Sunday Drive: San Francisco

 

Back in 2015, my truckbuddy Frank published Did You Ever See a Horse Go By, his memoir of growing up gay and coming out late; now he has released it on his blog as a free PDF file, newly revised and complete with color photographs. 

The book is a vivid, poignant, sometimes funny, often brutally honest account of the fears, perplexities, and eventual triumphs of finding his way to adulthood as a gay youth in a straight world, before and after Stonewall - something we all had to go through in the 1960s and 1970s. Young gays today have no idea what a struggle it was.  But Frank surmounted all the difficulties and went on to lead a productive, fulfilling life as a proud gay man.

I admire Frank's courage and diligence in setting down his detailed memories so plainly, exposing his inner life for all the world to see. I can't do it - I have the memories, and our experiences paralleled each other's, but it's still just too hard to write about, even after all these years.  The scars have grown over, but they are still quite tender. 

I heartily recommend Frank's book to all my other truckbuddies and readers. And I hasten to add, it does have a happy ending - very much so. Click on the link below to go straight to the PDF. 

Did You Ever See a Horse Go By?

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Phyllis Diller, 1917-2012; Scott McKenzie, 1939-2012

Well, another favorite is gone:  Phyllis Diller died today at her home in Los Angeles, aged 95.  She had quite a life, and quite a career, though - and made millions laugh.  Which is no small thing in this world of sorrow and woe. 

My contemporaries will recall how very, very funny she was at the peak of her stand-up career in the late 1960's, really the first woman to do that, overdressed to kill with feathers, rhinestones, and the most outrageous wigs and miniskirts that showed off her bony legs - and capping it all with that unforgettable cackle of a laugh:



Your Head Trucker can recommend the 7-part interview done with her in 2000 by the Archive of American Television, which covers every facet of her life and career. The link is here, and the first part is below:




And coincidentally, on Saturday Scott McKenzie also died in Los Angeles, at age 73. As far as I ever knew, he had only the one hit song, "San Francisco" - but OMG what a one-hit career to have: it was, of course, the anthem of the flower-power years of the 1960's, and though your Head Trucker was never part of the counterculture - and didn't want to be - I've always stopped whatever I was doing and cranked up the volume whenever that song came on the radio. I just always thought he had the most marvelous, manly, sexy voice. Sad to think it is forever stilled now, but the song will live on and on:



He was a good-looking rascal too, as you can see.