For two 19 year old guys sitting in a House of Pies in Costa Mesa, our biggest issues were: a place to sleep, and some cheap food. We had quickly solved both of these minor issues. Now we could confront global issues. Oil embargoes, wars, elections, pop and cultural things swirling around. When two inquisitive 19 year old History majors have hitchhiked to the west coast, we always focused on some worldly philosophizing, tackling these issues over plates of unlimited spaghetti.
Was the world different back then?
Who knows? In hindsight, there was certainly less technology in the common man's hands. With no ATM machines, you needed to get find a teller to provide you cash for evenings or weekends. There were no cell phones, PCs, or a GUI access to an internet. We owned no credit cards. We carried cash and had our college IDs and photoless brown Jersey drivers licenses, (of course our fake IDs deep in our wallets saying we were born in 1951 and were some cat named Gaul from Succasunna NJ) God forbid, there were no girlfriends or kids pictures in our wallets.
The big three networks and newspaper media dominated the mainstream reporting mechanism.
There was no cable TV.
The Vietnam war was finally over, In the previous January of 1973, President Nixon announced the suspension of offensive action in North Vietnam which was later followed by a unilateral withdrawal of US troops from Vietnam. With 55,000 American casualties, and defeat, the nation was still divided on the misguided cold war effort.
The 1973 oil crisis was also on the back burner in the spring of 1974, as OPEC eased off on a 5 month oil embargo against the U.S. Terrorism and senseless acts of violence were headlines in Dublin, not Baghdad. Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger were calling the shots in his second term. What could stop these two?
Unexpectedly, Nixon would have significant internal issues to deal with. In this past March of 1974, seven men were indicted for their role in the Watergate break-in and charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice. Then Thursday May 9th, four days before we left on this trip, the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee opened formal and public impeachment hearings against President Richard M. Nixon.
After six or seven portions of spaghetti and meatballs at the "House of Pies"; we pondered our game plan for the coming weeks. If we could eat once a day for 4.99, (and drink water and avoid the humongous pies!), we could hang out in Orange County for a week.
I wanted to check out the surf scene. Bob wanted to check out Hollywood and Disneyland. There was plenty of time to head south to San Diego (and hook up with Kenny, our old friend) or check out LA, and then maybe head up to San Francisco in the final days of the trip.
We had a blank canvas for this part of the trip. We were just short on paint ($$$$)
On Thursday afteernoon night, we walked back to our motel, showered and turned on the television. The sun set over the Pacific, we stretched our aching bodies on clean sheets, and innocent teenager dreams of excitement and accomplishment that we had gotten this far. We could still be stuck in some desert or thrown in jail in Oklahoma or Texas, if Kenny hadn't picked us up.
What we pondered would they be serving Friday night, at the House of Pies?
Friday May 17
We awoke on Friday morning, and it was a glorious morning!. When Bob switched on the TV, thirty-three people had died in the Dublin and Monaghan Bombings in Ireland. Members of the Protestant factions, were suspected. Ugly.
We decided to check out local Newport Beach. We made our beds, locked up our room, and strolled 2 miles west on Newport Boulevard. We had coffee (Bob) and hot chocolate (me) and sat in the sand, watching girls roller skating, fisherman headed out to the Balboa pier, and surfers caught waves to the north of the pier. I had to get in the water, so I headed to some local surf shops on this peninsula. After checking out one or two, I found a friendly guy at the Russell Surf Shop, The rented me a board for half a day, and I surfed right in front of Bob for an hour or two. The water was cold!
I was overjoyed. Back at the surf shop, I asked about buying one of his boards and shipping it east to NJ. "No problem, we do it all the time". I put two boards on hold. One was a green 7'2" and the other was an orange 6'10". I told him I'd be back in a day or two to decide. He taped two cards on them "Hold for Steve B" I was stoked.
We walked up and down the flat sandy Newport peninsula We had stumbled on one of the more iconic southern California beach towns. This is Orange County south of Los Angeles. Costa Mesa is up on a hill, and it drops down into these little bays full of cute beach houses, beach walkways, and big bike paths.
There are volley ball courts, and places to rent bikes and boards. Houses were for sale here for over 300k. We thought it was a typing error. There were hot convertibles, 911s, Mercedes, parked everywhere. Corvettes, Camaros,
Bob and I enjoyed the local personalities as well. Every girl seemed blonde and blue eyed like Michelle Phillips younger sister. We decided to split up the next day, as he wanted to hit Disneyland, and I was going to head north to Huntington Beach. We walked back up to Costa Mesa and our hotel, We still had a couple of hours before the all you can eat feast would open.
SLA Shootout
We ran into a pop culture event just up the road from us in Long Beach. A police action that was now occurring on every local news channel.
It was the whole Patty Hearst thing. The granddaughter of newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst, 19-year-old heiress Patty Hearst was abducted from her Berkeley college residence in February 1974, sparking the biggest manhunt since the Lindbergh kidnapping. Patty was our age. Surprisingly, Hearst was next spotted in bank surveillance footage, brandishing automatic weapons during robberies. She released statements stating she had sided with her captors, members of the revolutionary Symbionese Liberation Army or SLA, and renounced her family. So Patty was on the lam, the same week we rolled into town.
Tania
To show off its newest recruit, the SLA targeted a Hibernia Bank branch in San Francisco. The April 15, 1974, heist netted more than $10,000 for the group, which was short on funds. Bank surveillance cameras showed Hearst holding a rifle. Two bystanders were shot. Los Angeles police had a televised shootout with SLA members, but Hearst, who now called herself "Tania," fled. She was apprehended in September
A fiery shootout
On May 16, 1974, Hearst sprayed a barrage of gunfire outside a Los Angeles sporting goods store to help free SLA member Bill Harris, detained for shoplifting, and his wife, Emily, who had come to his aid.
"(Hearst) pointed an M-1 carbine and fired the whole clip," FBI agent Charles Bates said "And then she took another rifle and shot some more. As I recall, there's about 30 shots, and there were people walking along the sidewalk. ... Thank God she missed them."
Hearst and the Harrises made a getaway in a van. They later ditched it, but a parking ticket inadvertently left behind led police to the SLA's whereabouts.
The following day, May 17, Los Angeles police surrounded a house where most SLA members were holed up. A massive shootout ensued, and the building went up in flames -- shown live on television.
Six SLA members died in a shootout with the mightily armed Los Angeles police. Reporters were sure she was in the house. Hearst like us was watching the fiery battle on TV, from a nearby motel near Disneyland.
Bob and I watched this thing for about 2 hours. It was insane.
Six SLA members were killed in the battle with police, including the group's leader.
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