[jttpwalsh]

I used to work at the Anaheim Theme Park. One of my co workers was from Downey. He told a story about coming home from work on the swing shift, and stopping off at Alpha Beta (Remember them?) and running into Richard Carpenter in the frozen foods aisle. How surreal/cool must that have been ?

[Aliska]

Thank you for sharing that. I think the Carpenters, when not working or performing, lived like ordinary people as much as possible just because that's the way they were. I've been catching up on their music and am in awe of their talent. Richard has always come across as very gracious and thoughtful. I've never seen any video or Q&A page that even hints at arrogance or rudeness to anyone.

I'd have probably bothered him for his autograph when I was younger. That must get to be a pain for famous people.

After I learned a little more about how their talents developed well I can't write out all I learned. I told myself, "it can't be an accident those two were born in a family and had talents that complemented each other so well. It had to come from somewhere" They had the advantage of plenty of records (Richard called his father's collection "eclecric" I only remember Les Paul and Mary Ford) but so did my sister and I. We could have not all but plenty access to music from very young.

We both took up music but never had anything close to the gifts the Carpenters had.

I learned that the father took piano as a child and had no interest; he became a printer, worked very hard. It turns out his parents (Karen and Richard's paternal grandparents) had been missionaries in China and when they returned (first to England then it gets fuzzy), both were accomplished pianists. They would have dinners and afterwards entertain with piano duets. i learned that from an article in the NYT.

Not too long before she died, she did ask for a taco.