The Story of How I Met Dodie

The first time Dodie and I met in person was 1970 and to say the least, it was not under the best of circumstances, but Dodie looked past all the issues of the moment made me feel welcome.

Here's the story of how Dodie and I met:

After Leslie and I had been living together for 6 months in Sacramento, it was decided that we would make a trip to Palm Springs to meet her parents, Jack and Dodie. Back then, the vehicle I owned wasn't capable of making the trip so it was decided that we would hitchhike to Palm Springs. The furthest I'd ever hitchhiked was to San Francisco (90 miles) but Leslie had hitchhiked the run from Sacramento to Palm Springs (450 miles) before and assured me it was a piece of cake.

So, one sunny Sacramento morning Leslie and I packed for the trip (we even had a play pen for Keith who was then 9 months old) and stood on a freeway ramp with a sign that read Palm Springs with our thumbs fully extended. Leslie was 16 and I had just turned 20. The trip was going along fine, we had gotten a ride in a big rig that took us most of the distance down the 5 freeway. It was around 2:00 AM, when we got to the exchange where the 10 freeway intersects the 5 freeway, which was when things started going wrong.

The trucker's route had him continuing down the 5 freeway but we needed to take the 10 freeway to get to Palm Springs. If you're familiar with the 5-10 freeway exchange you know that the 2 left hand lanes of the 5 freeway split off and take you on a transition road to the 10 freeway. There are no off ramps or exits in the area. Basically, the driver dropped us off on the freeway and we jumped over a V shaped metal guardrail and stood behind it with our thumbs once again fully extended.

There was hardly any traffic at that time of night, and even if there was there was no where for a vehicle to pull over to pick us up. They would have to stop in one of the lanes of the freeway. Fortunately (in some ways and not in others), a police car did stop and picked us up.

The cop driving the car told us that was not a good place to be hitchhiking (duhhh) and drove us off the freeway. He drove down to a surface street where other police cars were parked a on the side the road. There were police standing around chatting. At that point the cop asked us for ID of which neither Leslie or I had. I'd lost my wallet a week or so before and I don't know if Leslie ever had any ID other than a welfare card which isn't a picture ID. We gave the cops our names and any other info they requested and they got on the radio to check for what ever they check for, while we sat in the back of the cop car. I knew the cops were going to give Leslie grief about being a minor and told her she should tell them she was 18.

After the cops check for warrants or whatever came back negative, the cops came back and started questioning us further during which they asked Leslie how old she was. Leslie didn't take my advice and as soon as she told them she was 16 the cops started giving Leslie grief about being a minor, being out after curfew and what ever else they give minors grief about. Leslie claimed that she wasn't a minor, saying that she was an emancipated minor and therefore the laws governing minors didn't apply to her.

At that point I knew I could be arrested for contributing to the delinquency of a minor and it was about that time that the cops started harassing me, calling me names, trying to get my goat. I stayed cool as the odds weren't in my favor of giving them shit and getting anything else but thrown in jail in a strange town (the only time I'd been to LA at that point was when I was 10 years old and that was just passing through to visit my cousins in Anaheim).

The cops ended up arresting Leslie, taking Keith with them and telling me to get lost. Lost!! hell I didn't have any idea where I was, other than somewhere in LA (it was actually East LA). I stood there as they put Leslie and Keith back in the cop car and drove away. There I was, all by myself at 3:00 AM, standing somewhere in LA, my girlfriend and her baby taken off to jail, the clothes on my back, with only $5.00 in my pocket, and not really knowing where I was going other than it was a town called Palm Springs. The thought crossed my mind to head back to Sacramento but I knew I had to get Leslie and Keith out of jail and I was only about a 100 miles from Palm Springs where Jack and Dodie who could help me get Leslie and Keith out of jail lived, and it was 350 mile trip to get back to Sacramento. I started walking and found an all night Taco stand where I got directions on how to get to the 10 freeway East onramp. I walked to the onramp where I extended my thumb at 3:30 AM.

I wasn't standing there but about 30 minutes when a car with a couple of Hispanic dudes in it stopped and asked where I was headed. I told them Palm Springs and I don't think they had ever been there, or knew that it was 100 miles away, but said I'd give them $5.00 for gas if they'd drive me there. The deal was struck, I jumped in and we headed down the 10 freeway to Palm Springs. As it turned out the 2 Hispanic dudes were on speed (why they were awake at 3:30 AM) and the car was a new one to them (perhaps they'd just stolen it), so the drive was more like a cruse to them.

We were coming into Palm Springs as the sun was coming up (about 6:00 AM) and the Hispanic dude's speed high was starting to ware off, so our arrival was good timing (at least I thought it was). What I didn't know was Jack and Dodie's address, phone number, or how to get in touch with them. All I had was a description of the house that Leslie had given me (wrought iron gates in the front of the house).

I walked around Palm Springs looking for a house that fit Leslie's description. Do you know how many houses there were in Palm Springs in 1970? Well, not as many as there is now, 30+ years later, but basically Palm Springs was a City back then, not just a small town. As I walked around the City of Palm Springs it slowly started to come to life. I came across several elderly people who had came out into their front yard to water their lawn or get their morning paper and asked them if they knew where Jackie Coogan lived. After about asking about 5 people one of them directed me to what turned out to be Jackie Cooper's house.

I walked across town, through the downtown area and up into the foothills, following the directions I'd received and when I got to Jackie Cooper's house I knocked on the door. The person that answered the door wasn't Jackie Cooper, it was a servant of some sort and when I told him I was the boyfriend of Jackie's and Dodie's daughter Leslie, I was told that Jackie Cooper doesn't have a wife named Dodie or a daughter named Leslie. The servant was smart enough to put 2 and 2 together and kind enough to tell me that it was Jackie Cooper's house and I was probably looking for Jackie Coogan's house which he didn't have any idea of where it was.

I walked back towards the downtown area and on the way asked what was probably a half dozen people I saw out in their front yards if they knew where Jackie Coogan lived. Imagine if you will some young hippy looking kid walking around Palm Springs in the early morning hours asking for directions to Jackie Coogan's house. I did and I was starting to feel discouraged, then I came across a garbage man who was emptying the garbage cans along Palm Canyon (the main drag in Palm Springs) and asked him if he knew where Jackie Coogan lived. To my amazement he said he did know and even gave me the address which had a familiar ring to it, having heard Leslie say it at some point over the past 6 months. I walked what seemed another couple of miles and found the house. I could tell it was the house as I walked up to it because Dodie's car (a 64 Lincoln Continental) was parked on the driveway (Leslie had shown me a picture of the car months before) in front of the house which had the wrought iron gates that fit Leslie's description.

I rang the door bell but there was no answer. The sun was now fully up and the temperature was rising. The Navy P Coat I'd been warring was no longer needed for warmth but did come in handy as a pillow. Being tired, having been up for about 24 hours and walking back and forth across Palm Springs, I laid down under the front end of Dodie's Lincoln to get out of the sun as it was the only shade around. I promptly fell into a deep sleep.

I awoke to the sound of Leslie saying "wake up". I opened my eyes and saw her standing there holding Keith looking down at me. Then she said this is my dad as Jack walked by into the house. I wasn't fully awake, but I could tell that Jack was a bit perturbed. As it turned out Jack and Dodie had gotten a call from Leslie from inside of a Juvenile Hall facility somewhere in LA in the middle of the night and had gotten up and driven to LA to get their daughter Leslie and grandson Keith out of jail and they were just now returning home. I had been sleeping so soundly that I hadn't heard Jack's Ford station wagon with loud glasspack mufflers pull up along side Dodie's car and park.

While still lying under the front of Dodie's Lincoln, Leslie introduced me to her mother Dodie who was also on her way from Jack's station wagon into the house. Dodie reached out her hand in what I thought was a gesture to shake my hand, but when we clasped hands she said with a smile "Hi, come on and help with the baggage" and pulled me up from my prone position under the front of her car.

Think about it. You're meeting your future son-in-law for the first time as you're arriving home after getting up in the middle of the night and driving for a couple of hours to pick up your daughter and grandson from jail and upon your arrival home find your future son-in-law asleep under the front of your car. Let's just say this is not the customary way one meets their future son-in-law.

I was amazed, I thought Dodie would have been pissed off at having to get up at 0:dark 100 and drive all the way to LA from Palm Springs to get her daughter and grandson out of jail, let alone want to meet the bum that accompanied her daughter on the parlous hitchhiking journey from Northern to Southern CA. I also thought some of the blame for the escapade would have come in my direction as well as any ensuing anger. As it turned out, Dodie said she was thankful that I was helping her daughter and grandson survive in Sacramento after Leslie's husband had left and I think Dodie knew that hitchhiking to Palm Springs from Sacramento was Leslie's idea and I was along for the ride and there to protect her daughter and grandson.

Whatever was going on in Dodie's mind that day and all the days that followed, good or bad, Dodie always treated me with respect and understanding for which my admiration is limitless.