Well, I was in Azusa this morning getting a cup of coffee with the McDonald's at Azusa Avenue and Cypress and I was thinking of a memory, was thinking of the guys from UPS in Baldwin Park. Two guys I worked with at night there were Dave Grinnell, Marty [can't think of his last name], and Roy Becerra. These guys were friendly enough to host weekend parties. Dave enjoyed drinking. I attended one of his parties where instead of serving Coke & Rum, Dave served Meyers's Rum & Dr. Pepper. Dee-licious. There was another guy I liked too. These guys could drink. One buddy downed too many Long Island iced teas one night up at the bar at the City of Industry. But the main guys were Roy, Marty, and Dave. Roy used to invite us over to his place in City Terrace off of City Terrace Drive. He's the one who introduced me to El Tepeyac's monster plates in East LA. Afterwards, we'd go to his house on Evergreen, smoke a little pot, listen to music. Someone gifted him with a pitbull puppy, a little "pitty." Roy was a great guy, generous and kind. He had good taste in music. He liked Santana, of course, but he liked Rickie Lee Jones, too, so he enjoyed listening to her 1979 song "Chucky E's in Love."
Roy was also enamored by Stevie Nicks. "Landslide" is from Fleetwood Mac's 1975 album, so I am sure that Roy may have been referring to it or another song on that album.
Their 1977 album, Rumours, contained the terrific hit, "Go Your Own Way," released in 1976 before compilation on the album.
The other song I remember falling in love with back in those days was The Clash's 1980 song "Charlie Don't Surf" from their Sandanista! [Nicaraguan communists] album. "Charlie don't surf" is a line from the 1979 Apocalypse Now movie, starring Martin Sheen, Robert Duval, and Marlon Brando.
With Dave Grinnell also, he had a bad back and he used to ask me like at least once or twice a night to crack his back for him, which meant that I had to lift him up off the ground. He'd present his back to me, and I'd rap my arms around him and he'd hold his arms to his side and I'd lift him up, and you could hear the crack and his spine kind of falling into some alignment. When I first met Dave, he was a sorter at the foot of the ramp, which was like 5 to 6 feet above me. And he'd insult me to get my attention. I ignored him long enough before I started calling him gay and fagot. That's how we got to know each other. The 4 of us had fun because at least once a week, sometimes twice a week, we'd either go eat at Manny's in East LA, with a pitcher of beer, of course, and then maybe golfing at a 3-par. One summer morning, we drove up Highway 39 in Azusa to go swimming in West Fork River. And I recall that we saw one a snake swimming at the surface of the water. Nature is always fun to observe. So that was cool. And, of course, we brought beer with us. Marty was the biggest drinker in the group. He was unfazed by alcohol. Marty and Dave were the big drinkers. Roy not so much, and me even less. I was a lightweight.
Ken Hathaway who I went skiing with at Wrightwood one Sunday. He bought peppermint schnapps, carried it in one of those deerskin wine bags. He was a good skier too, so we had fun doing that. And we skied all night from 9pm to midnight, then drove to Baldwin Park to start our graveyard shift at 1 am.
Who else was there? Mark Peterson. He asked me if he could get a job at UPS, so I gave him the contact's name, I think Danny Macias. Danny did ask me if Mark was reliable, and I said yes. I remember that Mark worked at Toys R Us in Rosemead right off the 10 Freeway. To say "I got Mark Peterson a job" might be overstating it. I vouched for him. I don't know that "I got him a job," but I told him who to get in touch with. This must have been 1983 because I wasn't around at Baldwin Park long enough because in April 1983, I was assigned a driving position im the Beverly Hills Hub at the Olympic Warehouse where I would later meet and reconnect with John Simpson, and get to know my supervisor Bruce, a light-skinned black man from Diamond Bar who loved playing basketball and invited me because I was tall.
Mark and I were buddies at one time. We spent a weekend in Santa Barbara once, slept in in back of my truck
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