Didion describes the Californian city of Lakewood, a postwar subdivision built on agricultural land near the Douglas Aircraft Company’s Long Beach manufacturing plant. Developers advertised space for up to 17,500 homes, as well as playgrounds and schools. At the center of the city was a massive shopping center. 

Lakewood’s emergence and early success came at a time of perfect conditions, as the government increased spending on defense manufacturing during the Cold War and promoted growth of the middle consumer class. Buyers crowded the development offices in 1950, and as sales slowed, the Korean War reinvigorated interest. Most of the new residents were young families, many of them veterans. Donald J. Waldie, an author and Lakewood public servant, describes Lakewood as a symbol of the American dream. Demographically, Lakewood was predominantly white with a close to even split of California-born and transplants from the Midwest and South. Most residents worked in the aerospace plants or naval shipyards.

However, Didion explains that this prosperity didn’t last, as by 1992 the nearby Rockwell plant closed and defense contracts dried up or moved out of state. Statistics from the 1990s show the drastic layoffs in this industry, as well as the low percentage of people who could find similar—or indeed any—work. Lakewood residents feared the Douglas plant would shut down entirely, as it was already the site of nearly 18,000 layoffs. Social gatherings were colored by discussions of economic woes, and businesses were boarded up. For Didion, Lakewood’s fate exemplifies yet another instance of federal assistance being the main, unspoken support for a community’s prosperity.

In March of 1993, Lakewood was thrust into the national media spotlight after nine Lakewood High School students and alums were charged with a plethora of sexual crimes. These boys were members of an “informal fraternity” called the Spur Posse. Through public statements and her own conversations, Didion illustrates how the citizens of Lakewood thought the media was placing undue stress on the community. Residents latched onto the idea that the high school was handing out free condoms and used this to explain why the boys had flawed understandings of sex. Didion quotes one representative resident who couldn’t comprehend such immorality occurring in their upper-middle-class community. A protestor picketing at the district attorney’s office similarly describes Lakewood as a quiet, inoffensive community.

Through a quote from Donald J. Waldie’s book, Didion explores the contradiction at the heart of Lakewood’s identity: Their community isn’t truly middle-class, no matter what they tell themselves. She asks a string of rhetorical questions about what happens to such communities when the basis of their prosperity is gone, and when they envision themselves as something greater than they are. She concludes with what she calls an exemplary moment from one of the Spurs’ television appearances. A black female audience member questioned the intelligence of one of the Spurs, Chris Albert, and he got defensive; he denigrated the woman and assumed she worked minimum-wage at a fast-food restaurant, while he went to college.

Cities like Lakewood were built as company towns, with the express purpose of having employees near their workplace and tied down by mortgages. The ideal resident was a young male who proved he was a “good citizen” through consumption and team sports. When these male citizens stop being useful, Didion proposes, situations like the Spurs scandal occur. She quotes one man who sees the most vocal Spurs, those on the talk shows, as in it only for the money because they are unemployed. Didion finds that some citizens, no longer feeling useful, turn the blame for their community’s corruption outward, like onto immigrants or the media.

Feelings of unease about changes in Lakewood’s community were brewing a year before the charges. Residents thought the sexual aspect of the conversation was the wrong lens to use, as the teenage boys’ behavior prior to the charges was more like gang intimidation. Younger children were periodically bullied at parks and schools, and young women were stalked. Didion quotes several people who knew girls that were too afraid to leave their homes for fear of getting assaulted. Activity escalated in 1992 as Spurs committed real crimes, primarily theft.

A major incident that finally prompted residents to ask questions about this gang was when a pipe bomb exploded on the front porch of a home. Following this escalation, Lakewood High School and the police called a meeting with parents of suspected Spurs members. At the not-well-attended meeting, the sheriff discussed the web of crimes, and the topic of rape came up. The sheriff’s sex-abuse unit then began interviewing students at the high school, and a high-profile sex crimes attorney, Gloria Allred, began making appearances in the media. With little warning, the sheriff’s department arrested the nine boys at school on March 18, 1993. They stayed in jail for four nights, and all but one was released with the charges dropped. 

The boys were welcomed back enthusiastically by their schoolmates and families. The sheriff’s department released a statement claiming there wasn’t sufficient evidence to prove that the sexual acts were nonconsensual, though they agreed that the teens’ behavior towards their female peers was troubling. The only charge that remained was one involving a 10-year-old girl.

Didion provides a sketch of the Belman family, from which two Spurs members—Dana and Kristopher—hail. Donald and Dottie Belman, the boys’ parents, grew up in Lakewood and both returned after they were married. Donald was a star athlete in his youth and became a coach for the boys’ Little League teams. Dottie won Mother of the Year for her support of the teams, which dictated their family life. Dottie explains that she used to walk around proudly, but now she must hide her face. During the ordeal, Donald advised his sons on which television interviews to accept. In conversation with Didion, Donald praises his sons as hard workers and star athletes who never got into trouble.

Though Kristopher was released without charges in 1993, he was arraigned months later for another charge involving a 13-year-old girl. The charges were dropped, but he had to do 100 hours of community service. At the same time, Dana was awaiting trial for felony theft charges; he eventually served three years of a 10-year sentence. Dottie filed for divorce in 1993, reflecting that the supports of their all-American family life had crumbled. She recalled Dana wishing they could travel back in time to high school when everything seemed so promising. Didion quotes a passage from “Golden Land,” in which Ira Erwing Jr. laments how his family squandered all the advantages he worked to give them.

Didion recalls asking her mother about their class and being reprimanded for thinking about such things. She understands that this was a central belief for Californians: There were no definitive classes because California promised that anyone at any time could make it big. 

Throughout her life, Californians still believed this promise, but by the 1980s, the economic downturn caused a crisis of identity, though it took a while to accept. Following the 1987 market crash, Californians felt insulated from its repercussions. Didion recounts a conversation with a real estate broker in western Los Angeles who was not worried about defense cutbacks affecting the market because workers for that plant lived in other neighborhoods. Five years later, the Hughes plant moved its production to Arizona, and the real estate agent had to concede that the market was plummeting. People in Los Angeles also blamed the 1992 riots for their inability to sell a home, rather than acknowledging the fact of economic decline.

Retroactively, Californians highlighted 1989 as the start of the decline, as this is when defense contractors started their major layoffs. Some outfits had a façade of optimism, like McDonnell Douglas who continued to manufacture commercial aircraft. People used euphemistic language to describe these layoffs, which prevented the major urban centers from understanding how such massive money leaving the state affected them. By 1991, approximately 60,000 people lost their jobs as companies moved out of state, where labor was cheaper and less regulated. By 1992, a further 107,000 jobs were lost. Didion shares a newspaper quotation that tries to put a positive spin on the changes, as without big companies, it claims, citizens could be more entrepreneurial.

She shares an anecdote to illustrate how people were desperate for jobs: An oil refinery posted 28 new jobs in their plant, and more than 14,000 people applied in person. Official statistics from the Commission on State Finance estimated total job losses in the early 1990s at nearly 1 million. The Bank of America further predicted several hundreds of thousands of layoffs between 1993 and 1995.

Aircraft factory line workers believed they were a permanent fixture in California, as their industry worked within such narrow tolerances that they could never become automated. A manager of one of these assembly lines explains that the work is ceaseless action, since they produce these huge machines every few days. The workers in these plants had specific production skills and didn’t concern themselves with the marketability of their industry. 

The major defense contractors subcontracted much of the manufacturing out to others, and oftentimes, since these entities were all working for government contracts, they would “team” together on projects and divide the work. However, Didion claims this interdependence was a hindrance to the industry’s adaptability. For example, in 1991, the secretary of defense cancelled a contract with General Dynamics, but employees of McDonnell Douglas lost their jobs because they were teaming on the project.

Companies were heavily dependent on the goodwill of the government, who were the primary funders of their programs. In another example, Didion depicts how, in 1991, McDonnell Douglas moved most of the production of C-17s from its Lakewood plant to the hometown of a sympathetic senator in Georgia. C-17 production was riddled with extra costs, and the company struggled to produce consistent aircraft without technical issues. McDonnell Douglas delivered the first aircraft to the Air Force in June of 1993, and though Air Force officials publicly lauded the plane, behind the scenes, they were determining how to axe the program.

Didion shares the results of a Lakewood school district questionnaire for recent graduates in 1989. Most students were continuing education in nearby community colleges, and many of them were in the aerospace technology program. Didion contends that Lakewood didn’t push its children to be ambitious in their schooling or careers; it was more enthusiastic about their sports. One resident describes Lakewood as a giant recreation program meant to keep its citizens busy. 

Didion remembers visiting the Lakewood shopping center, which, though declining in sales, was still a hub. She walked around a store that was going out of business and saw 3-hour-long lines full of women lugging piles of sale items. These consumers, and the men working the tills, were the heirs of that prior generation who moved to Lakewood for new beginnings.

Didion returns to Henry George’s “What the Railroad Will Bring Us,” here quoting a passage where George lists different kinds of labor exploitation around the world and asks whether Californians are willing to achieve greatness through the same means. 

Back in April 1993 in Lakewood, the 10-year-old survivor of the Spur Posse made her first television appearance. At the same time, Spur members were shopping around their story to talent agencies. Soon after, the Teamsters union went on strike over Douglas’s use of contractors; then, a commercial airline switched suppliers from Douglas to Boeing. In 1997, Douglas dissolved into Boeing, and in the subsequent years, Boeing shut down Douglas’s major manufacturing programs. Boeing proposed a plan to develop the Lakewood plant land into an industrial park with its own housing.

In 2002, development began nearby on the Alameda Corridor, a large transport expressway peppered with warehouses traversing and connecting the “Gateway Cities” to the port of Los Angeles. However, citizens along this corridor didn’t think the casual, low-wage warehouse jobs gave them the same ability to become a property-owning middle class. Didion remembers driving down this corridor in 2002 and seeing empty rail lines and empty warehouses plastered with signs advertising their lease. Also in 2002, Didion saw pleas from the historic Aero Theatre in Santa Monica asking for patrons to help save the structure. Like many of the Gateway Cities, Santa Monica grew because of its connection to Douglas manufacturing. However, when Douglas left, Santa Monica still had the benefits of California’s most beautiful landscapes, where the Gateway Cities only have rows of warehouses.

Didion recalls another time when she worked on a story in Hermiston, Oregon, which was fighting with nearby towns about the disposal of nerve gas. Hermiston wanted to keep the nerve gas because its storage provided hundreds of jobs, even if the material was hazardous. Didion had an epiphany that this sentiment was exactly what founded California: People concerned primarily with their ability to make money, regardless of the harm to others or themselves.