I grew up in La Mirada in the late 1950s/early 1960s. I remember wondering, as I walked home from school, why my chest hurt when I took a deep breath. In 1968 as I was driving to college at UC Irvine, I once had to pull over to the side of the Santa Ana Freeway because my eyes were hurting and watering too much to continue.

I learned to fly at the Fullerton Airport in 1967. Many times lessons were delayed as we waited for the controllers in the tower to turn off the airport beacon, indicating that visibility had "improved" to three miles, the minimum for visual flight rules. The controllers were probably optimistic in their observations, as flight visibility, especially toward the setting sun, sure looked less than three miles. They were probably bored, too.

Yeah, the smog was much worse then.