As A Kid, I Sensed History Going

When I Was A Kid, Eisenhower Had Been President Forever, And All Of A Sudden, Everything In The World Was All About Jack Kennedy. I Was 12, Interested In Politics; My Father Was From Massachusetts, Had An Accent Like Kennedy.

I Got A Woman I'm Loyal To Above All Things, Above My Career. She's Profound To Me. I'm Quiet. I Live In Kansas City. I Work.

I Cleaned Up. I Quit Drinking, I Quit Doing Drugs, I Quit Stealing, I Quit Breaking Into Houses, I Tried To Quit Being A Bad Human Being. I Developed A Conscience Later In Life Than Many. I Call It The Lost-time-regained Dynamic.

In The Time Just Before The Bombing Of Pearl Harbor, When Perfidia Opens, We Were Pre-psychologized. There Were No Concepts Of Identity, No Politics Of Victimization. Reparation Wasn't In The Language. Nobody Thought About Giving The Great Grandchildren Of Black Slaves So Much As $1.98. And All Of A Sudden The Bombs Hit, Interventionism Versus Isolationism Became A Dead Issue, And It Was Us-versus-them In A Heartbeat.

There Are A Lot Of Ellroy Lifts, Man. This Guy Went To School. But Then There's A Willful Thing That Comes Over Me - God Gives It To Me - Where I Go, "that's Real Nice, Let's Just Go Home, Pat Yourself On The Back, Good Dog, Good Dog, And Wake Up In The Morning And Go To Work."