You meet the the most interesting people “on the road”.
Yesterday, we spent some time talking and drinking Margaritas with one of our neighbors here at Paradise by the Sea. Her name is “Pamela”, and she’s a regular here in the Fall, like us.
Pamela shares her RV with her long-time girlfriend and her Chihuahua dog, Slinky.
Pamela’s partner is a screenwriter and is not here now, as she is working on a Netflix series in Pennsylvania. Slinky, on the other hand, is “in the house”. Here is the little rascal with her BFF:
You might notice that the tiny dog has vestigial stubs instead of front legs. The poor thing was born that way. Pamela has raised Slinky since she was 8 weeks old; the dog is now 10 years old. Pamela has a Kangaroo-type sling that Slinky curls up in, and they go everywhere together.
Pamela is a Hollywood make-up artist. She works when she has to, or when some of her “regulars” are doing movies. Two of her actor clients might look familiar to you:
She’s worked with Sandra Bullock for twenty-two years on most of her movies during that time. Pamela said that she is the godmother to Bullock’s adopted son Luis.
I asked her how she got into “the business” and she said that her family, going back many generations, worked in the Hollywood movie industry. Her great grandparents were wig makers in England, and came to California in the early years of Hollywood. They were contemporaries of Max Factor, who invented movie make-up, which later transitioned to the cosmetics that women purchase today.
(It’s a small world: One of Charlie’s bookkeeping clients is Scott Hoag. He grew up in Beverly Hills, the son of the Chief Operating Officer of Max Factor. Scott used to get driven to school by a chauffeur piloting a limousine! He says he hated it.)
Anyway, like our friend Scott, Pamela grew up around the business and, in her case, gravitated to it. She lives in Taos, New Mexico, has a vacation home in Lake Tahoe (I believe), and spends a bunch of time traveling in her Monaco motor home…because her parents, in their 80’s, like to join her in their own RV. So, it’s good quality time for the bunch of them, including little Slinky.