when I was a kid in the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles, instead of snow days we had smog days where we weren't allowed to go to school. - ThreadSky

kennymellman.bsky.social • 8 days ago

when I was a kid in the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles, instead of snow days we had smog days where we weren't allowed to go to school.

Reposted from Kendra "Gloom is My Beat" Pierre-Louis

It's not just fdr. One of the things the epa did not long after it was formed was document the nation's pollution via photography. That can seem frivolous, but generations of Americans have no idea why the EPA was necessary. This broke a million views when we published it in 2017

Comments

ssenn3337.bsky.social•8 days ago

When I was a kid in Colorado, we frequently referred to the Brown Cloud around Denver.

decmusicology.bsky.social•8 days ago

I lived in LA as recently as the early aughts

Even then, looking downtown from the west, you could rarely see the San Gabriels behind the skyline

The fact that that is less rare now took a long time to achieve

d4bbl3z.bsky.social•8 days ago

My family is deeply rooted in Pittsburgh and it's history of steel. My grandma would tell us that she would go home from school for lunch and her mom would make her wash up and have a fresh change of clothes for her, because the soot from the mills was so thick in the air.

blakemmmk.bsky.social•8 days ago

I joked recently about the beauty of the San Diego sunsets (because FIRE) - same joke every fire event.

blakemmmk.bsky.social•8 days ago

But also - as a kid in San Diego we had air days like New England had snow days. Sorry no soccer because you can't breathe today

blakemmmk.bsky.social•8 days ago

But also reminded of playing t-ball as the small canyon was on fire and we played on because the outfield was not yet threatening the kids. Love the 70s

1925bungalow.bsky.social•8 days ago

When I lived in Los Angeles five decades ago, it took 8 months for me to realize there were Hollywood Hills! I walked out of the bank one day and saw a beautiful cresting of hills in front of me that I'd never seen. I thought I was hallucinating. It was just a good air quality day.

riodylan.bsky.social•8 days ago

I remember when we couldn’t have recess because of smog days.

datsun-honeybee.bsky.social•8 days ago

Don't worry, those days will be back soon.

ryancraig.bsky.social•8 days ago

similar thing in Denver back in the day, and also similar effect (mountains trap the smog). i think i remember the local news saying something like if your license plate ended in even/odd number on X day then try to carpool or something like that

blakemmmk.bsky.social•8 days ago

And that is Salt Lake City today. I have family there but they will likely leave within the next few years

katharinethegeek.bsky.social•8 days ago

I was a little kid during the pre-EPA days. I remember driving to Pittsburgh in the early 70's to see my grandparents. When we'd stop in Cumberland, the sulfur smell was overpowering. Arriving in Pittsburgh, the smog and smell were awful.

tiojuanio.bsky.social•8 days ago

When we give our power away to the ones who truly only care about themselves, then we have failed ourselves and those with us. Who is 'we the people'?

brianbartky.bsky.social•8 days ago

Similar for me as a kid east of there in the San Gabriel Valley. While school wasn’t canceled during smog days all outdoor activities at school were canceled.

noraham.bsky.social•8 days ago

Same here. I also remember that it made my chest hurt if I tried to breathe in deeply

mikehibu.bsky.social•8 days ago

Remember when the Cuyahoga River used to catch on fire all the time?

cupcakeanarchy.bsky.social•8 days ago

Even as late as the mid 90’s you’d go thru the smog layer flying in and out of socal. It would be beautiful blue skies then bam-brown smog.

cenelson.bsky.social•8 days ago

I remember visiting LA back in the 80s and being amazed by the all the smog.

lylescout.bsky.social•8 days ago

It seemed like the lake by Cleveland was always starting on fire.

kabdib.bsky.social•8 days ago

lived by the southern shore of Lake Erie in the 60s. i remember a LOT of dead fish

chiangku.me•8 days ago

I remember when they showed how a lung from a non-smoking Angeleno in the 80’s looked the same as a pack-a-day smoker

meowdelyn.bsky.social•8 days ago

Well future kids will just be made to go to school "and damn the smog, what are they soy liberal cowards living in fear?"

So thats fun.

lesleymath.bsky.social•8 days ago

I recently mentioned to my kids that when I was a kid in the Valley, you could see the air. I had to describe the brown hazy layer you pretty much always saw in the distance. They were pretty shocked.

lorenabobbitttime.bsky.social•8 days ago

Prepare to suffer under musk/felon tRump.
Kiss your kids goodbye.

magpie201.bsky.social•8 days ago

walking recess

babrahamse.bsky.social•8 days ago

SIGalert days! (PE inside, oh boy)

thesocalgal.bsky.social•8 days ago

I remember smog days, don’t miss the yellow air.
The Air Resources Board in conjunction with the EPA made great strides in California to eliminate smog, particularly in the Los Angeles basin. So much so that other countries, such as Switzerland, looked to the ARB as a model for reducing smog.

broberts.lol•8 days ago

There's never a bad time to recommend watching The Nice Guys, but it feels relevant here- a shockingly well-developed treatise on car pollution in '70s LA in the guise of a stylized buddy comedy, including the Detroit Big 3's collusion with the US government to avoid pollution laws

thediscoveryofzero.com•8 days ago

But sledding through those big, wet smogdrifts must have been cool.

scottyd89.bsky.social•8 days ago

In the 70’s in Dayton, Ohio, there was an overpass just North of the Hydrobowl. I remember whenever we were on it you could look out over the Hydrobowl and see a layer of pollution. Just this brown cloud. You could see the separation of the different air qualities. so messed up.

jedren.bsky.social•8 days ago

I remember

oldrexeverything.bsky.social•8 days ago

SIG Alert Kids

sjlessman.bsky.social•8 days ago

I grew up in Cleveland. Before the EPA. Was also when we had the Cuyahoga River catch fire and burn for days. Now you can fish in that river.

However, I've seen the mission creep. As a land planner I've seen the EPA declare a puddle in a farm drive a protected wetland.

joesmiscthoughts.bsky.social•8 days ago

In our steel mill towns, you'd wake up in the morning to a glistening sheen of dirt on your car from what the mills burned off.

kimbaface.bsky.social•7 days ago

Will never forget that burning feeling in my lungs when I was out on the playground at recess.

humbuckermudgeon.bsky.social•8 days ago

I remember back in the day on I-5. That drive into the basin from the Grapevine used to make us feel ill. Nowadays, driving into Bakersfield on 58W is almost as bad.

juniebee.bsky.social•8 days ago

This, from the article. This is what Kentucky looked like when I was a kid. I guess this is what Trump and Trump-voters want to bring back.

beckigrass.bsky.social•8 days ago

Every once in a while when watching an old color TV show, i see a haze of smog in the background and it takes me back to how the Western sky used to look.

suzannenotsusan.bsky.social•8 days ago

When I was a kid growing up in the eastern edge of Los Angeles county, we had more days than not, of no recess because of the filthy air. I vividly remember the layer of smog that was always there, every day. The sky never looked blue, just a hazy grey color.

terrymcclary.bsky.social•8 days ago

Those smog alert days defined my childhood. Sometimes we were told we could go outside for recess but we were not allowed to play.

carolannesundahl.bsky.social•8 days ago

The Atlas Chemical Company Belches Smoke across Pasture Land in Foreground. 06/1972 Marc St Gil / EPA

citizen12345.bsky.social•8 days ago

I remember our lungs would burn at recess

martyabru.bsky.social•8 days ago

Especially in the San Gabriel/Pomona valley!

starjet.bsky.social•8 days ago

The mighty Merrimack River in MA. Was a horrible smelly mess. Now you can swim in it. Hate to see it degrade again

kevwiat.bsky.social•8 days ago

We are going to spend the next decade-plus of the 21st Century restoring the best parts of the 20th Century.

rikibeth.bsky.social•8 days ago

I visited in 1977 and I still remember the plane coming down through the smog layer.

michael-w-busch.bsky.social•8 days ago

When I moved to Pasadena for grad school; I learned that there used to be a prank where people would not tell new arrivals about the San Gabes, so that they would freak out on the first clear day.

I am very glad to have never experienced that.

calioakwood.bsky.social•7 days ago

To think how easy it is for locals today to take those beautiful mountains for granted. A landmark that lines the LA skyline in aerial photos, there was a point of time where, because of air pollution, new residents might not have known they even existed!

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