I'd say from 1979 up past the Reagan years I was a typical hippie deadhead who was clueless about politics (especially local politics); I was young and having fun, Morris Park was still a decent place to live as far as Van Nest was concerned but like many places in New York City, crack, the new drug on the street (and an influx of cheap heroin) were about to change everything decent and good here.
My father belonged to the GOP (the party of Abraham Lincoln, whom he loved) and my mother was a Democrat, let’s just say we really didn't engage my dad in conversations about politics cause he was large and in charge. I was always torn about which party to join but wound up a registered Democrat; the writing was on the wall for me as far as Bronx politics goes.
Right from the beginning my father and I agreed on one thing, we didn't like (now) Senator Jeff Klein, but at the time he was pretty much a nobody to me. Jeff was being pushed through and my father use to tell my mother that "You idiot women will vote for Jeff on account of his good looks, just like you did John F. Kennedy". Nothing about Jeff stands out in my mind when he was an Assemblyman here, no surprises there, none of them do anything life changing for the youth and non-seniors; as I've said before all the local elected do is sucker the seniors out of their vote with a bogus trip and a baloney sandwich.
One day Jeff Klein shows up at my door when he decided to run for Senator Guy Velella’s seat, it was a big joke cause my mother was told he was going to go door-to-door at The Van Nest Community Association and she was asked to let him in our 17 unit building. Well Jeff shows up at our door, my mother was doing something, I let him in, told him I'd go get my mother and closed the door in his face (instead of asking him in). Lol My mother freaked out and said "Why did you do that?" and I just laughed at her and went inside the living room with my dad, and my mother invited Jeff into the kitchen.
Looking back in hindsight and hindsight being 20/20 its a door I should have never opened, and it wouldn't be the 1st Pandora's Box better left locked and at the bottom of the deepest of oceans.