When I was 12 or so, a friend of mine and l used to hitchhike into Oakland from Lafayette, the small rural community in Contra Costa where I grew up.

There were movie theaters in Oakland, and we would thumb our way in and catch movies like The House of Wax. And then thumb our way home. You could do that in those days.

A few years later, when I was 16, I got a summer job in a factory in Oakland. I ran the freight elevator at the California Peanut Factory where I would haul oil drums of chocolate covered raisins and caramel infused “turtles” from the upper bakery floors down to shipping. I made $1.00 an hour and netted $32 a week after taxes.

After work on Friday, I would cash my check, fill the tank of my ’53 Chevy and drive north about 135 miles to Blue Lakes and meet several of my buddies who had also come up to this beautiful resort area after a week of work. Someone always brought a trunk load full of 6 packs of Oly. I don’t know what kids drink these days, but back then it was always Oly (short for Olympia Beer). No drugs on the horizon in those days.

There were always girls, and another “gang” from the local area with whom we would occasionally “duke it out.” Then back home on Sunday night. This was the pattern all summer, then on to the senior year of high school.

After high school, college, and graduate school, I was living “the good life.” I had a decent paying job and was living on a gorgeous golf course. One afternoon, I was listening to Robert F. Kennedy (I was a big fan). It was 1968 and he was running for the U.S. Presidency at the time.

He made a speech and said something similar to what his brother John had said: “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.”

RFK’s statement was not exactly that wording but very similar. And something about it motivated me to want to reach out and help my fellows. I had a management position at a retail gig at the time, but had a Master’s Degree in American History and was not using it. So, I reached out and found that I could teach a night class in American History to people who had not graduated from high school. These folks had to pass a test on American history to get a diploma and, thus, a better job.

The class was all African American adults. They were coming to night school for the class. And where was this class? It was at the “infamous” Oak Tech (Oakland Technical High School (“infamous” because besides all the Black Panther Party support there, it was a bit later that Oakland school superintendent Marcus Foster was gunned down by the Black Liberation Army in the early 70’s).

This was 1968, the height of the civil rights movement. And while the Black Panther Party was formally founded at Merrit College in Oakland by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale, Oak Tech was a “sister” school and boasted the first female member of the Black Panthers, Joan Tarika Lewis. There was also a great deal of student activism there and the formation of a black student union, which was somewhat revolutionary at the time.

Another notable Black Panther was Eldrige Clever, who joined the  Party in December of 1966 after being released from Folsom prison. He subsequently became the Minister of Information in 1967.

In 1968, Clever published Soul on Ice. A collection of essays mostly written in Folsom. The book sold hundreds of thousands of copies and became one of the defining books of the “black power” era. However, in that year, he led an ambush on Oakland police officers. Two police were injured as was Clever. One 17 year old Panther was killed.

Clever jumped bail and fled to Cuba. And the rest, as they say, was history. But not in this case. After travels to Algeria, France and North Korea advocating revolution and black power, Clever became disillusioned with a violent approach. He began studying religion. He returned to the U.S. and avoided jail time. He was put on probation. He eventually joined the Mormon church and became a conservative Republican. Talk about a 180!

Later, in the ‘90s, I was at a Christmas party with a number of executives of my church. I turned to talk to someone, and three feet to my right was none other than Eldrige Clever talking to one of the executives. He was helping disadvantaged youth in Pomona at the time.

I was tempted to approach him and relive a little Oakland history but decided against it. He died in 1998 at the age of 62.

But I am getting ahead of myself. A short time after the teaching gig at Oak Tech, I resigned from the management position at the corporation where I was engaged in banking, credit and finance and went to work for a bank, the headquarters of which was…. you guessed it…in downtown Oakland.

I later joined another bank in Beverly Hills and there ran into an old friend of mine. We subsequently became partners in a business management company that handled the financial matters of entertainers: actors, actresses, producers, directors, screenwriters and rock stars. Rock stars who, it turned out, performed several concerts in Oakland.

After two decades of Hollywood rock and roll, I sold my interest in the company and moved to a small community high in the Los Padres National Forest north of Los Angeles where, with technology these days, I am still able to do financial consulting, write a financial newsletter and manage my long-held survey company.

The air is pristine; the views are stunning and there is wildlife everywhere. And when I go for a walk here, I don’t hear sirens and horns, I hear bluejays.

A view from my deck.

Today, as I sit on my deck, I happened to catch an article of a drug bust wherein the perpetrator had a baby spider monkey named Violetta that was taken to the Oakland Zoo.

And it is this news of Oakland that sends me back in time and prompts this short retrospective. Because the news up here in the mountains is…well…. here’s a recent email from the Property Owners Association.

On Monday (tomorrow) October 6th at 4:30pm, the Bear Committee will meet in the Pavilion. You see, there are so many bears here that there is actually a property owners committee here to deal with them (and their welfare). The bears don’t inhibit my work (other than the time one lifted our garage door and pillaged the salmon in our second refrigerator there). But bears aside, I still am able to write a financial newsletter, to which I would encourage you to subscribe as I am (modesty aside) accurately calling the movements in the precious metals markets as we move through an historic bull market – I also cover crypto and some stocks: https://tinyurl.com/588jatd2. And it is with modern technology that I am also able to manage my widely heralded survey company from that deck overlooking a glorious national forest. https://ontargetresearch.com. So call or email me if I can be of service helping with financial / investment advise or providing surveys for your company. And Oakland? Oakland has been through some rough times over the years, but according to news reports, things are improving of late. I wish the city well. And if you are looking for a place where your walks are punctuated by the sounds of bluebirds talking and the air is like breathing candy, let me know as there are some cool homes for sale up here. Best, Bruce br***@**********an.net 818-397-1401