Ann must have taken this picture. Lida looks very happy. During the ceremony, she looked entirely calm and collected. However, when Mike went to put the ring on her finger, I noticed that her hand was shaking noticeably, though not that anyone else in attendance could tell. Mike looks stunned. I look unprepared to have my picture taken.
That fall, of course, was the election of Richard Nixon over George McGovern by a margin that Nixon would foolishly call "a mandate"--big mistake right there because the Watergate break-in and especially the cover up would dog him until he finally resigned in disgrace.
I voted for McGovern.
Nixon's "secret plan" to end the war in Vietnam when he ran in 1968, and I supported him with NIXON'S THE ONE bumper stickers, involved what Lyndon Johnson had begun doing just before he left office: turning the war back over to the Vietnamese. But, of course, the other methods Nixon also used were secret bombings and secret U.S. troop incursions into Cambodia; and so the war widened beyond its original scope and borders. But none of those moves brought peace any closer; well, they did but not the peace anyone else was looking for after all the dead and wounded and the financial treasure expended. The U.S., though, did begin to pull out in much greater numbers, essentially giving up and going home.
Throughout those years, I read Jules Feiffer, Pat Oliphant and Joseph Conrad cartoons in the L.A. Times. They savaged Nixon as they had Johnson before him. Conrad had produced one of the best cartoons ever regarding the My Lai massacre: An effusively be-ribboned and be-medaled general, sitting on the witness stand while dismissively looking at the many photos of dead bodies, casually declares, "Yes, mass suicide is always a terrible thing."
This election was the first time I was able to vote. Not that long after, the voting age was reduced to 18. But I still had to wait until after I turned 21 the fall of 1971 to vote in the 1972 election. Our generation went off to fight the war but were still unable to register their votes until they were 21.
I walked to the polling place, which was about a block away, in someone's living room on the block of Cypress on the other side of Firestone Blvd. They used the innovative punch card method. I believe I did check the back for hanging chads before inserting the ballot into a sleeve and dropping it into the ballot box. I knew McGovern wasn't going to win, but I was not going to vote for the man who was, despite his protestations, a crook.
In those days, Del Clauson, a conservative Republican, was our Congressman for years. But it was in the 60's and early 70's that the city became increasingly liberal when the old folks, like the two old ladies who lived on either side of us, died off. South Gate was primarily white. Watts was primarily black. These days, both areas, and most of the surrounding communities that were also primarily white in the 60's and 70's, are now heavily Hispanic.
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