Desert Holly

Desert Holly Condo Complex, Palm Springs

It was the summer 1999. I had to get a place fast in Palm Springs. I lived in the Bay Area and the constant dreary weather had got me down, not to mention the hustle and bustle of the big cities I had lived in...Miami, San Francisco and San Diego.

Drove around Palm Springs and found this place, a desert retro oasis. Loved it. At the time there was a Vons across the street in a big mall filled with stores. Grant it, it wasn't a pretty mall, but they had a food court with a McDonalds and a good restaurant--Carla's--a place where the chef was renegade from Billy Reed's and who made the same exact food as you could get there at nearly half the price.

When I drove up to Desert Holly, it was vacant with only the name of a realtor and a phone number posted on the sliding glass door.

The rest was history for $50,000, I got a two bedroom, one bath condo that looked like it came out of an advertisement of a 1955, $.25 Look magazine. Everything was original--the dishwasher, stove, lighting fixtures, carpet. The kitchen was divided from the living room by a long bar with a space-ship pattern formica top. Outside was a garden and kidney-shaped swimming pool. "Heaven on earth," I thought.

Today, I miss the place, though the Palm Springs Mall across the street is now nearly empty--the Vons long-gone and the food court shut down years ago.

Now I'm in Dumuth Park, the section of Palm Springs that took an enormous hit when the real estate market dove south. Bad as Florida was.



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