My East LA Experience !

Living in Los Angeles during my youth was a wild ride !! Growing up in the early sixties in East LA was quite an experience ! It was a time of momentous changes,conflict and turmoil ,self awareness, generational conflicts and it was most of all...exciting! I lived most of my youth in the shadow of the Viet Nam war. Many of my friends lost thier lives in this conflict. In fact many of the life changing events that i witnessed during that era was a direct result of the war and the fierce opposition to it. I was living through a historic time in the history of this country and was not even aware of it. Spent most of my time looking within.."dropping out.. tuning in.. turning on".. trying to find that perfect "high".. trying to find that place where i belonged.. but never finding it. So i kept searching..I remember vividly the smell of tear gas and the fire and smoke that lingered over the city of Los Angeles during the Watts riots. I remember being caught up in a large  demonstation march.. by students who were disatisfied with the inequalities of the educational system..which led to the large scale school walk outs. Then came the East LA riots which caused much suffering distruction and chaos..I remember seeing fifty or one hundred or maybe it was two hundred ( depends on what high i was on ! ) LA county sheriff deputy squad cars screeming down Whittier Blvd ( cruizing was suspended for a while ) trying to head off the large angry crowds who were looting , distroying private property and causing panic among the local residents...Man ! those were exciting times !!

Ok thats enough rambling for now ..stay tuned for Charles Manson Griffith Park Love-ins and Eutopia Dreams