I’m having this flashback just now… I feel like I’ve written about this before, maybe in a physical journal somewhere. Maybe I’ll be able to reconcile my stories someday… a little fact-checking on myself.
Anyway, as I recall, sometime around 1988 or so, I got to go to a, what.. 70th? 80th? birthday party for one of my dad’s dad’s friends from the biz, so it was a california country western shindig. I was there with my dad and mom, and my grandma. She was the connection here. Everyone knew her.
It was at this really nice house in the san fernando valley that you’d never guess had this capacity to entertain a couple hundred people, but there we all were. This was an old-timer’s party. A few geriatric official famous people, or spouses of, but mostly children and grandchildren of the stars from the 1950’s era local television and radio stations.
Anyway, Iron Eyes Cody was there apparently, because someone walked over to the mixing board, cut in on the music, got on the PA and announced “Iron Eyes Cody has lost his battery for his camcorder. If you find it, well, he’s lookin’ fer it.”
The irony blindsided me. Iron Eyes Cody. Lost the battery to his camcorder? It was like one of those Jim-Morrison-peyote-trance moments where I’d been let in on a secret about hollywood. I’d seen the wiring under the floorboards. This was the native American who cried on TV because of litter. I ain’t frontin’, I’m at least a 2/8ths native myself. It was just a nugget, a slip. It was one of those things that probably didn’t stick out for anyone as unusual… but for me, well.. the power of those ad-council commercials on me was real.
Don’t litter, think of the native guy crying. Dude, that sucks, couldn’t you just throw your shit in the trash instead of being inconsiderate and littering? Check out my homeboy here, he’s hurt because of your litter. Fucking asshole, stop littering. Jesus!
alright, maybe I’m overstating it a bit for effect, but, that’s what those public service announcements did for me. They made me sensitive to litter. I try hard not to litter. It’s not because of Iron Eyes Cody anymore, it’s just the right thing to do. Maybe it is because of Iron Eyes Cody… Hmmmm.
Flash back to the party… He’s missing the battery for his camcorder… and all my imagery in my head about this guy comes smashing perpendicularly across reality.
You mean he doesn’t just wander around living off the land, teaching kids to be considerate about the environment? Having a camcorder is an adjunct to having a TV, which generally means he’s got a house somewhere. Gah, which means he’s just an actor being paid to cry to guilt me into not littering??
*reality crumbling*
the truth about Iron Eyes Cody turns out to be a shocker, btw.
Thanks, Phillip!
:( 
