Michael Hinsley:
CLASS OF 1962
Reagan High SchoolClass of 1962
Houston, TX
Mission High SchoolClass of 1962
San francisco, CA
West High SchoolClass of 1962
Denver, CO
Everett Middle SchoolClass of 1959
San francisco, CA
Saint Charles Borromeo SchoolClass of 1956
San francisco, CA
Michael's Story
Looking back fondly, let me sketch out the echoes of partial memories that I imagine we all have, and I will merely draw my version. In some ways I've never changed. From elementary school to coming retirement..a past filled with rich and varied memories; over 40 countries visited,from long weekends to a month or two in each, lived in four countries,from a year or two to half a decade. I've seen 45 of the 50 states,lived in 10 or 11 cities. My most constant memories are the books I've read and the people I've met. The adventures with each, shedding light on the other. Jean Valjean helping me see the Mediterranean. France, Paris, Marseille. Li Po, the T'ang Poet in China, Jack London in San Francisco, Somerset Maughm in Kuala Lumpor. My feet almost remember the streets I've walked, the rivers I've crossed, the forests I've travelled thru, the mountains climbed.The present is as involved as the past. Daily headlines from around the world as I shuffle off this daily coil. I still have hopes of equalling or surpassing all that I've seen. In the future I seek, time and resources permitting, There are still mountains to climb. At a minimum, to add to French and Vietnamese, to languages I enjoy. I wish to be adequate in Spanish and Mandarin.The sensibility each language teaches you has been a great boon to my life. And saved it on a couple of occasions! And 40 more countries to go!
My first job was at Clyde Beatty Circus, Los Angeles,Ca.,I was 7 and 8 years old. I t was 1951. I got paid in tickets to The Side Show. What I remember most about it, is watering the baby elephant, clearing away the poop, and avoiding anything that the Mama Elephant didn't approve of. I then got to go and see all the side show exhibitors. They were called "freaks" in those days. "The Bearded Lady", "The Tallest Man Alive"," The Man who could turn his head 180 degrees". "The Shrunken Head from Borneo" The Carnie Games. They conveyed the street wise Golden Rule: in every transaction there is a Shark and there is a Fish, (implied small.) The goal is to convince the Fish that He is indeed the Shark. Only with many repititions in both roles did I work out the tactics used. On two occasions I subbed for the Barker while he was on break. I visited so often, I memorized his spiel. Clyde Beatty had a second wife, and I remember thinking 'How shocking" such an idea was! The Circus was in L.A. for two weeks I believe, two years in a row. I asked my mother if I could run away with the Circus and she told me "maybe next year". So for those two years I would watch the circus come to town, I saw the roustabouts set up the tents, some enormous, and like a village, Poof!, it was there as if brought by a genie. And, Abra Cadabra, Poof! it was gone. I also got to watch Clyde Beatty work the Cats in the morning, with his chair, whip,and 38 cal. pistol. He "froze" the Lions with a command and worked the Tigers. Then he "froze" the Tigers, and worked the Lions. It was a great principle, I often remembered. Years later I came to use a 38. cal. and thought "Oh, there's Clyde Beatty's pistol!"..Also, in one of those years in the early 1950's, an Evangelist Revival came to town, immediatley following the...Expand for more
circus, and had quite a show. I put my head in the tent one evening, while selling the newspaper as a newsboy, and what I saw stunned me. The singing, 'being cured' and the Minister, were more strange than anything I had seen at the Circus. I attended St Joseph's Elementary, and everyone there merely mumbled. We marched in from the school yard to John Phillip Sousa's "Stars And Stripes Forever", 5 days a week, and only the Nuns spoke clearly. Firm but kind. But these Revivalists spoke ,if not in tongues, calling on centuries of Rhetorical tradition and it was mesmorizing. Years later, in Community Theatre, I played the Reverend Brown in a production of "Inherit The Wind". I remembered what I had seen and infused the character with that memory and energy. The first 5 rows in the theatre recoiled at my 'creation' from Genesis. However, my Director pointed out that I routinely dropped a day from Genesis per performance. For years I wondered if that revival was led by Billy Graham, who was becoming well known. My regular job in those years was as a newsboy. After school I would go to the corner where I lived, on Washington and Main, and get my newspapers, 15, or 20, as I recall, I got them from an old Irishman. All that I could carry. One of us, The Irishman or myself, got 2 cents a paper. I think it was me. The 'Newsman' was a gruff, grizzled, 5 day bearded "old" man from Limerick, Ireland. It struck me because my Grandfather was from Limerick. He would send me off to Mel's Drive-In, on Olive. But before he did that, I would sell some papers out on the street, The traffic would stop because of the old wooden 'stop and go' paddles. I would scamper along the lanes. Later they became "Lights" without the paddles. Rather than read the headlines, (people would ignore me) I learned that if I loudly 'hawked' the smaller sidebars with a prominent name, for example, " President Eisenhower arrives at Camp David!" I sold all my papers. Or on occasion, he would bet passerbys a quarter that I could read anything on the front page. He kept the quarter. Then off to Mel's I would go. The soda jerk would give me a cherry coke, and the car-hops were very nice. After I sold all but two of my papers I would cross the street, and enter The Olympic Auditorium. There, the best fighters in or visiting the West Coast would come to fight. Joey Ghiardello, and that generation. I would walk in backwards while hawking my papers and whether or not I sold the two, I would then pivot and seat myself for a period in the dark,while I watched the fights. I also saw once or twice wrestlers, such as "Rocco", "Enrique Torres" and once, "Gorgeous George". Years later a comic, (Billy Cristal) would "do" old fighters with the raspy voices, and it reminded me of all those people in that world. When I became a teen I fought for a while, skinny reed that I was, remembering my early 'heroes'. I never cared for Los Angeles, when they ripped out the transportation system, but I cared for that Los Angeles, my Los Angeles of Angels Flight, The Mexican Market, Olivera Street, Union Station, Fedoras and sawdust, Nat King Cole on the radio. I never cared for L.A. but I always cared for that L.A.
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