Pt. 2 - My Teenager Politics

First, a little family history.

My father was born Chicago but his family was living in the Los Angeles area when he met my mother, Verna, on a double-blind date. Verna's family moved to Los Angeles from Oklahoma City in 1933, because her mother was having severe respiratory problems associated with the chronic dust storms plaguing the Dust Bowl at the time. Dad's family was Irish Catholic and Mom's family was Methodist. When they decided to get married, Mom first had to convert to Catholicism. Dad would probably have been kicked out of the Lynch family if he had married someone outside of the Church.

Dad and Mom engagement night - 1948

After Dad recovered from the wounds from his Korean adventure, the Army sent the growing Lynch family to Ft. Lewis, WA.  I believe that he was stationed there until he separated from the service in the mid-'50s when the family moved back to Los Angeles. I recall living in San Pedro, Culver City, Redondo Beach, and spending a lot of time at my maternal grandmother's home in San Gabriel. 

Dad worked in the military aircraft industry in Southern California until 1961 when he got a sales job (of all things - a job he may have been uniquely unqualified for) with a company called Harvey Aluminum in Seattle, WA.  So, that year the now large (six kids) Lynch family boarded a Boeing 707 jet airliner and took off north to Seattle. Our first home was in the University District. The city was gearing up for the 1962 World's Fair; the iconic Space Needle was only halfway finished and the I-5 highway was only completed up to the University District at the time. We kids were quickly enrolled in the Blessed Sacrament Church Catholic school a few blocks away from the house.

Baseball Practice - 1964

It didn't take long for Dad's sales job to flame out. After an employment dry spell, he was hired by the Boeing Company, and the family (now seven kids) moved into a large house in the Seattle Fremont neighborhood. No more expensive Catholic school for the kids; we all started going to public schools again at this time. Dad's new job kept him on the road a lot, always working on different Boeing military weapons projects including the Minuteman ICBM nuclear missile, the air-launched cruise missile, and an oddball hydrofoil boat for the Navy. Mom eventually went to work at Sears, and the Lynch kids all became latchkey kids.

The Lynch family at the Fremont house  - Probably around 1964

Okay, still with me? When I was a young kid, I was always worried that we were all going to die in a nuclear war.  Other than that I wanted to be a professional baseball player when I "grew up." That simple goal faded after a while, but meanwhile, the '60s were going full blast: the Civil Rights Movement, the Women's Rights Movement, the assassinations of President John F.Kennedy, his brother Bobby Kennedy, and Martin Luther King Jr., the Democratic National Convention riots, the Apollo space program, the Vietnam War, and many other events too numerous to mention here. Women were burning their bras and young men were burning their draft cards and dodging the draft, with background music provided by an explosion of creative artists of all sorts. Oh yes - and hippies!

So, I grew up in a conservative (but not homophobic or racist, for some odd reason) Catholic family with well-meaning but somewhat neglectful parents. Dad had a long military history and had secured a good job in the defense industry. However, I don't recall ever participating in any political discussions at home.  We were told that we were fighting the Commies in Southeast Asia, but that's about all I knew about the war. I would say that I was a pretty blank slate, but starting to show signs of the  bleeding-heart liberal that I am today. My political outlook would sharpen a lot during my year in Vietnam.

Next up: Let's join the Army!