Welcome
This is the home page of Surf City or San Luis Obispo. Why do I call SLO Surf City? Well to me, a kid from the midwest, it was as good as if I lived on the coast, even though SLO is inland 12 miles from either the west via Avila Beach, or south from Morro Bay and Baywood Park. We would thumb to the Avila Beach most every summer day for many years, or so it seems now. The local dance and music hall was called Surf's Up and I adopted surfers as my role models for what I should be or how to act, for better or for worse.
So, either join me in as I slowly unfold my story piece by piece, and check out the Photoalbum, which is color coded to guide the eras, since tagging everything and writing is all quite a chore and it shall be a number of years before this project is remotely taking shape that I truly appreciate and believe best represents those wonderful years.
Double Jointed from 1959 to 1964
This is the home page for the era in which I was shared by my parents, although neither equally nor truly bi coastal inclusive, that occurred from the Surf City point of view. We arrived in San Luis Obispo, as my Mother now says as her days near to an end, after unable to contact her other son James Lee, and David was so tired and had such trouble driving the car with the trailer that she said, "just see if there's some small place we can settle not on the coast but near the coast. We had always spent allot of time on the coast either in North or South Caroline or in Florida, hence the bi coastal and Mother liked to go to the beach, as much as the next beach bunny. I can still remember her taking me to Avila Beach before the curtain dropped on our happy little world.
So we had our new family, the three of us David, Mother and myself. These are some images that I assume are from or about the time of that era. Mother certainly has that "Kennedy era" look, and of course as boys, we could have passed for a version of the Wally and the beaver, except for our lives, which was not what we had. In fact I went from being wealthy and privileged, especially upon staying permanently, to the wrong side of the tracks kind of guy.
Mother or David found us a small one bedroom apartment on Islay Street, and Mother went and found work. As for me I went and tried to make new friends, not really understanding much of what had happened. That would all change about the time that
school started. Bobby, my Mother's brother, either out of an act of stupidity or plain fear of the law or my Mother not paying, used her name for the rental of the U-haul trailer. This allowed the detective to eventually find us and although my Mother got a good lawyer, there was no one really there to testify about my father's behavior. So it became his word against hers, although I was fairly adamant in my not wanting to be with my father, which may have persuaded the court not only to not prosecute my Mother for kidnapping, but forced the Judge to grant visitation rights to me or my Mother for two months in the summer.
Why the courts did not look into his behavior or accept my admonishments of desire to not be near him, will never be known, I suppose. But, my Mother, who had felt that money would win in Kentucky, as in my father's parents money would somehow buy me might have not been the best strategy since there would have been witnesses to testify of his behavior expecially of the beatings and general drunken condition in which everyone in the County new of him, where there were no witness, especially given my Mother could have never aforded to pay to have them appear in count in San Luis Obispo.
So, after being a hillbilly who had had her eyes opened in just the first three months of our new life, must of felt she had made the wrong choice. I for the most part never agreed with that sentiment. First, there is no telling as to what their money might have done, or who might have been fearful of their jobs in push came to shove. It is one thing to imagine those who could testify, quite another to have them do so when their livelihoods depend upon it, as many whom might have been asked, did depend.
So imaginable testimony in SLO, might have turned out to be true pie in the sky reality. And, my Mother always felt they paid off the Judge in SLO. Whether this was just venting out of frustration or whether it had legs, I'll don't know. However, in front of the Judge, they of course promised me a life of roses, only not to carry out any of their promised actions. Also, did they really believe I had somehow been brainwashed so much so that I was totally against my father. Well it seems strange in today's thinking is that they would allow for a child to be removed from his Mother and for her not to collect an iota of support. Regardless of the motives from originally conceiving me to this final act as a pawn for her use still seems to pale by comparison. And while my life was scarred by having to watch brutality at a very young age to bonding such with my Mother that it made it difficult to find someone for me, or whether I was destined to be weird all my life is unknown as well, but I'll vote for the former rather than the later."
