THE TOTAL EXPERIENCE

Beneath the Spin*Eric L. Wattree 

EXCELLENCE IS THE KEY TO BLACK EQUALITY 

THE TOTAL EXPERIENCE 

WHERE THE STEPPERS STEPPED OUT 

 

I was sad to hear that yet another Los Angeles landmark burned down and has passed into history. The fabulous Total Experience is no more, and hearing the news felt like a part of me ceased to exist - and at this point in my life, that’s a tragedy. It’s yet one more part of my youth that's ceased to exist, and that serves to make it abundantly clear that my heyday is yesterday's news.  
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Many legendary musicians got their start at the Total Experience. It was where Chaka Khan and Rufus got started. My cousin, Tony (“Tell me, Tell me, Tell me”) Maiden, was the lead guitarist in the band. The Total Experience, Leimert Park, and the Jungle was the hub of what it meant to be in the mix among the Black strivers of the 70s. I lived in the Jungle during that period, and it was so beautiful I used to just walk through the neighborhood just to soak-up the environment and all the beautiful Black strivers who inhabited it. Black people were blossoming, and it made me feel special just to be a part of it.  

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My neighbors ranged from police detectives, to radio disc jockeys, entertainers, attorneys, and hustlers. While I paid only $165 a month rent back then, that was considered a fortune in those days, because the average rent for a nice apartment East of Crenshaw was about $85 dollars a month. I remember my wife warning me not to tell her mother how much we were paying in rent, because she’d think we were crazy – and she was sure curious, because when she looked around, all she saw was swimming pools, palm trees, and luxury cars. How could we afford this lifestyle, me, at 22, and my wife, Val, at 19 years old?
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KAI GIVING GRADUATION SPEECH

What she didn’t know, was we were getting able assistance from two very successful hustlers – my father, Mac, and Val’s uncle, Big Joe Langford. Every time our backs were against the wall, money just seemed to fall out of the sky.
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They wanted to bless our marriage, and they wanted our two babies to have the best, which they did, and they, and now our five grandchildren, have been at the very top of their game ever since. When Kai and Eric came of school age, they even arranged for them to go to Windsor Hills Elementary School with the children of politicians - and they thrived. My daughter, Kai, was even selected to give the graduation speech. So I learned a valuable lesson from from Mac and Big Joe, and even as we speak, I'm hooking my grandbabies up. That's the way a family thrives.

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The jungle was the place to be during the 70s. My building was filled with young, upwardly mobile steppers. One of my neighbors was a set of twins, both attorneys, both players, and both drove Jags. It was a very inspirational time. I was a young college student raising my daughter and son, who were both born there, and being spoiled rotten by the other people in the building. They were treated like they belonged to everybody. My best friend, and their Godfather, was Lewis ("Buba") Jeffries. He worked for Motown and won a Grammy for writing "Sweet Love" for Anita Baker. 

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On the weekends people would come from all over the city to sit around the pool and party with entertainers, radio DJs, and the airline stewardess' who would come to stay with one of us - anyone of us - during layovers. And when strangers weren't in the building, everybody's door was always open. We would walk in and out of each other’s apartments at will. For a young man of 22 years old, it was like living in Heaven - and my universally loved wife, Val, was the queen of the complex, even though, next to our children, she was the baby in the building. She was the kind of people-person that everyone loved, so our apartment was like Grand Central Station. 

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So when I think of The Total Experience, Leimert Park and Baldwin Hills, it brings a smile to my aging face. It was the place to be in the 70s, and the Total Experience, Maverick Flats, and The Page Four were the crowning jewels of that fabulous era. 

Eric L. Wattree 
Http://wattree.blogspot.com 

Ewattree@Gmail.com 
Citizens Against Reckless Middle-Class Abuse (CARMA) 
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Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.