Going Green way before Going Green

Going Green way before Going Green - Los Angeles, CA 1968

An elderly woman I knew in Los Feliz in the early 1980’s had an electric car just like this one parked in her garage for years. From what I understand, she was environmentally conscious even back then and purchased the car in the late 1960s for $3,000. When I met her she was well into her 90s and did not drive the car so it just remained parked in the garage gathering dust. She was gracious enough to allow me to keep my motorcycle in her backyard for a couple of years as strict family rules did not allow motorcycles at my own home. During this time I would keep late hours coming home from places like the Palace (The Avalon today) or the Seven Seas Nightclubs and she would never complain about the noise from the cycle entering her driveway at 3am. Her name was Helen Cummings and she lived alone and played cards with her friends at her immaculate home on Ambrose Ave. She came from a very well to do family in Los Feliz that developed the Cummings Estate Laughlin Park off of Los Feliz Blvd where people like Cecil B. DeMille once called home. Helen passed away around 1987 at the age of 101. I don’t know what became of her electric car, but today there is one parked in front of a duplex on Rowena Ave in Los Feliz. When I drive down Rowena today, I think of Helen zooming down the street in that little car to meet her friends for a game of cards.