“Brick Wars”

By kiki

One late 1940s summer day, the guys from up the hill came down to El Hoyo for a brick fight; I was behind a small dirt mount, about 3 feet high. I would get up, throw a brick, get down fast for the incoming bricks. The action slowed down, no incoming bricks, so I figured they had gone back up the hill; I figured wrong, because as I stood up to see if indeed the guys had gone up the hill, "POW" I got hit in the chest with a brick, I went down on my butt, couldn't get up for a while. That’s how we kid's spent the summers at the Simons Brickyard.

What a set of pipes

By kiki                                                   

"kiki! kiki!!" Connie was screaming at the top of her lungs at me. Man! Does that woman have a set of pipes on her?

"Yes, dear," I answered.

"What did you do to my blouse!?" she asked me as she held up a dark blouse for me to see. It was a dark blue blouse with some white spots that looked like they didn't belong there.

"I didn't do anything to your blouse, dear," I told her as I began to sweat.

"You do the laundry, don't you!?"

"Of course I do," I said.

"Well, look! You ruin one of my favorite blouses. Did you get some bleach on it!"

"It wasn't my fault," I told her.

"Whom's fault was it? The dogs? They are the only ones here with you during the day".

"If you want to believe that, that's okay with me," I told her as I walked away.

What a set of pipes!!

Willie, Joe, and Jack-In-The-Box

By kiki

                                               

 I once knocked a Jack-In-The-Box out. Even though that's only a short part of this story, let me tell you how. In 1970, I drove with other boxing trainers and guys with junior boxers to Phoenix, Arizona, for a junior boxing show. At that time, I had a 1966 Chevy pickup with a camper. One of the guys making the trip was my late brother-in-law Willie (he was married to my sister Annie). When I asked Willie if he would like to go to Phoenix with us, he said yes, that he would like to go, but said I had to promise him that I would take a picture of him with a Native American woman; I promise him I would; not knowing how I would accomplish that feat. One of the other guys was my wife's late brother-in-law, Joe. 

When we left home, Joe and Willie were riding in the back, inside the camper with the junior boxers; when we made our first stop, Willie jumped out of the camper yelling, "I ain't riding with that sonuvabitch no more" I told Willie he could ride in the cab. We got back on the road, and two hours later, we made another stop, and everybody got out to stretch their legs, and like lovers, Joe and Willie made up, they were now both going to ride in the camper again, they said. At the next stop, it was Joe that jumped out yelling; now Joe was riding in the cab; damn, I was beginning to feel like "Dear Abby," with Joe and Willie burning my ears off, telling me the other one was crazy!

We pulled into Phoenix at four in the morning, and we saw one of those 'open 24 hours Jack-In-The-Box restaurants' I was half asleep when I pulled into the drive-thru and hit the clown and knocked him on his ass; Jack was out cold before he hit the ground, I hit Jack because the camper was too high for the drive-thru! After we parked, I went inside for a cup of coffee, and what was the first thing I saw? Two Native American women! They were almost about Willie's size, too, 250 lbs. or more, but shorter, way shorter! I ran outside, got my camera, and told Willie, "Willie! I found your Native American woman" I got Willie inside, and I asked the bigger of the two women if it was okay for me to take a picture of her with Willie; she said yes, but that we would have to buy her and her friend a cup of coffee, we did. Afterward, she kept calling Willie "Mijo," Willie asked me not to show Annie the pictures, which was, of course, the first thing I did...

The morning after the kids fought, we left Phoenix and stopped in Buckeye for breakfast; some of us ordered pancakes, others ordered a bacon and eggs breakfast, 

Willie ordered half a dozen pancakes with a half dozen eggs, an egg in between each pancake, "AND" a side order of bacon and eggs, with hash brown and toast, and two beers; he ate "EVERYTHING," He then slept all way home.

That boy could eat! But maybe that's why he weighed in close to 280 pounds.

Going Fishing

                                                     By kiki

This morning I reminded Connie that in two weeks I was going fishing for a few days, I asked her if she was going to miss me.

“Babe, I’m going to be gone for a few days, are you going to miss me?”

“Hell no, I going to rest! I won’t have to come home and cook! And I won’t have to listen to you whining about how every bone hurts you”

Damn!!

Tony Baltazar, Raul Bencomo and Jimmy Montoya

By kiki

On March 19, 1981, on a card headlined by Kiko Bejines vs. Franco Torregoza at the Olympic Auditorium, Tony fought Jimmy Montoya's fighter Raul Bencomo in a scheduled ten-rounder. Bencomo proved to be a lot tougher than we expected. The fight was pretty even going into the fifth round. Around mid-round, Bencomo backed Tony against the ropes and, rushing in for what he thought was the kill, ran into one of Tony's patented short left hooks; Bencomo was out before he hit the canvas. A rematch was in order.

The rematch didn't occur until the following year, June 26, 1982, on a card headlined by Frankie and Tony, also at the Olympic Auditorium. The fight was again scheduled for ten rounds. This time Tony did short work of Bencomo. Tony hit Bencomo again, this time in the second round, with his patented left hook. Again Bencomo was out before he hit the canvas…Frankie, too won by second-round KO vs. Abe Perez.

After the fights in the Olympic's catacombs (dressing rooms), Jimmy told Bencomo not to worry about losing and that he would get him a 3rd fight with Tony. Bencomo told Jimmy: "fuck you! You fight him; the sonofabitch is crazy; he is trying to kill me!"

Tony Baltazar v Robin Blake

By kiki

At the time of Tony’s fight with Robin Blake, Bob Arum was still based in New York City. His main man in Las Vegas was Mel Greb. My dealings for the fight were with Greb, who was a hard guy to deal with.

We made the fight over the phone, but I had to go to Vegas to sign the contract. Mel wanted me to fly out of Ontario Airport, on their dime, of course, sign the contract and fly right back home. I told him no that I would drive on Saturday, three weeks before the fight. I told him to get me a room at the Showboat, and that I wanted $500 to play the slots, he barked, but I got what I wanted.

Saturday morning, three weeks before the fight, I drove to Vegas on Connie’s new 1984 Z28 Camaro, made the trip in about four hours. When I got to Vegas, there was a room waiting for me at the 'Boat; after checking in, I called Mel, told him I was at the 'Boat, he said that he would meet me at the coffee shop within an hour.

We met, and Mel hands me the contract to sign, well, I am no lawyer, but I could see that everything we had agreed on was not on the contract. The money for the fight was good, but the 5 rooms for five days, five round-trip tickets from Ontario Airport, meals for five people for five days, 5k for training expenses, Frankie Baltazar's fight on the card were not on the contract when I told Mel that I wanted all that on the contract, he told me to sign the contract, and that everything would be taken care of, I refuse to sign the contract until he added an initial all that we had agreed upon when he did. He handed me a check for 5k and the $500 cash to play with. I signed the contract.

On the Saturday before the fight, I drove Tony, Frankie, Bobby, and Herman Montes, who we had hired as a sparring partner for Tony, to Ontario Airport. I paid for the plane tickets out of pocket. After the fights, when we got paid, I was still out the five hundred for the plane tickets; I hit Bob Arum, he told me to see Mel Greb about it. I told Mel that I still had five C's coming for the plane tickets. He brought out a roll of hundred dollar bills and handed me four C's; I told him it was five C's, not four that I had coming, “take the four,” Mel said to me, I said to Mel “Mel, either you give me the five C' or I’ll take all your money from you” Mel was a little guy...LOL! He gave me the five C's. 

"Car Problems and The Cucuy"

By kiki

I think the Cucuy has been hanging around our house lately. Why else what happened at the beginning of the week with our cars happen? If it was not for the Cucuy, then what was it?

Sunday, I drove Connie’s car to the local 76 to fill it up; after filling it up, I drove it back home and parked it in front of our house. The following day Connie jumped in the car to go to work; after kissing me goodbye, she hit the starter, and the car wouldn’t start; after trying to start it a couple more times and the vehicle not firing up, I told her to forget it and to take my truck, she did.

After breakfast, I called my son-in-law, Ray, a certified auto mechanic. Lucky for me, Ray has Mondays off; later that morning, Ray came and checked the car out, but he couldn’t figure out why it wouldn’t start; Ray told me that he needed the vehicle towed to his house so that he could hook the scanner to it. Ray has his garage set up like a mini auto shop. So I called AAA to pick the car up and told them where to take it, and they did.

Monday evening, after Connie got home, I drove my truck to the 76 and filled it up; I then drove it back home. Early Tuesday morning, I needed to go to CVS to pick up some drugs, and I needed to do it before Connie went to work since I would be without wheels for the day. While Connie was in the shower, I put a jacket over my pj’s and walked out, jumped in my truck, hit the started, and the truck wouldn’t start, the same thing as Connie’s car, the engine would turn, but it wouldn’t fire up. I walked back inside; the house gave Connie the bad news: it looked like she had to spend all day with me; she didn’t like that; I wondered why? I think I am a nice enough dude…LOL!! I asked Connie if she wanted me to rent her a car to go to work; she told me to wait and that she would stay home. She called work and told a girl what was happening with the cars. She then fixed breakfast for us; after breakfast, she told me to go ahead and rent her a car so she could go to work Wednesday, and I did so.

I called Ray again, and he said he would stop by on his way to work, which he did; after checking the truck out, he said that it seemed to be a fuel problem and that he would come back after he got out of work and see if he could fix it. That evening, Ray returned, and he couldn’t get the truck to fire up. I told Ray to fix Connie’s car first and worry about my truck later. Late Tuesday evening Ray called to tell us he had Connie’s car running; he said that the fuel injectors stayed open for some reason or other, and it flooded the engine, one down, one to go.

Wednesday morning, Connie went to work, and I, after being up with Connie, went back to bed. Then, after doing the chisme thing on Facebook, I got up and burned some breakfast. Then, after cleaning up the mess I made in the kitchen, I walked outside, looked at my truck, and after cussing it out, I jumped in, hit the started, and damn if the truck didn’t start right up!

I don’t believe in the Cucuy, but hey! Just maybe?--Did my cussing scare the Cucuy away? Just maybe!