Boomers: California must have seemed like some kind of paradise

[Taverner]

Not that it isn't ;)

But seriously you had Mamas and the Papas singing "California Dreamin'" and "Young Girls are coming to the Canyon"

You had that dude singing "Wear Flowers in your hair"

You had the Grateful Dead singing - well, anything

"The Graduate" took place here

Monterey Pop happened here.

Freakin' Altamont happened here - but that's a whole new story

Hell, even to seal the deal, Van Halen came from here!

It all sang to this nation-state-district we call California

-----------------------------------------

It is a nice place, isn't it?

[havocmom]

1. We had orage groves all around

What a wonderful scent.

[Flaxbee]

34. yes. where were you? I grew up in Redlands ...

when there were still many many orange groves. My dad grew up in Rialto in the 1930s / 40s and his family farm had tons of citrus.

Sigh.

I miss what California used to be, when I was a youngster in the 70s and a teen in the 80s.

[begin_within]

2. It was, in the 1960s

There was still a middle class back then, and almost anyone with a decent job could buy a house. My Dad bought his house in 1964 for $28,000, in Orange County. Everything was still uncrowded compared to today. Disneyland was right there a few miles away. The beaches were just a short drive away. The mountains with snow skiing in the winter were just a couple hours. Hollywood was only an hour away. The deserts were only a couple of hours. Mexico was a couple of hours. The Sierras were only a day's drive. It was all close by, it was all affordable, and it was all uncrowded compared to today. Public schools were good. Colleges were affordable. My sister went to Berkeley and UCLA and never paid a dime of tuition because she was a California resident. And the famous southern California climate blessed it all. Of course not everyone was living the blissful California lifestyle. There would not have been riots in Watts or protests on the college campuses if everyone was content. The California lifestyle was somewhat unrealistic and detached from the rest of the world and the gritty realities of modern society. It all seemed to come crashing down very slowly in the 1970s. But yes, it was some kind of paradise for a while anyway.

[alphafemale]

3. Don't really consider myself a boomer

But I tried to make a go of it there.

My brother older by 11 years, and my sister older by about 20 coaxed me out there from the time I was about 12 or so.

A Eff Apt was around a thousand dollars a month there, at that time, and this was early/mid eighties.

I honest ta gawd don't know how people did it.

[dana_b]

4. It still is nice BUT

there are definite changes that have changed this place for the worse. I'm from the Bay Area and I was born and grew up in San Jose (until age 10). There were so many more agricultural fields and a lot less people. Now its wall to wall people and you have to go much farther to get to the agricultural area (past Gilroy or the East-East Bay). So much more driving, commuting and time away from home.

I still love it here - its home and my family is here. However if they weren't, I would be tempted to try another state.
BTW - I'm a Gen Xer but remember a lot from my childhood. :)

[Taverner]

7. I'm a San Jose son too

Born in 1970

And yes, I know what you mean

[AsahinaKimi]

5. I do and will always love my San Francisco

Not a Boomer but, This town will still continue to be my favorite place, besides..as a Japanese-Korean-American, many of my people still live in and around Nihonmachi. Its still the coolest place in the world to me. にほんまち は めちゃ めちゃ かっこいい ですよ!

[Taverner]

8. At the risk of sounding dumb, J-Town RAWKS!!!!

Loves me some SF (living in San Ramon now)
Loves me some J-Town!

[KamaAina]

29. We have one too, you know

There are only three authentic Nihonmachi (Japantowns) left in the country: SF's, of course, LA's -- and San Jose's. Seriesly. (Surprised Seattle doesn't have one; Honolulu is so Japanese it never needed one!)

[Taverner]

31. Consider Seattle a case of a multiculturalistic sucess!

Asians are much more mixed as is the culture as a whole.

I love SF, LA and Seattle. Portland too.

This is the real "integration"

[triguy46]

6. Perhaps. But as my 107 year old Grandmother said:

"Life is what you make it." I would suggest that though CA seemed cool at the time, happiness is where you make it. This evening I wouldn't have any of it for what I have now.

[Duer 157099]

9. Ahhh... Will Geer's Theatricum Botanicum in Topanga....

Yeah, it was the epitome of awesomeness in the 70s... sigh..

[Blue_In_AK]

10. I lived in California, mostly in the Bay Area, from 1969 to 1975,

some of the best years of my life.

Freakin' Altamont -- I was there.

[struggle4progress]

11. I remember 35 years ago climbing the mountains and seeing the big brown bubble of LA smog

from 200 miles away. That was not far from Charlie Manson's old hideout, though he was in jail by then. There was a story in the papers somewhere around that time about a guy who, stopped by the cops, said "I have a problem: I'm a cannibal" and pulled some gnawed fingers from his pocket

And perhaps the "Oh shit I'll never do this again" moment of my life was a hitched ride in a car through the Sierra, along a high twisting road with sheer drop-offs and no guardrails, in which the driver suddenly started to tell me about his failed love-life and his despair and desire to end it all, as I cheerfully bubbled back about the gorgeous natural world all around us and how beautiful the sunrise was every morning

From there, I ended up in Berkeley where a friend of mine and I sat in bar, listening to a stranger tell us he planned to jump off the Golden Gate and we responded with our best adolescent absurdist/Zen chitchat, trying to talk him out off it. My friend and I were leathery-tanned field workers then, and my friend finally snuffed out his handrolled cigarette on one of the calluses on my hand; he'd probably done it plenty enough times experimentally to himself; it didn't hurt, and I never got even a blister; but the poor would-be jumper was terribly alarmed by this; his eyes opened wide in disbelief and horror, and he scurried off for saner company

I always thought it was a bit of a crazy place. But perhaps I saw it through crazy eyes

[begin_within]

16. Now that's a vacation!

Charles Mansion, cannibalism, extinguishing cigarettes on the body, suicide planning, smog bubble... all we need is Huell Howser to narrate and we've got another fine example of California's Gold.

[struggle4progress]

18. ... Relax! -- said the nightman -- We are programmed to receive. You can checkout any time you like,

but you can never leave ...

[mitchum]

17. Stanley Dean Baker...

On July 13, 1970, California Highway Patrol officers received reports of a hit-and-run accident at Big Sur. Three persons had been injured in one car, while two long-haired males sped away in another, fleeing the scene of the crash. Patrolmen found two longhairs walking down a nearby road and noted similarities in the descriptions. Under questioning, one suspect readily confessed involvement in the accident, startling police as he added, "I have a problem. I'm a cannibal ."

To prove the point, Stan Baker turned his pockets out and palmed a human finger bone -- removed, he said, from his most recent victim in Montana. Baker's sidekick, Harry Allen Stroup, was also carrying a bony digit, and the pair were taken into custody on suspicion of homicide. Investigators in Montana found the mutilated remains of victim James Schlosser in the Yellowstone River, his heart and several fingers missing from the scene.

The case was grim enough, but Baker was not finished talking, yet. According to his statement, he had been recruited by Satanic cultists from a college campus in his home state of Wyoming. An alleged member of the homicidal "Four Pi movement," Baker had sworn allegiance to the cult's master -- known to intimates as the "Grand Chingon" -- and he had committed other slayings on the cult's behalf. There had been human sacrifices, he reported, in the Santa Ana Mountains, south of Los Angeles. Displaying supposed cult tattoos, Baker also confessed participation in the April 20, 1970 murder of Robert Salem, a 40-year-old lighting designer in San Francisco. Salem had been stabbed 27 times and nearly decapitated, his left ear severed and carried away in a crime that Baker attributed to orders from the Grand Chingon. Slogans painted on the walls in Salem's blood -- including "Zodiac" and "Satan Saves" -- were meant to stir up panic in an atmosphere already tense from revelations in the Manson murder trial.

Baker, 22, and his 20-year-old companion were returned to Montana on July 20. Convicted of murder, both were sentenced to prison, where Baker continued his efforts on behalf of the cult. Authorities report that he actively solicited other inmates to join a Satanic coven, and full moons seemed to bring out the worst in Stanley, causing him to howl like an animal. He sometimes threatened prison guards, and was relieved of homemade weapons on eleven separate occasions, but administrators still saw fit to let him travel through the prison system, teaching transactional analysis to other inmates. Harry Stroup discharged his sentence and was released in 1979; Stanley Baker was paroled to his native Wyoming six years later, requesting that his present whereabouts remain confidential.



from the fine folks at Serial Killer Central

[begin_within]

19. So they're both on the loose again.

That's lovely to know. Commit murder, you're back out in 15 years, probably to do it again. He would be 62 today and still perfectly capable of doing it again.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

12. and they all sang about stuff that meant something....social and environmental justice

oh and The Flying Jib

[Sanity Claws]

13. You forgot the Beach Boys

They were also important in creating the myth of California.

[ohiosmith]

14. Was far out man. Lived in Hollywood mid/late 60s. A lid was $10. and clean. The acid was

righteous. The Troubadour, Whiskey, Hullabaloo. Pandora's Box and the riots on Sunset Strip. Eating at Cantors after the concert. Drinking beer and eating chili at Barney's Beanery, Getting high in the hills and waking up in Malibu. Getting a lift to the Strip from Neil Young and Stephen Stills. Digging on the fruit and vegetables in the Mayfair Market after toking up. Talking to Timothy Leary and not remembering a thing he said except "we are, where they wish they were, but never will be".

Thanks for the stroll done memory lane. :hi:

[tainted_chimp]

24. Just for you, ohiosmith:

A VERY young Teri Garr in.... 'Where's The Bus?'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZn2OqPHdYU


She's such a knockout, it's ridiculous. This was filmed, I believe, near Hollywood & Vine. (not sure of the exact date)


I think I read somewhere that she was a regular dancer on Hullabaloo.

I adore her... holy crappp!

[hobbit709]

15. The smog, the earthquakes, the traffic

Haven't been back since 1971.

[mitchum]

20. When I was a kid it was mythic

and remains so

[Taverner]

23. Still Mythic to me

And I was born, raised, and still live here...

When I first saw the cover of Beach Boys' "Pet Sounds" I immediately realized this was a piece of Californiana...

[WinkyDink]

21. BEFORE: Mickey Mouse Club; Lennon Sisters; Calif. Girls; LIToBeaver; Zorro; etc.

[Taverner]

22. It still has many elements of all of that

And even elements from Ansel Adams' photos that first pulled in the masses seeking freedom into her borders...

[Arkansas Granny]

25. I've always said that if I wasn't married with children in the late 60's,

I probably would have wound up in Haight-Ashbury. The idea of living in a commune still has it's appeal.

[annabanana]

30. It's usually more fun in theory

than in practice. Let's just say that it requires some "social finesse".

[kayakjohnny]

26. Well, and actually before the boomers came along...

there was Laurel and Hardy.

I used to wake up at 4 am in Daytona in the mid 80's just to see the short films of L and H that would be shown by our nbc station here. They always showed them cruising around in southern Cal, doing their thing. You know, fixing things, looking for work, getting pianos out of third story buildings.

The cool thing about these shows... between the sections of dialog, they had beautiful little snippets of classical music going, and many of the scenes were of them cruising around California.

It was beautiful! Sunny, palm trees, very little traffic.

And I often thought how cool it would have been to be a part of that scene. In the thirties, early forties.

Back then, before everything changed so much.

[Taverner]

27. Hell, all of California is like that!

Just the the other day, I almost died from a grand piano dropping on me....

But I digress

[Taverner]

28. Despite the changes (and man, have I seen some!) California is still paradise

It doesn't rain that often

It's usually 70-something

No snow

No ice

No hail

Lots of smart people, escaping their previously local hell

The locals who are holding on to their prejudices are all leaving to either AZ or Colorado Springs

And, we have practically legal 420!

[Tikki]

32. It was magical..there are times now..

when we just take off and go somewhere here in So Cal that are just as magical as back when.

The Tikkis

[LibDemAlways]

33. I grew up in So. Cal.in the 60s. Looking back on it, it was

pretty wonderful. The Byrds and Grassroots played at dances at my high school. There was a summer tv show called "Groovy" filmed down on the beach, and anyone could show up and be on it. There was another show called 9th Street West which was sort of a west coast version of American Bandstand. Getting tickets to that was easy too. Over spring break there was the teenage fair at the Hollywood Palladium. Disneyland was inexpensive, and there were all sorts of special nights when local businesses would buy blocks of tickets for their employees and take over the park during the evening hours. It was uncrowded and fun. If you lived in the South Bay, it was not unusual to see one of the Beach Boys hanging out.

My daughter is 17. There are no dances at her high school. There are no local tv shows for teenagers. There is no teenage fair. Disneyland is expensive and crowded as hell. She's seen a few rock stars, but she's paid big $$ for the privilege.

I actually feel bad that she'll never be able to experience growing up in So Cal the way I did. I'm not happy about being 57, but I wouldn't have traded growing up when and where I did for anything.

[gmoney]

35. Even back in dust bowl days.

Do Re Mi (Woody Guthrie)

Lots of folks back East, they say, is leavin' home every day,
Beatin' the hot old dusty way to the California line.
'Cross the desert sands they roll, gettin' out of that old dust bowl,
They think they're goin' to a sugar bowl, but here's what they find
Now, the police at the port of entry say,
"You're number fourteen thousand for today."

Oh, if you ain't got the do re mi, folks, you ain't got the do re mi,
Why, you better go back to beautiful Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Georgia, Tennessee.
California is a garden of Eden, a paradise to live in or see;
But believe it or not, you won't find it so hot
If you ain't got the do re mi.

You want to buy you a home or a farm, that can't deal nobody harm,
Or take your vacation by the mountains or sea.
Don't swap your old cow for a car, you better stay right where you are,
Better take this little tip from me.
'Cause I look through the want ads every day
But the headlines on the papers always say:

If you ain't got the do re mi, boys, you ain't got the do re mi,
Why, you better go back to beautiful Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Georgia, Tennessee.
California is a garden of Eden, a paradise to live in or see;
But believe it or not, you won't find it so hot
If you ain't got the do re mi.


(Do re mi = dough = money -- true today as it was back then)