The Native Iowan

In my youthful life I considered the WestCoast to be a “hot” place. A “cool” place. A “happening” place.

Los Angeles, for me and mine, has been a place of transit. LA was always the revolving door to and from the US. LAX is (in my mind) the most difficult airport. In and out of LAX was something I’d psych myself up for. One needed to go into training, mentally and physically, to “take-on” LAX.

I was 23 when I first met LA, LAX, Cali. I last visited in 2018, when I moved out of the Pasadena apartment we’d had for many years.

Over the 40+ years I’ve been stomping around LA/ So-Cal I’ve developed a mixed emotion for the place. A love/ hate relationship.

Of course there is sooooo much gooood about Cali. Sun and Sea and California-Weed. What’s not to like.

Between the age of 23 and 67 a lot changes.

In the youthful years I was prone to quick, shallow, ungrounded thoughts and opinions. The dope was great. The place was the fun. The excitement, the night life, the gorgeous girls, the snazzy cars, the glamorous lifestyles, all dazzled and blinded me. And I was high a lot.

There was soooo much fun and entertainment to be had between LA and SanFran. Sooo much fun.

When I decided to set up a base camp in Pasadena, I was looking to experience and enjoy what was on offer. Both in Pasadena and LA and SoCal, and more. I used the place as a transit pad for many long motorcycle adventures across the USofA.

And, importantly… Pasadena offers the worlds best New Years Eve party… it’s called the Rose Bowl Parade.

Our apartment was 2 blocks off Colorado Blvd. The city blocked off the streets around our apartment to stage and set up the parade. All night long, every NY’s eve, the Parade that kicks off early the morning of the 1st, and travels some 5 miles, lines up, prepares to march, on the streets around our apartment. It was and probably still is a great street-party… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rose_Parade

Much now is gone, destroyed. Razed as only an intense fire can do.

The map does not really give us the scale of it all. It’s 50 miles from Pasadena to Palisades.

The LA area is known for natural disasters… earthquakes, mudslides, fires… nothing new here.

Not good. Not good at all. Poor, poor LA Country. It’ll be a long time before this will be managed, cleaned up, sorted out…

Sadly, almost criminally, it is the general, overall ineptitude and absence of Leadership we are seeing take place, that is mostly to blame. To blame for what has taken place and what is happening on the ground.

I think of the years of “follow the science” BS we’ve been fed by our liberal leaders. In SoCal the science of forest management and disaster preparedness has been rewritten by illiterates.

Sad, sad state of affairs for my old friend, California.

Pictures from our last Rose Bowl Parade…

More later