Apprehensive Years

 

From the front page of The Oregonian 15 June, 1978 (via newspapers. com). It details crimes (including a horrifying one involving the daughter of someone who lived roughly halfway down the butte, on the summit of which was my dwelling at the time) from times of hypervigilance... This atmosphere started in August of 1969, with the Manson family murders, and extended into the 1970s -- years of frequent break ins around where we lived, including a couple into our own home, through 1977 with its Summer of Sam, in New York City, and onward.  -JBF

1974 Trip Journal by Hazel M. Falk

 Here is the text of a 1974 trip journal by Hazel M. Falk. The entries covered a family vacation to parts of Oregon, Idaho, Montana; and to the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia. During the journey, the Watergate case ended the Nixon presidency -- I recall seeing a newspaper headline concerning this, around the time we were in Banff. -- JBF 

A photo, from Jimmy Carter's Visit to Mt. Hood Community College, 3 November, 1978

 The limousine, carrying President Jimmy Carter, at Mt. Hood Community College (Gresham, Oregon); 3 November, 1978 (the photo was either by me, or by mom). -JF

Alice's Restaurant Massacree Doesn't Live Here Anymore

 

The name of Alice has a recurring association with restaurants, in a song, in (unrelated) movies,  and in the TV series of the same name (based on the Martin Scorsese movie). During the original run of the show, I was aware of it, but only viewed it a few times. In 1975 or 76, 1977, for example, the show would not have formed part of my gestalt. Rather than watch  television, I might have been ranging in the deep forests and creeks of the area where I then lived, in the midst of the Boring Lava Buttes. I could have been occupied reading comic books, or books.  I might have been on family trips, to California, Nevada, eastern Oregon, Idaho, Montana.  I had also started on some initial creative projects, including collages, and a bit later, writing. The world of waitresses in old school utilitarian uniforms, humor, drama, failed romance and jokes based on the bad quality of Mel’s cooking, would not have drawn me in. The signals from the broadcasts remained unseen, passing the atmosphere, and drifting into the outer spaces.

The show was threaded with light (if often repetitive) humor, guest spots by celebrities such as Martha Raye, Joel Grey, Telly Savalas, and Robert Goulet, and topical references which would have hit the spot in their day. I’ve written elsewhere of how my family often brought up the sudden death of Frank Sutton (who played Sergeant Vince Carter, on Gomer Pyle). Vic Tayback, as his diner-owner character Mel Sharples,  even eerily foreshadowed his own relatively early passage, on one episode. There is a cluster of premature, or tragic deaths with the series (including Tayback, Philip McKeon, and Charles Levin). – JF, 9/2022

The Mystery of Frank Tayback; digital collage by JF, September 2022

Calculator

My earliest calculator; mid 1970s.