For the first time in many years I drive down the tortured and twisted surface of the road between "Three Hands Junction" and the entrance to Brighton camp in the area we knew as New Jersey. It has been so long since the last visit that this trip feels as though it is the first.

However, unlike the first time, many many years ago, there is no feelings of sadness for our home and friends left in San Fernando mixed with the excitement of moving to this lovely new place where we will live for the next seven years or so, a period that will shape what we ultimately become, a wonderful part of our lives that remains in our memory in fine detail up to today.

In its place is a numbing sense of sadness at what our beloved La Brea has become and a great feeling of anticipation at what I will find when I get down to meet sister Paul at the RC Church.

The old Gunnery Sighting Tower in the pic above stands out as a beacon of hope in its tattered and torn face that remains unchanged from the good old days. It was old and run down then but has survived still standing today.

The new Complex that I was soon to visit has both strong historic roots through the de Verteuils who made it possible, and the courage of the people they once knew and loved who will make it in to a success in the future.

Like the hope and renewal that the green grass brings to the old Gunnery Tower, the new Complex brings hope and a sense of renewal to many in La Brea.