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“Angels We Have Heard on High…”

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Christmas Angel at Grier Musser Museum

Christmas Angel at the Grier Musser Museum

Martine and I don’t go in for celebrating Christmas in a big way, but we like to visit the holiday show at the Grier Musser Museum and look at all the decorations, some dating back to Victorian times, some as new as yesterday. Susan and Ray Tejada have accomplished no less than providing a popular history of Yule memorabilia. Most of the displays did not cost much at the time they were printed or manufactured, but they are the type of “stuff” that people fill impelled to discard because it tends to fill all the available space.

I have always loved the three candle-holding angels (the leftmost one is in the above photo). They appear with a wide selection of greeting cards, pop-up books, commemorative dishes, figurines, paintings, “Depression glass,” music boxes, and other memorabilia relating to the season.

After we did the tour of the house, Susan took us downstairs to see the two television shows that the late Huell Howser did featuring the Grier Musser Museum. It is unfortunate that Huell, who taught us how to appreciate so much of California, is no longer with us. But it was his influence that led Martine and I to begin visiting the museum, which has become one of our own holiday traditions.

A Sense of Loss

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Huell Howser (1945-2013)

Huell Howser (1945-2013)

Every evening after dinner, I usually get on the computer and enter my income and expenditures on QuickBooks. During that time, about twelve feet from me, Martine watches one of Huell Howser’s TV shows on KCET, usually California’s Gold, California’s Green, or Visiting. What all three shows have in common is the amiable host paying homage to some locale or event or person connected with California.

People have made fun of Huell’s Tennessee drawl and his seeming naiveté in doing his interviews. There’s even a drinking game in which the participants have to take a swig every time Huell says “Wwwwwooooowwww!” or or “Gooooolllllllyyyyyy!” or “That’s amazing” or “historic” or any number of other of his habitual expressions.

Many were the times I would walk away from my computer and sit next to Martine because I found myself getting interested in one of his interviews. Over the years, Huell and I have visited many of the same places—because Huell got me hooked.

But now we no longer have Huell Howser, because he died yesterday in Palm Springs at the age of sixty-seven. He had retired in September from his show, sparking rumors that he was being forced out. Despite his approachability, however, the Tennessean was a private person who was fighting a long illness which was getting the upper hand.

Both Martine and I feel a sense of loss. In a city where there are not many really likeable public figures, everybody loved Huell. And he loved California and delighted in introducing interesting sidelights of his adopted state to anyone who would listen. And listen we did. For KCET, insofar as I’m concerned, he was the whole station’s raison d’être. When some people leave us, they leave behind a gaping hole. Who can replace someone so amiable, so knowledgeable, so adventurous, and withal such a character as Huell?

I know that his shows will continue to be watched in reruns. He will continue to influence our road trips through the State of California, especially in our Southern California neck of the woods. A neck of the woods that somehow has gotten more lonely without Huell to appreciate them.

To get a flavor of his shows, watch this video on YouTube (about a dog that eats avocados). And read this tribute that appeared in today’s Los Angeles Times.