I like to tell my friends that I have driven the PCH for so long, I can drive it with my eyes closed. I had long wondered who the determined walker was who I passed every morning as both of us were heading east, I by car and she by foot. Now that Rick Wallace has identified her as Lisa Stange, who walks to and from Point Dume and the Malibu Library where she works, I have wondered about other persons I used to see who were regulars on the PCH.
There was the lithe, lanky, Marathon-type runner, wearing a baseball cap and running shorts, sprinting gracefully against the flow of traffic. I always imagined she was training for some great race. Then there was the slight young woman with the long, scraggly blonde hair who was forever hitching a ride in either direction. She looked so forlorn, often barefoot and not dressed in any way against cold and inclement weather. She was pitiful, but I never saw anyone stop.
Then there was the elderly, bearded homeless man walking with the ocean as a backdrop, bundled in wraps much too heavy for the season, sometimes with strange props he had gathered somewhere for some purpose. And finally there was that cowboy and his horse, stopping to chat on the highway. They left, were gone for a while, came back and then were gone forever.
Who were these other persons and where have they gone? I hope the runner won her race, the blonde waif got to a safe, warm and loving home, the bundled man found a comfortable resting place and the cowboy found his sunset to ride into.
Someone knows of these past icons of the PCH. Where are they now?
Leon Morgenstern, MD