Working on the kid’s house in Hollywood day after day increased our end-of-day need to relax with a glass of wine. Fortunately, downtown Hollywood hosted a number of places that satisfied this need. Places such as Carmello’s, Thanks to Harrison, and The Vintage on Harrison. We were in the latter establishment late one afternoon enjoying a glass of Le Sughere di Frasinnello (a 2020 Red wine from Maremma Toscana) as recommended by our server, Sebastian. The wine complimented our order of Tomino (an ancient soft washed-rind cheese melted in a skillet for spreading on ciabatta with fig jam).
We sat shooting the breeze as patrons filled the tasting room around us. The woman facing me at the table to our right suddenly leaned over and said, “I’m sorry to interrupt and normally don’t do this, but do you come here often? You both look so familiar.” They introduced themselves as Brandi and Nick and were a nice-looking couple whom looked to be in their late fifties or early sixties. Little did they realize the conversation-door they’d opened.
We replied with, “Yeah, we’ve heard that a lot.” I launched into my early life experience of being repeatedly mistaken for Barry Livingston, who played 10 year-old Ernie Douglas, the youngest of three brothers on the popular 1960-1972 TV sitcom My Three sons starring Fred MacMurray. Nick and Brandi were likely too young to have been familiar with the show, yet they feigned seeing some resemblance when MFI showed them a head shot of a young Livingston. Similarly, MFI shared how she’d been mistaken for Meredith Baxter Birney, who starred as the mother on the NBC sitcom Family Ties (1982-89). Brandi politely claimed she saw a resemblance.
Eventually, they asked what brought us to Hollywood, and that was when the conversation-door opened even wider. There’s little about us we don’t enjoy talking about more than our RVing full-time on the road for the past five years. They asked the standard questions we’ve learned to expect: “how has it been, ever have any problems, how do you pick where you’ll stay, what’s been your favorite place,” etc. We responded with our well-refined answers, an overload of pictures, and our retirement-business cards, which we had printed precisely for handing out on these occasions.
Most who encounter us and endure these conversations end up explaining how they’ve talked about going on the road once they retire, and Brandi and Nick were no exception. We recounted as much to them and encouraged they contact us should they ever genuinely consider RVing in retirement. Of course, we’ll have plenty of helpful advice to share.
