Clams for Nixon

In 1969, the president arrived in San Clemente, California. Things changed fast.

When I was 10, my world was full of sand and salt and endless days under the hot Southern California sun. All summer long I swam and rode the shore break on planks of hard-packed styrofoam. My body was nut brown, my face streaked white with zinc oxide. Still, my nose peeled pink and by September was as rough as raw hamburger.

It was 1969, and nestled hal…