The San Diego U-T just gave the forerunner of the online OB Rag, the OB People’s Rag, a plug in a travel log-type piece on Ocean Beach in the Business section, entitled “Ocean Beach: the neighborhood the ’60s never forgot, where parrots fly free“. The piece is currently in the online version of the newspaper only, and is due out in paper on April 10th.
Along with “landmarks” and “things to do” in OB, is a section “Did you know?” where the original Rag – and current one – are mentioned, along with the 1966 World Surfing Championship and the FX drama “Terriers” history of OB. (BTW – I’m from the PLHS Class of 1966.)
The original OB Rag flourished in the early to mid-1970s as OB’s “underground” community newspaper, and had a publishing run at its peak of 5,000 – 10,000 copies twice a month.
It was “underground” because during its first few years, it was produced out of peoples’ homes and garages, and it was so radical that the staff didn’t care to have the authorities know exactly where it was published – (although back then the police certainly knew – they would drive by the Etiwanda house where the Rag was originally put out and cast a spotlight beam slowly across the front of the house).
Radical or not, the original OB Rag always had strong, progressive politics; it vehemently opposed the Vietnam war; it was a strong advocate for the environment; the paper followed the Nixon Watergate scandal and consistently called for his impeachment; the Rag lead the critique of the infamous OB Precise Plan and gave voice to those who called for democratic, urban planning. The Rag also was a solid supporter of women’s rights and an early San Diego voice for the rights of gays and lesbians.
Many, many people worked on the original paper – all working as volunteers, although a few staffers were able to make a few bucks by hawking the paper in front of markets and on street corners or by selling advertisements to businesses who wanted to appeal to the youth market.
Back to the U-T piece – it also includes a demographics graph of OB residents, as well as a map of the favorites, Hodad’s, Noodle House, Dog Beach, the OB Pier, etc.
Although the article is unattributed, we suspect the writer of the piece is none other than U-T architectural expert Roger Showley, who certainly knows OB as an alumnus of the Point Loma High School class of 1966.
In the late ’60s I lived in OB. I forget the name of the street but it was a few blocks up from the beach. Next door to me was an old lady that had many birds. They must have numbered in the hundreds. The place really stunk on warm days. I wonder if the parrots you mentioned are offspring’s of those birds.