1964....Do you know what I mean? I knew that you would.

The middle of the sixties.

What a time to be a sixteen year old high school drop-out, running wild, away from home and on my own.

Awesome music! I remember the Beatles, the Birds, the Rolling Stones, Petulah Clark, the Beach Boys,
and all the other unforgetable great names and sounds I listened to day and night. What more can I say.

During the summer of ' 63 I spent a few weeks visiting my Aunt and Uncle who lived in San Francisco, across the street from the "pan handle" part of the Golden Gate Park. Only a few blocks from Haight-Ashbury!! You can imagine what it was like being in that area at that time of life. It made me want to be a part of the "hippie" movement. What a temptation that was!
Sometimes life leads you in a direction you don't know your traveling until you arrive.

I left Kingsburg on a road trip to San Diego with some buddies, and after a few weeks of adventures and mishaps I arrived in Bloomington to begin the next chapter in my life.

I started washing dishes in a small cafe. It paid a few dollars to support me and allowed me to have fun meeting new people and see new places.
I was living with my mother and younger brother, but wanted to be on my own. Being the incorageble kid that I was at the time the family that owned the cafe became my gaurdians, courtesy of the juvenile court. I lived in a storage room next door in an unfinished expansion of the cafe. For a kid it was paradise. I was now working as the graveyard cook, living in my own room, hanging out with the after hours crowd. What more could a guy want?

The after hours group was a blast! At two o'clock in the morning, the bars had just closed and everyone wanted a snack or meal or cup of coffee, but mostly to hang out and keep the night and buzz going.
There was a back door that took you through the kitchen on the way to the dining area. Many nights the "regulars" going by would drop off a "tip", a half-pint, a drink carried away from the bar, a bottle of beer, a pack of cigarettes, or something to "bribe the cook" for a good meal. It was great! Everyone was my best friend.

The people were best part of the job. You have no idea what it is like to be a sixteen year old being exposed to all the colorful characters that the local bars could produce. Fontana and the steel mills were only a few miles away. Interstate 10 and the truck drivers was a few blocks away. And Sam&'s Cafe was one of the few places open at that time of night. It was like a magnet for the greatest collection of entertainment you could imagine.

Next door to the cafe was a Foster's Freeze. At the Fosters&'s Freeze you could find two of the most attractive girls I ever met. It was the greatest! And that led me to the next level of running wild and crazy!

At the end of the block in the other direction was a motorcycle shop. The owner was Harold Reynolds. Harold was an inspiration. I wanted to be a motorcycle mechanic. I wanted to race Motorcycles. I wanted to build hot, fast bikes. I wanted to ride!! I wanted to have a beautiful girl behind me, in the breeze, going somewhere, anywhere, just going.

A buddy from Kingsburg I considered more like a brother bought a BSA 650 motorcycle!! He was living in Southern California then and we kept in touch. One night after getting into a little 'trouble' in San Bernardo, we left town on a unplanned road trip to Kingsburg.

It was early morning when we left and we weren't prepared for anything. We stopped in Tehachapi and bought a couple of Army field jackets to stay warm, levis and t-shirts just arent enough. After spending a couple of days in Kingsburg we started back to Bloomington. We travelled across the "grapevine"on highway 99 and stopped at Castaic about two o'clock in the morning at a truck stop cafe to recover.

That was before the day of mandatory helmets. It was snowing outside and our breath had turned to ice around our collars. As we sat at the counter thawing out a CHP officer asked where we were going. We told him we were on our way from Fresno to Bloomington. You should have seen the look on his face. He thought we were crazy. He was right. Wild and Crazy!

Girls, booze, cigarettes, running wild!

John Sweeney, just out of the Navy worked at the corner gas station on the graveyard shift. He drove a ' 61 Corvette. He was soooo cool. I wanted to be cool too!
Sam from the cafe was a Navy man. Big influence there too!
And then Patti from the Foster's Freeze was going to join, what could a guy do!!
Did I forget to mention Selective Service and the draft for Viet Nam ??

All of those circumstances led to the next chapter in my life.

I joined the UNITED STATES NAVY !!!!