I’m a rust-belt, snow-belt midwesterner. When I first went to SoCal as a kid in the 70s with family to visit cousins who lived near the beach - I thought I had stepped through a time-space portal into some advanced version of western civilization.
Native Angeleno here. I can vouch for the fact that SoCal really was like that for an all too brief moment in time.
I must say, I do miss it. We'll never see its like again.
My compadre and employer is driving from here through Cali to Oregon to do Thanksgiving with his sister-he texted me saying that as soon as he saw the smoke and smelled the air, the lyrics to “the End” have been playing in his head...
I have been a Doors fan since my teens-I listen to the Doors CD I keep in my 4X4 whenever I’m on the way to do the customer service thing with a difficult person-”Roadhouse Blues” and “The End” are my favorite tunes-and the uncensored version of “Gloria” is hilarious...
I once answered a question I considered inappropriate on a job application with “The future’s uncertain, and the end is always near”-I got a job that was more compatible with my class hours the same day anyway...