Los Angeles was founded on September 4, 1781.
I was a California resident (again) back in the late 70s to early 80s. Actually not an Angelino … but residing in the Los Angeles–Long Beach–Santa Ana metropolitan statistical area placed me close enough to call it that.
Previously I had resided on Mare Island as a Navy brat and that was a nice place to live as well. My youngest brother was born there and would therefore qualify for one of the innumerable “California Native” bumper stickers I saw affixed to many of the vehicles on the roads.
My actual place of residence was on the outskirts of Santa Ana in Orange County in an unincorporated area called “El Toro” for the adjacent Marine Base — the denizens of which incorporated the bulk of my social life.
At that time, the air pollution didn’t quite reach far enough south to concern me … though I did see it as a brown stripe in the northeast direction of the evening horizon.
The general civilian consensus socially was that it was okay to be stupid as long as you look good so I was a jogger and became extremely trim and fit as a result.
I was good friends with Rita Lawson and her husband — a Marine and they took me in as a part of the family. We were known to throw together a party every so often with a bunch of the grunts and I really did enjoy their company.
My boon companion was a chiropractor named Steve Foreman. He was a Mormon convert and had a fairly large family with his wife Geri. He embarked on a writing career during that time frame under the expert tutelage of Chuck Kerber … and this has blossomed into subject matter expertise on hyperextension injuries, ethics, and so forth with workshops, being an expert witness and such on the agenda …
Me, I went on to do my computer thing and as such learned to take them apart, put them together, set them up and configure them all in the absence of autodetect BIOS, plug and play, and the other things that keep these so-called “experts” in business nowadays.
Sometimes I think about LA and wonder what it would have been like to remain — but the feasibility of such an endeavor is rather far fetched given the duckpond nature of the medical practice I was administering and the over all propensity for more than just pushing the envelope.
So I returned to South Carolina and resumed my Kentucky Fried Chicken addiction and such is the nature of an obeast geek in the deep South.
You just never know how things will turn out.
Walking In LA
Look ahead as we pass, try and focus on it
I won’t be fooled by a cheap cinematic trick
It must have been just a cardboard cut out of a man
Top-forty cast off from a record stand
Walkin’ in L.A.
Walkin’ in L.A., nobody walks in L.A.
Walkin’ in L.A.
Walkin’ in L.A., nobody walks in L.A.
I don’t know could’ve been a lame jogger maybe
Or someone just about to do the freeway strangler baby
Shopping cart pusher or maybe someone groovie
One thing’s for sure, he isn’t starring in the movies.
‘Cause he’s walkin’ in L.A.
Walkin’ in L.A., nobody walks in L.A.
Walkin’ in L.A.
Walkin’ in L.A., only a nobody walks in L.A.
Walkin’ walkin’ walkin’ walkin’ walkin’
Nobody’s walkin’ walkin’ walkin’ walkin’ walkin’
Nobody’s walkin’ walkin’ walkin’ walkin’ walkin’
Nobody’s walkin’ walkin’ walkin’ walkin’ walkin’
You won’t see a cop walkin’ on the beat
Nobody’s walkin’ walkin’ walkin’ walkin’ walkin’
You only see ‘em drivin’ cars out on the street
Nobody’s walkin’ walkin’ walkin’ walkin’ walkin’
You won’t see a kid walkin’ home from school
Nobody’s walkin’ walkin’ walkin’ walkin’ walkin’
Their mothers pick ‘em up in a car pool
Nobody’s walkin’ walkin’ walkin’ walkin’
Walkin’ in L.A.
Walkin’ in L.A., nobody walks in L.A.
Walkin’ in L.A.
Walkin’ in L.A., nobody walks in L.A.
Could it be that the smog’s playing tricks on my eyes
or is it a rollerskater in some kind of headphone disguise
Maybe somebody who just ran out of gas,
Making his way back to the pumps the best way he can.
Walkin’ in L.A.
Walkin’ in L.A., nobody walks in L.A.
Walkin’ in L.A.
Walkin’ in L.A., nobody walks in L.A.
Walkin’ in L.A.
Walkin’ in L.A., nobody walks in L.A.
Walkin’ in L.A.
Walkin’ in L.A., only a nobody walks in L.A.
Nobody’s walkin’ walkin’ walkin’ walkin’ walkin’
Nobody’s walkin’ walkin’ walkin’ walkin’ walkin’
Nobody’s walkin’ walkin’ walkin’ walkin’ walkin’
Nobody’s walkin’ walkin’ walkin’ walkin’ walkin’
Nobody’s walkin’ walkin’ walkin’ walkin’ walkin’
Nobody’s walkin’ walkin’ walkin’ walkin’ walkin’
Nobody walks in L.A
Missing Persons
