During the days of Watergate, we heard a lot about some guys who used to work for the President and typified the "Orange County mentality." Roughly translated, that means you consider blue shirts with suits a little flashy and you think the weight of one's say in government should be directly proportional to the size of his avocado ranch. Well, just to set the record straight, there are some very good things about Orange County, too, and, as evidence, we offer 23-year-old Francine Parks. She grew up there with absolutely no visible ill effects and takes the liberated view that a lady should make her own way in the world. She also believes that if she can make it someplace near the ocean's edge, life will be just that much better; and so far, she's on course. Francine has recently rented an apartment in one of Southern California's rapidly developing areas, Marina del Rey, the world's largest man-made small-boat harbor, scooped out of Santa Monica Bay. Restaurants, shops and cleanly modern apartment complexes have replaced the bugs and mallards that used to fill Marina's waters, and Francine both lives there and works at Tiffanys, one of its most popular discos. "As a place to live, it has everything I crave. I water-ski, sail, play a little tennis, and I can enjoy my greatest passion--dancing--at Tiffanys." Although she works there only part time, there are very few empty spaces in Francine's weekday schedule, which also includes classes at Santa Monica College, a second part-time job as a trip consultant for Leisure World Travel, assignments from Playboy Models and, most importantly for her future, a weekly class with drama coach Eric Morris. "The classes are absolutely stimulating. We do a lot of encounter-group kinds of exercises. There's one where he asks you to do something in front of the whole class that would normally make you feel embarrassed, or stupid, in order to get rid of inhibitions. It's called Reluctancy." We have an idea that that exercise might be tough for Francine, because if there's one thing she isn't in her enthusiastic confrontation with life, it's reluctant.
