BLYTHE STREET HISTORY

Discuss Hispanic / Latino gangs, Southsiders, Sureños, clubs, crews & varrios in LOS ANGELES COUNTY ONLY. There are four general geographic categories Hispanic gangs fall into for LA.
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Lonewolf
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Re: BLYTHE STREET HISTORY

Unread post by Lonewolf » September 28th, 2018, 12:29 am

Panorama City Blythe Street
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SHYSTER
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Re: BLYTHE STREET HISTORY

Unread post by SHYSTER » October 9th, 2018, 12:07 am

ThumperNumber1 wrote:Lonewolf,

I appreciate learning what you remember and the added color you shared. Sounds like you came up after I was there, the next generation. You're making me think hard to remember details. This is good. You're right about Langdon not being around. I misspoke when I said there wasn't much heard about Langdon Street, only Sepas and Reseda 13 as new varrios in that part of the Valley because I don't think I remember Langdon at that time and only heard of them some time later.

You see people asking about the history of their varrio where they grew up and they can't find anyone who remembers or who was around. This is what I've seen with people passing along stories and rumors about Blythe Street and VPC. I think I owe it to anyone who wants to know this so I'm putting it up here.

Some may wonder how Clanton ever became involved when Blythe started out. Like most of us kids on Blythe Street, we went to Fulton Jr High. Some of us were kicked out of Fulton. I was marched out in handcuffs for a minor offense and told I would be transferred to a school in North Hollywood. Before long we had a group forming in the neighborhood around the school and we called this the Dragons neighborhood (total cornball scenario, but we liked Bruce Lee and that's how we thought back then). There was a miniature golf park and we made that our main place to meet. We were kids so we could only be cool at a place that had pinball machines and miniature golf, not at a swanky disco club.

Things were fine for awhile and then we had unwanted attention from a white gang called the "Mothertruckers" and from crips bused into school from Inglewood or South LA. Some Dragons homeboys had friends in West Side Clanton's 4th and 3rd neighborhoods. I say "4th and 3rd neighborhoods" in this order because we thought of them in terms of distance from us in the Valley: First you reach the 4th neighborhood, and then you can continue toward West LA through the 3rd neighborhood at Lemon Grove Park, and then keep going to the 2nd (Pico and Union) and then finally the 1st neighborhood at 14st and Hill Street. These have all changed over the years, but that's how it was in the early 1970s.

There was a North Hollywood car club called the Brown Derbys that backed us up against the Mothertruckers, and Clanton showed support for us as well. My friends around the Blythe street neighborhood started hanging out with Tiny Locos from WS Clanton 3rd neighborhood in Hollywood at Lemon Grove Park. We rode the bus because we had cars to drive only when we could find one that could have its ignition popped with a screwdriver (cars that could be hot wired this way are another bit of trivia from that ancient time in the early '70s).

Clanton Dukes and Tiny Locos came to party and hang out with us on Blythe Street. This was around 1974-75. We left the Dragons to spin off and keep with it if they wanted, and those of us on Blythe started tagging Varrio Panorama City and Blythe Street,,, BST

Then 18th street was there every day when one them had a girlfriend who lived on Blythe. You can see how complex this became in a short time. Diesiocho had a long history with Clanton that goes back to the 1930s. My friends from Clanton were around occasionally, and they didn't care about BVN or the Delano Boys but they were not Okay with diesiocho lurking around the neighborhood. However, the 18streeters were at it heavy with BVN. There were fights between them at the popular disco club on Van Nuys Boulevard near Delano Street (that's how ancient this is, there were discos).

Within a short time, BVN associated our fledgling BST clique with those guys from diesiocho. Also Blythe Street isn't too far from Delano Street and we had encounters that didn't help this. Pretty much every time we were out they hit us up and you know how that goes.

This created conflict between Clanton, 18th street, and BVN in and around Blythe Street. At first, we got along with both 18street and of course Clanton, but there was pressure from these different sides. Eventually some of us moved to North Hollywood and went with Clanton even as we continued supporting our Blythe Street homeboys and homegirls. Many considered Blythe almost as a 5th neighborhood for awhile but this didn't get traction and it held together without much changing. That part of Van Nuys Boulevard and all the streets on both sides had only C14 and VPC BST tagged everywhere. I wouldn't be surprised if mine are there under many years and generations of paint and stucco.

Many of us were in and out of juvenile rehabilitation. After being expelled from three high schools, I dropped out at 15 and lied about my age to work for a trucking company. Then I was "exiled" and sent away to another state where I was placed in school and got into sports. I eventually took college courses and continued in sociology. It isn't easy being around rich kids who have no clue what barrio life is. Even worse is playing varsity football and wrestling after years age 11-16 chain smoking and drinking Mad Dog 20-20. But I coughed and vomited every practice and during running drills until the toxins were (most) out. I punched through it, I think, because of those early challenges as it gave me resilience or grit.

When I returned to Blythe Street for a reunion years later at a homeboy's apartment, the clique had momentum and was rolling full speed. I saw how it had grown and developed within a relatively short time. From what you said about your experience and Blythe Street in the late '70s, my guess is that is around the time you became familiar with how it appeared in the late 70s and early 80s.
I enjoyed reading your history of BST VPC. Thanks for clarifying a lot of misinformation that was out there. I was born and raised in Van Nuys. I had heard from a few older cats from BVN that BST was once a clique of BVN. That doesn't seem to be case based on your recollection. Sounds like the proximity between both neighborhoods is what led to the beef that has been ongoing since then.

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Re: BLYTHE STREET HISTORY

Unread post by ThumperNumber1 » June 14th, 2020, 10:20 pm

that's a nice placa Lonewolf. more complex Artistically than we ever did in the late '70s when we got Blythe Street going, or any other varrio then.
i gotta say though, our Blythe founder Speedy, formerly Puppet, from Canoga and then Blythe, was this artistic. And he represented our neighborhood with skill everywhere, into East Los and West Side LA neighborhoods. In the late '70s Puppet from Blythe was everywhere.

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Re: BLYTHE STREET HISTORY

Unread post by ThumperNumber1 » June 14th, 2020, 10:28 pm

Hey SHYSTER thanks, you're right, there was only a very short time when my homies in the '70s were with BVN. It was mostly at Fulton Junior High and they never were from Delano or BVN, but we had them around. Very short time.

We had our own neighborhood always and BVN never respected it, understandable because Blythe was just a street. Then around '75-76 we made it real. And BVN came around hitting us up and challenging us, so the Rxn from us at any time was to stand up for our neighborhood and our community. Sounds corny but now i'm older — a veterano— so i can say it that way.

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Re: BLYTHE STREET HISTORY

Unread post by MxHbOy » April 23rd, 2022, 1:27 am

Lonewolf wrote:
June 11th, 2018, 3:46 pm
Orale, I'm learning from you, ey but back when i was up there there was a north side clanton before they switched back to west side because they did not the 14 and North Side in their name on account of the sureno politics. Homeboy from Clanton on the brown kingdom gave that spill, and also, i was around with a lot of those 18 streeters when the tiny vets where still west side but then the north side was created and the tiny vets went NS and dropped the WS. This was all in those years that i was up there, and i hadn't even heard of langdon - only SEPAS, they were around. Anyways, that's how i remember it.
Sepas we’re actually 3 Brothers from San Fer who got the boot , Kiki, Casper and Loco that started Sepas in the early 70s , that had kicked it at Kester park and Somewhat in Mission , by the Mid 80s there numbers were Dwindling and that had asked the New football team of kids Called Langdon BoyZ to Started Claiming Sepas , but that had Also Asked Columbus LocoS , which started beef with the already feuding Clicks , By the 90s Sepas vanished and Langdon Street Came from in , Columbus Street had gotten rid of the Crip style in late 80s and turned full raza

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