Take Two translates the day’s headlines for Southern California, making sense of the news and cultural events that affect our lives. Produced by Southern California Public Radio and broadcast from October 2012 – June 2021. Hosted by A Martinez.
No Place Like L.A. is our new series that asks L.A. transplants and immigrants: "When was the moment you felt that Los Angeles was truly home?"
This is the story of David King from West Los Angeles.
I'm from Topeka, Kansas.
In a small place like Kansas, I didn't really fit in too well. I was always a little "artistic," I'd like to say. I think most folks would say I was a little headstrong.
I started playing music in bands and people would say, "Oh, he's a musician," and they'd all nod their heads like, "Yeah, that meant something different."
I was 28 when I got this little apartment down towards Long Beach, and the first morning I was living there, I wake up, make my coffee and look out the window.
My next door neighbor is in his slippers and his bathrobe walking down the street with a cigarette. And he goes down to the corner and buys his newspaper.
I thought, "Oh my god! If this was Kansas, there'd be a riot! People would be calling the police, like, 'There's this guy in his bathrobe on the street!'"
I just smiled! I thought, oh my god, I'm home. Nobody's going to bother me at all for being different.