By Maya Meinert
Special to the Daily Press

If you’ve ever stopped by the Santa Monica Visitors Center on Main Street, you may have been helped by mainstay Thelma Parks. For the last 19 years, Parks has been pointing people in the right direction, advising tourists on which Santa Monica attractions to visit and providing answers to misguided locals.

But Santa Monica was not her first home. The Brisbane, Australia, native lived in the Washington, DC-area when she first landed in the United States in 1959. It wasn’t until her daughter, now a screenwriter, started attending UCLA in the mid-1980s that Parks made the move to Santa Monica to be closer to her.

Her work at the Visitors Center began a couple years later.

Parks may be small in stature, but her thirst for knowledge is unrelenting. Through her position as a travel counselor, she continues to learn about the people and places of the city she has lived in for 21 years. The octogenarian often answers some of the e-mail received on the Visitors Center web site.

Parks sat down recently with the Daily Press to discuss her love of helping people find their way.

What do you like about Santa Monica?

“It’s reminiscent of my homeland. The atmosphere is the same — the beach. I like the ocean. It’s a place where you can walk almost anywhere. I think the people are very friendly. And the weather, of course. Everybody enjoys that.”

What are your favorite places in Santa Monica?

“Walking on Main Street, Montana Avenue, the Promenade. I’m partial to seafood, so I like The Lobster. I like Ocean Avenue Seafood ... give them a plug.”

How did you end up working at the Visitors Center?

“I went by the kiosk in Palisades Park, and I was asking about the area and the attractions here, like the Pier. I got talking to the lady that was there at the time, and several times when I’d pass by, I’d stop by and have a little chat. One time, I had nothing to do, and I said, “Do you ever have any part-time positions?” And she said, “Well, I have just engaged a young man. I don’t need anyone at the moment, but give me your name and telephone number, and should such an occasion come up, I’ll call you.” Well, I never did hear from her for about 18 months.

But she did call, and asked if I was still interested in the part-time position, and naturally, I said ‘yes.’ Because I had been in contact with the public for so long, for many, many years. When I was a banker, I had a lot of public contact. I also worked at the Radisson Huntley [Hotel] as a concierge. Those helped prepared me for my services at the Santa Monica Visitors Center.

One of the first assignments with the center and the kiosk in Palisades Park was answering questions for everybody — individual tourists who wandered up, excited groups who piled off tourist buses wanting postcards and other souvenirs, and city residents who needed directions. And later, Pier movie information.”

What kinds of questions do you get asked most often?

“Everything under the sun. Restaurants, museums, shopping areas, entertainment and like attractions. After all these years, I feel sufficiently experienced to almost anticipate what the next question is they’re going to ask me.”

What do you like about your job here?

“The interaction with the public, and the camaraderie with the staff.”

How do you do your research?

“Well, it’s automatic now. But when I first came here and got the position at the kiosk, I immersed myself in learning everything I could possibly from a tourist perspective. I would ride buses, learning everything I could on the various routes — north, south, east and west — so that I would be able to provide the tourist with firsthand information.

The Promenade, Santa Monica, Venice, Malibu — they all wanted all that information. The Farmers’ Market, Frank Gehry — we get a lot of inquiries about him. And of course, they all want to know where the celebrities are, where can they see one.

The lady who gave me the position, we got quite friendly, and we used to go to restaurants to see what the prices were — the ambiance and all that — so we’d know where to send people ... because not everybody wants a five-star hotel or restaurant.”

What kinds of questions do locals ask?

“Some just want to know what’s going on — what’s the entertainment, what’s on at the Pier this weekend, the Civic Auditorium and so forth.”

If someone came up to you and said, “I have my whole day free, plan me a day.” What would you tell them?

“First, I’d ask them, ‘Do you have a car?’ Because most of the attractions outside of Santa Monica, you need a car. But then, of course, they can go on public transport. If people say, ‘I don’t have a car and I only have a couple of hours,’ naturally, I’d direct them to the Promenade. Or if they wanted to take a drive up the coastline, we tell them it’s an excellent drive up Pacific Coast Highway.”

What if they have more than a couple of hours?

“Well, do they want to take in a cinema or something like that? Would they like to go to Hollywood, University City? Or Disneyland — how far is it, how can they get there? If they don’t have car, we tell them they can hardly go there and back in a day on public transportation because it takes them a couple of hours to get there. It’s 45 miles away.”

Why do you like working with people so much?

“I don’t know why. It seems to come naturally. I look forward to helping people. I know what it’s like to come from another country and not know where you’re going. I feel when an out-of-town person comes to me, he or she is the most important and must be treated as such. Having found myself a tourist many times, I enjoy putting the visitor first.