R.I.P. Petunia

                                                     Mary Ellen
                                                   1941-2004

Happy Birthday to my late sister, Mary Ellen, whom we lost in 2004

Little sis. I always think of you, miss you, and love you!!

One image of you embedded in my mind is me leading you by the hand on a cold winter morning as we walked to school one day in the late 1940s; you look so beautiful, all bundled up in your winter clothes. We made our way to the little creek that flowed by our school, and I vividly remember that we stopped and cracked the ice in the frozen creek before making our way up the hill that was our playground at Vail Elementary School...I remember how beautiful you looked in your wedding gown when you married Danny Garcia in 1961… Sis, you're missed by one and all...Give Mom, Pops, and Rachel a big hug for all of us...Till we meet again...love you, Sis.

           Mary Ellen was fondly called "Petunia" by family and friends.

A bit Chilly

By kiki

It was a bit chilly in the varrio this morning. When I walked Connie out early this morning, where was she going so early in the morning you ask? Well, she has to go to work to keep me living in style, I noticed frost on the roofs of the houses and cars so what did I do?? I went back to bed to stay warm...You guys should all become "kept men!!"

Fumarndo Marijuana

By kiki

One cold day in the winter of 1952, when I was attending Montebello High School, some friends and I were standing in a tight circle in the parking lot of the Tasty-Freeze that was on Whittier Blvd close to the high school as two old Mexicana ruca's chimosa's (gossiping old women) were passing by. As they passed by us, we overheard one say to the other, “mirar, mirar, estan fumarndo marijuana” (not sure of my spelling in Spanish) roughly translated “look, look, they are smoking marijuana” Hell, we weren’t even smoking Lucky Strikes cigarettes!

“Chicken Bugs”

                                       Tales from the Simons Brickyard

                                                        
By kiki

When I was about 14 years old (circa 1951) and living in Simons, a friend, Coy, and I were dating two girls, Julia and Maria, respectively. They were both about 14 years old. One Saturday afternoon, Maria told me that her parents were going out that night to paint the town red, that Julia would be spending the night with her, and that Coy and I could meet her and Julia at her house. Coy and I kept an eye out for Maria's parent's car. As soon as they drove off, Coy and I made our way to Maria's backyard, where the girls were waiting to let us in through the back door. Soon with the lights out, we started painting the house red. We lost track of time because Maria's parents came home while we were still there with the girls. Coy and I ran out the back door; we didn't know where to hide, so we ran into the chicken coop. We hid there till the lights in the house went out. We quietly walked out of the chicken coop and headed home as soon as the light went out. The next day Coy and I were full of chicken bugs. Hell! We didn't know that chickens had bugs!!

Two Old Dudes and Their ’57 Chevy Wagons

By kiki

On a Saturday morning in the mid-'60s, my boys and I were on our way to the Teamsters Gym in DTLA, and as we approached a now-forgotten intersection, we saw that an auto accident had just happened. Two old dudes who looked close to being 80 years old, if not over 80, got into a fistfight over the accident.

When we got to the scene, the accident had just happened. First, I noticed a beat-up 1957 Chevy station wagon lying on its side and an old man crawling out the back window. Then I saw another beat-up '57 Chevy wagon with its front end smashed up and an old man getting out of it. As soon as both were out of their wagons and with no words spoken, they went at each other with flying fists: major chingasos, well, as significant as the old dudes could muster, were flying. I got out of my car, stepped in between them, and had them sit on the curb while we waited for the cops to arrive…LOL!!

Old Dude Gave Me The One-Finger Salute

By kiki

As I was driving down La Puente's Amar Road to my favorite greasy spoon joint for breakfast this morning, I came upon an old dude driving an old scraggly red Ford station wagon that looked like it had missed out on the Cash for Clunkers deal, down Amar Road. The dude had to have been  85 years old if he was a day old. Amar Road is a 40 mile per hour zone, and this old dude was doing about 20 miles per hour on the road's left lane with nobody in front of him. I followed him for about a quarter of a mile, and then I tooted my horn. He rolled down his window and put his arm straight up in the air, and with a shaky hand, he gave me the one-finger salute. I moved to the right lane as we were approaching a stoplight. 

He rolled his passenger side window down and started yelling and shaking his fist at me. I couldn't hear what he was saying because I was hard of hearing in my left ear. Connie says I only listen to what I want to hear. Maybe she is correct, but back to the old dude, I knew whatever he was yelling at me was nothing pleasant, so I told the old dude, "listen, I don't want to fight you, I just wanted you to move out of the way" When I told him that the feisty old dude dropped the "f" bomb on me, that I heard! As soon as the light turned green, I made my getaway, I didn't need to get my ass kicked, not that I didn't need an ass-kicking, but it was too early in the morning for that.

Sitting at the greasy spoon, I thought about what had just happened and started laughing because of an image that popped into my mind, an image of two old dudes, one in his mid-80's (him) and the other one (me) inching into the 80 range fighting on one of the main drags in La Puente. It would have been a funny sight, but not a pretty one…LOL!!!!

Camping, Fishing and Drinking: Late Spring 1972

By kiki

It was late spring of 1972, and a bunch of us guys were, going on a camping and fishing trip to the Eastern Sierra, a journey that my brother-in-law Willie and our families had taken countless times; this trip was a guy's thing only, Willie was going, and so was his young son, Jesse. My brother Mando and my other brother-in-law Danny were also going. We were going with some other guys in a two-pickups/campers caravan. Danny had never gone camping with us before, so when I called to invite him, he quickly said yes and asked, "What do I need to bring as far as food is concerned."

"Danny, we're going to camp and fish for 3-4 days, so bring whatever you think you're going eat and drink in those 3 or 4 days," I told him.

We met at my place; Willie arrived early to help load my pickup/camper, and Mando and Danny followed soon. And since Willie cooked for our group, he was in charge of loading the food into the camper. He would get it all together and load it up so that he knew where everything would be at.

"Danny, where is your food?" Willie asked Danny

"Right here, Willie."

Willie got a small box from Danny with half a dozen eggs, half a pound of bacon, four slices of cold cuts, half a loaf of bread, a six-pack of beer, and a choice piece of rib-eye steak; Willie looked at me and shook his head.

"Danny, never mind the food, but is this all the beer you brought?"

"Well, yes"

"Watch this"

Willie drank all of Danny's beer in no time!

"Willie, you drank all my beer!" Danny cried at Willie

"Well, now you need to buy some more," Willie told Danny with a big smile.

Danny bought a case of beer!

 We were heading northeast on Highway 395; we stopped at Little Lake Hotel/Bar to meet the other guys in the second pickup/camper, shoot some pool, and drink beer. In the middle of nowhere, Little Lake Hotel/Bar was a must-stop for us in those early years of going to the Eastern Sierra. Unfortunately, it has since burned down. Walking into an empty bar, Ernie, one of the guys riding in the other camper, notices an old piano in a corner and asks the barmaid if he could play it.

"Go ahead, it hasn't been played in years," the barmaid replied

Now, Ernie can play a mean Boogie Woogie, and after clearing off a few cobwebs, he played a few bars of "Buick 59" that soon had people coming out of the woodwork, all desert rats, of both genders. 

After Ernie had played some tunes and we had downed some cold ones, we decided to get back on the road, but the desert rats had other ideas; they wanted Ernie to continue hitting the ivories. And Ernie was happy to oblige as long as they kept piling up the beers on top of the piano, beers that we guys would grab. Soon, the 2:00 a.m. closing time was quickly upon us, and with locked doors, we'd continued to party into the wee hours of the morning. We finally returned to the campers just as the sun was rising over the horizon. We slept till early afternoon before we got back on the highway.

We arrived at McGee Creek Campgrounds some hours later, where we made camp. Willie went inside the camper to get dinner ready for our group; Willie took longer than usual to cook dinner that evening. Finally, he opened the camper door and yelled, "Come and get it" We all got in line as Willie started passing out the plates with the grub; when Danny got his plate, he looked at it and saw a pork chop; he looked up at Willie and asked him "Willie, where's my rib-eye steak?"

Rubbing his belly Willie goes: "Yum, Yum!"

He ate Danny's rib-eye steak! That's why it took him so long to prepare dinner for the rest of us.

After dinner, while we were around the campfire drinking beer and tequila, I noticed Willie trying to chop up a good-sized log with what looked like a small Boys Scout's ax; Danny saw him too.

"Willie, what are you doing to my ax?"

"Danny here's what I think of your ax."

 Willie threw Danny's ax into the fire; I thought Danny was going to have a heart attack watching the ax that he had had since he was a Boy Scout go into the fire and burn. However, Willie told me late that he had already broken the handle.

After a while, Mando and I ran out of tequila; let me say here that this was the first time drinking with my one and only brother; Mando had just returned from Vietnam, so yes, we were hanging one on. Running out of the agave, we went to the McGee Creek Lodge & Bar to get more tequila. After first refusing, the owner of the lodge/bar agreed to sell us a bottle of the agave that was a few shots short; we gave him 20 bucks for it. We then found a table to sit and drink at. Unfortunately, the owner's 15-year-old daughter would come and wipe our table clean and sneak in a shot; she got drunk, and so did we; I passed out and was dragged back to the camper, ruining my brand new cowboy boots.

When I woke up the following morning in the top bunk of the camper next to little Jesse, he was wet, and I was also wet; who pissed on who? I always wondered about that!... That camping trip was unforgettable in the annals of our travels up that famed highway, "395."