IF YOU COULD TAKE AMERICA BACK TO ANY YEAR...etc...

My friend, singer extraordinaire Ron Young of Little Caesar and the Tighty Whiteys recently posed the question Q: "If you could take America back to any year to 'Make It Great Again,' what year would it be and what makes us so great?"
 
Make way for a ( I hope) rare parade of narcissism. Here's my replies...

A: "I'm voting for the heyday of the Tongva Native Americans (later renamed Gabrielenos behind their backs.) They lived in West Los Angeles and Santa Monica, gathered to chat at their oasis at what is now University High School, went to the beach, went fishing, walked in the woods with their dogs and families day after day and lived in a beautiful spot with ideal weather and abundant food resources. If you add 'shopping' to that list, they had the perfect West L.A. lifestyle for thousands of years!"

 


I used to live around the corner from this Tongva oasis, and know how pleasantly temperate the climate is, plus it's an easy walk to the Pacific Ocean for beachcombing, and the resources of the hills are nearby. Altogether a pleasant environment for the tribe, despite their normal hardships. West L.A. has destroyed all evidence of Tongva except for the oasis above. On a happier note, much has been done to study and revive understanding the Tongva language.

Ron's is a popular forum on social media, and hundreds of replies offered dozens of different eras including, inexplicably to me for those who knew it personally, the 1950s.

A: "I was alive in the 1950s and the era was AWFUL. I cringed when people applauded the "Mad Men" lifestyle all those years removed. Misogyny was practically written in stone, integration and civil rights took masses of education to penetrate national mindsets and actually accomplish, and the clothes only flattered those whose good looks were part of their overall job skills (actors and models.) 

In contrast, photographer Julian Wasser explained in the forward to his cool book "The Way We Were" how Los Angeles in the 1960s, when he first got into the biz, really was different than not only how it is today, but from the rest of the world. He explained that pre-inflation/recession etc., you really could live in a non-slum area here for very little money, single-income, modest-income families really could purchase an actual house, you really could pursue your preference of a job in the entertainment spheres because access was far more open. 

There was a fun cultural revolution going on in all the arts, youth were educating themselves on every big picture with facts to contradict their prior generation's conclusions, and even if you weren't motivated to make it in the biz/change the world for the better/become champion surfer of the universe, Los Angeles/Hollywood in the 1960s was a fairly pleasant place and time to be."

 Ron Young in Little Caesar, then and now, photos by me