No one moves to LA in the middle of July unless he is a crazy kid like me.
But I was in pursuit of the Hollywood rock ’n’ roll dream . . .
The moment I heard the song, I knew that the summer of 1967 in my hometown of San Francisco would be unlike that of any other.
It was April. I was in Portland at the time, finishing up my junior year in college. Scott McKenzie came over my car radio singing, “If you’re goin’ to San Francisco, be sure to wear some flowers in your hair, summertime will be a love-in there.”
I would like to salute my father-in-law William Lange, who just passed away peacefully May 31 at the age of 91, by relaying a brief story about his father who was an infamous major league baseball player.
Ty Cobb, Joe DiMaggio, Tris Speaker – legendary major league baseball players all. There’s another man whose name belongs on this list: my wife’s grandfather, William Alexander Lange, Sr., but unless you’re a true-blue dyed-in-the wool aficionado of America’s greatest pastime, I doubt you have ever heard of him or any of the monikers he went by, including Little Eva, Big Bill, and The Port Townsend Boy.
It was agreed. My dad consented to be on the KVEC Morning News show the Friday before Father’s Day, June 17, 2001. I thought he would make a great guest. He certainly was qualified. He was, after all, a personification of the Greatest Generation.