Re: brushing shoulders with Holden Caulfield?

I think the age of the community has a lot to do with this. Cerritos,
CA became "Cerritos, CA" within probably 3 years of my family moving
there. I literally saw almost the entire town built up out of cattle
fields from scratch. Very ethnically diverse and pretty ethnically
tolerant, everyone had more than enough money (though no one was really,
really wealthy), low to no crime, no inner city, the gangs were some
ways away -- for years we never even saw graffiti. Freaking great
environment -- almost utopian -- but all the same angst, and over half
the kids in the neighborhood were either on drugs or heavily involved in
any one of a variety of Evangelical movements. Some had some
involvement in both groups :). Looked like Brady Bunch but never felt
like it. None of us could stand that show.

Jim

Yocum Daniel Civ 21 CES/CEOE wrote:

>Jim, I never pictured you in a Brady Bunch World. I know about Cholos and
>gangs but I also know about the care of Cattle; Thank God I didn't grow up
>in southern California.
>
>I have seen examples of this teenage angst in my youth that you guys are
>talking about but it was extremely rare among the guys I grew up with. We
>knew who are families were back 14 to 17 generations, we knew where we fit
>in our Plebe and we knew that we could be what we wanted. We were
>surrounded by a sea of family and friends that might as well of have been
>family. I have many great memories of doing many things with my friends and
>cousins but I also have just as many memories of doing things with my
>parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts, great uncles and great aunts and
>the same relatives of my friend's family. There were malls built in 1961
>and 1965 but they had little influence on us teenagers back then.
>
>We grew up not estranged from our parents nor our heritage nor our families,
>we speak Spanish because it is our language. I like you am a Coyote (half
>breed) but my father (a gringo) grew up in New Mexico and spoke Spanish as
>well. It seems (I didn't see the show) that what these teenagers lack is
>purpose grounded in the past, present and future. I don't have cable but
>the show seemed like something that I would have found interesting also.
>
>Sometimes I get the feeling that I am the only guy on this list that does
>not relate much to Holden, I find him interesting because he is the guy
>that I frequently run into in my excursions into the list's world. On this
>list, I am realizing that I am the tourista or aguereno.
>Daniel
>
>
>
>I'm thinking Scottie had a bit of a point, but I think there's more to be
>said. I wrote the following back in 1996 -- it's a description of life in a
>So. Ca. subdivision. Very middle class, all the same angst you see in
>Holden and I assume the kid in the HBO special:
>http://www.towerofbabel.com/sections/ourmaninhavana/ourmanfromutopia/
>I think the real issue is...why are we so surprised that a rich kid is
>unhappy? Do we really think money would do it for us?
>Jim
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Received on Wed Oct 29 11:28:03 2003