Living in three places at the same time, Los Angeles, Canoga Park, and Winnetka, California


I've always enjoyed history, and I got a real kick out of figuring out that I lived in three places at the same time in my late twenties - Los Angeles, Canoga Park, and Winnetka, California.

To be fair, I lived in Los Angeles. And if you are reading this anywhere but in the LA area, that's probably enough. But if you live in LA, you know that you have to tell people exactly where in LA you live. I mean, it's a big city!

So, I lived in Canoga Park, which is on the west end of The San Fernando Valley. And that's enough to tell most people where I was. But it wasn't enough for me. After I started exploring the area around my apartment complex, I realized that I was in Winnetka. Now, of course, there is a Winnetka Avenue, and most people just thought that I lived there. I lived a couple of blocks from Winnetka Avenue, at Saticoy and Mason.

This tiny part of Canoga Park, which is a tiny part of Los Angeles, is Winnetka. It was actually a community between Canoga Park and Reseda that was originally The Weeks Poultry Colony (they raised chickens) and was named after the hometown of the founder. He was from Illinois.

Of course, there was no internet back in those days, and I had no idea who to talk to. I visited some historic museums but they didn't really help much. I wanted to know - was my neighborhood Winnetka?

Then the Federal Government answered my question. While I was living there, about the time I turned thirty, they built a new post office a couple of blocks away. And when they put up the lettering it said, "United States Post Office, Winnetka Station, Winnetka, California".


Image at the top of this post: The Weeks Poultry Colony, Winnetka California.
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