Washing our Cars and Drinking Beer with Lil Raul Martinez

By kiki

                                        Whittier Distributors

In 1955, I was at my late friend Raulito Martinez's house on Date Street in Simons. We were drinking beer and washing our cars, his, a 1954 Chevy and mine, a 1946 Chevy.  

Done with the car washing, we kept drinking beer and smoking Pall Malls while listening to Hunter Hancock spin some R & B's on his radio show. We were soon joined by some friends who dropped by with a six-pack of Bud. We quickly ran out of beer, so we went and bought some more, a couple of six-packs, if memory serves, then more friends dropped by, we quickly ran out of beer again. But with all the guys that had shown up, we now needed to buy a case; soon, more friends dropped by, and they drank all the beer we had just bought. So Raulito came up with the bright idea of taking up a collection and going to Whittier Distributors on Whittier Blvd in ELA and purchasing a keg of beer with his father's resale number. 

'Needless to say, we got smashed. I ended up spending the night in my car, which I had parked in the local nite club's parking lot (the club was across the street from Raulito's house) … Raulito's family owned a mom and pop store and the local pool hall, thus the resale number…Just another Simons' memory from times gone by.