived the next 15 yrs selling waterbeds in a chain of 5 stores in the LA, OC areas. Our daughter (now 14) also came from that nice warm womb right into a little crib size flotation system. We were the regular old Mom & Pop waterbed business. Over the years we also got down to one store. In 1997 Mike and I seperated but still remain very good friends and still sleep on a waterbed. I found your story sweet and wanted to share mine with you.

Laurie
Fullerton, Ca

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Letter to a guy I haven't seen in 20 years regarding a baseball card trade from long ago:

Dear Reed,

Well I was reading an article in the Times today about Doug Flutie and it quoted Satchel Paige which brought to mind something that's been gnawing at me these long decades. (btw, Congrats on making partner and on still having all your hair -- I've still got mine, too and am living in NYC scratching out a living as a freelance writer: check www.allensalkin.com for clips and other stuff.)

So anyway, during that phase when I was sending letters to old major leaguers with SASEs included asking for their autographs, I wrote to Satchel and asked for his. He was good enough to sign the 3 x 5 index card which I'd enclosed and also to sign one of his business cards. Why do I remember this? I still have, in my father's closet, the signed index card. But as I remember it, I traded you the signed business card. I have no idea what I got in return, but I'm sure it was fair -- we were, of course, hard bargainers back then!!!

The thing is that as the years have passed, every once in a while i think about that signed Paige card and wish I still had it. I'm often quoting his rules of life (Don't eat fried foods cause they angers up the blood) and think it'd be fun to still have the card, which has the rules of life written on it.

Who knows. Maybe you sold or traded away all your baseball stuff years ago. Maybe my memory is wrong and I didn't trade the business card to you. Lubitz? Zussman? Springer? Good God. Glad to have grown up...

But if you can find it in your heart and your time to figure out if you still have it and where it is, I'd be gleeful to figure out with you some way to trade you something else really nice for it. Doesn't have to be baseball related. We can figure it out.

More bio brief : not yet married but dating a nice youngish lady, my bro is married and working in movie production in LA and has a cute daughter. parents divorced, father in marina, mother still in Calabasas and remarried. You?

In any case, I'm glad to see you're well -- and, oh yes, I am planning on going to the 20th Calabasas High reunion assuming there is one.

best

Allen


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