Girl and Me

On a 2015 trip to the Smithsonian with my husband, Ishmael, I walked into the “Inventors Trademark Hall of Fame.” There, to my surprise, was a photograph of Anne-Marie, being honored for inventing the “B” on the ball, a way of exercising on a ball that is now standard in many gyms. When I returned home, I gave Anne-Marie a call to let her know I’d seen the award and how wonderful it must have been for her to be recognized. We said our goodbyes and she died shortly thereafter.

I’m sharing these memories so that you can see how the Nature Boys were real people, whose contributions were based on encouraging the best of humanity, and building businesses of integrity. The Topanga Historical Society, the Chamber of Commerce and the Trash Warriors, the Community House, and Theatricum Botanicum, among others, are all building blocks that hold the community together. To me, they refer back to the role the Nature Boys played in contributing to their world to make it a better place. I was lucky to know them.

Karen L. Moran’s memoir of life in Topanga, “Forever TOURMALINE,” will be released in spring, 2023.

With gratitude to Eileen Delehanty Pearkes for facilitating this series. Find her at: edpearkes.com, author of “The Geography of memory: Reclaiming the Cultural, Natural, and Spiritual History of the Snayackstx (Sinixt) First People.” (Rocky Mountain Books)