“And you may ask yourself… Well, how did I get here? “
(With a nod to The Talking Heads)
Welcome to our new column! Each week we will feature how we all ended up
in Idyllwild.
I’ll go first:
Hi. I’m Suzanne Avalon.
Living in Los Angeles in the early 80’s. Disco, fast cars, celebrities
and a job that led me to Idyllwild. I was working in development of
movies for television at ABC Entertainment in Century City. Madonna was
my mentor. Late nights, early mornings and no internet. Imagine the
possibilities!
In 1984 I found out about Idyllwild from an ad for ISOMATA at the back
of a travel magazine. I sent for their brochure and found out that they
were offering a black and white photography class the week I had planned
to visit. Hooked. Not only to photography, but to Idyllwild. I started
visiting more and more and finally took a month off from my job to hang
out and decompress in the beautiful mountain community.
One day I discovered a little shop in the Village Lane was for rent. I
rented it on the spot. I went back to L.A., quit my job and moved to
Idyllwild where I opened my shop “Avalon”.
In Avalon you could buy crystals, new age music, dragons and unicorns
and metaphysical books including Arthurian Lore. The shop thrived for 7
years. In that time, I also had ‘Coyote Gallery’ and ‘Espresso
Yourself’, which was proudly the first coffee house in town.
After a couple of years off the hill, I came back and started a theatre
company, which is now in its 22^(nd) year. Idyllwild Actors Theatre has
brought over 79 theatrical performances to Idyllwild and surrounding
communities.
All the while, I was a single mom to my twins Michael and Blythe. I
started working for the Press-Enterprise in advertising. With that
experience I went on to head advertising and marketing divisions for 2
other news outlets. Then came the Town Crier. I worked for Jack and
Becky Clark for many years and found myself in the awesome position of
being able to become the new owner/publisher/editor.
I have been here for 38 years. How about you?
