Spanish Class and Drivers Ed. Class

By kiki

There was a pretty green-eyed girl I had my eyes on when I attended Montebello High School in the early '50s. Thus, I wanted to be in every class she was in; when she got into a Spanish class, I tried getting into the same Spanish class, and I was told no because I already spoke Spanish, "but it's all slang," I said to the teacher, or whoever it was that told me I couldn't get into that class, it didn't work. She then got into Drivers Ed. So I went and talked to the Drivers Ed. Instructor asked me if I already had a driver's license "yes, I do," I replied. He then asked me why I would want to get into Drivers Ed. If I already had a driver's license, "because I want to be a better driver," I told him. That, too, didn't work because he showed me the door. And the green-eyed girl? She left for another school soon after.

R.I.P. Bobby Padilla

Bobby Padilla, A junior boxing champion out of the Resurrection Gym has passed. Bobby was, along with Tony Valle, Angel Soto, Art Frias, et al. one of the best junior boxing stars boxing under Jim Lopez wing in those early years of the Resurrection Gym (mid-‘60s) Bobby was one of the guys we could always depend to be ready to spar with my son Frankie on our weekend visits to the Resurrection Gym in those early years. I hadn't been in contact with Bobby in over forty years, but thanks to Facebook we were able to re-connect last year. Soon after re-connecting I invited Bobby to join us in three of our Facebook boxing pages ‘Classic American West-Coast Boxing’ 'California Boxing Hall of Fame' and ‘Fight Group’ he joined gladly. He too joined my music page ‘Music and Cigar Lounge’ at first Bobby was posting regularly on all four pages, then as the month passed by and due to his illness; he was posting less and less. His last posts were on the first week of June, after that I was fearing the bad news. Bobby, I am sorry we never got together for breakfast at ‘Mike’s Puck’ … Our new friendship was cut short as Bobby’s life journey came to an end yesterday (6-22-14) due to throat cancer. R.I.P. Champ!

‘The Price Was Right’

                                                           

By kiki

Memories came rushing at me the other day when I saw this picture and Connie wearing that black dress. Memories of how Connie came about buying that dress. The decade of the '60s was when we were still young, and New Year's Eves were a time for us to go out to a Nite Club to celebrate the old year and welcome the new one. So just about every year in that decade, as the end of the year was coming to a close, Connie and I would go out looking for a New Year's Eve. Dress for her.

Her price range was from $50.00 to $75.00. That amount of money would, in those years, buy a woman an adorable dress. So circa 1966, we went out looking for a dress for her, we hit most of the ladies' stores on Whittier Blvd in East Los Angeles, and we couldn't find anything Connie liked; we decided to go into one more store; if we didn't find anything she wanted we would call it a night. The last store that we walked into was Melody Dress Shop. We started looking at some dresses; I picked a nice-looking little sexy black dress with lots of lace from the rack and showed it to Connie "oh, it's pretty," she told me. So I told her to try it on without looking at the price. When she came out of the dressing room, I started slobbering; man, she looked hot and dangerous in that short tight black dress! "Babe, you look just great," I said to her "you like it?" "hell yes, I like it, and it looks great on you too" While she was in the dressing room changing her clothes, I thought, 'man, she is going to look hot on New Year's Eve. I was also thinking about the price, thinking it would cost us a pretty penny.

Connie came out of the dressing room and handed me the dress, I looked at the price tag, and I almost fainted; the price for that beautiful dress was $13.98. When I told Connie the price, she told me, "I am not going to wear a 13-dollar dress on New Year's Eve!" I knew I had to use my best bullshit to convince her to buy the dress; hell, I would buy her two dresses at that price! "Babe, I think they just mislabeled the dress because in no way is that a 13-dollar dress," take it, I told her, "but I am going to be self-conscious" "Babe, nobody is going to know how much you paid for that BEAUTIFUL dress" I was using "beautiful" as much as I could "but I will" she replied. Finally, I asked her, "do you like the dress?" "Well, it is pretty" "okay, we'll take it," I told her "okay, but you better not tell anybody how much we paid for it!" she said to me with a stern voice. On New Year's Eve, We went to the Comet Nite Club in Los Nietos, and she was turning heads as we danced!!

My brother-in-law and my late sister, Danny and Mary Ellen Garcia, Connie, and I at the Comet Nite Club

Now that the dress is just a distant memory, I am safe telling the story of Connie's beautiful $13. 98 dress.

Another fun morning with Connie

                                              

                                                   By kiki

Had another fun morning with Connie today, we started off with breakfast. Of course, we both had menudo and a hard taco. While having breakfast and talking to her about sweet nothings I notice that her middle finger on her left hand kept coming up. I tried to take a picture with my iPhone, but her finger was too fast for me. After breakfast, we drove to the gas station to gas up her car, and I paid for the gas! She works to keep me in good cigars and good whiskey, so the least I can do is pay for her gas to get to work. After gassing up, she told me her car needed a wash, okay, we’ll go to the car wash but you are going to pay I told her, she said she would. I always take her car to get washed so I thought it would be a good idea if she learned how to take her car to the wash “babe, you need to learn how to bring your car to get wash” I said to her “why, are you going to die soon?” she asked me. Damn woman!!...While the car was been washed I told her that she needed to tip the guy that was working on her car “how much?” she asked “Couple of bucks is what I give them” she opened up her purse and she brought out 3 bucks “you are going to tip him 3 bucks?" I asked her “it's none of your business what I tip him” she told me….After getting the car washed we drove home, I parked the car on the driveway and she asked me “why did you park me like that?” I am still laughing!!!