Introduction
Why a chapter on "Adult Friends"? The need is easily explained when I let you know Mom and Dad were married twenty years before I came upon the scene. That means my parents could have easily been my grandparents. I didn't know they were old!
Mom And Dad's Friends Were My Friends Also!
Mom and Dad were not exactly this old
So Mom and Dad were fairly well set in their ways and they had lots of friends their age. These friends already had grandchildren in many cases so here I was right in the middle of a load of older people!
I think that was good as I was treated accordingly. Then I popped on the scene and therefore Mom and Dad's friends were the people I grew up with and that was OK.
No, they were NOT that old!
Comey Avenue was a quite little street off a main boulevard in Los Angeles and the folks on this street were plain and simple people who worked hard and enjoyed life. You will be hearing about Ralph Leibowitz, Knute Hendrickson, The Miyauchi's, The Coomlers, Thelma Perkins, Marion Gillick, May and Brownie, The Bauers, and many more as this journal progresses.
Margaret And Byron And The Wooden Sailing Ship
Margret and Byron (I don't even know their last name!) were friends of the family for years and years. They were a few years older than Mom and Dad but wonderful salt-of-the-earth folks. It is my belief that they became friends after Mom and Dad bought two dogs from them, Nig and Duke sometime in the early 1940's. Nig and Duke were to Pomeranians which I tormented every chance I got.
Margret and Byron owned a pottery shop in Inglewood California and I think it was set up after Byron left the Merchant Marines after World War II. In fact I believe Dad loaned them money to expand their business and enclose are large area of the pottery yard. The name of the pottery company was BYMARS (for BYron and MARgret).
Hand carved while he was serving or nation in the
Merchant Marines in WWII
Byron had made an 18" long sailing ship from wood that he had hand carved while on board some type of merchant vessel during the war. He gave it to me in the early 1950's and I was so proud of that ship. I re-rigged it many times and Mom made sails for it several times. I sailed this in Ralph's (Lebowitz) pool over and over and repainted it many different colors..
These people were great and we would go visit every couple of weeks. Their house was next door to the pottery yard on Manchester Boulevard in Inglewood, California circa 1955. In addition to pottery, Margret bred Pomeranians for years.
Mom was there the night Byron passed away, I believe he died of cancer when I was in High School. I was not part of the funeral but I do remember going over after the services and meeting their kids who were in their 40's even then.
When I went off to college, I packed up a lot of my belongings and put them in storage in one of the Ralph's Dime stores on Pico Blvd. After college I was so busy I never went back until perhaps 15 years later and the boxes were gone, probably thrown out with some cleanup activity. I often hoped that some other kid would have received that ship with as much joy as I did and perhaps it is sailing someplace in the Los Angeles area to this day.
Charlie And Linda Miyauchi
Charlie was Japanese and married a German lady just after World War II. Charlie was a staff sergeant and served overseas in Europe. They lived next door to us on Comey Avenue. Charlie worked for the Ford dealership in Culver City for years but really wanted to be on his own. After a while we got to know Charlie and Linda (and Ronnie!!!) quite well.
Ronnie was their daughter and for some period of time Ronnie and I dated and went everywhere together. I was a little older and finally moved on when I entered college.
Dad and Charlie struck up a deal and Dad loaned him the money to open his own garage in Culver City just a few blocks from our home..
Charlie built the garage and had it in business for many years and paid Dad off as planned. It must have been a good business as he retired and eventually moved to Denver after his wife passed on. I have lost track of Ronnie but last time I heard she had a family and was living somewhere in the valley.
George And Rose Bauer
The Bauer's lived across the street from us. George worked for a TV repair store and Rose, his wife, was an assembly person for Mattel Toys.
The Bauer's, were a scream! Rose worked at Mattel Toys and I do not remember what she did but every few weeks she would come home with a mess of "leftovers" from the manufacturing line! One time I remember she had 1000 paper tubes colored like candy canes, drove my mother nuts trying to figure out what to do with them.
Another time, Rose brought home a couple thousand silver plastic balls halves which were used on a Mattel play telephone. She challenged my mother saying "Ok Georgia, what are you going to do with there???". Mom thought about 10 seconds, got up and retrieved a piece of string and some glue. She doubled over the string to make a loop placing the loose ends inside the ball halves... and glued two pieces together. Our entire neighborhood had 100's of 4' diameter silver decorative Christmas ornaments that year! I may still have one or two left!
George worked in a TV store repairing TV's. He had a service truck and also moonlighted fixing radio's and TV's in his garage. I began going over there and watching and then repairing TV's myself. George would teach me little by little until I got pretty good at it! I still have marks on my hands from grabbing the high voltage after forgetting in those days the capacitors were big and lots of voltage stayed inside the TV's for many minutes after being turned off!
Czak, I Never Knew Her Real Name!
Czak was a lady of goodly proportions perhaps tipping the scale at 275 pounds and about 60 years old when I was ten! She was Rose Bauer's mother and came to the US from the "Old World" at the end of World War II when all she has was lost. She came to the US and stayed with Rose and George. She was Hungarian and spoke Russian and Hungarian fluently. She was proficient with English by the time I got to know her.
I remember Czak being glued to the radio late in 1956 when the Russians invaded Hungary. I was marginally interested in the news in those days.
At 4:15 a.m. on November 4, 1956, Soviet forces launched a major attack on Hungary aimed at crushing, once and for all, the spontaneous national uprising that had begun 12 days earlier. At 5:20 a.m., Hungarian Prime Minister Imre Nagy announced the invasion to the nation in a grim, 35-second broadcast, declaring: "Our troops are fighting. The Government is in its place." However, within hours Nagy himself would seek asylum at the Yugoslav Embassy in Budapest while his former colleague and imminent replacement, Jonos Kodor, who had been flown secretly from Moscow to the city of Szolnok, 60 miles southeast of the capital, prepared to take power with Moscow's backing. On November 22, after receiving assurances of safe passage from Kodor and the Soviets, Nagy finally agreed to leave the Yugoslav Embassy. But he was immediately arrested by Soviet security officers and flown to a secret location in Romania. By then, the fighting had mostly ended, the Hungarian resistance had essentially been destroyed, and Kodor was entering the next phase of his strategy to neutralize dissent for the long term.
The defeat of the Hungarian revolution was one of the darkest moments of the Cold War. At certain points since its outbreak on October 23 the revolt looked like it was on the verge of an amazing triumph. The entire nation appeared to have taken up arms against the regime. Rebels, often armed with nothing more than kitchen implements and gasoline, were disabling Soviet tanks and achieving other -- sometimes small but meaningful -- victories throughout the country. On October 31, the tide seemed to turn overwhelmingly in the revolution's favor when Pravda published a declaration promising greater equality in relations between the USSR and its East European satellites.
To this day do not remember her first name nor do I think I ever knew it, she was just Czak. She spoke English quite well and was in her 60's or maybe early 70's in those days. She was a rotund person but had the stamina of a horse, she kept going like the energizer bunny. She became my bestest friend. Czak and I would go everywhere together for several years. She loved life! I was twelve and Czak provided the adult supervision needed to go to the show and go roller skating and do a lot of other things.
She loved kids, loved life, and was ready to try anything. She taught me a little Russian and read stories to me when we finally slowed down after a day at play! Neat lady.
She and I had a love affair... that is, we went everywhere together for almost a year! We would go to shows, she would come out and play with the kids in the neighborhood, she would bake and we would eat. After school I'd go visit her and watch TV and sometimes do my homework over at the Bauer's home.
She told stories of living in Russia prior to the Russian Revolution and how she left to come to America.
Czak passed on when I was in High School and I sure missed her. Always with a smile, generally a cookie in hand, and a story to tell!
Joe and Blanche Schechter
Crazy Joe Schechter and his wild wife Blanch! These were a pair to draw to! Joe was a New York Jew (and I meant that in the nicest way). His heart was as big as the all out of doors but I'll bet in a previous life, we wondered the Wild West in a covered wagon selling snake oil. Joe had a warehouse down on Central Avenue in Los Angeles, a nice place in those days. Dad would always go down there once a month and see what ol' Joe had to offer. Joe would pick up some of the wildest things you could imagine and I'll bet if he would have lived into the 1970's, he would have owned the 99 cent stores.
Blanche had a voice that could crack a mirror and she was always talking. I remember her makeup as it was piled on about three inches think. We visited their home several times and she was most gracious. She did however have this annoying habit of pinching my cheek every time she saw me.
Joe was built like a fire plug and drove an old station wagon sometimes stopping by the dime store to show samples of his latest findings.
These were great people to be associated with and we the kind of people we need in our country today.
Knute and Hazel Hendrickson, A Big Man And Beautiful Woman
Knute was a name? I didn't know that until Knute and Hazel Hendrickson moved into the neighborhood.
I am now in Junior High School and the Sputnik was launched, the space race was on. So I needed a science project and of course, rockets were the thing for boys. I was describing my need for a rocket one evening when Knute was over to the house visiting.
At that age, I really did not know what Knute did for a living. He was a big man, hard drinker, and funny. The next day after Knute got home, he called our house and asked Dad and I to come over to his place. Knute and Hazel lived in a VERY SMALL house about four doors down and across the street from us. When I say small, I believe it was an expanded garage as it had a tiny kitchen, very small bedroom, one bathroom, and the rest was a den. It was a warm house always full of fun and laughter. It was also the meeting place for the neighborhood poker players... the whole weekend!
Anyway, Dad and I walk down after dinner and to my surprise there was a rocket! This rocket was about 6 feet tall, had fins on the bottom on all four sides and was hollow through the center. The nose was tapered into a small point. The rocket was made of heavy gauge aluminum. Turns our Knute was the head operator of the largest forming machine at the Alcoa Aluminum plant in Fontana, California. He could form anything from Aluminum. This was a small job for him but it provided an "A" on my science project and years of enjoyment.
The last time I saw my rocket was when I loaned it to the dime store for a display. It was used for years in the late 1950's to show the dime store visitors how "up to speed" the dime store was!
You may have read about my little red car (the lawnmower driven car Dad and I made). Knute was involved there too. He built a motor mount out of 1/2" aluminum so that the lawnmower engine would sit on aluminum and not burn the wooden base of the car. The mount had built in holes and bearings for the clutch assembly which Dad built. It was an amazing piece of work. I remember Knute getting sick and it is by belief he died of cancer in about 1960. He was a great friend and a fellow I will always remember and admire.
Knute was, as you might surmise, a hard drinking man who was a gentle giant. He passed on about 1959 and Hazel moved to Costa Mesa and into a duplex with her sister and brother. Hazel worked for many more years and in fact owned a taco store as she was a super cook. Mom, Dad and I used to drive all the way to Costa Mesa on the weekends to have a few taco's at Hazels. Nice people; great memories.
Harry And Marion Gillick. Marion Was The Wild One
Marion Gillick was Comey Avenue's answer to the sophisticated Southern Belle. A bright energetic woman who life with her husband (Harry) and daughter (Olivia) just a few doors down the street.
I remember the evening that Harry, an accountant, was beat up on his way home. For no reason, some thugs beat him senseless and he died a few days later as I recall. This was an unheard of event in 1955!
Harry and Marion were an unlikely couple if you knew them. Harry was the quite type while Gillick, as she was called by all who loved her, was the outspoken wild one. Harry drove a Studebaker following by a Nash Metropolitan. Years after that, Gillick got her first Cadillac and thought she had died and gone to heaven.
Olivia was like a sister to me and she went on to get a PhD and lives in West Los Angeles as a successful business woman.
Gillick passed on about 20 years ago and I still relish the long evenings in her front room where I would torment her about any subject under the sun. The times still make me chuckle. She was a devoted Catholic so naturally I was a devote agnostic. She would take a position on politics and I would take the opposite. I am sure even then I drove her nuts with my adoration for Goldwater while she was pelting me with the Democratic opposition.
I often wonder to this day if she was teasing me as I was teasing her... taking the other position just to be ornery! She was a painter and made a lot of her own clothes... considered a little way out by some I always thought she looked like a million dollars.
She would regale us with stories of "Aunt Olivia" who had money like uncle Scrooge and lit cigarettes with $100 bills. I remember the first time I met Aunt Olivia, Gillick though she maybe should NOT have made the introduction. I did like Gillick a bunch so I was on my good behavior... Gillick often reminded my after that event that "David, you can be nice!". She was a hoot!
May And "Brownie" Brown And The Hotrod Hudson
Right next door to me was Brownie and his hot rod Hudson. That car looked fast just sitting in his garage. I remember him driving up and down the street and the sounds from that car made it appear to be going 100 miles per hour!
Brownie always drove a Hudson
Hudson got off to a good start by introducing an all-new Super Six in 1948, but it might be said that the car was too advanced for the marketplace. With unit body construction that Hudson sales brochures referred to as "monobilt," the landmark Hudson Super Six set the stage for today's automobiles, most of which use "unibody" designs. The floorpan of the Hudson was suspended from the bottom of the chassis, a throwback to Harry Stutz's "underslung" technique and the precursor of today's low-aspect vehicle profiles. The chassis also extended outside the rear wheels, giving the car a well-enclosed "low-rider" look. From ground to rooftop it was a foot lower than many of its contemporaries, and there was no doubt it was a handsome design.
The Hudson Hornet, introduced in 1951, took the Super Six chassis, refined it and then added the piece de resistance, a significantly more powerful engine. When the 262 cubic inch displacement in-line six-cylinder engine was bored out to 308 cubic inches, the Hudson Hornet instantly became one of the hottest cars on the road.
On the strength of its powerful engine and low center of gravity, it didn't take long for early Fifties stock car racers to figure the Hornet had something going for it. In some ways it was odd that Hudson's rather mundane L-head straight six became the hot ticket in the early Fifties, because that era was highlighted by the revolutionary high-compression V-8s from Cadillac and Oldsmobile. But the combination of dual carburetion (Twin-H Power) and cubic inches proved impressive in the face of high-tech. It dominated stock car racing in the early Fifties, when stock car racers actually raced "stock cars."
Marshall Teague, who became synonymous with Hudson performance in the Fifties, won 12 of 13 AAA events in 1952. Overall, Hudson won 27 of the 34 NASCAR Grand National races in 1952, followed by 22 of 37 in 1953, and 17 of 37 in 1954. It was an incredible accomplishment, especially from a car that had some legitimate luxury credentials.
The chassis' lower center of gravity, created by the "step-down design," was both functional and stylish. The car did not only handle well, at least in the Fifties idiom, at the same time, it treated its six passengers to a sumptuous ride. The low-slung look also had a sleekness about it that was accentuated by the nearly enclosed rear wheels.
Unfortunately, its unibody design was expensive to update, so it suffered against the planned obsolescence of the Big Three. Hudson's competitors, using separate body-on-frame designs, could change the look of their models on a yearly basis without expensive chassis alterations, but the Hudson Hornet design was essentially locked in until a re-engineering came due. So, despite its racing successes, Hudson's sales began to languish. Finally Hudson merged with Nash and the brand disappeared for good in 1957.
On January 14, 1954, Hudson merged with Nash Motors to become American Motors. The Hudson factory was closed, and the remaining years of Hudson production consisted essentially of Nash cars with Hudson badging, dubbed "Hashes" by some.
What a car!
Otis Tucker, When Friendship Really Meant Commitment
What a guy! Otis Tucker was an honorable man who anybody could look up to.
They don't make them like this anymore!
Otis and my dad met in 1911 in McRae Arkansas and were friends their entire life. Otis's family moved to McRae from Missouri. Dad and Otis went to school together and in fact Otis was the sweetheart of my Aunt Alma for years. Aunt Alma was dad's older sister. I just found this out in the last five years, how about that?
When Otis and Dad were teens the economy and future looked pretty bleak in Arkansas so they sat out on their adventure. This was about 1924.
Otis told me that he and Dad jumped a train heading west and somewhere in Oklahoma the train detectives came by and he and Dad jumped out. Otis headed west and dad heading back east.
Dad ended up in Oklahoma where he met mom and Mom and Dad went to Louisiana before heading to California in 1933.
Otis made it west and settled in South Gate, California where he got married and opened a brake repair shop he ran for 50 years.
When mom and Dad came to California, they again connected with Otis and Irene after almost ten years of not seeing each other. I have pictures of Mom and Dad and Otis and Irene on their many adventures. Otis and Dad were drivers. Put gas in the car and point it in some direction.
Mom and Dad had been married 20 years when I came along and I guess that put a minor disruption in the Tucker/Liles relationship and Otis and Irene did not have kids. It probably lasted until I was out of diapers because I remember from fours years of age on they were inseparable.
Paul (Dad) left us in 1970 and asked Otis to watch out for Georgia. For 20 years until Mom's death in May of 1990, Otis (and Irene until her death in 1974) saw her every week, took her to the hair dresser, shopped with her and was her friend.
Saturdays was their night to go out and eat and then watch a movie.
Otis is now gone passing into the next world. Otis passed-on in July of 2002 at the ripe old age of 97! I'm sure the stroke he had kept him from driving and that did him in! He will always be in our memories and he is now with his childhood friends... my Mom and Dad. He was born in 1903 in Mississippi.
We miss him every year especially around the holidays where he was the life of the party!
They don't make 'em like that any more!
Our Friend Ly Jones
My memory is fading these days but I remember Ly very well. I can't remember what Ly was short for but I assume it was Lyman or something like that. Ly was a Negro gentleman that worked for Dad as the warehouse manager. Smart, funny, and an all around super guy! One needs to remember this was the 1950s so seeing black people in many places in Los Angeles was unique as people did not leave their neighborhoods as often as today.
I remember once Ly came to visit Mom and Dad and did the neighbors talk! The talk wasn't nasty but more curious in nature. Who was this Negro person on Comey Avenue Note I used the word "Negro". In those days it was equivalent to black and was not considered (by my family) a derogatory word like the "n-word".
Dad's response to the neighbors was in line with his philosophy and the one I live by today, "So What!!... Ly is our friend and he will damn-right come into my home anytime he wants!"
Ly started working in the warehouse and was bright so he made it to warehouse manager. Ly was missing some teeth up front and was not pretty when he smiled. My father sat with Ly and told him he could manage a store in the dime store chain but had t get his teeth fixed. Dad paid to have a dentist fit Ly with a device that provided Ly a full set of front teeth and a nice smile. Ly went on to manage at least two stores over his lifetime. He did well in the stores, the people liked him and he had a natural ability of knowing merchandise.
Ly passed away in the late 1960's but I can't remember what from. Mom, Dad, and I went to the funeral which was in Ly's home town outside of Fresno, California. I remember his wife and talked to the other teenagers for hours. We were the only white folk there but I will always remember his parents greeting my parents with such warmth and love.
Dad said when you are friends and work together, color is irrelevant! He was right! People are people! Hatred and bias for stupid reasons like color or religion is evil! Judge the individual but remember "birds of a feather"
Dad also taught me that having strong opinions and not being politically correct is OK.
Ralph David Leibowitz, A Good Man
I was fortunate to know some wonderful adult role models of which no better example would have been Ralph David Leibowitz. Ralph was from New York and came to California to make his millions. He opened a dime store called Ralph's 5, 10 and 25 in downtown Los Angeles and then another on in Long Beach in the early 1930's.
When Dad came to California in about 1933, he needed a job and had some experience dressing windows with Kress in Louisiana. Dad got a part time job dressing the Long Beach store windows for Ralph. Soon afterwards he became a full time employee.
Ralph and Dad got along very well and in fact my middle name (David) came from Ralph's middle name and Ralph's daughters name (Paula) came from dad`s first name (Paul).
Dad assisted Ralph open the #3 store in Los Angeles and in fact ran most of the stores activities during World War II when Ralph was in the Army. Ralph was a sergeant and was stationed stateside. I do not know to this day what his assignment was but whatever it was, I'd bet my bottom dollar it was done with pride, integrity, honesty, and fairness for all involved.
Ralph was married to Carolyn who was of Christian Science belief. They were a happy couple and raised a great kid who was always a friend.... Even though she went to UCLA. I have not seen Paula in probably fifteen years but know she is in West Los Angeles and was working at an Aerospace Magnate School (or perhaps attempting to establish a magnate school) perhaps in Inglewood.
I remember Christmas time and the annual Christmas party at Ralph's house. When Ralph moved to 2112 Bagley Avenue, the backyard overlooked Los Angeles and it was a great view.
Ralph passed on a few years after Dad and was a loss to all who knew him. He was truly a great person and a model for all who knew him!
James Riley And I Go To Hawaii
Jim Riley was a salesman for Western Publishing Company and he sold a lot of items to Dad for the Ralphs dime stores. They got to be good friends. Riley has the western states which included Hawaii and he was going to Hawaii twice a year. Once year he asked Dad if I could go (guess I was a good kid). Mom and Dad said OK and I was off.
1955 and me, eleven years old, and off to Hawaii. Now remember, we are talking 1955 so the ride over to Hawaii was in a DC-7 United Airlines airliner. Douglas started work on the DC7 in 1951 after American Airlines requested a competitor to Trans World Airlines' impending introduction of the Lockheed Super Constellation on its transcontinental routes. Based on its highly successful DC6, the Seven was to become Douglas's last propeller airliner but, like the Constellation, it was to find itself overtaken in the race into the jet age. Using the same wing that had first appeared on the DC4, the DC7 introduced a new fuselage 40in (1.02m) longer than the DC6B which allowed for an extra row of seats and a total of up to 95 passengers to be carried. But the major change was the switch to Wright R-3350 turbo-compound engines, compared with the DC6's piston radials. This gave a big boost in performance and - coupled with greater fuel capacity - allowed non-stop transcontinental travel.
The DC7 first flew on May 18, 1953 and American became the first of four US airlines to put it into service on domestic routes in November. It was fitting the carrier was first with the type as the project had only gone ahead when the company told a reluctant Douglas it would buy 25 for $40 million - paying for the development costs. After 105 of the basic model had been built for American (34), United (57), Delta (10) and National (4) production switched to the DC7B. This was externally identical to the basic model, apart from longer nacelles containing extra fuel, and 112 were built. Pan Am used its fleet of seven to start the first non-stop London to New York service on June 1955.
But the B model was not able to make the crossing in all weathers Douglas developed the ultimate DC7C to create a truly Trans-Atlantic airliner. To fit in the extra fuel needed a major redesign was required. The wing span was increased by 10ft (3.05m) by adding a plug between the fuselage and inner engines and the fuselage was extended by 42in (1.1m). The main change was however the updated Curtiss-Wright 3,400 hp Turbo Compound EA1 engines which allowed an increase in weight and enabled 105 passengers to be carried. The first of 121 7Cs flew on December 20, 1955 and entered service with Pan Am in June 1956 to wide acclaim. It shook up the London-New York route to such an extent that BOAC was forced to buy it rather than wait for its Britannia's. SAS introduced an over the North Pole service from Europe to the Far east in 1957. When the jet age started to squeeze the DC7 from frontline airline service Douglas converted many to freighters as the DC7F and the type soldiered on in limited passenger, freight and charter operation in the USA and elsewhere until the mid 1980s.
Ten hours in this machine across the ocean!
Anyway, we get there and Riley puts me in a suite at the Royal Hawaiian,,, Yes, the pink lady on the beach. I get the suite because that's were he lays out the books and publications for people to come and see.
The Pinky Lady
Riley is a bachelor and a fairly well to do guy. He knows nothing about kids so he tells me "Do NOT get into trouble" and "Get lost for three hours while the clients come in". Then he shoves a wad of money into my tiny fists and off I go for my adventure.
I went to the beach and had the staff bringing me cokes and goodies... Just like the rich boy movies. I was in hogs heaven. What i remember most and today I cannot remember how it started but I ended up in a convertible... believe it was a 1953 Chevy... with five girls driving around Hawaii!
My memory is going s I do not remember how we hooked up but I guess they though it was fun to have a pet around. The car was rented, they got into their swimsuits and off we went. Every time we passed the military guys... and in 1953 the island was had a lot of military stationed there.. they would flirt and tell me to duck! Sometimes I'd pop my head up and the guys would turn green with envy.
The trip was great, never had so much fun. I was on my own for about a week seeing Riley in the evenings for dinner and the girls and the island during the day. They took me to Pineapple farms, museums, every site there was to see.
My memories are starting to b black and white also
Thelma Perkins Was A Great Neighbor
Thelma lived across the street from me on Comey Avenue. She has a daughter (Diane) and a son (Pete) who died in 1958 as a result of an unfortunate accident with a bus. Thelma's ex-husband seemed to be around a lot and he was a fisherman. I can't remember when they separated but I was for a long time.
Diane and I were the same age and went to school together until Junior High School when she dropped out perhaps as a result of loosing her brother. Diane was a very pretty girl and is supposedly is living in west Los Angeles with her family.
Thelma worked in the bank for all the years I can remember and retired still living, in poor health, on Comey Avenue as late a 2002.
Mom and Thelma were good friends and single handedly kept the economy of South America going by all the coffee they drank together.
Stuart Humphries
Stuart was one of the managers of the dime store and he was quite a tease. He enjoyed life and was always ready for a little nip off the old bottle. He and is wife lived in Pasadena so he managed stores out in that area for years. He never had kids and was always great to me when we met.