Happy Holidays....2014

Wishing all of you that have taken the time to read some of my writings a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Frank “KiKi” Baltazar

Automotive Paints

By KiKi

I worked as an automotive painter for 40 years, give or take a few, owned my own body & paint shop for some years. I started as a painter’s helper in 1955 and I saw lots of changes in the types of paints used in those 50 years.

When I started in ‘55 there were two types of base paints used, lacquer and enamel. General Motors and Chrysler cars came from the factory with lacquer paint, which if you didn’t polish it at least once a month would start getting dull. In ’57 I believe it was; GM started using acrylic lacquer and that made it easier on the elbows because you didn’t need to polish it as often. Chrysler switched to enamel (vitreous) around the same time. At the time, Ford Co. cars were painted in enamel (vitreous).

In my early years as a painter’s help, the paint bases that were used for repair work was lacquer for spot repair and enamel (synthetic) for complete paint jobs…The lacquer had to be color sanded and rubbed with rubbing compound and polished once it dried. The synthetic enamel gave you a beautiful finish, but it didn’t last if you left your car out in the elements you were lucky if the paint job lasted three years. Good enamel painters were hard to come by. You could get a hand-rubbed lacquer paint job, but it was very pricey. Lacquer clear was not much used as it would in time crack.

In the mid-‘60’s paint manufacturers came out with an acrylic enamel base paint for spot repairs. In the early years after its debut, the acrylic enamel base paints created many headaches for the painters; as it had many kinks that took till the mid-‘70’s to be worked. By the late ’70s, the acrylic enamel was great for spot repair and complete paint jobs, it could also be rubbed like the old lacquer.

Just as the painters had the acrylic enamel down pat a new base paint was introduced by the car manufacturers in the late ’70s. The urethane, or polyurethane, was a two-stage finish (late a three-stage came out) a base color coat with a clear coat. Again, in the beginning, it was nothing but headaches for the painters. By the early ’80s, the problems with this base were worked out and the painters that mastered the system were making big bucks as they were in high demand.

As I was getting ready to retire in the early ’90s a new base paint, waterborne, came out, I never had a chance to use it. My understanding is that it is still used at the present time. I retired in ’93 and I never looked back.

Our Sevrnty Wedding Anniversary

                 Connie at 15 years old, and I, at about 20 years old.

By kiki

I added some pictures to this piece that I picked at random of Connie and me at different times of our marriage, times that saw us grow old together.

Connie and I were kids when we were married on my 18th birthday, December 13, 1954, and here sixty-two years later, we still sometimes act like kids. But, of course, Connie will tell you that only I act like a kid, and she might be right. Although Connie also likes to say that I am in my second childhood, I tell her that I haven't gotten out of my first childhood yet!.

Connie at 15 years old and pregnant with our first progeny, daughter, Linda - 1956.

                           Us celebrating a mid-1960 New Year's Eve.

 70 years ago, Connie and I started a journey without knowing where we were headed. All we knew was that there was a life out there for us as a couple; where that life would take us, we didn't0 know, but we forged forward anyway, sometimes not too steadily because of my immaturity. And like most marriages, ours had its up and downs, but in the end, thanks to Connie's strength, it all worked out blissfully for us, and I thank her for that. Of course, we're not in sync all the time, and of course, we lose our temple and patience sometimes, but we are more forgiving because we've built a foundation of talking and listening that continues to anchor everything we do. I don't always agree with her, and she doesn't always agree with me, but that's okay. Because we respect each other and we've grown, we listen, and more importantly, we learn from each other. And through it all, she still laughs her beautiful laughter at some of my corny jokes.

                                 Us at the 1984 Los Angeles Toy Run.

 

In the 70 years we've been together, we've experienced happy and sad times. We enjoyed happy times when the kids were born and suffered sad times at the loss of a newborn child, a grandchild, and a great-grandchild. But we take solace in that those little Angels are looking over us. Losing our parents was also hard on both of us.…. We were like new parents when the grandchildren and now great-grandchildren started arriving. We now have so many of both that I've lost count. But I will say I love them all, whatever that count might be!!

At a 1990 company Christmas party

 The day in 2004 of my sister Mary Ellen's funeral

A mid-1990 Christmas

Connie and I may not agree on everything, but we've become two souls with a single thought. Two hearts that beat as one…Now, we laugh, weep, and we mourn the loss of loved ones as one being….And now that we have reached the twilight of our journey, we can look back at some very cherished, along with some bittersweet moments, and say, hell yes, we made it!.... Love you, Babe, and thank you for your devotion to our marriage…Happy 70th Anniversary, Babe, and I look forward to spending the next 70 years with you!! She'll probably say with a mischievous twinkle in her eyes, "hell no, 70 years is enough!" She loves to pull my chain that way, and I love it.

 aLSO

We got old

December 13 is now a bittersweet day for us. Yes, we celebrate our anniversary and my birthday on that date, but December 13 is also the anniversary of the passing of my older sister, Rachel Baltazar-Egan. So, to honor her, we will have a moment of silence on this, the 12th anniversary of her passing.

"That's If You Make It"

                                                      By kiki

I reminded Connie that Christmas was just around the corner. Then I mention that our 60^th anniversary and my 78^th birthday are also coming up next month “it’s really going to be 60 years?” she asked me, I said “yes, babe, it will be 60 years that we married” “60 years, no wonder I look old and wrinkled” she told me “you old and wrinkle, what about me?, I’m going to be 78 years old”  “that's if you make it” my beautiful and funny wife told me…

Memories of the El Monte Legion Stadium

This story is fiction, but just because it never happened doesn't mean it isn't true.

By kiki                                                                                                                      

In 1955, you and your buddies arrived at the El Monte Legion Stadium dressed in your best threads. After parking your 1938 Chevy, you made your way to the cashier window and paid your 6 bits; you entered the stadium and looked for that girl who would be the best-looking there. You spotted her just as The Penguins, life, on stage, started singing Earth Angel. You asked her to dance, and she said yes; you took her by the hand and led her to the dance floor. You put your hand around her waist and drew her closer to you; you whispered sweet things in her ear as your hand started sliding down her backside "bam!" she slaps your hand and tells you, "stop it, I'm not that kind of girl" you asked her "what kind of girl are you?" "I'm a good girl," she replied "well, be good to me," you counter. She pushed you away and walked off the dance floor, leaving you looking like a fool. After a couple of more songs, you approached her and apologized to her, she accepted your apology, and you two danced the night away, and within two years, you were a man and wife.

“You’re a Curmudgeon”

By kiki

Last night as Connie and I were sitting up in bed we started going back and forth over nothing important. But at some point our give and take started to get heated and she started getting annoyed, I could see it on her face, and her eyes told me that I was not doing right by her, I do have to admit I can be annoying at times, like when I talk too much without making any sense.

“You’re a curmudgeon” Connie yelled at me

“A what?”

“A curmudgeon” she replied

“What the heck is a curmudgeon, and how the heck do you pronounce and spell it? Spell it out for me so I can look it up in my pocket dictionary” I asked her

“c-u-r-m-u-d-g-e-o-n” she very scholarly spelled it out for me

I took out my pocket dictionary and punched in the word, and the tiny dictionary told me that I am a “bad-tempered old man” really? And all the time I thought I was a cool dude!

“Hey, where did you get that word, you been reading behind my back or have you been talking to my friend Phil Rice? Now Phil would know that word” I was now mumbling

“Y' know how you always like to say ‘I ain’t squawking’? Well, I ain’t squawking!”

“That doesn't sound too scholarly, dear” that was the only thing that popped in my mind to say to her as a fast comeback

“Curmudgeon,” she said as she popped her head on her pillow, and with that, she was in dreamland.

1973: Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico

                                     Frankie (Fernie) Baltazar

By kiki

In the late spring of 1973, I received a phone call from a representative of the I.Y.B.C. The International Youth Boxing Club, located in Montebello, CA., was a youth organization headed by Southern California boxing figures such as Rudy Jordan and Mando Muniz.

The caller explained that the I.Y.B.C. would host a boxing meet between an Ensenada, Baja California, Mex.-based team and local amateur boxers. The caller asked if I would allow Fernie to fight in the 125-pound class. Fernie, at age 15, had just come back from a two-year layoff to fight in the Junior Golden Gloves, which he won against Francisco Flores. After being told that the event would occur in ten days at the I.Y.B.C. gym, I okayed Fernie's partaking.

I only remember a little about the other fights because I was focused on Fernie's fight. Fernie's opponent was a dead-ringer of a young Mando Ramos in facial looks and boxing style. Frankie won an exciting, hard-fought three-round fight by U.D…After the bouts were all fought, and as we enjoyed a beer or two with our Baja California counterparts, they invited us to Ensenada to do it all over again. They made a point about Fernie fighting the Mando Ramos lookalike again, and we accepted the challenge.

                                      Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico

We were told we would be at a private Ensenada Beach campground during the event. Owning a motorhome at the time was something we were looking forward to.

With my boxing partner John Martinez, his wife Bea, Fernie, our daughter, Linda, and Connie, and me behind the wheel of our motorhome, we left La Puente on Thursday afternoon (fights were scheduled for Saturday night). We arrived in Tijuana two and a half hours later. After doing a little shopping and having dinner, we left Tijuana on the Tijuana/Ensenada toll road, and a toll road it was; it seemed like every five miles, we had to pay a toll. We arrived at the gated beach campground around midnight. Standing in front of the gate was an armed sentry. With a rifle across his chest, he stopped us at the gate; I rolled my window down to tell him we were with the boxing club, and to my surprise, I found the young sentry mentally challenged. Why is this fella allowed to walk around with a loaded rifle? Well, we later found out that he was the owner's son. While parking the motorhome on the beach, I told everyone to stay out of the sentry's way and not forget that we were in Mexico and had to obey their laws. We spent Friday taking in the sights, eating and drinking a Mexican beer (Bohemia) here and there. By Friday afternoon, the rest of the team had arrived; I am trying to remember who else was on our team; the Montes were there, unsure if both Herman and John fought. I remember that Eddie "Animal" Lopez was there; not sure if he fought, though; he might have been a pro by then and was just along for the ride. We had a big beach fire; we sat around the fire, telling fishing lies and drinking a beer or two.

Weigh-ins for the fights were early Saturday morning. Fernie and the Mando Ramos look-a-like weighted in the low 120s. After the weigh-ins, we had a Mexican breakfast at a local restaurant. Fernie had a mid-afternoon dinner of seafood. It was soon time for us to make our way to the arena. Fights were fought before a packed auditorium, but I was focused on Fernie's fight; I can't tell you who fought them. Fight time! We entered the ring first; Fernie's opponent entered it a few minutes later, but it was not the Mando Ramos lookalike! I looked at the guy and told the referee that that was not our opponent, and the guy had to have been in his mid-20s. I looked around the arena and spotted Mando Ramos's twin with gloves on and leaning against a back wall. I told the referee as I pointed to the guy, "that's the guy we are fighting, or we won't fight. The "old" guy, probably a pro, walked out of the ring as the twin walked in. They were trying to put a ringer in with Fernie!... The fight was give-and-take for the first two rounds, but Fernie pulled it out by scoring a knockdown in the third and final round of a great amateur fight. After the fights, it was party time at the beach fire. As we were bullshitting around the fire, we spotted two horses with riders making their way in the dark toward the fire. The horsemen were Fernie and Eddie "Animal" Lopez. I asked them, "what the hell are you two doing? Don't you know that they still hang horse thieves in Mexico?" They jumped off the horses faster than you can say "horse thieves" and gave the horses a slap on the ass. It's a good thing the "Rife man" wasn't around to see our horse "thieves"; otherwise, we would have had to attend a hanging…Sunday, as we drove back home, I noticed Fernie rubbing his neck; he said to no one in particular, "we don't need to stop in Tijuana" We arrived home alive and well.