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I'M IN THE 14TH YEAR OF THIS BLOG

Eleven years ago I posted on MEMORIAL DAY AND WARS.  In 2012, WHY MEMORIAL DAY?  Five years ago the title was WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MEMORIAL DAY AND VETERANS DAY?  This is the day before, but I never let it go by.  Tonight, by the way, PBS has its annual Memorial Day Concert on the Mall, featuring  Colin Powell, Gladys Knight, the Four Tops and Steve Buscemi, of all the people.  I was working in the U.S. Senate when the first mall concert was held.  This was on 4 July 1980 for the initial Capitol Fourth.

Thinking about 42 years ago made me nostalgic.  I'm now into the 14th year of this blog.  This period is equivalent to going from kindergarten through high school and heading off to college.  But this second time was every day.  Back then there were weekends, holidays and summer vacation.  In fact, early in the 14th year, which would be June of 1958, I left Hawaii for the very first time.  I boarded a brand new PanAm 707 for Los Angeles.

My brother picked me up at LAX, and in the short period at the airport I could hardly breath, and my eyes watered.  The Los Angeles smog was something I did not expect.  I wondered how badly this affected your lungs.  To the left  and below are photos taken that year. 

Oxnard in 1958 had a population of 40,000, and had mostly lemon orchards, although this was also the lima bean capital of the world.  The size has mushroomed to more than 200,000 because Los Angeles people consider Oxnard, 60 miles away, to be a good escape.  A couple of years ago I read that the average new single-family home here, at just under $900,000, was higher than Honolulu.  In June it is cold in Oxnard, for the ocean current dominates.  It could be 115 F just 20 miles away in Santa Paula.  Oxnard would stay in the 60's.

My brother worked at the Naval Civil Engineering Laboratory, and got me a summer job there.  He drove me to Stanford University in September, and as we approached the campus, I saw a sign that said:  Leland Stanford Jr. University.  My first thought was, I didn't realize Stanford was a junior college.  Here I am at Wilbur Hall, when it had just opened that year for the first full class of freshmen.

Someone sent me Ronald Reagan's Memorial day speech of more than a third of a century ago.  He mentioned Private Martin Treptow's pledge during World War I:

She also sent me what you don't see on Memorial Day, as sung by Jackie Evancho.  A memorable moment worth your while.

As today is Sunday, I'll close with Calvin and Hobbes:

-

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