John Wise

From about 1971 to 1980, my family lived here at 943 W. Herald Street in West Covina, California. My time living here represents some of the worst moments of my life, creating scars that would take many years to heal.

I entered 3rd grade here at Wescove Elementary School which was just three blocks away from our house up the street. Third grade was good, while by fourth grade, I had one teacher tell me I’d never be able to sing, and in my memory, she was vicious about it. Another teacher brought it to the attention of my parents that I had a crush on a girl by the name of Lorie Lofquist which only brought ridicule and made me embarrassed. One of my favorite songs during my elementary school years was Terry Jacks’s “Seasons In The Sun,” which usually made me cry when I’d think about my third love, Michelle Chrisman. My very first childhood crush was on a girl in second grade at Repetto Elementary in Monterey Park; her name was Patricia, though I’m not sure if it was my crush or her chasing me around and threatening to kiss me. I also bought my very first 45rpm  7″ single during these years; it was Jumpin’ Jack Flash by the Rolling Stones.

By the time I was going to middle school at Willowood, I was listening to Kiss, Cheap Trick, and Aerosmith. I learned to hate bullies, as by this time, I’d become the subject of violence. So not only was it violent at home, but it was increasingly so just being on campus and going to and from home. Back in the 1970s, when I lived here, it was a rare day to see the mountains.

This was Edgewood High School, Home of the Trojans, years before it became a middle school. I sometimes attended class here, but increasing boredom and the threat of growing violence made going to school an ugly task. As I wasn’t performing well here, my father would unleash fury on my ass and freedom to teach me a lesson. He, in effect, taught me to not only steal my report card, but I was smart enough to know that if only mine was missing, he’d have a clue, so I stole my five siblings’ report cards, too.

I learned what gangs were during high school as we had six of them at our school, four Hispanic and two African American. I found punk rock when I was 14 years old while hanging out at my local Barro’s Pizza just up the street from my house on California Avenue, which was also where I first got so high that the guy who got me stoned was afraid to let me go home. During this time, I met Jack LaLanne, who was opening a gym in the same plaza as Barro’s, and I met Eartha Kitt, who was on hand for the grand opening; Eartha played Catwoman on Batman. By 11th grade, I’d discovered PCP, acid, pills, and speed, while my first encounters with alcohol started when I was probably 13.

I never finished high school as after meeting a fellow punk rocker named Joanne Murchland, we were done going to school and were more interested in going to gigs, getting high, and hanging out in Hollywood. Somewhere at the end of 1977, I first heard the Sex Pistols “Never Mind The Bollocks” album in its entirety played on KROQ 106.7, which promptly got them taken off the air for a few days. Devo, the Clash, Black Flag, the Germs, X, Circle Jerks, Mad Society, Throbbing Gristle, and Cabaret Voltaire rounded out my increasing obsession with music.

Starting in my junior high years, I was taking myself to the movies to escape the perceived horror of how I was growing up. The first movie I remember seeing here without my dad was Monty Python and the Holy Grail. My father didn’t think their humor was appropriate for an 11-year-old, but all the kids I went to school with were talking about it, so I had to go. Later that year, I went and got terrified half a dozen times as I watched Jaws, and then in 1977, I stood in line countless times to watch Star Wars. Down the street, about a mile from here, was the Capri Theater, where I was introduced to B-movies and occasionally a bunch of bands that would play there.

To the left of the theater across the street was the West Covina Municipal Courts, where I’d sit in on various criminal cases. Next door to it was the police department where I’d considered becoming an Explorer, which was a youth program for the police department similar to ROTC. And in the same general area was the library where I spent a lot of time too. Adjacent to all of this was the West Covina Fashion Plaza, where I hung out a lot and would spend too much time between Tower Records and Licorice Pizza admiring record covers, learning about the Freak Brothers and Robert Crumb while wishing I had a black light and a velvet poster with glow in the dark tigers on it in my bedroom; my father would have killed me.