I was a surfer by 1963 even though I was 15 and couldn't drive yet. When you weren't in the ocean surfing without or with a wetsuit of some sort (depending upon the time of year and temperature of the water and air then), you were often wearing a white t-Shirt, Levi jeans that had to be very tight, and white socks and tennis shoes and the levis had to be short way above your ankles to fit into the surfer crowd in Los Angeles County then. If you could you wanted to be in the direction of sun bleached blonde hair so we put lemon juice in our hair if it was brown to lighten the color like the sun does often too after a summer at the beach and surfing the waves.
Then there weren't any short boards we ONLY had longboards which were anywhere from 9 to 10 feet 5 or 6 inches. We bought (many of us) surf wagons (station wagons) to more easily carry our surfboards and also with a station wagon you could also sleep if you wanted to in the back of your full size stationwagon waiting for surf to be up soon. My years of surfing were 1962 to 1969 when my best friend had to join the Air Force so he could survive the Viet Nam War as a jet engine mechanic on B-52s and fighter jets at a base in Thailand. I met people who deserted and went to Canada or left the country for Europe or did whatever they could to not die in Viet Nam. More boys my exact age died in Viet Nam (born in 1948) than any other year. 50,000 of us died over there and for what?
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