I didn’t know him personally.

But Shirley did.

They were contemporaneous.

But so was I.

Looking him up, I was startled to find out that he was born in Monterey Park. That’s where I grew up, after being born two years later. And he died in Palm Springs where two of our very best friends live.

So I had many chances to know him, and may even have, inadvertently and unknowingly.

But Shirley knew him well enough to talk together for hours and hours, which they did.

She was working at The Folk Tree and The Folk Tree Collection on South Fair Oaks Avenue in Pasadena, and knew a lot of famous people who came in to shop and requested her, often refusing to be assisted by anybody else.

Bob (may I call him Bob?) and Shirley and I were in High School at the same time. Shirley and I went to Mark Keppel High in Alhambra, just across the street from Monterey Park. Mackie went to Rosemead High, a rival school a few miles to the east. 

Shirley was a somewhat experienced socialite, went on dates to parties and dances, and I think went to Mackie’s Graduation Party and knew some of his friends even before she knew him.

High school kids tend to cross school boundaries and frequently wind up at the same place, like Twohey’s, the iconic drive-in restaurant known throughout the San Gabriel Valley and in famous movies.

Shirley and Bob had a lot to talk about, reminisce over, and were real friends.

I think he’s the celebrity she sold chopsticks to.

He was planning a big party. The Folk Tree had a set of ivory chopsticks, inlaid in silver, that had been sitting around for a long time, waiting in vain for a buyer.

Shirley could sell anything to anybody. She pointed out that the chopsticks would make a memorable party favor. You could eat with them  exotically and then take them home to remember.

He bought the lot, a full dozen, maybe two. I don’t know because I wasn’t there. He could afford it.  

Whenever we would see Bob Mackie’s name listed on the Carol Burnett Show, or a Hollywood movie, or a TV extravaganza (he was legendary and designed for nearly everybody, you can look it up) we would wave at the screen.

I never got to know Bob Mackie, to have a chance to thank him for being friends with Shirley.