Blast From The Past

Above, three "yutes": Arleigh Kerr, yours truly and Gary Julian. Photo by Ken Huthmaker(?).

Today, I received in the mailbox the above photograph. As Glenn Thornhill is clearing out stuff in preparation of moving, he came across the photo (how he ended up with it is unknown to him). Pictured are (from left) Arleigh Kerr, yours truly and Gary Julian. All of us were in our 20s when the photo was taken.

It looks like a print from Assemblyman Paul Bannai's administrative assistant Ken Huthmaker. He was an ex-press photographer who shot in black & white. Obviously, it was taken at a convention.

At first, my thought was that it was taken at a Young Republicans or California College Republicans convention. But if it was a Huthmaker photo, it is more likely from a California State Central Committee Convention in San Diego at the Town & Country Hotel (September 1975) or the convention in April 1976 in Fresno.

In either case, it was during the California Primary campaign as I am wearing a "RSD" button (for Robert Spencer Douglass, who was running for the 51st Assembly). We had a lot of conventioneers wearing them by saying they meant "Reagan Should Declare" against President Gerald Ford.

I don't recall ever seeing this photo before.