KYA-AM, San Francisco – October 21, 1967 –
October 21, 1967 – Here you are; 17, living in the without-a-doubt grooviest place on earth and you missed the much fabled Summer Of Love – in your own city, not even twenty blocks away. How could that happen? Easy – you don’t like crowds, and The City has become overrun with them. Besides, your parents read the newspapers and magazines and listen to the radio and they know all about the Haight. They aren’t stupid, they’ve heard the stories. They have friends of friends of friends whose kids ran off and only come home in time for school, and dinner every once in a while. Not you, you’re trapped – your mom does bird impressions, and all Summer she’s been watching you like a hawk.
But you have friends too – and friends of friends of friends. And they know people and they have connections. And you’ve been waiting for just the right time to drop that tab of Window Pane you got two weeks earlier from a guy named Elliot. In fact, you and your friends in school made a deal you will all drop Acid at the same time – maybe during 4th Period, just before Lunch.
Sounds like a plan. You missed out – you get the feeling people, like your grandkids will ask where you were back in the old days, when you sat in Golden Gate Park and stared at trees. You won’t be able to tell them, because you weren’t there – maybe you can make up stories, you can pretend – no one would notice anyway. You would. You’re a terrible liar.
So it’s October and Summer is over, but that doesn’t mean you can’t catch up. No more Love-Ins, but there’s concerts. No Summer, but there’s Halloween. Maybe you didn’t miss much after all – besides, your hair is starting to look good in the back.
Possibilities are endless.
And to get an idea of what you were listening to on this very day fifty-one years ago – here is an excerpt of KYA in San Francisco from October 21, 1967.
