After having recently completed a writing project that obligated me to look back on my high school and college years, I recalled an incident that will always cause me to smile and reflect upon the periodic folly of life. Fact is stranger than fiction, and this story is certainly a reminder of that unassailable truth.

I graduated from high school in 1981 and I graduated from college in 1987. I worked for a small athletic footwear business called In-Stride in Solana Beach California off and on during the course of my high school years and early junior college years as well as for a two year period of time after I had graduated from the University of California at Santa Barbara (either I was extremely loyal or a bit of an underachiever, take your pick as there is probably a little bit of truth in either conclusion). It was a great high school job as I was an avid distance runner who also spent a lot of time playing tennis and basketball as well. I had access to the best footwear for greatly discounted prices and even occasionally got to try new models for free. It was great, and as an added bonus I got to work with several really good friends over the years.

Immediately after high school, I, like several of my friends, floundered around a bit in my pursuit of the next “great thing” in my life. Since I really had no idea as to my calling, I enrolled in “Junior College”, worked a little at In-Stride, and pursued my various athletic hobbies. It was a good life, but the small world around me was changing rapidly. Many of my friends had gone on to four-year universities and were experiencing new and exciting things. Two of my three sisters had gotten married and were starting something that for me seemed so far away. Little did I realize how much my life would change in a few short years… For now, my time at In-Stride represented a relatively unchallenging diversion on the path to something bigger and better; yet ephemeral and undefined…

One of my friends in the store was a couple years younger and somehow, someway, I became a bit of a mentor to him. Like me, Jess was a distance runner with aspirations to compete at a fairly high level. We trained together from time to time and became pretty good friends. We dealt with all kinds of people as anyone who has spent any time in retail can readily attest. Most were really nice yet there was always the random oddity that could run the gamut of human idiosyncrasies; I could usually spot them from a mile away. We referred to them as “difficult customers” (OK— that is the PC version of what we really called them) and it was a near certainty that post-ordeal we would always manage to get a good laugh at the other’s expense. Guys 101…

Nothing could have prepared either of us for the appearance of a woman who was quite frankly the most beautiful woman I have ever seen. Before I delve too deeply into her story, it is important to remember that this area (Solana Beach, Del Mar, Rancho Santa Fe, Fairbanks Ranch) was (and still is) an exceedingly wealthy area with an amazing climate for most of the year. We were quite used to seeing attractive women, dressed provocatively, driving really nice cars. Often, they had young children and a husband who was not uncommonly “several” years older. Over the years, I had helped Dick Enberg (legendary sports broadcaster), Gary Puckett (Union Gap band), and Craig Nettles (Major League baseball player) to name a few. All had “significant others” who were much younger than themselves. This woman, however, always came in alone or with her son who must have been ten or so. There was something uncommonly different about her notwithstanding her preternatural beauty. She was never particularly friendly nor was she particularly unfriendly. It was a strange merging of the two that almost bordered on shyness, yet she was clearly in charge of the situation (even getting shoes for herself or her son). Jess and I worked together a lot and on busy days we usually had one other person to help. I ended up helping her 99% of the time as Jess flat out confessed that he was intimidated by her beauty. I know that sounds really odd, and odder still, Jess was an amazingly glib guy who had could converse with most anyone. I must say, I understand what he felt. I coined the term “The Goddess” for her and we all knew what it meant when someone uttered “Goddess Alert.” Even though I ended up helping her many times I cannot say that any kind of familiarity or rapport was ever developed. It was like helping an Angel who never got the memo about how to deal with the mere mortals.

Everything about her physically was perfect. She was athletic while managing to be not be too muscular. She was tan is a way that was perfectly natural and made it seem as though it (her color) was nothing that she consciously worked on. She was curvy yet you could tell that everything about her was completely natural. She wore make-up, but you could tell that she would have been stunning had she chosen to wear none. It was quite simply like being in the presence of someone who was simply Beauty Personified. I remember wondering to myself as to the details of her story knowing that is was something that would most likely always remain a mystery.

At this time, I was living at home at 1515 West Lane in Del Mar, a couple miles from In-Stride. I was really close with my parents and it was a pretty common thing for us to eat out together or attend a social function with one of their many friends in the area. I recall one random Friday or Saturday evening in the summer of 1983 (I believe) they had mentioned to me that they were going to a party at the home of a really wealthy couple who lived close by (for the purposes of this story I am keeping the name and identity anonymous). I will admit that I really didn’t like these people much as I always found them to be pretentious and quite self-absorbed. I declined, yet my parents really wanted me to go and mentioned that the food would most likely be quite good. They knew my hot button and that did the trick.

We arrived and yes, for the record, the food was very good. It was the usual collection of exceedingly wealthy people living dreamily perfect lives. As we all know, that is never the case beyond superficial appearances, yet it could have been a scene that would have fit in nicely in a modern-day version of The Great Gatsby. Not really my scene yet again the food was good, and I always enjoyed spending a little time with my parents. And then, out of nowhere, it happened. In walks “The Goddess” on the arm of a guy who must have been 95-100 years old. He was quite frankly the oldest looking person I have ever seen in person. Look up “old” in the dictionary and there is a picture of this guy; I was completely and utterly stunned. You could have knocked me over with a feather I’m sure. I can remember watching her and noticing that she seemed happy and content to be there. No embarrassment, no trepidation, no self-conscious air as to the oddity of her situation. I mentioned the situation to my Dad, and he managed to get the “rest of the story” as Paul Harvey would say.  It turns out, this guy was the largest shareholder in a well-known Fortune 500 company and was worth hundreds of millions and perhaps billions of dollars!

I do remember that I never saw her again, but I did occasionally wonder as to the final outcome of her “arrangement.” Clearly, its culmination was imminent as I can’t imagine that “his time” wasn’t nearly up. Also, I must admit that I envision her every time I hear the song Lying Eyes by the Eagles and I particularly ponder the line, “every form of refuge has its price.” This is not to say the song in any way depicts the real-life story of “The Goodness” and “The Cadaver,” as I have no idea, yet it is fun to imagine the strange ways of the world and the not so uncommon absurdity of the human condition. I was still young and fairly naïve. From that point forward I believe I became a little less so.

    Lyin’ Eyes

Eagles

City girls just seem to find out early
How to open doors with just a smile
A rich old man
And she won’t have to worry
She’ll dress up all in lace and go in style

Late at night a big old house gets lonely
I guess every form of refuge has its price
And it breaks her heart to think her love is only
Given to a man with hands as cold as ice

So she tells him she must go out for the evening
To comfort an old friend who’s feelin’ down
But he knows where she’s goin’ as she’s leavin’
She is headed for the cheatin’ side of town

You can’t hide your lyin’ eyes
And your smile is a thin disguise
I thought by now you’d realize
There ain’t no way to hide your lyin’ eyes

On the other side of town a boy is waiting
With fiery eyes and dreams no one could steal
She drives on through the night anticipating
‘Cause he makes her feel the way she used to feel

She rushes to his arms, they fall together
She whispers that it’s only for awhile
She swears that soon she’ll be comin’ back forever
She pulls away and leaves him with a smile

You can’t hide your lyin’ eyes
And your smile is a thin disguise
I thought by now you’d realize
There ain’t now way to hide your lyin’ eyes

She gets up and pours herself a strong one
And stares out at the stars up in the sky
Another night, it’s gonna be a long one
She draws the shade and hangs her head to cry

She wonders how it ever got this crazy
She thinks about a boy she knew in school
Did she get tired or did she just get lazy?
She’s so far gone she feels just like a fool

My oh my, you sure know how to arrange things
You set it up so well, so carefully
Ain’t it funny how your new life didn’t change things?
You’re still the same old girl you used to be

You can’t hide your lyin’ eyes
And your smile is a thin disguise
I thought by now you’d realize
There ain’t no way to hide your lyin’ eyes
There ain’t no way to hide your lyin’ eyes
Honey, you can’t hide your lyin’ eyes

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: Glenn Frey / Don Henley

Lyin’ Eyes lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group

TMC 12/1/19