Cultural Creatives

Often overlooked in the celebrated cultural icons emanating from The City by the Bay is Jay Ward, creator and producer of animated TV cartoon shows, including the revolutionary Rocky and Bullwinkle. Ward, along with Al Feldstein, editor of MAD magazine, instilled in my generation a healthy distrust of politicians, as well as disbelief in conventional wisdom. It is perhaps not a stretch to say these two cultural creatives of the 1950s laid the essential groundwork for the hippie counterculture of the 1960s.

Homegrown

Rock and roll in the 1960s Bay Area was replete with superstars, but the homegrown bands alone were remarkable. My three favorites were Creedence Clearwater Revival, It's a Beautiful Day, and the Grateful Dead.

Who can forget rocking to Suzie Q, White Bird, or Truckin'?

Local Poet

I was eight years old when Robert Frost read his poetry at JFK's inauguration. I remember listening in awe to the person whose poems we'd been reading, along with Carl Sandburg, in our elementary school. My formative years were full of admiration for such thoughtful and inspiring people.

Now I learn Frost was from San Francisco, where his father was a newspaper editor.

San Francisco Bizarre

Keith Jackson’s arrest for gun-running, drug trafficking and murder for hire reminded me of his role in the demise of New College.