Robert StGenis Voice empowered

Los Angeles had been beaten and battered in the few years leading up to my arrival. Starting in 1991, the Los Angeles basin shed over 200,000 jobs, primarily in the aerospace industry. Military bases were closed throughout Southern California. I've later learned much more about how this largely changed Southern California's "landscape" and diminished our middle class. The  Northridge earthquake of 1994  was one of the most costly natural disasters in US history.  I remember watching coverage on television. While there are cracks and shifts in buildings from the earthquake to this day and I remember noting some minor damage on trips to LA in 1996 prior to my moving, in reflection I have to say it was amazing how quickly things overall were repaired. But, it's impact did contribute to people leaving the region and a decline in prices. The earthquake occurred less than 2 years following the  1992 Los Angeles riots , which arguably was far more devastating to ...

Designer jeans started to become a fad - which has evolved into a mainstay of American fashion to this day - starting around when I was in 3rd grade. Gloria Vanderbilt  was the pioneer of the industry, creating a line of denim jeans for women bearing her signature on the back right pocket and a swan on the front right pocket. The audience targer for these jeans were geared towards women, not girls. So people like my teachers and Mother. At this point, I don't think my Mother even owned a pair of denim anything. My Father had always looked at jeans as something for farm workers and other "laborers." Some of our teachers did get pairs, but to this point, the idea of jeans on a teacher at school was definitely not part of the dress code. I think Mrs. Edwards, our school Librarian, might have led the "charge for change" and been the first to take that leap and wear designer jeans to work. Keep in mind that women wearing pants was relatively new in the work pla...

Before or even after (in this case) this post, read  My First Text Book on how it is done . Before moving forward with my early pubescent stories with my buds, I should take a step back and give you at least the simple basics of how we all came 'together' initially. All of us had attended Green Elementary School and at this point were in 6th grade at Orchard Lake Middle School. Richie lived on the same street, Andy was two houses up on the adjacent street and David lived in the same subdivision. He was much closer to the middle school and far further from the elementary school where Richie, Andy and I had walked to daily. Richie was literally a few houses and a crossing guard away. Andy and I had a brief walk. My Mother picked our house in part so she could watch me through the kitchen window walk to school to give some reference. I don't honestly know if David did or not walk to Green. It seems a bit far at that age. But, it was a different era so parents were much more ...