My dear friend, Bex, left a comment regarding the hankies I wrote about in my last post. My response unravels the mystery, which of course must have a story.

(BTW, one hanky is easy to spot - the other isn't. They're side-by-side, but one looks like a book cover.)

Years ago when I was living in Laguna Beach, I had two fabulous neighbors: Bonnie & Arnold. They were quite a bit older, but leveled the playing field with their inspiring brilliance, impeccable values, outrageous humor and totally youthful playfulness. I adored them. We all lived in the upper reaches of Bluebird Canyon on a stretch of road few people navigated.




Arnold & Bonnie



Their home was an A-Frame design. Prior to meeting them I was always rather dismissive of A-Frames. I can't articulate it well, but the design annoyed my aesthetic sense, which might speak poorly of my aesthetic sense. Nonetheless, my first evening as a neighbor, they invited me to the A-Frame for cocktails. Sherry was served in small recycled jelly glasses and Bonnie cranked open a tin of sardines.

They were a fascinating couple and regaled me with stories of joining the Peace Corps in their 60s and enjoying Costa Rica so much they built a home where they spent 6 months of the year.

After we'd exchanged backstories of our lives, Bonnie and Arnold leaned forward and in hushed conspiratorial voices told me about the mafia murder that had happened in the house I'd just moved into. Oye. That's a story for another time.

I believe Bonnie had been a social worker as well as a magazine editor. Arnold was an expert with quippy humor. He was the most amazing wordsmith ever ever. He was a novelist of renown and for many years was a sports writer. Baseball was his passion.


*****

Below is a bio excerpt of Arnold's career:

A Day in the Bleachers
About the Author

Arnold Hano was born in New York in 1922. He was briefly a Yankees fan, at age four, but when the Yankees lost the 1926 World Series he switched his allegiance to the Giants. As the author of twenty-six books, including biographies of Willie Mays, Sandy Koufax, and Roberto Clemente, and hundreds of articles, Hano followed the careers of the great figures in American baseball.

In 1955, he moved with his wife Bonnie to Laguna Beach, California, where they live today, and has since been a freelance writer. He has taught writing at the University of Southern California, Pitzer College, and the University of California, Irvine.

"Arnold Hano's A Day in the Bleachers is one of the lasting works of baseball literature, a book that describes, inning by inning, the action of a single game. That this game happened to be Game 1 of the 1954 World Series -- in which the New York Giants' Willie Mays made the Catch, his legendary grab of a long drive by Vic Wertz of the Cleveland Indians -- was Hano's good fortune; that Hano's observational ability was so acute is ours." Los Angeles Times


*****


Upon entering their A-Frame, which had been designed by some famous architect I can't recall, my opinions changed. It was one of the most intelligent homes I'd ever been in. The decor was minimalistic so that wherever my eyes landed, I knew they were viewing something special. Books quietly lined the hallways and on suspended shelves in upper portions of the home. The look was mid-century perfection and simplicity. I was hooked!

And this is where the hankies came from. Bonnie and Arnold became too fragile to live in the A-Frame and all its staircases so they relocated to another home they owned in the village. Before moving, they had a garage sale and that's when I bought the hankies. One is frilly and what one would expect of a hanky. The other is more mid-century. It tells a story with the foods and calories.

Over the years Bonnie & Arnold were some of the finest guests to ever sit at my table - not to forget, too, that this man could swill two martinis faster than a fastball.

The last time David and I saw Bonnie and Arnold it was in the parking lot of the Newport Beach Library. They were sporting a new car - a sensible economy car, but nonetheless, new. I couldn't help but quip, "My, my aren't we looking Republican these days?" As was always true with them, we all laughed uproariously.

Below are photos of the open hankies. I was going to post them with the original post, but decided to make the hunt more of a challenge.