But Not So Much of Other Things
Yup, kids, the Old OB Hippie is full of pride these days about OB (… but not so much from other stuff) and how the community came together around the annual OB Holiday Parade.
The OB Parades are always a gas, but this year was special, as the OB Town Council, who hosts the parade, named the OB Community Plan as the “Grand Marshal” of the parade! Wow! This is tremendous – and I’ve never in all my decades seen the local town council join up in solidarity with the local planning board like this. Plus I don’t think there’s ever been a Grand Marshall that hasn’t been an actual person. I could be wrong, and I’d love to know if I was on this. But this is / was very significant in this community’s history.
The OB Parade always has surprises and fun floats and entries. This year, the “OB Pause” was crazy great. They had a airplane outline in lights and then they all came to a halt. The Innocence Project was there as was the Amnesty International folks, plus the anti-war themes of some of the others. Hey, did you notice the guerrilla float advocating for marijuana legalization with the smoking VW bus and large joint – or was that a rocket? (But hey guys, that one decal sticker mocking the homeless was not cool.)
I’m also full of pride about how OB donates money, food and toys for those more needy than the rest of us. The Town Council raised at least $7000 at its recent annual Christmas Auction last week. The big item: the old OB entry way sign still with the termites that forced it to come down and be replaced. And don’t forget, the old sign still has the guerrilla “O” in the “OB” painted red – the new one doesn’t. Did you notice that? Plus OBceans dished out more donations at the end of the Parade. And lots of people emerge from the proverbial woodwork this time of year and volunteer for the various events – this is great.
I’m not so proud of our CIA and our country that tortures. And especially not proud of the current torture-deniers.
But I am hopeful about all the protests that have erupted around the country in solidarity with Fergurson and New York City. Did you see all those white-coated medical students and staff who staged “die-in’s” at their various schools and facilities around the country yesterday? This movement has legs and it could very well save this country. Save it from what, you don’t ask? Save it from cop shootings of Black men, from torture, from drones, from the militarization of the police. The last time we had a heavy-duty civil rights movement, the whole nation changed – for the better. More on all this later.
A couple of things you may have missed in all the holiday hubbub. Did you catch that the Feds are planning on raising fees to Cabrillo National Monument? Like, tripling them? The National Park Service is proposing to raise the entrance fee from $5 a car, no matter how many occupants, to $15 a car. The rate for walkers or cyclists would go from $3 to $7 per person.
Have you been keeping abreast on all the goings-on about our Mission Bay and park land, especially having o do with the Belmont Park lease – watch carefully now that Lori Zapf is in – and having to with De Anza Park, now that the lawsuit has been settled and the City can do what it wants with it.
Poor CVS about to open its new market in the old Apple Tree – it may not have a liquor license in time for its opening. And under the title “Keeping track of our ‘Community Parters'”, did you see where CVS got dissed for its recent promo hype? The LA Times ran with this back in mid-Nov.:
If companies want to reward customer loyalty, offer a real reward. Don’t make a nifty-sounding promise and then renege when the customer tries to cash in. … And now CVS Health is playing fast and loose with its ExtraCare rewards program. The company says discounts don’t apply to products that are on sale. But it sneakily excludes some full-priced items as well. CVS also neglects to state anywhere on its ExtraCare website that sale and promotional items are excluded from the program.
Hey, got an idea for the old OB Hippie, send it in in confidence to obragblog@gmail.com
Have a happy hippie holiday!
“OB Time” is becoming a weekly column – nothing ever is just “is”, man, we’re all still becoming always.
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Always FUN events in OB, next month of course will be the 99th Anniversary of the Rainmaker FLOOD which the Cowboy Wordsmith believes helped keep OB the best laid back old Hippie Beach Town it still is. So lets all plan on a nice “THANK THE RAINMAKERS DAY”—-
The Ocean Beach Community Plan as “Parade Grand Marshall?” What a hoot!
Hurrah for the OB Town Council, the OB Planning Board, Frank Gormlie, the OB Rag, and everyone else who keep the democratic flame burning in Old OB. With good folks like you OB will always be a special place, an island of cheerful idealism in a sea of cynicism and materialism.
Having been a part of the old OB Community Planning Group who fought to get that first OB Precise Plan, planned the first 7 district Planning Board election, and won with an OBCPG majority to save the community in 1976, I’m always thrilled to see that OB progressive spirit is still alive and well and good people are carrying on with the hard work of maintaining a very special community.
In a fast-changing and self-centered world, the OB Planning Board is one significant institution created by the progressive “Old Hippies” of the 60s/70s that survived to serve the community with healthy social and environmental values. It’s not easy to institutionalize passion. but you’ve done it.