Kumotz! (Part One)

The Magical Memory Tour continued on Sunday, June 30, with a visit from my old friend Jim Kimura.

Since I've had no contact with any friends from North Hollywood where I grew to be 5, my earliest friends were Jim Kimura and another guy named Sam Volpe.  We all went to kindergarten and first grade at Van Ness School just a few blocks from Gower street.  Then, when we transferred to Christ the King to take first grade over again (still don't know how that worked!) Jim's smiling Hawaiian face was there to greet me!

We attended grades 1-7 at CKS, had to transfer to Blessed Sacrament (just south of where I'm working) for 8, then did four years at Daniel Murphy High (not to mention the Boy Scouts!)  Despite all that, we were never close friends - in fact, in a couple instances he actually threatened me with bodily harm if I didn't stay away from a girl named Michele.  However, that was an anomaly, and mostly we just KNEW each other.

I think Jim may have missed both our high school reunions, but he was definitely missing from the 20-year reunion in '95, and a rumor was going around that he was dead. Although another guy insisted that was bullshit, I've still been worried all these years and sad that I never got to hook up with Jim again.

The last time I saw Jim was sometime in the early 80's, and he told me he was a film lighting man, so I decided to look him up on IMDB.  Somehow I got a working phone number and he answered!

More coming...