This is the place – for the OB Rag online party for the 50th anniversary of the first OB Rag, published Sept. 17, 1970.
So join us! Come on in and make comments – post memories, observations, give greetings to friends and most of all send good vibes. We’re doing this for an hour … from 7 to 8 pm.
The party is also happening on OB Rag facebook. We’ll be monitoring both sites …
Meanwhile, peruse the articles about OB Rag and OB history that were posted this week.
Early History of the OB Rag and of Ocean Beach grassroots activism in the first half of the 1970s. The “Save Collier Park” battle, the emergence of the alternatives, the beginning of the anti-development movement …
The very first OB Rag – scanned and unedited – the language is hilarious – so be prepared.
Then there’s how the people of OB stopped the jetty 50 summers ago, with great OB Rag quotes from 1970-72.
One of the things I personally wanted to do tonight is try to list all the wonderful people who worked on the first OB Rag, 1970 to 1975.
Happy birthday OB Rag!
Is this the party? Woo-hoo! Thanks, OB Rag!!!
And thank you for your support.
Happy 50th Anniversary to the OB Rag! I’m hoisting a toast and wearing my OB Rag t-shirt. Warmest greetings to all the Ragsters!
Thanks for 50 years of telling it like it is.
Welcome Alice. There’s a seat right over there fer ya. Can you tell us how you ended up in OB?
It is a long and wonderful story – but the ending is that a friend in LA told his friend in Clairemont that we were looking for place in San Diego, described our family, and she recommended Ocean Beach. We never left!
Happy Birthaday OBRag. I’m so glad that I was able to be part of yet another permutation of the original. Although I’m not an OG, my bumper sticker (on the fridge) includes “Freaks, Uppity Women & Politicos”.
I look forward every day to reading the voices who bring a new freshness and the same commitment to the progressive community. Thank you all!
Thanks Ms Anna! I don’t even want to talk age. And I still have my City Heights t-shirt. It’s a challenge bringing “the voices” M-F and some days just have to take a break. But knowing you’re out there helps a lot. Miss you and Rich.
A truly historic occasion. Happy to connect with you.
Great photo of Frank and Patty.
We just took it tonight, just before the party. The deck had cooled down from 105 and was habitable.
Happy Birthday to a great local news rag! Thanks for keeping us locals in the news on the real things that are happening in our community. Don’t know if my brother Tom will make it on, but we talk about the Rag all the time.
Great to hear from you Mary! Tom occasionally leaves a comment. And aren’t congrats to you in order?
Congratulations on 50yrs and you can still stand and get in some good trouble. Way to go Keep OB raggin
Welcome! Welcome! Pull up a chair and share … how did you end up in OB?
A work mate at a job I hated said “you don’t want to live in OB, there is nothing but drugs and bikes” My response was I love to ride bikes and drugs no big deal Ya take’ em or you don’t. Then he said no I mean motor cycles
Where did you get that cool reverse logo shirt?
oops. I got distracted . . .
Happy Anniversary to everyone there at the ‘Rag!
Opps! Howdy Peter of South Oceanside. You’re always there to help us with the rough spots. Keep up your comments, dude.
“opps” . . . you always know what to say to cheer me up, Frank!
Actually, I’m informed by my better that all selfies are reversed. Duh, – shows you how many I take.
I’ve never liked my selfies. They always make me look like a baby chimp.
The image on your ‘phone is reversed so that it is easier to move and center the shot, instead of dealing with a mirror image. That’s why selfies look reversed on your screen. Like looking in a mirror.
HOWEVER, the iPhone auto flips the image after it is taken and before it is stored. Android takes a manual setting to flip selfies.
A nine-year old chap informed me of this. He has a dandy future in technical support, methinks.
Happy Raggin congrats on 50yrs
Thank you Frank for all your work for the last 50 years. And thank you Patty for all your work in helping keep the OBRag alive. I am so grateful to have you still around in these difficult times. You inspire me to keep going. And thanks Frank for starting the Ocean Beach Grassroots Organization. So many good times in trying to save OB and world. You can always make activism fun.
And of course, likewise Colleen, for all the work you do for OB and the environment. OBGO was some fun times. We took the old Green OB symbol and made it as part of our logo.
Colleen, could you please respond to Peter’s query about OBGO?
Happy Birthday OB Rag! Greetings from City Heights. You’re a great presence not only in OB, but in San Diego as well! Keep up the good work!
Thanks Rich of City Heights. We do have a readership outside OB / PL within San Diego. Back in the 1970s, we used to publish 5,000-10,000 copies every two weeks or so.
Are you planning a book? You’ve got lots of material – Memoirs of a Ragster.
Actually I am, but it’s on the back burner as I struggle to finish the current one.
Hi Frank, Patty and other friends and comrades,
I just switched to website from FB. I can see more comments here.
Peter – great hearing from you. We’re suffering through a heat wave here currently and the County is tittering on falling back into more restrictions with 600+ positive cases of SDSU students.
Congratulations for 50 years of community
activism. It was wild in those first days when I was involved, what with the police and the SecretArmy Organization operating almost in Union. Printing downtown in the movement print shop, up at UCSD on their equipment, the STP office, the beginning of the food co-op. The Army Corps of Engineers project to extend the jetty and Collier Park–the community saying “No” to the exploitation of the community. I’ve never mentioned this but the NLF flag (Viet Cong) that we used at the People’s Peace Treaty rally at the beach, on the day of the Collier Park action, and marched with from the beach to the park that day, was a special flag. It was the flag I raised over Fort Wilderness on Tom Sawyer’s Island during the Yippie Invasion of Disneyland on August 6th, 1970–the 25th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. As Jerry Rubin titled his book, “We are everywhere.”
Hi Tom.
Solidarity and best wishes. Hard to believe-50 years.
Greetings Peter. Last talked with you about the Judy Bari-Darrell Cherney bombing many years ago. I was still working at the university radio station, but last year right-wing elements in the university turned the station from a community activist voice into a corporate NPR clone operated out of Sacramento. The fight goes on.
Greetings Tom! Just heard from Hugh Brenner the other day and he mentioned that same incident with the NLF flag at Tom Sawyer’s Island. Great day! the shut down of Disneyland. The Vietnam war was still going on. No business as usual!
Tom, I hope you find the time to write an article/essay for the OB Rag about raising the flag over Fort Wilderness during the Yippie Invasion of Disneyland. This must not disappear down the memory hole!
Will do–great day that was. A true Yippie! action.
The conduit = the rag. The recognition of the immediate necessity = collective and community. Continuing to close close the gap! Happy birthday!
Forrest – thanks, mi amigo. It’s a party and I can’t wait – but I will – for a real one. Hope to see you soon.
The OB Rag matters, both historically and into the future. Ocean Beach, San Diego and the universe is a better place because of its existence and the work it takes for it to exist. thank you.
Howdy Roy – and thanks to people like you, we can keep going. Gracias for your support.
I am not sure if there is a lag in comments getting posted as I haven’t seen any for 10 minutes.
Three questions:
1) What is the OB grassroots Organization that Colleen mentions.
2. How bad has COVID-19 been in OB?
3. Have their been Black Lives Matter activities in OB? What kind?
Peter, I’m hoping Colleen will respond.
What makes the Rag so special is that it covers from an on the ground perspective what is happening in OB, especially struggles for justice and it also examines what is happening beyond OB. A toast to the continued health of the OB RAG and its contributors!
Congrats! Wow! 50 years! Are we really that old? LOL!
I was there at the beginning. Papers sold out of the Paisley Pelican. Mellow Yellow and all.
I’m so happy you are still putting it out there.
Howdy, howdy Katie! You got here just at the right moment. What was the Mellow Yellow?
Hey, hey, it was great! The official party is over – it’s 8 pm – but of course you can still make comments but editordude won’t be monitoring them.
A lot of love. About to sign off. If you ever do this again on-line, I am happy to set up a Zoom Meeting. I recently did it for a funeral. Hope to see you before too long. Peter
Really wonderful – hey, hopefully the zoom won’t be for our funeral. Cheers and solidarity! Hay that rhymes.
Ocean Beach Grassroots Organization was a group Frank started in 2000. We did a lot of actions to “Save OB”, protect the environment and protest the war in Iraq, among other things. It was impressive, and you all know how hard it is to keep a bunch of progressives together and Frank managed to do it
Frank and 6 other strong individuals. Let’s see, you, me, Marc, Dan, Kip, Susie, ….
Whew, made it!! Finally got on. Yeah, great picture of you two!
The days of the paper and ink Rag are very precious to me, thinking about all the deep politics and endless weirdness of the OB scene. I ended up in OB because I decided I wanted to stay. Arriving in a driveaway with a backpack, a dog (Layla, a wonderful dog) to visit some friends from Boston who had come out here, I got so caught up in both the breadth of collective community projects , the Rag most of all, but also the intense repression of OB activists on the street. Had to stay and did for seven years. Over 40 years later I still feel involved from hundreds of miles away.
That the rag continues, perhaps even more relevantly in this digital age is quite a testimony, and I mean to you, Frank, one of our best examples of citizen jouirnalism with a mission and undiscourageable activism and willingness to step[ out and lead, for all these years. Saludos, FG, and it’s great that there is still more comin’!!
love and solidarity
Wow! You just made it! A bunch of the original Ragsters showed; Tom C, Diana T, Dennis D, Peter B, Katie R, … and you. It’s been quite a party and I’m about to crash. Have to clean up, you know, the beer cans and bottles, the wine glasses, the ashtrays – ah, the good ol’ days. Peace & Love to you
Happy 50th Anniversary OB Rag! I rely on the Rag to keep me informed of local happenings and in the know regarding important issues. Thank You!
Thanks Denine! See ya in the future.
Happy Anniversary and thank you Patty and Frank for all your hard work and dedication.
Sorry to miss the party. Is it time to debrief yet? HA
ACK- frickin time zones!! So I missed the extemporaneous part, but let me add heartfelt congrats to you all for a wonderful milestone!! I may be afar right now, but thankfully the Rag is always just 1 click away. As a former SD resident for 25 yrs, including as an OB resident (plus Shelter Island, which counts in my mind, haha) for at least a decade, the Rag has kept me informed on things that matter, has educated me, has let me vent (repeatedly), has connected me with really awesome people, and has sustained my faith in the goodness of some of our humankind!
Please keep on keepin’ on. The world needs you! I need you! And thanks for being awesome and inexhaustible! x
I just celebrated 19 years in OB in April !
Huge fan of you guys and enjoy reading the OB Rag !
keep it going
xoxoxox
Congratulations and continued good health! Sorry to miss the party! Thank you from the bottom of my heart and every brain cell for your “sticktoittiveness” over 50 years! Though not an OBcean, living in the family’s original 1957 house in Bay Park has kept me close to our coastal communities, and memories of OB times over my years here are vivid in my mind. Your words are communicated to family members and friends in N. California, New York, Florida, Oregon, Louisiana, Canada, Great Britain, France and more! Keep doing what you do – connect us all – we need it so!!!
Happy half century OB Rag!
thanks dude! When I speak about the Rag, I always bring up the time when you restarted it back at the turn of the century.