Clint Hill and the boys sure seem to be suffering from that day, huh (the 200 dollar JFK Pez dispenser is an interesting touch)?

[Paul Cummings]

4 hours ago, Pat Speer said:

I live in Simi Valley, just on the other side of a ridge from the Chatsworth area of L.A. Near the crest of this ridge lies Spahn Ranch, the former home of the Manson Family. The site was eventually bought by a church and the buildings were torn down. But a friend of mine was roommates with a local historian, who showed him something that he in turn showed me. On a rock in a nearby creek bed where the "children" used to splash and play are the initials C.M. This local historian had spoken to some of the former residents and they swore these initials were carved by Charlie himself. I have no idea if this is true but the marks appeared to be quite old and were almost definitely not something that had been added recently. This was roughly 1995.  

In a related issue, when Tarantino filmed Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, the original location for Spahn Ranch was not available. So he faked it in a nearby park here in Simi that used to be a movie ranch, lastly owned by Bob Hope. This park is called Corriganville and I have hiked there probably a hundred times. 

So, for better or worse, Manson and his family have been in the background of my life since I was 8 years old, when I used to see them begging for change in Chatsworth. 

I was just there in 2017. Visited the Reagan Library and then went to Chatsworth to see where they filmed the original "Bad News Bears" film.

Edited July 25, 2022 by Paul Cummings

[Pat Speer]

39 minutes ago, Paul Cummings said:

I was just there in 2017. Visited the Reagan Library and then went to Chatsworth to see where they filmed the original "Bad News Bears" film.

Aha! More trips down Memory Lane. Even though I was not a big fan I have been to the Reagan Library 10 times or so. I was there for his hundredth birthday. I was glad when the archives gained some editorial control. While Nancy was alive she would not allow any mention of Reagan's first wife in the numerous exhibits. I thought that was pretty awful. 

As far as the Bad News Bears, I rewatched that movie for the first time in decades maybe six months ago and only then did I realize that they'd filmed it in Chatsworth, at Mason Park. My pre-school attended the opening of that park and a picture of me at the opening made it into the local paper. That was my first taste of fame, LOL. 

[Paul Cummings]

11 hours ago, Pat Speer said:

Aha! More trips down Memory Lane. Even though I was not a big fan I have been to the Reagan Library 10 times or so. I was there for his hundredth birthday. I was glad when the archives gained some editorial control. While Nancy was alive she would not allow any mention of Reagan's first wife in the numerous exhibits. I thought that was pretty awful. 

As far as the Bad News Bears, I rewatched that movie for the first time in decades maybe six months ago and only then did I realize that they'd filmed it in Chatsworth, at Mason Park. My pre-school attended the opening of that park and a picture of me at the opening made it into the local paper. That was my first taste of fame, LOL. 

I've been to Reagan's library (2x) and it's worth going no matter your political affliation. The one thing I found quite amusing is Reagan's pointing out how he was the first "union" POTUS. 

[David Von Pein]

........

Edited August 4, 2022 by David Von Pein

[Joseph McBride]

I was on the Chatsworth baseball diamond location of THE BAD NEWS BEARS watching

the filming. I reported on it for Daily Variety and Sight and Sound.

I remember interviewing some of the child ballplayers, who

were dissing star Tatum O'Neal because of her much

higher salary. The unit publicist wisely turned to me and

said, "Remember they are kids." I was interested in the

film mostly because it was directed by Michael Ritchie,

who made such fine satirical films as THE CANDIDATE

and SMILE. Ritchie also attended my high school, Marquette

University High School in Milwaukee, whose most famous

graduates are Spencer Tracy and Pat O'Brien.

 

Since we're on this forum, I will recall that I was in the cafeteria line at Marquette when I learned from the student manning the counter that President Kennedy

had been shot. I laughed, thinking he was joking, but

his face told me he was not. So I spun around and ran two blocks to

a drugstore that had a radio and listened to the network

news reports from 12:40 onward. For the first twenty minutes

they said the shots came from the right front, from the railroad

bridge or the hill (soon to be called the Grassy Knoll); but when

the radio reports by 1 o'clock all started saying, without explanation,

that the shots all came from behind, in a building called the Texas School Book

Depository, my reporter's antennae went up, and it started to raise

my skepticism about the official story, which I was not believing

by the end of the day.

When I came back to high school at 1:30 on November 22,

it was for Religion class. The scheduled topic that day was "The Ethics of Murder." Our erudite Jesuit priest, Father Charles Shinners, went ahead with it, and though the class was interrupted by a PA announcement of the president's death, after which we stood in silent prayer, the only other mention of what happened that day was when my classmate Mike Weber, whose head was down on the desk, suddenly lifted it to cry out, "Oh no! LYNDON JOHNSON is president!"

Edited August 3, 2022 by Joseph McBride

[Ron Bulman]

One of my earliest political memories other than 11/22/63 itself and the funeral of JFK was of a 1964 bumper sticker.  Still available from the LBJ Library.  I wonder if they sell many of them.

Replica All The Way LBJ Bumper Sticker - The Store at LBJ (lbjstore.com)

 

Edited August 4, 2022 by Ron Bulman

[Pat Speer]

11 hours ago, Ron Bulman said:

One of my earliest political memories other than 11/22/63 itself and the funeral of JFK was of a 1964 bumper sticker.  Still available from the LBJ Library.  I wonder if they sell many of them.

Replica All The Way LBJ Bumper Sticker - The Store at LBJ (lbjstore.com)

 

I have a similar memory, and it helped inform my views on the case. One of the "myths" perpetuated about the case was that Johnson roped Warren onto his commission because he felt Warren's credibility would help silence those claiming Russia was involved, and that this would help him avoid a nuclear war. I suspect/know the opposite is true. Johnson knew damn well that Warren had no credibility with those likely to blame Russia, and that Warren had instead had massive credibility with those likely to blame HIM. His roping Warren onto the commission was thereby designed to save his own butt, and if he brought up nuclear war it was as a threat, e.g.. "You know, Earl, if this investigation wanders off the reservation and it looks like there was more to it than this commie nut Oswald, well, this could have political consequences, whereby I would be forced to use our military, and this could lead to a nuclear exchange. You don't want that, do you, Earl? Bob McNamara says 39 or 40 million could die in such an exchange. We can't have that on our consciences, now, can we, Earl?"

And I suspect/know this because one of my earliest memories is of a bumper sticker. I saw it on one car, and then another, and then another, to the point where I finally asked someone what it meant. It read "Impeach Earl Warren."