Go ahead....blame this on global warming, too!  It occured to me this week that, one by one, tiny parts of my past are melting away. 

I got a newsletter in the mail from the CBS Alumni Association.  Now, it's not as important as it might sound.  It's just a bunch of old CBS and CBS News employees from Los Angeles who try to keep in touch.

On the front page of this newsletter is the picture of our old "home".  The story is that our "home" is going away.

On the corner of Sunset and Gower in the middle of Hollywood is a place called Columbia Square.  It's an old, art deco building erected in 1938 to house the CBS family on the west coast. 

If you "Google" it you can find a picture.  It's a grand building!  You know the kind that looks part mansion and part cruise ship. 

I worked at Columbia Square for 10 years.  It was my "home" for that time in the 1980's.  It was a time when people still smoked cigarettes at their desks.  We had a "commissary" and hot meals were served morning, noon and night.  There were typewriters everywhere.

When I first started there as a 28 year old reporter from Indianapolis, I used to get lost in that building.  It was so big and had been remodeled so many times that some hallways lead to nowhere.

It's where I met Billy Knaggs, one of the original male Hollywood make-up artists who would tell us stories about the old movies he worked on and the stars he made look like stars.  He made us look good, too.

We always knew when CBS Chairman Bill Paley was coming west for a little sunshine, because the rented plants showed up in the main lobby.  I met Dan Rather at Columbia Square.  I also worked there with Brent Musberger and Connie Chung and Ann Curry and Pat O'Brien and a wonderful journalist who I considered a mentor, Bill Stout.  I learned about Bill's death while at my desk at Columbia Square.

The story in the newsletter says Columbia Square is closing.  The offices and studios and equipment is moving to a newer, bigger place. 

The new owners say they will try to keep the "feel" of the building when they remodel the place into a destination shopping/living complex.

Well I "feel" the loss.  I know there were ghosts at Columbia Square.  The ghosts of old Hollywood roam those same dead-end hallways.

But, I roamed those hallways, too and I am glad. 

So, I read the article in the newsletter about Columbia Square and felt the heat.  It's hot in Hollywood these days and my "ice cubes", my memories are melting away.

Try to keep yours in the freezer as long as you can.