In late June, I wrote to Mike Davis to see if he'd be up for an interview.
His reply: "If you don't mind the long trek to SD, I'd be happy to talk. I'm in the terminal stage of metastatic esophageal cancer but still up and around the house."
Davis does not mince words. Still, he can tell some stories. Like this one: Born in Fontana, raised in El Cajon, he spent the '60s on the front lines of radical political movements in Los Angeles, where he joined the Communist Party alongside Angela Davis. In solidarity, he gave her a car — a cherry of a '54 Chevy. A month later, at a Party meeting, he asked how she liked it, only to hear that the battery had supposedly blown up, and a "kind" mechanic had agreed to take it off her hands for free.
