The Honey Lady of Ice House Canyon... How People Used to Be

Once in a while a friend will ask a normal question like "Hey, if you could be anywhere for a vacation right now, where would you be?" and of course being the weirdo that I am, I would probably respond with something retarded like Sapporo, Japan 1972 or Montreal, Canada 1967.. and of course my friend would look at me like I'm on crack and say.... "What the hell are you talking about?"

Well what I'm talking about is I'd like to experience the "people" of a certain place and time, more so, than just a geographical location... for example, this is just pure speculation, but I would have loved to visit Italy in the 60's for sure, and I'm sure the people are all still pretty nice, but times have changed since then... I'll put my money on the 60's...

Anyways, this past weekend something really bizarre happened. We entered the Twilight Zone and hit a time warp and went "Back To The Future".... ???

What happened? Well, my good friend Matt and I decided we needed to get off our fat asses and get some hiking in to start the New Year off right. Sure, no brainer.... lets go to Ice House Canyon, near Mt Baldy, pound for pound the best hike in Southern California because it starts with beautiful running water and continues all the way till the end of it... "see best hike in l.a." sidebar/directions.

So, like my Alzheimer ass always does, I forgot something... my daypass, I have like 10 at home, but now I have to spend 5 bucks because I'm retarded and didn't remember to bring one... so we go to the Ranger's station and its closed, but I tell Matt.. "Its okay, we can get one from the Honey Lady" he looks at me like I just took my lips off a bong or something..... "She sells honey from her house and sells the passes for the ranger"... Matt has the Oh.... interesting... look on his face...

I remember years back, when I first started coming up to Ice House there was an older couple, a friendly gentleman and lady who used to sell the day passes. I recently heard that the gentleman had passed away and the lady now lived alone. It was sad to hear cause I remembered he was a very nice gentleman, the few times I had purchased a pass from him.

So, as we walk up there is cardtable and tablecloth with nice displays of honey. Honey in the clear plastic bear bottle, honey in the old fashioned jars, and even real honey comb... about 6 bucks for each item, not a bad deal at all for real unprocessed honey.... Matt wanted one to take home to his wonderful wife, Shawn. We knocked on the door and the sweet old lady with curlers in her hair and makeup by Tammy Faye Baker came tumbling through the screen door. "Good Morning!" she said and she brought out the day passes with her and starts talking to us like we've been friends for decades.

She says, "here" and takes a spoonful of honey and gives Matt and I a taste of it.... Oh my goodness, I'm not kidding you, Matt and I just look at each other like this is the best thing we've tasted in a long, long time... If you've never had pure, unfiltered, pasteurized honey... Man are you missing out!!!! It was freakin outstanding!!!!!! Matt looked frazzled cause he really wanted the honey, but we needed the day pass also... now this shouldn't be an issue with normal people, but being the city slickers we are, assuming credit is always the preffered choice of exchange we barely had like 11 dollars between the two of us.... duh...

so, Matt asks her... uh, do you take credit cards? The Honey Lady says "Nope, I only take three forms of payment....... cash, checks and " get this........ are you holding onto your seats..... I.O.U.'s... from a complete stranger............ our mouths just dropped.....

I knew we were in a time warp for sure.... where did this lady come from? doesn't she know you can't trust people? doesn't she know we should be submitting a driver's license, social security, and AMC movie watcher card for any minimum purchase? what's wrong with you Honey Lady????????????

You know what..... Nothing is wrong with you Honey Lady........... its everyone else that's messed up, not you. Thank you so much for letting me experience what life was like when people still trusted people, when kids could go trick or treating without fear of being poisoned, and you could throw your bike down on the front lawn without it being gone 15 minutes later. Thank you so much for taking us back to a place that I thought I could never go back to.... What a joy.....

What a beautiful day this was.... Matt got his real unfiltered honey and we got our pass. BTW, each visit comes with a warm hug from the Honey Lady as well. I will definitely be back for the best tasting honey in Southern California, but really.......... I just want to go back to feel normal again..... Oh, the hike... it was beautiful as usual, but it didn't really matter anymore cause the Honey Lady made the weekend truly memorable...