I grew up in the 1970’s. It was a turbulent time, a lot like the times we find ourselves in these days. The 70’s were a decade like no other. I was a young kid and my family was very traditional and very Catholic. I guess looking back I was a little bit of a straight-arrow as my neighbors and siblings partook in the off-site activities and I stayed away from all of that. You could mostly find me in the library scouring for history books, sewing and running and heading the occasional dice game “7 come 11”-yes I know it’s illegal but my Uncle Bobby taught me every card and dice game and it was my only way to buy gum and snickers bars, truly. He also took my brother and I along with him as lookouts while he syphoned gas from cars Hollywood. I also loved skateboarding in the Westside. Although I lived in Palos Verdes I spend a lot of my free time in Venice and Santa Monica where I felt the soul of California lived. My parents had no idea where I was and it was not necessarily a safe time either with the the Hillside Stranglers and Ted Bundy afoot. I would take the bus down west with my skateboard or surfboard and beach bag and skate and surf all day. The 1970’s was a period of time when the soldiers were coming home from Vietnam, women were burning their bras and of course Watergate and the Cold War. I suppose to escape all of that and more a lot of the kids from my generation looked to sports, music and the great outdoors to discharge a lot of what we felt and had to deal with because we certainly were not shielded from any of it.
Skateboarding on the sidewalks and on certain roads or by businesses was not permitted and the were a lot of police in that area. But how were we to know the laws we were just kids.? I received my first skateboarding ticket in 1975, pretty close to my birthday in late October. I was skateboarding on a sidewalk near some homes. Now I knew this rule. Since this was in Los Angeles I had to go to Juvenile Traffic Court there. Too afraid to tell my parents I asked my grandmother to come with me. I was crying of course and the judge said I had to pay a $15 fine and to pick up trash for one weekend. I remember him telling me that he better not see me in his courtroom again. He scared me then, but I laugh now.
My second skateboarding ticket occurred in Christmas Day in 1977. I told my mom I was going surfing but went down to Venice instead and was skating in an empty ravine. That ticket was more expensive and I was beginning to develop a record. Learned another lesson. I like to follow the rules mostly but in my generation there were a lot of things that were murky when the law was concerned plus it was fun.
Our generation was moving out the violent and turbulent 1960’s and into the Stagflation 70’s. We drank powdered milk, rode our bikes until the street lights came on and began to question things. My favorite people in my life back then were my grandmother and my Uncle Bobby. I loved my family deeply but I felt with those two I could be a little freer with the guardrails.
As I reflect on my life I often reach back to this incredible decade where I kept who I was and find the free sprit within myself. Not ever a Boomer, always a Generation Jones’r. Skateboarders rule. Zephyr Venice, and Jay Adams I miss you. I often feel a connection with the younger generation coming up as I feel we share some of the more series themes the world is dishing out and we had to forge new pathways. Don’t give up my young friends because things are always changing and moving.
Cheers,
Kate
