Stephen Propes
I was born in Berkeley California. My mother was a librarian, just graduate from UC when I was born, my father was just coming off being a hobo during the Depression. Later my mother was head of the catalog dept. at LBSC from 1953 until her retirement in the late 60s. Despite my parents' fears, I had a car, which I crashed regularly, along with their care. In the early days, I hitchhiked a lot to school (seriously), but I pretty much experienced and recovered from too much adventure. I came over from LBCC, which was an eye-opener, to the extent I had to study to keep up, which I began to do. I have some success in sociology courses, less so in poli-sci, so I concentrated on the classes in which I could keep up.
Racing the gray Studebaker cop cars up the hill. I was a co-founder of a campus fraternity, which had a house on the sand in Seal Beach, meaning, "party!" Otherwise, I wasn't much of a joiner, still the case. I was a student assistant at the reserve desk in the library, my mother's position in the library perhaps helped me get that job, which paid me real money. I also worked in the parking lot at Disneyland, from which I was summarily fired, though I can't imagine why.
49er Day when the lower campus was a rutted field. Attended many LB Blues Festivals when I was with KLON and Blues at the Nugget concerts.
The cafeteria- there were several tables that people I knew would be at during the day. I could always stop by and find someone to talk to and visit. There was a grassy slope outside the cafeteria that was a great spot on sunny days.
Dr. Korber and Dr. Massaro in Sociology were both memorable for different reasons. Korber for his antipathy toward apartheid and Massaro for his demanding approach. I also recall Dr. Morehouse in Radio/TV, as I had just left his class when I got news of JFK's assassination.
I got married to Sylvia Liebi the same year I graduated on 9/11, which seemed a perfectly reasonable date at the time and worked for LA County DPSS, renamed Children's Services, as a social worker and children's services worker, but as still is the case, found the job to be absolutely too intense compared to the support offered by administration. I entered Library School at UCLA in 1967, no for me. In 1968, Sylvia and I traveled for three months in the USA in a '59 Bug and Europe - thanks for Icelandic Airlines -camping in a new VW van we bought there, a great experience if you like mini-revolutions, assassinations, and entire countries being shut down. Remember this was 1968. Returned to the county from 1969 until 1981, and published the first book on rock and roll record collecting. My record collecting hobby led to a DJ gig on CSULB radio KLON, FM88, when as one of the original jocks, I played R&B records. Since then, I've not held a steady job, but have managed to teach rock and roll history at CSULB Extension, Golden West College and various local venues, when asked; also hosted a cable rock and roll history show on Charter Cable TV in Long Beach throughout the 90s, interviewing George Carlin, Curtis Mayfield and other major talents. I've also written and have published 7 additional books, still working on new themes and subjects. SyIvia and I have also raised a family of 2 daughters, Heather, who lives in New Jersey and Shea, who lives with us. We also have two grandkids, Torben, who lives in Denmark and Camilla, who lives in NJ with her mother.
Since 2000, I've been a freelance journalist, working for the Long Beach Beachcomber, writing on all subjects and kept up my radio career on WPMD at Cerritos College and Internet station, Rock-It Radio. As of this year, I've also begun teaching rock and roll roots at OLLI on the CSULB campus.
My wife, Sylvia and her sister Marie Alana Liebi, who both graduated in 1965 with an art degree as did Marie's future husband, Cornell Morton, also an art degree; second brother in law, Steve Cropp, who obtained a graduate degree and his son and my nephew, Daniel Cropp, who just graduated.
It directly led to the only true job experience I ever had, for better or for worse and to my pretend career as a radio professional, to the extent that KLON was campus-based.
