BILL

This story is about a very good friend of mine. I'm sure it is
probably very boring to read about some one else's friend but this
person is very special to me and he is my friend and always will be. I
thought it would be neat to put a few things down about him and myself
and a few other people so I could have it down on paper where I can
look back and remember those fun days starting in early 1959. I was 20
and Bill was a few years younger, I knew Bill way before1959. I'd like
to start this story when I was 20 years old and we were driving down
Manchester Boulevard in Bill's car just cruising and bumming around
town and having a real ball. We stopped across the street from Bill's
mother's apartment at a foster freeze restaurant, we had just enough
money between us to get two hamburgers and two small cokes. Bill said
we need to get some money for gas. I said what the heck are we going to
do for money? How much gas to you have? I think about a quarter of a
tank. Bill, I'm going across the street to the gas station to see if I
could sweep and clean up around his gas station for a couple of
dollars. Bill looked over at me and said, I have a better idea,
I think we will take a ride to my uncles tire shop on Alameda Blvd. We
are not too far from there. I was kind of worried, I never knew his
uncle owned a tire shop. Bill said to me, you have nothing to worry
about he's a nice guy but he is a little rough around the edges, but
you'll like him. He may kid with you and call you a schmuck but that
won't mean anything.
I said what's that mean? It means you're a prick, we both broke out
laughing so hard that when we pulled up in front of the tire shop
everyone was watching us. One of the workers there asked Bill, what's
so funny? Bill pointed towards me and said he's a putz, he farted in
the car and we started laughing all over again. Bill what are we going
to do here? You are not going to do anything but sit on your ass. Bill
laughed a little, I'm going to talk to my uncle and see if I can make
some gas money doing something around here. A few minutes later he came
out of his uncles little office. I'm going to regroove some tires for
my uncle, it will take about an hour. We will make a few dollars and
get some gas and be on our way. Bill, what is grooving tires? I will
show you in a minute, it won't take long to do these tires. Bill picked
up the special grooving iron and plugged it in. When it heats up you
groove new grooves in the top of the tire and they sell them for good
use tires. Bill that is really neat, I never knew you knew how to do
that. What can I do to make a few dollars for gas for your car? Just
about that time his uncle came out of his office, Bill asked if he had
something for me to do. His uncle said yes, stack those tires over
there in the corner. It took me about a half-hour. I was stacking tires
to make two dollars while Bill was grooving the tires. We hung around
there for a little while then worked our way back towards town. We just
kicked around for a few more months having fun and living and sleeping
out of Bill's car.
Bill's mother and brother lived on Florence Avenue and my father at
that time lived in San Pedro. We worked our way down Western Avenue to
San Pedro to my dads; it was late at night, close to midnight when we
were nearing San Pedro. We were almost out of gas and had no money so
we parked next to this construction site and slept for a couple of
hours.
Around three a.m. when we thought the time was right we borrowed gas
out of one of the construction trucks. We got 5 gal. out of one of the
trucks. We looked at each other and said, it is getting day light, and
we better get the hell out of here. As we were walking across the field
we saw a truck going towards the construction site. Bill and I put the
gas in the car so fast and we were so scared we were going to get
caught that we spilled over a gallon trying to get it in. We got out of
there real quick, I remember Bill saying shit that was close and then
we both laughed about it but we were very lucky. We visited with my dad
and sister and brother the rest of the day and spent the following
night. I remember one time we took this ride to Fontana just this side
of San Bernardino and took my younger brother with us. We went to visit
a friend of ours and when we got there we were so hungry and it was
getting dark. We stopped along this orange grove and grabbed alot of
oranges, then picked up our friend in Fontana and drove way up in the
mountains. We didn't know where we were going we just drove so far up
that we got off of the main road without realizing it. We parked and
sat there and ate oranges and told jokes and laughed back-and-forth, we
stayed there all night. The next morning we realized we were parked on
a fire break road and we were half frozen. There was ice all around the
car and we all started laughing and Bill said let's get the hell out of
here before we freeze to death. We worked our way back down towards
town to drop our friend Darby off. When we pulled up in front of his
house he told us not to leave yet, he was going in to get something for
us to eat. Later that morning we started working our way back to
L.A.
All that day and part of the night we had diarrhea from all the oranges
that we ate. I don't remember how many gas stations we stopped at to
use their toilets on the way back. My younger brother said he would
never eat another orange, we all laughed and I looked at him and said
yea sure, until we hit another orange grove. He said no, really I will
never eat another orange. Bill and I started laughing and throwing
orange peelings at him in the back seat laughing real hard. A tire blew
out on the car, and we rolled into a gas station. We talk to the gas
station attendant and he was nice enough to give us a good used tire.
Bill promised him that he would come back and pay him, and he did
several months later. The guy was very surprised that he kept his word.
When we got back to L.A., we dropped my brother off in Pedro. We went
to Bill's mother's house on Florence in Los Angeles, we stayed around
there for a few days. We were in Culver City in this housing project
one night when we needed some gas. I climbed the fence of a
construction yard in the housing project looking for some gas but there
was none, I climbed back over and we were standing by Bill's car when
the police pulled up. They thought we were up to something but they
could not prove it. We were arrested and taken to Venice Police station
for the night. Bill would pass cigarettes through to the guy next door
in the cell next to us. We told the police that we didn't do anything
and after a few days we were released. We guessed that they were
waiting for someone to call in from the construction yard and report
something missing which did not happen so they released us. I always
felt bad about what happened that night because Bill wanted to become a
highway patrolman. He thought he would not have a chance to make it
because we were arrested, so he never pursued it any further. Bill and
I did a lot of things together; we would travel all over the city and
around wherever the gas would take us. We never had any money or food,
but we were always together and had lots of fun. We met a few different
girls as we traveled all around. One time near Venice Beach on Lincoln
Boulevard we met this girl walking down the sidewalk. We gave her a
ride and as soon as she got in the car the cops pulled us over. The
cops knew her and told us that it was very dangerous to pick her up.
Bill and I said that she looked pretty nice, the cop kind of laughed
and said the day before, they picked her up and she had a loaded gun on
her. This time when the cops checked her she did not have a gun. The
cops told her to go on her way. Bill and I were laughing and thanking
the cops. We were lucky, the cops said, she has a criminal record.
Those two cops were really cool they were laughing and told us to keep
our zippers up and move on to somewhere else. We had no where to stay
so most of the time we would sleep in the car and talk and joke until
we fell asleep. I remember Bill saying we were like two bums in the
city. We laughed and joked and said all this weird crap back-and-forth
and just had a lot of fun. Sometimes early in the morning we would go
down and sleep on the beach. Around 11:30 a.m. we would get up from the
sand and go to the first coffee shop that we could find. I would have
coffee and Bill would have a Coke, that's all we would have for most of
the day. Sometimes we would have a bag of potato chips. I remember this
one time when we slept in the car in some neighborhood and the cops
came by in the middle of the night and knocked on the window with their
guns.
As I look back now at how embarrassing that was to get out of the car
in the middle of the night with our hair standing straight up, your
clothes all wrinkled and your breath all smelly and your mouth tastes
like crap and you have to pee real bad. Then the cops saying stand
there and don't move. Looking back it was embarrassing but I would not
change it for anything. Bill's back fender was mashed in a little bit
and he had written on it, custom by collision. Bill and I would laugh
every time we looked at it. We would say to each other, are we
ok?
When the tires would start going smooth and starting to look pretty bad
we would stop at different gas stations and ask them if we could go
through their old tires. Most of the gas stations were real nice and
told us it was ok to go through and pick out one or two. For a long
time we just kicked around and had alot of fun. Then one day Bill got
this job working at chicken delight on Florence Blvd. Not too long
after that Bill and I were in this gas station next to were Bill lived
on Florence Avenue, Bill and about 3 or 4 other friends of ours all
standing around Bill's car just talking and joking and laughing
back-and-forth and I was sitting there with my feet up on the window of
the door in Bill's car. I saw this short red headed guy coming across
the parking lot at a fast pace towards us. He started asking everybody
if they wanted to work for a few hours and make some money. Everybody
started pointing at me, and Bill said take this schmuck, he needs to
get something going for his self. We all laughed and I said, ok I'll go
to work for you. I never imagined in my wildest dreams with my limited
education that I would be working there for the next 23 years.
A few months after working there, I met a very nice girl and we got
married. One of the best wedding gifts of all was from Bill.
At the wedding, Bill said sorry I couldn't get you anything I barely
made it here on time, but I did bring you this bucket of chicken from
my work that you to can eat on the way to Palm Springs tonight. It was
a large bucket of chicken delight that my wife and I enjoyed while
driving to Palms Springs. We were throwing chicken bones out the window
all the way down there. We never forgot about that, my wife and I
talked about it off and on for over 20 years. Bill and I still got
together once in awhile, we would head out to Las Vegas and always had
a lot of fun together. It was really neat just being friends. I
remember one time in Las Vegas we were at the Riviera having dinner and
we were talking about when we would go for days without food and had no
money or anything. We were lucky our cars lasted as long as they did,
but yet it is funny how things happen. Here we sit years later in a Las
Vegas casino having a nice dinner and driving beautiful cars and we
both have money in our pockets. We both started laughing real quietly
back-and-forth remembering those fun days yes we did have fun. As the
years went on my friend went in the Army and was stationed in Korea. We
didn't see each other for quite a while. When he came out of the army
we saw each other as often as we could.
Bill bought this beautiful Corvette, it was really neat and it was the
fastest car I ever rode in. After a short while he went to work for the
city and met this girl that lived across the street from where I lived.
When they looked at each other I knew from the look on their faces that
they would always be together and they are today. It just seemed the
years where going by real fast, we are still close friends and always
had fun and joked around but it seemed like I was working all the time
and he was working too. We really didn't get a chance to see each other
as often as I think we both wanted to. Bill now lives in northern
California and I live in Phoenix Arizona.
I never thought we would live this far apart. But everything changes as
time goes on; I still talk to my friend every once in awhile. I sit
here in my backyard looking out over the desert thinking about how much
fun it was in those days and sometimes I wish I could turn back the
time.

I have known Bill for over 40 years; I have always considered him like
a brother. I could not get
everything in this short story, some stuff I would not put in but this
way I can always look back and
remember how much fun we had in those days.

A short story by Norman Clifford
1-14-2002