Hello LaLaLand

Hello LaLa Land

I would imagine that at some point just about everyone experiences a social or cultural disconnect. I will admit to several such incidents over the course of years, but only one does not require a memory search, for it occasionally pops up on its own accord. On its own, not a big deal. To understand why it resonates with me requires a little background information.

I grew up in a middling sized town in North Louisiana. Big towns that I actually spent time in were Shreveport, rarely, and Baton Rouge where I went to college.

After college I went to Atlanta with a friend and worked for CDC as a venereal disease investigator assigned to the Fulton County Health Department. There I was teamed up with another newbie and we worked as a team during the day and spent many of our off hours together. I also was fortunate to marry my college girlfriend there. Note that my big town experience in Atlanta was in the company of friends and my wife. No disconnects in Atlanta, my first seriously big city.

From Atlanta we spent two years at Ft Hood in Killeen, Texas, from which we emerged with a beautiful baby girl. CDC had several assignments possible for my reentry into civilian life. Such choice cities as New York City, Chicago, and Los Angeles had openings. In consultation with my wife, we selected Los Angeles.

After a couple of weeks in Louisiana visiting relatives, we drove to Los Angeles. This was before the Interstate highways crisscrossed the nation. As we got closer and closer to Los Angeles differences began to appear. I was not used to being routinely tailgated on the highway while travelling ten miles over the speed limit. We exited the highway to go to LaCanada, a suburb of Los Angeles, to see army friends, and at the first place I found to pull over, I did. I got out of the car and threw up! The city made a great first impression.

We initially took an apartment in Glendale, but moved to Burbank to be nearer my wife’s school where she taught. For me, I worked as a federal assignee to the LA City Health Department until we merged with the LA County Health Department. My first office was at the Parker Center in the middle of downtown, and my second office was across the street from city hall, still in the middle of downtown.

I commuted daily from Burbank to my office on freeways which were part racetrack and part parking lot. If someone touched their brake lights it could cause a two mile backup. From my office window you could see the mountains...maybe four or five days a year. The rest of the time smog obscured their visibility.

My disconnect? Well, one day at lunch I was walking near the L.A. Times building through hordes of people coming and going and I stopped and looked around me. I had a sudden sense that I wasn’t supposed to be there, that I was never meant to be there. In fact I said out loud to myself, “What the hell am I doing here?” The feeling of disorientation quickly passed and there was no lingering cultural dissonance.

Since that time when I see movie characters wake up from a coma, or accidentally step through a time warp, or find themselves in someone else's body, or living someone else's life, I have a general idea of how that person might feel.

We left L.A. with a second beautiful baby girl, and the four of us had subsequent job assignments in Chicago, Boston, and Washington, D.C. No disconnect feelings in those cities or anywhere else.

On reflection, I think that going through life in the company of others with whom you share experiences and for whom you care and know that they care for you, provides the stability that precludes social and cultural disconnects.

Togetherness counts.