Memorial Day - 2014

Want to wish all those who take the time to read my stories a happy and safe Memorial Day weekend. Enjoy the beginning of summer with BBQs: hamburgers, hot dogs, carne asada and of course with a few cold ones too. Please be safe!!

kiki

The House of Chrome

                                                               

  By kiki

The House of Chrome in ELA in the early '50s was one of Southern California's best car customizing shops. All their body customizing was done with lead; they had no choice since there was no Bondo in those years. They were the first shop to do the Candy Apple paint jobs in SoCal…I worked there in the early '60s

Teaching Connie how to drive

By kiki

Connie asked me to gas up her car, and this story came to mind. Sometime around the late fifties, Connie asked me to teach her how to drive a car; I told her okay, but only if she would listen to me. She would listen, she said. So one weekend soon after, I took her to an empty parking lot where I explained the car mechanics to her and told her that she would only need her right foot to drive my '55 Buick. Gas and brake pedals to be worked with the right foot only, and imagine that she didn't have a left foot. "I don't have a left foot?" She asked me; no, you don't have a left foot, I told her repeatedly before I let her behind the wheel. Once I thought she had gotten the concept of driving a car, I let her behind the wheel, with me riding shotgun, and what was the first thing she did as we started rolling down the parking lot? She stepped on the gas pedal with her right foot and slammed the brake pedal hard with her left foot! Okay, it was her first time behind the wheel, so I thought, 'give her a chance to learn this thing' after talking to her about what she was doing wrong, I told her, "okay, babe, let try it again, but try to remember what I told you, right foot only" Did she remember? No! She did the same thing! After the third time doing the same thing, I told her, "let's go home, we'll come back another day" I am not a very patient man, so I needed to figure out how I was going to teach Connie how to drive.

A week or so later at the car dealership I was working at a '52 Buick was traded in on a new car; after checking the Buick out, I went looking for the new car sale's manager, a guy named Mel; I asked Mel if I could buy the Buick "for fifty bucks it's yours" he said. Sold "take the fifty bucks out of my paycheck," I told him. So that evening after work, I drove the old Buick home; on the way home, I talked to Mr. Old Buick, I said "Mr. Buick, you're going to teach Connie how to drive" When I got home, Connie asked me "where did you get that car from, and where is your car?" I told her that a coworker was driving my car home for me and that the red '52 Buick was-hers "my?" she asked. "Yes, babe, it's all yours," I said to her as I put the keys in her hand "now go learn how to drive it" And learn she did; she did it slowly and all on her own. Finally, though, she did drive with two feet for many, many years. - Two months or so later, I took her to the DMV for her driver's test. She passed with flying colors on her first try and walked out with her driver's license. So what's the moral of the story? Well, she has been driving for over fifty years, and she has never learned how to put gas on her cars!!

Dude Called me Pops

By kiki

Yesterday as I was entering Rick's feel-good juice store, liquor store to you AA members, a guy was coming out of the store, so I moved to the side of the narrow aisle to make room for him to pass by and the friendly guy that I am I said hi to the dude, he replied "hi Pops" Pops!! 'Orale, ya te llevas?' I muttered under my breath. Okay, most of my kids and their friends call me Pops. But a complete stranger calling me pops? Next time I ain't moving over for anybody or saying jackshit to nobody either!...Lol!!

Lauro Salas: The Lion of Monterrey

                                        "The Lion of Monterrey"

 By kiki

Danny Garcia reminds me of Lauro Salas. Like Salas, the 1950s "Lion of Monterrey," Garcia has minimal boxing skills, and like Salas, he was still able to become a world champion nonetheless. So last night, as I watched Garcia dismember Khan, I thought, 'I've seen Garcia fight in another life.' Then it came to me, "Lauro Salas."

Lauro Salas fought all the top featherweights and lightweights of the early 1950s, winning some and losing some. He then got into a bar fight with Art Aragon when the Golden Boy called him a "fucking Mexican." But of course, there are many different versions of that bar fight about who won and who lost, but that's a story for another day.

After the bar fight, played in the local press to epic proportions, both fighters were signed by matchmaker Babe McCoy for a ten-round battle at the Olympic Auditorium. Salas lost a close decision. But Salas gave such a good account of himself that when the Olympic matchmaker was looking for an opponent for lightweight champ Jimmy Carter, they gave Salas the opportunity. Again Salas outdid himself; he gave Carter all he could handle in losing a close fifteen-round decision. A rematch was in order; Carter and Salas fought the rematch, and this time Salas was given a close decision. Salas was to lose the title back to Carter six months later. In winning the title from Carter, Lauro Salas became the first Mexican-born fighter to win a lineal world title. Of all the Mexican fighters of that era, Salas was one of the last ones fans thought would win a world title because he did everything in the ring opposite to conventional wisdom...But Salas' win proved that the Boxing Gods are not biased against fighters that don't follow conventional wisdom. - One local scribe described Salas' style as "he does everything wrong, yet it works for him."

I watched both of the first two Carter fights live.

Scoring Points

By kiki

The Saturday before Mother’s Day, Connie had to work a few hours in the morning, so I thought I would do some of the housework she usually does on Saturdays, you know; Sunday been Mother Day’s and all, and not to mention maybe scoring some points with her, so what did she say when she got home? “I see you did some housework; what did you do now? What kind of trouble did you get into? I see you did laundry. Did you get Clorox on some of my pants? Did you ruin a blouse, huh?” I wonder why she always thinks the worse when I try to do good by her, so much for scoring points…Lol!! Man! What have I ever done for her to suspect that I goofed up? I think she is just a non-trusting person by nature…Lol!

Living on $50.00 a week in the 1950’s

By kiki

When Connie and I married in 1954, my take-home pay was $50.00 a week. That added up to about $200.00 a month…We rented a furnished one-bedroom apartment in Montebello, CA, for $50.00 a month (including utilities), and for approximately $12.00 a week, we ate darn good. I didn't have a car payment as I drove a '40 Chevy that I bought for $75.00 cash; gas was around $ .19 a gallon and $ .10 for a quart of reclaimed oil. I drove without insurance till the early '60s, so there was no expense there…Entertainment was cheap back then, $1.50 for a whole carload at the local drive-in….In those gentler and simpler times, the most I had to worry about was if my car would start in the mornings so I could get to work…I loved the '50s!!