CaLokie

The Summer of Woodstock

The first time I traveled by plane was the Christmas of ’68 

when Cheryl and I took 9 months old Luke to visit my mother 

and stepdad, Jimmy, who he would later call Mo and Po.

Luke was born two weeks before Martin Luther King was assassinated,

one year from the day he spoke in opposition to the Vietnam War 

from the pulpit of the Riverside Church in New York City.

In June that year, just when it seemed Robert Kennedy was on 

the verge of ending the war in Vietnam after winning the California 

Democratic Presidential primary, he was murdered like his brother

and the greatest obstacle in the the way of the “Masters of War” 

continuing their bloodbath in Southeast Asia was removed

Jesus Christ, I wondered!

Into what kind of a world has my beautiful boy been born.

I did not feel like eating but the next day, I broke my fast 

by pigging out on peanut butter spread on crackers.

In August we watched on our black and white TV at the 1968 

Democratic Convention in Chicago, Daley’s blue bullies charge 

with clubs swinging at crowd of anti-war demonstrators shouting,

THE WHOLE WORLD IS WATCHING!

THE WHOLE WORLD IS WATCHING!

THE WHOLE WORLD IS WATCHING!

Tricky Dick who I voted for in 1960 was elected 

that November over liberal war hawk, Hubert Humphrey.

Mom and Jimmy probably voted for Nixon but this was Christmas 

and as the head of our family, Grandma would say for family 

gatherings, “Never argue politics or religion.”

Besides Mom caught the Hong Kong Flu from Cheryl 

who got it from Luke who unlike Mama and Mo 

recovered quickly.

Christmas Eve on Mom and Jim’s color TV, I watched 

world premiere of “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.”

That night it snowed and I woke up to a rare 

white Christmas in Oklahoma.

When we returned to our Pasadena home, two months before Luke’s first 

birthday, Richard Nixon was inaugurated President of the United States.

That summer Cheryl, Luke and I traveled in our ‘67 Datsun to Oklahoma, 

Dallas and Manistee, Michigan to visit my family and her brother. 

In Dallas at the home of my brother and his family, we watch 

Neil Armstrong descend from ladder of Apollo 11 and hear him say 

as he set his left boot on the lunar surface "That's one small step 

for a man, one giant leap for mankind."

This was also the Summer of Woodstock.

Lake of the Angels

Summer Sunday morning

Exit Westlake/MacArthur Park Metro station

On corner of Wilshire and Alvarado, street preacher in staccato Spanish 

bullhorns concrete congregation to BEHOLD 

the lamb of God who takes away EL PECADO DEL MUNDO

Who died in your place to save you from the eternal flames 

of inferno once you accept JESUS CHRISTOS as your personal

lord and savior

At Intersection— 

Autos reving particles of carbon dioxide behind and up to skies

pass by

pedestrians walking between 99¢ Store and sidewalk vendors 

oblivious 

to hellfire and brimstone pitch

Enter park

Homeless guy on grass snores under classified section of LA Times 

displaying colored photos of shining new car models for sale

Upon MacArthur Lake in white sun glare, rest 

hundreds of seagulls poised like foreboding flock 

of Hitchcock birds

Near center 

underwater fountain sprays jets upward as in prayer for 

a thirsty California

At northern edge 

marine green waters lap against cement bank while bright-eyed 

niño in fading Laker T-shirt tosses tortilla chip bits to gray gosling 

web-peddling before mama

On grassy knoll

on western end, revolutionary Marxist group begins setting up tables for 

free food distribution

Walk across Parkview 

to UCLA Downtown Labor Center for study session, 

"Converging Storms 2014: The Crisis of Energy, 

Capitalism and Environment"