46 online
 
Most Popular Choices
Share on Facebook 10 Printer Friendly Page More Sharing
Life Arts    H4'ed 2/11/11

Family Values in 1972, in Concord, California

By       (Page 1 of 2 pages)   3 comments
Message GLloyd Rowsey
Become a Fan
  (37 fans)

The Caldecott Tunnel bores through the hills separating Oakland from Concord, Walnut Creek, and Pleasant Hill, three little boom-towns in 1971 on their way to being the San Francisco Bay Area's fastest-sprouting white-flight suburbs.  I worked as a computer programmer in Martinez, another town close by but far less booming, and I shared a rented house with a young family in Concord for several months in 1971 and 1972.

 

Suburbs at Flickr Commons (2009),
Suburbs at Flickr Commons (2009),
(Image by Andy Callahan)
  Details   DMCA

   

During which time, in October of 1971 to be exact, a couple of good friends from law school and I -- whose birthdays were on three consecutive days -- had our thirtieth birthday celebrations together, five years out.  With friends and lovers we whooped it up on a beautiful late Indian summer afternoon on a San Francisco pier, with a string quartet, fine wines, champagne, and a tank of helium.  As I left, the party was dissolving into evening.  Blissfully and utterly smashed, I aimed my old Chevy sedan at Concord through the Caldecott Tunnel. 

As I approached the tunnel's Oakland entrance I realized I couldn't resolve its multiple, slowly moving images, but I really didn't care.  Then I crashed into a concrete wall at the tunnel's entrance, destroying the car and very nearly myself.  But characteristically I was lucky, and subsequently I found myself uninjured and resuming my life in Concord with Mark the landscape contractor, his wife Paula, and their baby boy, John.

   

Mark and Paula had been sweethearts in high school and married two or three years after graduating.  In 1972 Baby John was a year old.   Papa Mark owned a landscaping business and Paula kept house.  Like everyone in Concord aged twenty to twenty-five, Mark and Paula partied a lot and smoked grass.  Probably less typically, my housemates practiced Scientology, popped little white Benzedrine tablets for fun and profit, and dabbled in wife-swapping.  I say "profit" not because Mark was a dealer -- almost every doper dealt some -- but because speed tabs were Mark's bottom-line currency for paying his landscaping employees. 

 

I'd stopped programming computers, and I paid my share of the rent by gardening for Mark.  And I'm here to testify that bennies made it fun to crawl around planting bushes and flowers at service stations.   But as time passed, I realized that however workable speed-for-wages was in terms of getting the gardening done, Mark's habit wasn't working for his business as a whole.  

What with the construction boom underway in Concord in 1972, Mark could have made good money just contracting one job and completing it, then contracting another and completing it, and so on, mixing in the bread-and-butter maintenance jobs. But no, Mark always had to be juggling at least three balls at once -- estimating, completing, and maintaining enough different jobs so he wouldn't be dead-heading between estimate sites and work sites; so as not to be wasting time between keeping appointments with prospective customers and getting equipment rentals onto work sites and returned, or between personal visits to home and other visits to his dope connections and numerous friends.

   

Such is speed that frequently a juggled ball or two got dropped.

   

Next Page  1  |  2

(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).

Touching 2   Interesting 2   Must Read 1  
Rate It | View Ratings

GLloyd Rowsey Social Media Pages: Facebook page url on login Profile not filled in       Twitter page url on login Profile not filled in       Linkedin page url on login Profile not filled in       Instagram page url on login Profile not filled in

I have a law degree (Stanford, 66') but have never practiced. Instead, from 1967 through 1977, I tried to contribute to the revolution in America. As unsuccessful as everyone else over that decade, in 1978 I went to work for the U.S. Forest (more...)
 
Go To Commenting
The views expressed herein are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors.
Writers Guidelines

 
Contact AuthorContact Author Contact EditorContact Editor Author PageView Authors' Articles
Support OpEdNews

OpEdNews depends upon can't survive without your help.

If you value this article and the work of OpEdNews, please either Donate or Purchase a premium membership.

STAY IN THE KNOW
If you've enjoyed this, sign up for our daily or weekly newsletter to get lots of great progressive content.
Daily Weekly     OpEd News Newsletter
Name
Email
   (Opens new browser window)
 

Most Popular Articles by this Author:     (View All Most Popular Articles by this Author)

For Brave Eyes - Eleven Images on December 8, 2008

Dorothea Rockburne – Introducing Mathematics into 20th Century Optical Art

A Pictorial Essay - Abstract Expressionism versus Geometric Expressionism

Son of the Morning Star: Custer and the Little Bighorn, by Evan S. Connell

Fine Art on 12.28.008 - Four Contemporary Surrealist Paintings

Reflecting Sadness - The Art of Richard Estes

To View Comments or Join the Conversation:

Tell A Friend