'Hal Linker' reminisces, part 10 (and last)

Great piece!

I would love the hear "Hal's" real name, since I grew up in Chino back when it was a small town and it seemed like everybody knew each other. This guy sounds like a legend!

The Bob's Big Boy in the Montclair Plaza was in fact there. It was in the front of the plaza on the left as you walked in from the north main entrance toward JC Penney. It was a small restaurant but those burgers were memorable!

Completely forgot about the Jolly Roger!!

Thanks for dusting off some memories.

Just a note. Crosby Stills & Nash, Jethro Tull and Creedence have had concerts in Pomona during the Los Angeles County Fair.

Yes, there was a Bob's Big Boy in the Montclair plaza. I remember it well. It was on the corner by where the elevator is now, in the center court.

I seem to remember my dad calling it Bob's Little Boy, so I don't remember if that was official or it was just his way of distinguishing it from the free standing restaurants.

It was actually Bobs Jr. They didn't have the whole menu.

I have enjoyed reading "Hal's" reflections on times gone by.

Just a quick comment on the Bob's Big Boy topic -- both Scott and April are correct about the location of the restaurant.

Its first location was at the northeast corner of the center court, across from the JC Penney entrance -- and as Hal stated, it came later in the history of the plaza, having replaced the restaurant located at that site when the plaza first opened. It was indeed a small version of the stand-alone restaurants, and thus had the name "Bob's Big Boy Jr."

The second location, which I believe is the one that Scott remembers, was at the left of the main entrance; this was where it was after the 1980s remodel.

Also...I had almost forgotten about those old-time organ stores that every mall used to sport. Remember hearing the background rhythym booming through the mall, with a guy in a plaid polyester suit and a bad comb-over plunking out the melody line?(Hmmm, maybe some memories are best left in the past!)

[Thanks for reconciling the conflicting Bob's-at-the-Plaza stories, Tad. -- DA]

Hooray for Tad Decker!! I was having moments of self-doubt about my nearly photographic memory.

Wasn't there a Raj of India store opposite the entrance to JC Penney's too? Remember that place? They had all those brass or copper water pipes with multiple hoses coming off them. They were only used as decorative items by most of the folks who shopped there, mind you.

Now if I could just solve the mystery of what Walter Mitty's Rock 'N' Roll Emporium was called before it adopted that name at 1626 West Mission. I remember the place had big fish nets hanging from its exterior frontage walls. Why do I think it was the Broadside?

Are these the brain cells that got re-arranged when I played with laughing sam's dice?????

I vividly remember Walter Mitty's on Mission Blvd in the late '70s. It was near/next to the Berliner Kindl (sp?) German Restaurant, Market (Lucky Strike Market?), Westmont Hardware, a union hall for General Dynamics defense workers and there was a local porn shop. Or maybe the Berliner Kindl replaced Walter Mitty's. I forget.

Anyway, t think the only original business that remains now is Westmont Hardware. The porn shop is now a taqueria. The union Hall is a Mexican Restaurant & bar I believe.
Interestingly, the defense workers union hall was previously the site of the Pomona Library, or perhaps a local branch of it anyway, before the main library was built at the Civic Center.

I'll be darned though if I can remember the former names of Walter Mitty's. The "Broadside" just doesn't sound familiar at all to me.

[I wrote about Westmont in my "Pomona A to Z" series, which will be up to W sometime this summer. The hardware store was a hoot. Oh, and the Westmont library was a branch. That was a happening area in the 1960s with the defense plant, its thousands of employees and the Cliff May housing tract. -- DA]

There was also a Farrell's (sp)? Ice Cream parlour there too. I remember eating or trying to eat, anyway, a pig's trough.

Yes, yes I lived in that area in the '70s. My mom and dad worked for General Dynamics then. That was the Lucky STAR Market there. My mother sent me there often with a note to the cashier that said "please sell my daughter 1 pack of Pall Mall Reds" and then signed her name to it. They sold me the cigarettes, I was probably 13 or so. I think Walter Mittys came before Berlinder Kindl...that was a hangout for the General Dynamics crowd after work. My Pops was there often.

Okay,
RE: Walter Mitty's

Today I needed to buy some hardware but instead of heading to Home Depot as usual, I decided to try Westmont Hardware on Mission. To be honest, I was somewhat surprised that they were still in business. The sign in the window read "we're open" but I half-expected it might be one of those businesses that closed but forget to take down the sign.

While I was completing my purchase I had a brief chat with the longtime owners of 41 years. They were nice enough to shed some light on the former Walter Mitty's and the surrounding busineses. They informed me that prior to being Walter Mitty's it was called The Hut. Of course! A nautical or Polynesian theme would certainly explain "Hal's" recollection of nets and fish.

After the Hut, it became Walter Mitty's. After Walter Mitty's it then was a struggling pizza business that ultimately failed.

That's all I have to say about that.

[Thanks for the legwork, Jim! -- DA]

Oops! Sandy is right! I left out Berlinder Kindl which was the business after Walter Mitty's but before the pizza joint.

Great work JimL!! The Hut? Man that sure ain't ringing any bells for me. But I don't doubt it. I don't know that it necessarily sounds like a fish net kind of place though.

Oh, by the way JimL, did you happen to notice that one of the buildings in the center of the complex has been leveled?

I just got back from Culver City where I went to a disappointing gig.

Did we just have a discussion of the Montclair Plaza without the words "clock tower"?

[Was there a clock tower? This is all before my time (so to speak). -- DA]

Hal, do you remember the "MOONSHINE COMPANY" & PAPA BILL'S ?? Narod's had 2 locations CASA DE NAROD'S on Central & Narod's on Holt,west of Central.

Hey Dave, McConahay's was popular during the Disco craze. (West Covina & Upland) I think it was at Moonshine location (Foothill between Central/Benson southside)

Central Ave memories: Gallups Bike Shop (TINT MASTERS) is there now. Hostess Bakery Store, Allen's Shoes, RICHFIELD Gas Station @ Mission.

[There's an Allen's Boots on Central. Someday I want to have my photo taken in front of the sign while holding a pair of boots. -- DA]

One of my earliest memories of Pomona was going downtown with my mom to the Orange Belt Emporium. I doubt if I would even remember it except that they had this message system that consisted of wires running overhead with little pieces of paper zipping back and forth. As the messages would fly across the room it would sound like the reel on a fishing pole spinning as it was casting.

As a 6 or 7 year old kid it was fascinating to see those pieces of paper clipped to the wire flying across the room. Almost like something out of a science-fiction movie. Does anyone else remembe that?

[I've heard of that and believe it's been mentioned here a time or two. -- DA]

We’re having our nightcap, White Zin for Hadla, and a extra large splash of Crown Royal rocks for me, and directing our thoughts toward Euclid Avenue restaurants of yore.

A coffee shop I remember well was Walter’s (no relation the current Walter’s in Claremont). It was located near Euclid and F. The food was typical coffee shop fare, nothing outstanding as I recall. My sister and I used to go there when we had orthodontist appointments. It was kind of greasy. After Walter’s went out of biz, it became El Mexicano II. It may still be one, I don’t know.

Our orthodontist was a guy named Dr. Carl Kimbrough. He was always flirting in a major way with his female assistants and I mean BIG TIME. Sometimes I’d hear some strange noises and giggling from other rooms across the hall. Lord knows what was going on in there. He hired women based on looks, from all appearances. He had a foreign blonde assistant with gorgeous breasts. When she would work on me she would shove them right into the side of my face. I liked it, but it made me a bit nervous, being in Junior High and all.

His office was off of Euclid on F Street, so my sister and I would usually eat at Walter’s after the visits (This was before Bob’s Big Boy opened a location on the corner of F and Euclid – which became a Carrow’s and is now El Pescador). Other times we’d hit the Tastee Freez on Euclid near Francis which is now Loco Pizza or something like that.

Another Euclid restaurant of the 1960’s which was a more upscale coffee shop was Squire’s. It was located at the NW corner of Euclid and H Street. I only went there a few times during its existence but I remember having a very favorable impression of the place. It’s now the Iron Skillet, which I hear is good. However, my only experience dining there was having a breakfast there about 12 years ago. Tasted like a “Dirty Skillet” to me. But, who knows, maybe I caught them on a bad day.

Someone already mentioned the Leaning Tower Of Pizza with its miniature version of such out front. It’s now, yet another, Juan Pollo and the tower is gone. I never ever ate at the Leaning Tower. How was the food? Anybody know? They were there near the SE corner of Euclid and Sunkist for 40 years or more.

Last I looked, the Yangtze is still there in Downtown. As everything around it seems to be getting torn down. * We could never figure out why people would even bother to go there. I know less about Chinese food than Hadla does, but I do know what I like and don’t like. Yangtze does nothing for either of us. We used to dig a place out on PCH called Kam’s (which is long gone). It was somewhere between Newport and Laguna as I recall. We really loved that place!! The Mandarin Duck was unbelievable!!!

Jim’s Burgers is still there on Mission. I won’t go there, not even to use the rest rooms. I went there once after it burned down and the new facility was built ages ago. I needed to make a bathroom stop. The door was unlocked so I opened it only to find one junkie shooting another junkie up at the sink. I said “excuse me” and split.

In the early 1970’s there was a great steak house way down on South Euclid, just south of Edison Avenue called the Stockmen’s Inn. This was out in the dairy farm area. GREAT FOOD!! Ultimately Euclid had to be widened and I think that was their demise. It revived for a short while in the Chino Town Square near Philadelphia and Central but couldn’t survive the outrageous rents. People at the shopping center didn’t seem to want to eat at a pricey dinner house. I believe the building now houses a Marie Callender’s.

*Even the longest lived head shop around, Express West, has been demolished. Did you know that one of their hottest items was fake urine with a heating element that helps people pass drug tests? Kids these days!

oh yea almost forgot another great place to hang out back when we Hung out at the lot there was also place we called the big T on the corner of garey and foothill.there use to be a big red T on the store thats why we called it the big T

In the late '70s, the Berliner Kindl was called the Oasis, a bar that also served food. It was renamed Berliner Kindl when the German couple that owned it decided to put more emphasis on being a German restaurant that also served beer. I remember they had several sandwiches named after cities that were not Hamburg or Frankfurt; Regensburg was one of the cities.

Hal, I did indeed notice that some of the Westmont buildings were leveled, creating gaps not unlike the grin of a seven year old child.

I'm told that those those were closed businesses that were broken into and overtaken by day laborors from the nearby home center. The city eventually declared the buildings a public nuisances (Bad building!) and purchased the naughty properties and leveled them.

Hmmm, rpfromrc.

The Oasis also rings a bell. Now I'm confused. I remember a place on Holt near Euclid in Ontario that I vagely remember being called the The Hut. Maybe I'm getting them confused. Very possible that my memory may be hosed altogether.

The folks at Westmont Hardware remembered the neighboring business as The Hut, though.

Were there TWO bars in that strip mall?? Seems there was one next to Lucky Star Market but maybe there was another at the other end of the strip mall?

[The Ontario place you're thinking of was the Bambu Hut. Note spelling of Bamboo. It had a neon palm tree sign out front and was located around Holt and Sultana. It closed down maybe five years ago and the building was leveled. -- DA]

Hi Ray,

I remember the Narod's location on Holt, west of Central. It was called Narod's Saloon. There was a couch outside at the rear of the building at which I found some comfort circa 1978. It was a dancing place, and I don't like to dance much -- so I did the horizontal mambo out back on that wonderful couch. This was the height of the disco / coke era. Kinda decadent and shameless. Ha ha. She was married, I was single. Yikes!

Later it became the Pink Elephant and a bunch of other stuff. Is the building still there?

If my memory serves me correctly, the clock tower was dead center in the center court in front of JC Penney's. I think it had a planter, or something around it which people could sit around. But I might be wrong about that. I know it was a pre-designated meeting place for many people and families when their shopping was done. There must have been some benches or seating available nearby if my memory's correct.

[Was the clock tower replaced by the elevator? Or...? -- DA]

Hello Ontario Emperor, "Hal Linker," and David --

Re: the clock tower at the Montclair Plaza.

I mentioned this landmark of the 1960s Plaza back in the equally-landmark-thread called Things That Aren't Here Anymore (found under the heading "Reminiscin'"). It really should more properly be referred to as a towering clock, rather than a clock tower. It was indeed located in the large center court, in front of the JCPenney store. Although the plaza was only one level at that time, the center court was a lofty two stories high. The flat ceiling was divided into large squares by artificial plaster "beams," and I think that every other square contained a skylight, so that the area was flooded with daylight. As I mentioned before, there was hanging from the ceiling around the clock an impressionistic sculpture depicting flocks of birds.

The towering clock itself was a four-sided glass box, being in height at least three-quarters of the way to the ceiling (by my estimate). It had four faces (N, S, E & W), and a long, strictly decorative pendulum, which lazily and jerkily swung side to side.

The central area was heavily landscaped, and contained many benches. It was designed as a central meeting point for shoppers wearied of traversing the vast reaches of this inland shopping mecca.

When the 1980s remodel was underway (making way for the elevator mentioned in a prior post), I believe that the famous clock was to have been saved and relocated to an exterior location near city hall. This never came to pass....

[Interesting, especially about the relocation plans. Thanks, Tad. -- DA]

Hal, I believe the Pink Elephant is now an automotive repair shop. Maybe the couch is still there ?? Ha,Ha Your "right on" about Narod's (Saloon). You could definitely SCORE spending an evening at Narod's. Does Red Devil Pizza sound familiar to anyone ??

[I think the people behind Monaco's Pizza in Rancho used to run or own Red Devil. By the way, Ray, you're commenter No. 900 on this blog. -- DA]

the oasia was next to the lucky star market use to go there for lunch when i worked at genral dynmics.also i seen van halyn back when it was walter mittys what a night.

Tad Decker Rules! Thanks for the very detailed stuff about the clock area in the old plaza!!

JimL: It would seem that the Oasis and Walter Mitty's co-existed in the late 1970s based on what information you have gathered, along with other posts. This means that there were two bars at the location at least during this time frame. John Harrelson also made mention of an Oasis teen club out in Ontario on Euclid circa the mid 1960s. The owners of Westmont Hardware go back 41 years to 1967. If they say it was the Hut, I'll go with that. It's very possible that this building had other businesses in it prior to 1967. If The Oasis existed in the late 1970s and became Berliner Kindl, and Walter Mitty's became a struggling pizza place, how long did it struggle? And what came next?

Ray: I would have totally forgotten about Gallup's Bikes if you didn't bring it up. I remember that Hostess Thrift Store between Mission and Holt on Central too. Wasn't there some kind of billiards store near there as well?

I remember Papa Bill's too. Narod's Saloon was a definite sure thing. I could spend five minutes there and walk out with a fine quality piece of assistance. Many zipless ****s were waiting for some anonymous passion.

I sure hope that couch isn't there anymore. For the record, it was very clean and new looking when I was out there in 1978. The woman and I walked out the front entrance to get out of the noise and get some air and talk. As we were talking, we walked around the parking lot. When we got to the back of the place we spotted the couch. Maybe there was a furniture store nearby. One thing led to the other. It was a damned disco inferno! Cue: How Deep Is Your Love?

There was a Red Devil Pizza (I think it became the Pizza Peddler and Shoe City later) in the Safeway (now Albertsons) Shopping center in Chino at Philadelphia and Central across from the Pine Tree Motel. Jeez!!! Do I have some stories about the Pine Tree Motel!!! Maybe later.

There also used to be a gas station on the NE corner of Philadelphia and Central called Coin Power. The gimmick was that you would go to the center booth and buy these large silver dollar sized tokens and drop them into your pump to pay for the gas.

One of the most beloved gas stations was Smitty's on the NE corner of Central and D Street. The place was run by E.G. Smith with his son Russell. It had four pumps, a lube rack and a coke machine. They did mechanical work and they were the nicest people around. At some point dad retired and Russell became a bus mechanic. There was a super small cafe behind the station which, I think, was called Hick's Cafe. Strangely, as often as I went to Smitty's for their friendly full service, I don't believe I ever ate at the cafe.

Across the street on the SE corner of D and Central (also bordered by Ninth Street to the east and Chino Avenue to the South) was the old Chino Civic Center, Police Department, Fire Department, Court and Jail when things were a lot friendlier and cozier. Got some stories about that place too. But maybe later.

At Central and C street on the east side of Central was J.E. Davis Ford, which later became Chino Ford, which still later moved to Ramona and Chino Hills Parkway (old Merrill) and became Chino Hills Ford, even though it is actually located in the Chino city limits.

A super long-lived gas station is Chuck Smith's Chevron on the NW corner of Riverside Drive and Central. The place has a 40-year-plus history and has been modernized over the years.

Just west down Riverside Drive is the Riverside Grill which is a fine place to eat for any meal. It used to be a Kentucky Fried Chicken years ago. A couple of other failed businesses tried the location before the Grill became a fixture. Long may it live. Maybe I’ll eat there tomorrow. Haven't been there in a while.

How about the D.E.S. Hall just west of Central? I played in a backup band for "The Wolfman Jack Show." It must have been in the late '60s. We did a number of shows around The southland, with The Wolfman. This was before "The Midnight Special." XERB "are ya' naked."

D.E.S. Hall on 7th and Riverside Drive across the street from the Chino Car Wash.

XERB-1090 50,000 watts of power!! Have Mercy!!!

Re: Wolfman Jack circa the Sixties.

I have a quibble with his inclusion in the film American Graffiti. The time setting of the movie is 1962 - thus the movie's tagline "Where were you in '62?"

But Wolfman Jack hadn't yet created his persona in 1962 and he certainly hadn't got hold of a Mexican 50,000 watter yet. So shame on you George Lucas! You screwed up - genius! Historical inaccuracy regarding a pivotal character in the movie! The Wolfman didn't hit California till 1964. So take that(!!!) big time movie director!!!

(Incidentally, Wolfman Jack's autobiography, "Have Mercy!" is a fascinating read, even if you're not that big of a radio fan. It rules!)

Jon Scott: There are more references to D.E.S. Hall in another post's comments about Winchell's Donuts in Chino.

I knew the gentleman who bought the clock tower from the Montclair Plaza, hoping to save it for a while and sell it back to the city. I'm pretty sure it's now a sad pile of rubble in a truck yard.

Narod's Saloon correction: It is called Rio Grande Night club. No mention of POLLICELLI'S Italian Market on Holt in Montclair or TINA MARIE'S Restaurant on Mission between Fremont/Monte Vista. It is now "EL NOPAL".

SLOT CAR'S Part II: There was a track, I believe, in Montclair where S&W Plastics is located. I had friends that were founders of the original ROACH COACH. They were called SPEEDEE LUNCH which is now ROYAL CATERING (Resevoir/Franklin). There was nothing like a Ramona's Beef & Bean Burrito, a bag of Fritos & a Coke off the truck. If you were nice to the driver, you could run a tab !!

Pollicelli's, yeah, that was over there on Holt just east of Mills around where the Standard Brands Paint store was, right?

Angels Hardware on Mills near Holt. Gene's All Color Paint was on the other side of Mills across from the Sears Pomona Valley Center.

Turner's Tractor was on Mission north side bewteen Central and Monte Vista somewhere. I think the building and grounds are still there but its's something else now.

And all those cheap seedy motels on the north side of Mission between Central and Mountain, many of which are still in biz, but looking a lot worse for wear and tear. Names like Bright Star, Skandia, The Sands, The Rancho come drifting back.

Remember those motel-issue wall-mounted color TVs with FM stereos in 'em circa the 1970s?

Pollicellie's Market was in the building that was the Blue Room, back in the 40's and 50's. That's what some of the old timers have told me.

Anyone remember the original Mud Flap Inn, on the corner of Central and Mission? They had the best hamburgers. They now sell a different cut of meat on that corner.
So I've heard.

The Mud Flap Inn was originally called Charlies Bar & Grill. There was a small gas station right on the corner Central/Mission owned by the Holt family who later moved on to open Holt's Auto Electric on Grand west of Pipeline. The Holts sold to Paul's NRG Gas & Paul sold to GUESS WHO ???

The small gas station was coverted to a 25 cent X-rated film shop thus the beginning of the Deja Vu. Turner's Tractor is now a recycling center. Next to Turner's was Jim's Furniture.

On Holt you had LLOYD'S Furniture & Appliances (See Pancho for best prices). The Agitator Shop, Stop & Go Market, Farmers Village, Pomona Valley Creamery, LOBO'S CAVE & yes the Mud Flap had great hamburgers. Pickled pigs feet was a favorite.

I definitely remember the Mud Flap Inn. And the Always Inn. Were they next to each other by to the old Eyeful shack which became Deja Vu? Or were they one in the same at different times? Always Inn -- what a name! Now that corner is the home of the tasty lap sandwich. French Dip, Hot Beef or Tuna Melt, anyone?

With regard to the roach coaches. I recall Speedee Lunch. It seemed that when Royal Catering took over, they hired some very foxy women to run the coaches. At least in my neck of the woods, they did. A couple of them were total knockouts! This had to be great for business.

Ray: I remember Lloyd's furniture. It was on the south side of Holt across the street from the Bowlium. When I was in junior high, my parents would sometimes drop me and a few friends at the Bowlium for the day. When we'd get tired of the bowling alley and / or were about out of money, we'd go to the small liquor store in the parking lot of the Bowlium, buy some Cactus Coolers and head for Lloyd's.

Once inside the store, we'd drive the salesmen nuts. Being punk kids and not potential sales didn't help us. It wasn't that we were trying to bug them -- we just did because we were uninhibited kids. We'd turn every stereo in the store on to the rock stations and turn the volume up because we wanted to hear our music. We had no idea it might not be sitting well with the salesmen trying to talk older customers into buying furniture.

We'd lay on the beds and sometimes do somersaults on them. It was fun, but annoying to the management. Ultimately we would be asked to leave by some poor hungover-looking guy who didn't need the aggravation.

Then, down to our last dime, we'd use the pay phone to call whoever's parents were gonna pick us up. We lit up cigarettes and waited under the concrete arches (actually sometimes climbing atop them) of the Bowlium for our ride.

I'm glad the Bowlium is still there. Hope it never goes. Lloyd's building was still there but another name, last I checked.

The restaurant adjacent to the Bowlium was called the Jade Palace for a time. Anybody remember other names of this venue before it was torn down?

The Agitator Shop is still there and for good reason. My parents and I have patronized this place since the 1950s. Same with Conley's Manufacturing. Conley's fabricated a hay trailer for my dad's dairy in the 1950s using aviation tires for a low to the ground but sturdy construction. It was a great trailer! Lasted forever. Viva The Agitator Shop and Conley's.

Too bad about Turner's Tractor. When did they go down -- the 1990s? I used to go there for my Ford Tractor parts and supplies. When they closed, I became a customer of Chino Welding & Tractor Supply out on Chino Corona Road off of Pine near the old Vera Villa Market and the Frontera Prison.

I believe the last guy to actually have cows at the Pomona Valley Creamery was a guy named Walt Visser. This was probably in the 1970s. His son, Gary, became a veterinarian. They were kind of uptight people.

I think the Farmer's Village building still stands and is now a Mexican type market, last I looked.

There was also a furniture store on the SE corner of Monte Vista and Holt which may have also been a carpet store. It burned down. Anyone recall the name(s) of this place?

[Some of us newsroom folks went bowling at the Bowlium last fall and we had a great time. Although I still miss that towering Bowlium sign, which was replaced by a dinky, tombstone-style sign. -- DA]

Hal,

The furniture store to which you referred (at the SW corner of Holt and Monte Vista) was the Sleepcraft Mattress Store. I remember it with the huge sign "MATTRESS" lit with twinkling red lights.

And as for the Agitator Shop, it is one of those "things not here anymore." I think it made it until the last 18 months or so.

[Dang! I'd have done a farewell column for the Agitator Shop if I'd known. -- DA]

Major bummer about The Agitator Shop. Time must be flying. Seems just yesterday I bought a window air conditioning unit there. What a drag. What is on that lot now?

Tad Decker, thanks for the info on Sleepcraft. Shoot, I thought it was on the SE corner - I trust your info though. So what was on the SE corner then, a carpet and tile store or something?

Was Sleepcraft the one that burned down? I bought my kid a wooden race car bed there when he was small.

Anybody know or remember anything about the Jade Palace building adjacent to the Bowlium parking lot and just SW of the alley?

Is Larry's Burgers still there on Holt? I remember when that place went up in the 1970's. Later it became Larry's own little center with other businesses there.

When it first opened, I was digging one of the servers there who was a girl friend's better looking younger sister (they both had winning personalities, always a must). I wasn't there for the food, which was pretty standard burger fare. It was Little Sister that was more appetizing! Wonder what ever happened to her? (rhetorical) She used to wear these satiny looking shiny dark blue basketball type shorts, which were popular at the time, with tank tops and no bra.

It was around that time that Bad Company came out with their Run With the Pack album and a very apropos simple tune titled "Sweet Lil' Sister.*" She was definitely "dancing with the devil in her eyes." And, her "momma never missed her till she got laid-laid-laid."

Little Sister liked to rock and she LOVED to roll. We spent a lot of time together gettin' high, one way or another, and surrounding ourselves with music. I took her to see Zeppelin at the Forum the night the infamous Linda Lovelace introduced the band in March 1975 - the Physical Graffiti Tour. We spent a memorable two days together circa Labor Day 1975 at the Mission Inn (which for a time was also the headquarters of KOLA-FM radio, then an underground rock station format with no DJ's - automated with reel to reels and CARTs).

From there we went to an outdoor rock show at the Orange Show Grounds in San Bernardino which was headlined by Black Sabbath (who had their first five and best LP's out, Sabotage being the most recent), Lynyrd Skynyrd (who had the first 3 LP's out, the most recent of which was Nuthin' Fancy), Peter Frampton (who had released his first and best 4 solo studio LP's but not the double live ("government issue") Frampton Comes Alive (essentially, this was the Frampton Comes Alive tour) and Brownsville Station who were, even then, best known for "Smokin' In the Boys Room."

Not great art, exactly, but butt shakin' unpretentious rock 'n' roll in the gritty San Bernardino tradition. We did our hedonistic best at living up to the sex, drugs & rock 'n' roll credo - and let's not forget a heavy dose of sunshine which caused us to remove and lose unnecessary garments of all sorts.

Oh sweet bird of youth! As they say, .... Gather ye rosebuds while ye may ... keep the wine of life fully stocked and renewed .. the fountain of youth only exists in your mind ... and once you free your mind, your ass will follow ... may your song always be sung, may you stay Forever Young.

* You gotta love the simple direct no-nonsense rock of Bad Company's early work. The classic "Feel Like Makin' Love," from Straight Shooter is unforgettable. If I think of all the times women must have seduced their men to this number while bumping and grinding and doing home grown strip shows, it's just overwhelming. I know this from my own personal experiences in motels and bedrooms over the years. I'm sure my experiences aren't unique. Another unbelievable bump and grinder is "The Zoo," by the Scorpions. Women love to seduce and strip to it. Try it at home or in the privacy of a (perhaps soundproof) motel room. You won't regret it!!

[Everyone else has forgotten the question, but yes, Larry's Burgers is still around, as part of the Larry's Plaza, perhaps the best-named strip mall in the Inland Valley. -- DA]

The Agitator Shop is now a Motor Home rental facility. I knew a Visser family that used to own Pine View Dairy on East End Ave south of Grand.

The EYEFUL was the beginning of DEJA VU. Once bigger & better things were obvious ( No pun intended) the expansion began.

Chino Discount Furniture on Riverside Dr. east of Central was a busy store. I used to work at a PHILLIPS "66" station on that corner.

More on Mission Blvd : 5TH Avenue Liquor, The BLUE BARN, The Palladium, McCoy's, COONS (SIX PACK) CAMPERS, Pomona Feed.

[Pomona Feed is still there, isn't it? I believe it celebrated its 100th anniversary last year. -- DA]

Hal,

You are right about SleepCraft being on the SE corner of Holt and Monte Vista (I had the SE corner in mind while I was typing SW!). And yes, it is the building that burned down.

Hi Ray,

I remember Pine View Dairy, too. That was a different Visser family than the one at Pomona Valley Creamery. They had a couple of kinda cute daughters and a son named Benny. They were not uptight people like the Vissers at PVC. It was close to Tropical Mexico.

They moved out to a dairy on Pine Avenue between Euclid and Chino-Corona Road and eventually went out of business. Benny was working in the lumber industry in Northern California last I heard.

I also remember that Phillips 66 station and the furniture store. Both got absorbed by M.K. Smith Chevrolet. Incidentally, the furniture store used to be a Meat Market eons ago - I guess late 50's early 1960's.

In a super controversial decision, the City of Chino condemned the furniture store on behalf of M.K. Smith Chevrolet.

Ultimately, M.K. Smith Chevrolet ended up getting the old classic Thornton's neighborhood drug store near Tenth and Riverside Drive, when they went out too. I think M.K. Smith has pretty much the whole block bordered by Central, Riverside Drive, Ninth Street and Washington, except for the Pomona First Federal Savings and B of A locations on SE corner of Washington and Central.

Gilbert Gonzales the Service Deaprtment chief is one of the nicest people connected with the auto industry. Either that, or he just loves the hell out of "Hadla"! He treated her like a queen when she came in with service needs. But, then again, "Hadla" has that effect on people.

Across Ninth on Riverside Drive was Ozzie's Oasis / then Pearl City/ then ??? and Lord Tire. Lord Tire was originally owned by Mike Van Meteren who sold the place in the 1980's and left Chino to open a restaurant and bar out on the Oregon/Idaho border. It kept the Lord Tire name until a couple of years ago when it went out of business. They had mobile repair trucks and a good deal of their business came from the dairy industry. When the dairies began to exit en masse, Lord couldn't survive.

Their main man, Lee, was always smokin' a cigarette and nursing a Budweiser no matter what the time of day. Customers would always be offered, and usually accepted, beer from the well stocked office fridge. It made a wait for tires fly by in beer drinking bull sessions. As things got more civilized and PC in America and Chino, he quit the beer and went for coffee.

When Lord Tire went out of business, the building stayed empty for a couple of years until recently an AAMCO transmission moved in.

Was the Palladium the roller rink? Our school used to take us there for skating parties in grade school and junior high via school bus. Even then I preferred playing pool to skating. But I'd inevitably get dragged out on the rink during the Ladies Choice.

I used to know a few people who worked at the McCoy's on East End. We partied and put some pigs underground.

Anyone recall Bob's Charburger in Los Serranos on Descanso Street? I believe it was the only burger joint in Chino Hills in the mid to early 1960's. For a while it was a pretty rough and tough hangout of local hoods.

Anybody ever hang out at Lake Los Serranos before they had a trailer park there?

How about the Band Box? Anyone?

P.S. Thanks for the update and clarification on the location of SleepCraft, Tad Decker. It's always nice to know that most of the screws are still fastened tight.

Hal, Benny was cool, and definitely the daugthers were foxes. Stanley, the father, was OK, but awfully tight with his money. A friend of mine worked for Stanley but could never get a raise. And I know for a fact that my friend worked that Drive-Thru hard for the Vissers.

I believe McCoy's was on Pipeline/Mission ??

Hal, I thought I'd share this Jimi Hendrix experience with you: I attended a Jimi Hendrix concert @ the Swing Auditorium with Boz Scaggs & Ballin Jack as the support billing. Hendrix was absolutely incredible & after a few encores nobody would leave. Early 70's trigger happy SB County Sheriff's (Or were they City Cops ) came in & tear gassed the crap out of us. All we wanted was a little "Hey Joe", "Foxy Lady" or "Watchtower" !! It worked & we got the hell out of there. By the way, my ticket cost $10, I was front row & broke.

Hey Ray,

Yeah Benny was cool. I partied a few times with him in the mid 1970's. He had one of those vans with a mural on the side in the late mid 1970's. Damn, I can't remember his sisters' names but I can picture them. Patty and Nancy maybe (everyone knew her as Nancy)? I got a mental block on that one.

You're right about his dad, he was a typical tightwad cheap Dutchman - penny wise and dollar foolish.

I was at a wedding reception where the dad, Stanley, got so drunk that he was trying to pick up on girls between the ages of 12 and 16, and not in a sweet old man kind of way. His wife was totally pissed off at him. I think I was 16 at the time and my older sister was in the wedding as the maid of honor. Ol' Stanley was the biggest drunkest idiot in the whole bunch of revelers.

The situation was sort of comical as long as you weren't his wife. He was actually drinking out of the champagne fountain like a cow at a water trough. His wife was trying to get him to go to the car and leave all night, but she wasn't succeeding. He was one of the last to go. What a hammerhead! Obviously he didn't get out much. I can see why. I wouldn't take him anywhere, either. Especially not anyplace with an open bar!

I thought there was a McCoy's on East End and Phillips too. But maybe it was a different name. It was a feed store though. Sometimes there would be big parties on that corner behind the feed store - Phillips and East End.

I know exactly what you're talking about regarding Jimi Hendrix at the Swing Auditorium. I had a friend who lived in Rialto and his mom worked concessions at the Swing*. During the time she worked there we got into all the shows we wanted to see for free - and for free we wanted to see a whole lot! Jeez, you had to pay ten bucks for that show! That's a lot of money for 1970!

We were at that same Hendrix show in June of 1970. I heard different reasons why the cops tear-gassed us. Some people were saying that there were a lot of phony tickets sold and too many people were inside who wouldn't leave. Whatever the deal was, it was really screwed up of the cops to do that. What were they thinking? I remember Hendrix saying from the stage something like "I'm never coming back to this place." (He didn't have to worry about it. Sadly, he was dead in a matter of months from choking on his own vomit after sleeping pills and wine).

That was a problem at some concerts during the late 1960's and early 1970's. Cops were hired as security. At the Swing the cops would bring a bus paddy wagon and usually fill it up with kids who were smoking reefer or running around topless or naked. It was a real clash of cultures. The cops resented the strange long haired hippies and the kids resented the Man.

I remember at the Blind Faith concert at the Forum (with Delaney & Bonnie & Free opening) cops and hippies were so contentious during the show that Blind Faith stopped playing several times and asked the cops and the kids to cool it. But the cops would continue to arrest kids at random and refuse to let the Forum turn the house lights off during the show. Both sides spurred each other on.

LAPD was pretty redneck at that time. I got hassled relentlessly when I used to hang out in Hollywood back then - just because of the hair. They'd tear your car apart just looking for a seed or something. It was scary times, sometimes. Pot was a big deal before the decriminalization for under an ounce back in, was it, 1976? I had two friends who got busted at a Savoy Brown show at the Swing for a few joints worth of pot and it was a major big deal for them. Cost 'em a fortune to get a lawyer and to try to stay out of jail.

It was definitely a different time and the changes were happening really fast. Now it sometimes seems even weirder. For instance, the last time I went to the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles, which is an outdoor venue, my older brother was asked by private security to extinguish his Marlboro cigarette or leave the venue, even though everyone around him was smoking pot, and that was OK.

I guess people are selective about which secondhand smoke they will tolerate.

* Hendrix had earlier played the Forum that year in April with Ballin' Jack and Buddy Miles. It was the called The Cry Of Love Tour and Billy Cox was playing bass with Mitch Mitchell on drums. I went to that show too. It was longer and better. But I had to pay for that one. My friend Jim's mom who worked the concessions got us in to see so many great shows for free at the Swing during that time period including Janis Joplin w/ the Kozmic Blues Band & Savoy Brown; Led Zeppelin with Jethro Tull; Creedence with Lee Michaels; Jefferson Airplane, The Moody Blues, Grateful Dead, Rascals; Joe Cocker on the Mad Dogs & Englishmen tour; Jethro Tull with Ballin' Jack & Clouds; Santana with Bread; Steve Miller Band and many more in the years before and after.

Now that I think about it, I think that feed store might have been on Francis and East End. I thought it was McCoy's too but it might have been soemthing else. It's not McCoy's now.

Paradise Flossed

Ray: There were a couple of guys who lived in one of those small houses along Central above Mission on the west side just before the hump. I don’t know why I was at that location or exactly what the circumstances were but these two guys, I think they were brothers, were really wacked out. The older one had a panel truck which I think was brown. His name was Mike, I can’t remember what his brother’s name was. This would be late 1970’s around 1977. I think I may have come with a friend who was either buying or selling some chrome rims.

My friend and I were startled at how goofy they were. We assumed they were smokin’ Sherman’s dipped in PCP or some other heinous drug like that. But they could also have been completely dusted and brain damaged from previous major drug use. I was wondering if you were around that area and would remember these guys. I think they were renters – I can’t imagine them being homeowners.

The older one talked to me like he knew me from old times, but I never met him before. He kept calling me Bonita Tomita Lomita in a falsetto type voice and a strange leer. The younger one didn’t say much of anything but was walking around the house in slow motion like he was on a giant sponge. These guys made Cheech and Chong look like choirboys.

Weirdly enough, I ran into the older “Mike” guy about a month later when he walked into the Midway Bar. He was acting equally bizarre. I was with a friend and “Maniac Mike” kept calling us Tucky and Ducky in that very peculiar slow motion falsetto.

About a half an hour later three ladies walked in together. A gorgeous thin blonde, who looked a great deal like that current American Midol contestant, Brooke, only more sultry and worldly; a reasonably attractive brunette with a little cushion for pushin’; and a huge beached whale. My friend and I paired up with the attractive brunette and the gorgeous blonde, respectively, and we left “Mental Mike,” the space ranger, with the monstrously obese Jabba the Hutt.

Since I had driven up with my friend (who for privacy concerns we’ll call Zeke), he took me and Suzette to my place and dropped us off. Suzette and I would spend the next three days together. It was a lively romp which exceeded both our expectations.

Zeke took Darla near the vicinity of her parents’ home and they made love in the grass at Puddingstone Lake till the fishermen started showing up in the morning. Then they had breakfast at Denny’s before he dropped her at her parents'. Zeke was engaged to another woman at the time. He felt really guilty about his one-night stand. His secrets were safe, however. He married that woman he was engaged to (I was the Best Man) and they are still together some 30 years later.

The next day Suzette and I went to one of those huge concerts at Anaheim Stadium that they had quite frequently every summer in the mid-1970s. On the drive to Orange County, in my navy blue 1966 Buick Skylark 401 V-8 convertible, we took some whites (this was a Seventies equivalent of espresso), smoked a couple doobs and listened to Overnite Sensation and Agents Of Fortune. Suzette was very affectionate and the dynamo did hum. We giddily sang along, “Goin’ to Montana soon; Gonna be a dental floss tycoon! Yippy-Ty-Yo-Ty-Ay!”

Suzette was alright. I mean how many gorgeous blondes out there would know the lyrics to “Camarillo Brillo” and “Dirty Love” by heart. She said her older brother was a Zappa freak and that’s how she picked up on it. We talked a bit about “Billy the Mountain” and hot Yahoo! Bottles and the Latex Solar Beef – even Frunobulax! And pink donations to the dragon of your dreams. The chick was far out. She played piano, guitar and saxophone as well. Wow! This chance encounter was getting interesting. It was almost like meeting Suzy Creemcheese.

When the BOC album was playing, she moved sensually to the vibrations of ”The Revenge Of Vera Gemini,” after which we discussed our mutual admiration for Patti Smith. Horses was such a fantastic album and her early 1976 shows at The Roxy and Golden Bear were the stuff of legend. Suzette was turning out to be more than okay. Linger on, your pale blue eyes.

Anyway, the August 1977 Anaheim Stadium concert was headlined by Lynyrd Skynyrd who did stuff from the, as yet unreleased, Street Survivors album. This concert was less than two months before the tragic plane crash. Foreigner and Ted Nugent were also on the bill.

I wore my hard plastic ”Lunar Patrol” hat which had a flashing rotating red light on top of it so that my friends could locate me once on the infield of the stadium. I had to argue with the cops at the gate because they didn’t want to let me take it in. I told them to check it out thoroughly. They tore the battery out of the top flashing light compartment looking for contraband and then replaced it. After a short consultation between two of the cops and some very useful begging by the stunning Suzette, I was reluctantly allowed to take the hat inside, despite disapproving scowls from some of the officers.

The hat did the trick. Soon Zeke showed up, as planned, with his bride to be, Kari (I told Suzette to keep it cool about the night before – she thought the situation was hysterical). Zeke and Kari had dropped two hits apiece of the some weak late 70’s King Tut 100mic acid before entering.

A local pot dealer, who we’ll call Skinny, arrived with his Cattleman’s Wharf waitress friend, Lisa, and a large plastic case full of pre-rolled, color-coated joints. He had marked the joints with Flair pens to indicate what was inside of them. A green line was for Colombian, a red line was for Thai, two red lines were for Thai coated with honey oil, two green lines were Colombian laced with hashish. He had scores, if not hundreds of these joints.

We did not smoke them in the traditional sense. We put them in the stem of a bong so that each hit was at least half a joint. This was some serious dope smokin’! Take that you Rastafarians! And of course there were the shrooms and mescaline too! We had to love Skinny, he was always planning ahead. I played in a local band at the time and he was sort of like our poor man’s Owsley. The dealer with the golden heart, he just loved turning people on.

“Hadla,” who I had met for the first time around April of 1977*, showed up with a distant friend of mine named Beau. She deliberately and heavily made out with him in front of me to see if she could get a reaction. I was not letting on - A poker face for her high school games. After all, Suzette and I were still getting acquainted and five other women had keys to my home. “Hadla” and I spent several subsequent years torturing each other this way, before acknowledging what was obvious to all of our friends.

Suzette and I were partying with Skinny and Lisa, while Zeke and Kari wandered around tripping and Hadla and Beau necked and caressed. We divided up some mushrooms and bonged a few joints. Skinny was sharing his stash with everyone around us. Then, who do I see but this “Madman Mike” guy with the gargantuan lard mountain from the night before. I started cracking up and told Skinny about this lunatic. I stood up and motioned for them to come over.

Suzette struck up a conversation with her beyond-rotund friend. Mike started yelling his high pitched “Bonita Tomita Lomita Bonita Tomita Lomita!” and got really excited about seeing me. They sat down near us and enjoyed Skinny’s stash. Skinny was enjoying “Mike’s” deranged banter as if it was enhancing his buzz. The screwier “Mike the Mental Midget” got, the bigger Skinny’s ear to ear grin. Perhaps they had reached similar wavelengths.

*It was love at first sight for both of us but it took many years for us to admit and succumb to it. I met her at the Pine Tree Motel – a really good story for another time and it’s not what it sounds like at all.

** At this time, however, I was unaware that “Hadla” had lied to me about her age, her birth date and her sexual history. I believed she was 19, was born in September and would soon be 20, and that she sexually experienced. About two weeks from the date of this show I would find out she was only 16 and was born in May. But, even though, in retrospect, I should have figured it out, I did not know she was a virgin. Since I met her in April, she had been coming over my place almost on a daily basis (and in April she was only 15!). She played flute and piano and she was good with words so we wrote some tunes together. I dug her but could barely get past first base with her when she would turn on the ice. I wasn’t used to that and it really messed with my head. All indications were that the relationship was an absolute hit except it wasn’t progressing physically at all. Whenever another woman would come around she’d excuse herself and act rattled and sometimes become hostile to them. Nevertheless, she had indicated to me in rather vague descriptions that she was sexually experienced. It was all bravado on her part, but she was damned convincing. After she turned the ice on me one too many times, I resigned myself to just being her friend, but, because deep down I wanted it to progress further than that, it was a rocky, tempestuous road. I kept seeing as many women as possible which was aggravating the hell out of “Hadla.” But she would never cop to it. We’d blow up and not see each other for a month or so before repeating the same scenes.

Once, when she was still 17, and still a virgin, she came by my home late at night when there was no other woman with me, a rarity in those days. I was naked in bed and she let herself in. She removed her top and bra and crawled in bed with me, still wearing her cut-offs. I pretended to be asleep but I heard her come in. I thought that this was finally going to be the night. She massaged my back tenderly. I was easily aroused. Just the thought of “Hadla” and myself making love after the frustrations of the previous year was extremely exciting!!! But, just as quickly as she had climbed into bed with me, she got out and began putting her bra back on.

I asked her what she was doing. She said she couldn’t go through with it.

I said “Why not! It’ll be good, I promise. There’s no reason for apprehension."

She finished putting her bra and top on and headed for the door. I didn’t want her to leave and followed her to the door, still in a state of arousal, begging her to stay. She said she just couldn’t do it. She left.

I was beside myself. Was she a head case or something? I was beginning to wonder. She sure was turning me into one.

It sure was a major tease. But I thought, “to hell with it,” and went back to bed.

A minute or so later she came back in and asked me to walk her to her car. She said that a nude man had accosted her in my driveway from out of my hedges and she was terrified.

Now I was really starting to think “Hadla” was a head case. I didn’t believe her story. Naked men leaping from my hedges? I mean, c’mon! She insisted that she was telling the truth. She said the guy told her that he had locked himself out of his house or something. I still didn’t believe it but I got out of bed and grabbed my rarely used bathrobe to escort her outside. She thanked me and gave me an absolutely wonderful, lengthy firework filled kiss before she got in her car. Now I was aroused again and she was speeding down the road. Damn this chick!

Around three in the morning one of my other girlfriends, who for privacy concerns we’ll call Angie, a daughter of a local city official and 18 year old senior at Chino High School, let herself in and eased the pain and uncertainty. She spun Kristofferson’s debut album and held her warm and tender body next to mine As she helped me make it through the night with Sunday mornin’ comin’ down.

This footnote to be continued….. Will Hal and Hadla find love? And what about the naked man in the bushes? Will “Madman Mike” find true love comes in huge hyper-frumpy packages? Does Suzette join the band? Find out in the next installment of Paradise Flossed!!

[For the record, this note is 2,200 words, or the length of a week's worth of my 600- to 700-word columns! -- DA]

Oral Support at the Big A – Paradise Flossed part Two

Meanwhile back at the huge stadium concert:

Skynyrd closed the show playing brilliantly and evangelistically in the setting sun. No one could know that this seminal band would never be back to Southern California.

Before the Southern rockers, the Nugent band was at the height of their powers. Ted strutted the stage and climbed the amps, shirtless in his skin tight white spandex pants, smashing hits from his three most recent albums. He was yankin’ and a-crankin’. (I know the guy’s kind of a joke, but he really is a great guitarist and his music isn’t meant to be taken as serious art. It’s visceral stuff done with tongue planted firmly in cheek.)

Foreigner were the upstarts and turned in an impressive show consisting of nearly their entire debut album and a few new numbers which would end up on Double Vision.

By the time the show was over, Suzette and I had peaked and come down from the mushrooms. As we were gathering up our blankets and such, Zeke and Kari offered us some of their King Tut blotter acid. We accepted and I put the four hits of acid in my Marlboro hard pack under the foil that contained the ciggies. That’s the same place I stashed my 70’s espresso (bennies…, whites…., uppers…., said in a Jack Webb-like tone and manner).

When we got to my '66 Skylark convertible in the stadium parking lot, we placed our blankets and old trusty “Lunar Patrol” helmet in the trunk. I had put some beer on ice in a chest in the trunk before the show. While most of the ice had melted, the beers were incredibly cold! We each grabbed a pair of Michelob bottles from the chest. They’d been in there so long the labels were falling off. They were frosty and just what the doctor ordered after a long afternoon in the blazing sun.

We each guzzled a beer while we took the top down on the car. I can honestly say that it was one of the best beers I’ve ever had in my life. It really quenched our Mojave’s.

The traffic going out of the stadium was a nightmare, so we elected to sit in the car a while and enjoy the sunset, some music, one of Skinny’s two-red-lined joints (Thai with honey oil for those not keeping track), and, ourselves. Suzette turned the radio on to KMET and Styx’s “Grand Illusion” came blaring out. The last thing we wanted to hear was that “Broadway masquerading as rock ‘n’ roll” B.S., so I told her to reach for one of my custom homemade cassettes. She popped one in and the Mink DeVille tracks met both of our approvals.

I did the Cadillac Walk and the Spanish Stroll with the Venus of Avenue D, as we smoked a terrific jay and chased it with icy Michelob and lusty French kisses. Suzette was the Nazz. What little I knew about her was all superb. We had to continue this perfect day.

I suggested we go to Hollywood since I was familiar with the nightlife and loved it there. I told her we could go to the Rainbow and grab dinner and then maybe go see another rock show or maybe a movie.

In those days I never planned anything when going to Hollywood. Hollywood was the plan! I’d just go and something would be happening somewhere. I’d play it by ear once I got there. Suzette was elatedly up for it. We exchanged some more gems of kisses. Before leaving the Big A, I pulled two hits of the acid out of my Marlboro pack and slipped them on my tongue. Then I French kissed Suzette and sensually slipped the acid in her mouth.

I started up the convertible, lit a smoke and dropped my two hits of acid, while Suzette tied back her long blonde hair. The way we figured, we’d be starting to come on to the buzz around the time we arrived in Hollywood. As we eased out of the parking lot, Suzette leaned in and kissed my neck tenderly while she warmly stroked my thigh. Jay Ferguson’s “Thunder Island” came forth from the speakers singing “Sha’la’la’la’la’la my lady – In the sun with your dress undone” and Suzette whispered in my ear asking me if I was ready for my oral exam.

Hal, the Visser cuties were ANNIE & JEAN. DA, I've got a good friend who will be joining us soon on this blog & all I've got to say is that he attended more concerts than Hal !!! & is never short on conversation. Hal, can you be more specific about location of MENTAL MIKE'S residence?

Hal, I may be familiar with "Maniac Mike". I will keep you posted on my findings. He may also be known as "MIDWAY MIKE"

Ray: Yeah, that's right, Annie and Jean. I think Jean was high school class of '69 and she lived up to that year. I think their mom's name was Annie too. I didn't really know these people that well so it's amazing I'm recalling as much as I am.

Jeez, I think Patsy and Nancy might have been some other Visser girls that I scrambled up, maybe they were related. They weren't kids of the Visser at Pomona Valley Creamery. It seems like there were a lot of Vissers around Chino.

There was another Visser in Chino named Sam who had big bucks. He had investment money in radio station KROQ along with Bob Hope and others in the early mid-1970s. I have a few crazy stories about that but maybe later. This was before KROQ became what it is today. It actually went broke around 1974, before rising from the ashes. But Sam had money in it and pulled out just before it went broke.

As far as "Maniac Mike" goes, I think the house he and his brother lived in was one of the last ones before the hump on Central. But it's been a long time. The house might still be there, I'd recognize it if I see it again. I'd have to drive by that area to figure it out, that is if it still stands. Wasn't there some kind of tiny church looking building in that area as well?

That Mike guy was totally dusted out when I saw him on these occasions. Either that or permanent damage. He was pretty strange.

Hal, Be nice..... as Benny will be joining this blog soon. Maniac update: How does the name Kim sound ??? Sound familiar ? He may have worked at Gallups Bike Shop (TINT MASTERS) right next door to that little church.

Ray: I think Midway Mike is a different person than the Mike I describe in my story.

Hollywood and Beyond the Infinite – The Third Monolith – Paradise Flossed – Part 3A

We hit the 57 Freeway and I felt the warm breeze kiss my face and caress my hair. The moon was as good as full and Tom Waits’ “(Looking For) The Heart Of Saturday Night” eased out of the tape deck perfectly. Suzette moved her head tenderly in my lap as Tom growled, “Well you gassed her up - behind the wheel – with your arm around your sweet one in your Oldsmobile - Barrelin’ down the boulevard – You’re looking for the heart of Saturday night.”

It was still near 80 degrees - a perfect Southern California summer night for cruising with the top down. August 27, 1977 was gonna be a memorable Saturday! Suzette was so sweet, loving and expressive. Life was very good. Yes, indeed.

I flicked my cigarette out of the car and began caressing Suzette’s back with my right hand. As the Waits tune finished, we were near the junction of the 57 and 91 Freeways and I continued north. My plan was to take the 10 Freeway into Hollywood. The 60 may have been the quicker option, but I found it boring in those days. The 10 had more stuff to see. And, believe me, under the circumstances, I was in no hurry. It was definitely time to stop and smell the roses.

Be-Bop Deluxe’s “Ships In the Night” succeeded Waits in the cassette’s line-up of music. As the opening chords played, Suzette paused and gazed up at me, declaring her love for both me and the song, before bestowing more adulation on the king of the sea. Be-Bop’s Bill Nelson sang, “Like a square peg in a round hole – Like a harp without its strings – Like a sailor who sails no oceans – Like a bird that has no wings – Without love, I am a desert – Without love, my light is dim – Without love, I have no treasures – Without love, I cannot win …”

It was impossible to ignore Suzette’s affections even with a few mischievous truckers honking as we passed them by. Still, I somehow started thinking about “Hadla” and Beau at the concert. I was thinking that right about now they would be doin’ the nasty. It bugged me. Beau didn’t deserve her. He was an aggressive inconsiderate pig.

Jeez! My imagination was getting the best of me! I never got to second base with her. If “Hadla” didn’t want to know, forget her! Besides, look at all the rich blessings I had for which to be thankful - Suzette in my lap, for instance. Damn! How could I be thinking of someone else at this moment!

The music continued:

“Without love, we are like ships in the night – Selling our souls down the river – Sailing away, and forever our pleasure is blue.”

The Yorba Linda Blvd. exit passed by at 70 miles per hour and I focused back to reality. I wasn’t gonna let thoughts of” Hadla” “F” up this perfect day. I fondled the back and sides of Suzette’s neck as she loved me through the instrumental portion of the song. She was definitely an artist whose strokes were of varied expressive textures. I was hoping she would use her entire palette of options to create a masterpiece.

And the music continued some more:

“Like a dream that has no dreamer – Like a cloud without a sky – Like a truth with no believer – Like a mother without a child – Without love, I have no pleasures – Without love, my light is dim – Without love, I have no treasures – Without love, my chance is slim – Without love, we are like ships in the night – Selling our souls down the river – Sailing away, and forever our pleasure is blue.”

Iggy Pop’s energetic “Lust For Life” kicked in just as we passed Lambert Road on the 57. It changed the mood in a decidedly more upbeat direction. Suzette revealed her inspired soul, accordingly.

Earlier in the day, on the way to the Stadium, she told me that she took private dance classes from the age of 7 to 18. Obviously she had artistic tendencies which were reflected in all aspects of the way she lived her life. She was also attending Chico State, to which she’d be returning shortly. Too bad. She was excellent company. But how well did we really know each other? At least we were off to a terrific start! But, I don’t think either one of us thought for a second that anything permanent was afoot.

Still, I dug her and I knew I’d remember her fondly. Perhaps our paths would cross again someday. I had no idea this shot in the dark was gonna pan out so nicely. I don’t think she did either. We were definitely having fun and enjoying each other’s temporal totality.

Iggy Pop faded into the sublime David Crosby “Song With No Words (Tree With No Leaves”) as we reached the Pomona area. Suzette’s response was so loving that I thought it would be best if I merged the car over to the slow lane and take it relaxed and leisurely. Oh Man! This was getting really good!

We crawled up Kellogg Hill and coasted through West Covina in a state of ecstatic ardor. Suzette really knew how to charm and tease in just the right measures, at the perfect times. She read the corona’s mind - blissfully.

Between West Covina Parkway and Puente Avenue, Patti Smith’s “Land” began playing. This was such a great sex song! Just freakin’ amazing! Believe me, I knew from many opium laced-hashish filled and joyful sex-capades in the recent past. I think Suzette knew about it, or its potential, too, because when the song began, she spoke through a flute like Roland Kirk, saying “ooh, baby, it’s time, mmmmm!”

The nine-minute-plus song gradually picked up its pace and began a slow gallop as Patti sang: “Horses, horses, horse, horses – coming in in all directions – white shining silver studs with their nose in flames.”

“Land” has it all. Sex! Violence! Every conceivable image associated with the libido melded with Land of 1,000 Dances in a crazed free association which calls out homosexual rape, Rimbaud, knife fights, the Tower of Babel, suicide and mad pituitary glands. I’m not kidding! In a state of extreme sexual arousal all of these simultaneous overlapping images serve as a sea of possibilities from which we can seize and visualize the dimensions of some of the more primitive and darker elements of our animal instincts while the music propels to orgasm and come down. Extremely powerful and strangely liberating, but a journey not for the faint of heart.

The song couldn’t be playing at a more opportune time as we cruised through Baldwin Park going 42 in a 55 in a very high state of amorous synchronicity. My foot just didn’t seem to want to concentrate on the gas pedal anymore. In addition I was starting to feel the inner warmth of the acid beginning to kick in. The saliva in my mouth was telling me the same thing, as a lysergic smile began to make its presence felt. Suzette had to be feeling the same way as she revealed her knowledge of deep shaft mining. The presence of Eros and Aphrodite was tangible! Buckminster Fuller didn’t design this dome, the angels did.

At Rosemead and the 10 Freeway Patti Smith was moaning “Coiled snakes white and shiny twirling and encircling – Our lives are now entwined – We will for years be together twining – Your nerves, your mane, like a black shining horse – And my fingers all entwined through the hair – I could feel it – It was your hair going through my fingers – I feel it – feel it – feel it – feel it – It started hardening in my hand – And I felt the arrows of desire – And that’s how I – That’s how I – I died – I tried to stop it but it was too warm – Too unbelievably smooth – Like playing in the sea – In the sea of possibility.”

The band blazed along with the words. As if on cue, Suzette and I blasted off into the ether finding the paramatma, the fountain of youth, the universal tongue lost at the Tower of Babel, Heavenly Choirs, the kitchen sink and the arms of Venus de Milo.

Like all good sex, Patti Smith’s “Land” wound down slowly and rhythmically. The music continued to play us as we came down towards afterglow. The full band disappears from the arrangement one by one till only Patti and the drummer remain. “In the sheets – There was a man – Dancing around – To a simple – Rock ‘N’ Roll – Song.” Jay Dee Daugherty’s simple drums wind down to finish the tune.

As we soared, we were oblivious to the cars which were honking and passing us. We were down to about 35 miles per hour in the slow lane. Shoot, they always said in driver education to never drive faster than what is safe! We didn’t want to end up like the people in ”Red Asphalt"!

Suzette kissed me and looked up at my face. ”Jesus Christ,” was all she said as she breathed with exhausted fulfillment.

“He died for you and me,” I laughed as I caressed the side of her face with my hand and ran my thumb gently over and between her wet lips. “That was mighty tasty. Let’s do it again.”

“Are you kidding me?” Suzette said in disbelief as she squeezed me a bit.

“Of course … just joking, but I’ll pay you back with interest when we get to Hollywood, okay?”

“I can’t wait!” she said as she sat up and began checking herself out in the visor mirror. “Wish I would have met you earlier this summer. I’m really having a great time. You’re nuts! …. Hey, do you feel the acid coming on?”

I nodded. I lit her a smoke as she re-did her hair-tie and spruced up a bit. I handed her the Marlboro and I thanked her again. She told me I was more than welcome anytime.

I flipped the cassette over as we neared Atlantic Boulevard and the 10 Freeway. We were now slightly electrified and within striking distance of Hollywood. Chi Coltrane’s soulful and sultry one-hit wonder burst from the speakers. Suzette moved sensually to the groove and sang along with lustful eyes; “Ooh! What a good thing I’ve got. Oh it’s such a good thing I got. I don’t think I can stand it. Thunder and lightning. I tell you it’s frightening. It’s thunder and lightning. And you’re in control.”

I stepped on the gas feeling the blood rushing back to some very familiar and wonderful places. I began singing along with her as we smiled from our innermost beings. “I thought my life was complete. But look what you’re doin’ to me. Oh! You’re makin’ me crazy. Thunder and lightning. I tell you it’s frightening. It’s thunder and lightning. And you’re in control. I don’t know how to handle it. It’s more than I would dare. I wouldn’t try to run from it. It reaches everywhere.”

I asked Suzette if she wanted to get a room at the Sunset Tower. She responded with a purrrrrrrrrrrr-meeeeow and a sly lascivious grin! The stereo blasted as we hit the 101: “I’m feelin’ dizzy and weak. You make forget how to speak. I can feel it happening. Thunder and lightning. I tell you it’s frightening. Thunder and lightning. And you’re in control.”

["Hal Linker," ladies and gentlemen! -- DA]

Ray,

I'm thinking about it, but so far I'm not remembering a Kim. Was he a long hair?

Hollywood and Beyond the Infinite – The Third Monolith – Paradise Flossed – Part 3B

The opening chords to "Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except Me and My Monkey" crackled through our consciousness like lightning bolts! Boy, did this stuff sound great in our rapidly oncoming state. It was goddamned perfect! We screamed along in our minds and voices. We learned a new form of probability. If Dylan = POT, then the Beatles = ACID.

"Come on, Come on. Come on, Come on. Come on it's such a joy. Come on it's such a joy. Come on, let's take it easy. Come on, let's take it easy. Take it easy. Take it easy. Everybody's got something to hide except for me and my monkey."

We were now bathing in the multi-sensual experience brought on by the stuff of the Eleusinian Mysteries. With our pupils the size of moon craters and lips still wet and plump with desire, the visitation of that ancient Pharoah began to really take hold.

All the lights on the instrument panel were alive and enveloping us and merging to become one with our caresses. The music was exploding through the speakers in a perfect form of distortion which could be felt and seen as well as heard. The waves of combined energy were rushing over, and pleasantly overwhelming us as color, sound, light, touch, smell, and thought fused. We were off to a grrrrreat start. Top down and blowin’ free!

"The deeper you go, the higher you fly. The higher you fly, the deeper you go. So, come on. Come on. Come on, it's such a joy. Come on, it's such a joy. Come on, let's take it easy. Come on, let's take it easy. Take it easy. Take it easy. Everybody's got something to hide except for me and my monkey."

The Skylark never cruised so smoothly as we wound and levitated our way effortlessly through the gentle curves of the Hollywood Freeway. Suzette pulled her top off and shook her assets like a Classic Cat dancer in 1968. We had hot wired the grand design and were in the control room. The universe was infallible. Everything was in synch. No one could touch us. We were two steps ahead of time - Slipping through the cracks in the dimensions - Carnal and Fortissimo!

"Your inside is out. Your outside is in. Your outside is in. Your inside it out. So, come on. Come on. Come on, it's such a joy. Come on, it's such a joy. Come on, let's make it easy. Come on, let's make it easy. Make it easy. Make it easy. Everybody's got something to hide except for me and my monkey. Hey! Come on."

I could feel the beginnings of juiced mental vibe completely taking hold when I looked at her. She was nothing but innocence from the waist up. Suzette's eyes and mind were enlivened. Communication was heightened beyond the ordinary. I thought how fantastic to be with this beautiful, fun loving, intelligent woman on this voyage. The LSD was great already, and getting better quickly. Thought transference was increasingly apparent. This stuff was a hell of a lot better than we thought it was gonna be. Happiness gushed.

The Beatles faded into psychedelic Stones and it splattered out of the speakers in tangible Technicolor incandescence. We sang and added to the texture and hue of the air – Vivid, Thick, Iridescent, Sound – Sexual Desire pumping along with the eight cylinders of my machine – Propelling through the chambers of our hearts!!

"My obsession's your possession - Every piece that I can get - My obsession's your possession - My mouth is soaking wet ….”

The freeway signs glowed with an inexplicable, amiable intensity, which was heretofore unknown. It was as if they were embracing us with their warm light and welcoming us to Hollywood. The power booster / equalizer under my dash was explosively shooting greens, yellows, oranges and reds out from its center to its sides, which could not be ignored as they magnified and cloaked us in their excitation.

"It's really bitchen, Hal .... everything's alive .... energized ... beautiful ... breeeathing …. smooooothly haaaappening .... it’s flowing so eeeasssy ... I knoooow your mind .... and it's F-ING FILTHY ...." Suzette laughed and kissed me. I felt her hot breasts against my skin while I continued to validate her telepathy.

“I just wanna meringue your lemon and crème your coconuts,” she said laughing hysterically like the sweet slice she was.

I explained to her that it felt like the two passenger tires of the car were in the front and the two driver’s tires were in the rear. We laughed uncontrollably with tears welling in our eyes. It felt like the car was moving forward in the lane but driving diagonally. The front end angled upward toward the left side of the lane and the rear end angled downward toward the right side. We stayed between the lines but were moving, not sideways, but diagonally. It was a scream and we both were living it!! Our mind’s eye told each other so, while the instrument panel continued to be a thing of celestial wonder.

“Jesus Christ, what kind of tires do you have?” Suzette asked hysterically.

"Tiger Paws ..." I remarked which caused Suzette to smirk her sly saucy smile.

“I was hopin’ you had Grabbers, but I suppose Tiger Paws will do me just fine. Let’s burn some rubber in Hollywood!!” she said in a laughing Mae West sort of way.

“Aye Aye captain, full speed ahead …” I said laughing as if talking through a bullhorn in the Yellow Submarine. “You know, I had a couple of friends of mine drop acid and drive through acres and acres of an eight foot high corn field before.”

Suzette snickered, “Why’d they do that?”

“Because they thought it was the ocean,” I said and we burst into laughter.

Mott the Hoople’s simple rocker was now filling the air, “Drivin’ Sister – Rock ’N’ Roll – She don’t make with no brakes – Drivin’ Sister – Rock ‘N’ Roll – She’s an automobeat on the street - Drivin’ Sister – Rock ‘N’ Roll – She’s much too much with the clutch …”

“You dig old Mott?” I asked.

“Yeah, I was raised on that stuff … the applesauce is pretty good too.”

“One of the more simple pleasures and perfections on earth … with cinnamon … and pork chops.”

“You hungry or something?” Suzette laughed and then added in vaudevillian tones, “Cause I got some apples you can sauce!”

“No, no, ….. since the acid kicked in, the last thing I wanna do is eat. Let’s cruise the strip and get a room and take it from there."

“Si, si senor,” Suzette said sexily and playfully as the opening guitar licks of Santana’s version of “Black Magic Woman” began its bewitching spell.

We were going to be pulling off the 101 onto the Sunset Boulevard off ramp. Suzette undid her pants and began enjoying herself while also fondling her breasts. She tilted her seat back and began a journey into the mystic - A performance art piece for an audience of one like mind.

If it wasn’t for the acid, I would have never been able to drive. It helped me concentrate on many things at once - Like Cassady on the bus. Everything was vibrating in synchronicity. The mind juggled the rhythm of the sensory overload. The synapses were operating on rocket fuel - Super high octane clean burning sh*t.

I merged onto Sunset Boulevard near the KTLA TV Broadcasting Center. Rolie and Carlos were overlapping their licks between Chepito and Carabello’s voodoo. I flashed that nothing in the universe ever happens accidentally.

Suzette was already moving with delight. Clad only in virtue – a vision of beauty made supernatural by the magic of the fruit of the ergot. Her absolutely uninhibited expression of her aspatial relationship to the introduction of the song was something to behold. A real third eye mind-flash seductress!!

I watched the music vibrate her sex in ripples of sonic titillation. The energy from her mid-section was tactile, visual. I could see her libido rising in quivering reds and purples. Man, this was some good sh*t!

I knew Suzette had to be where I was at, and then some. I guarantee that even though her eyes were closed, there was a Glenn McKay Headlights show being projected on the back of her eyelids. Our brains were getting Martin Sharped! The streetlights and neon reverberated beautifully and intertwined with the music, the wind, the blood in our veins, the lust in our hearts, and the joy of total release freed tears from our eyes.

Gregg Rolie came in singing, “Got a black magic woman – Got a black magic woman – Got a black magic woman, got me so blind I can’t see – That she’s a black magic woman and she’s tryin’ to make a devil out of me.”

Suzette turned her head and impishly opened her eyes briefly smilingly saying “Total mutual …. Reciprocal amour … Apple sauce …”

I told her to tune into the percussion pulse and join the rhythm’s trance - To let Jose Chepito Areas stir our blood – Reveal the muse – Turn apples into sauce.

Carlos and Gregg took their solo turns while Suzette and I followed the real leader of the band.* The acid helped us visualize the spatial arrangement of the sounds as recorded in the studio. This was a tongue rape suffocation song if there ever was one. All the elements perfectly set up for the big blasting great juju! Tongues of fire and flesh percolated and raped the air into divine suffocation. **

I was somehow able to negotiate the Boulevard, still filled with the spirit of Cowboy Neal, while continuing to watch my sweet love gorge herself with sensual and cerebral overload. The car was piloted by sheer will and destiny as we slipped through dimensions diagonally like flavored exotic mesons into the chronosynclastic infundibulum.

The music became immensely visual and palpable as inner space expanded. Suzette's Fingerpalooza evolved into a powerful transfixion. A spiritual commingling of our thoughts and senses in heretofore un-experienced reverie.

Jose Chepito Areas was GOD! The percussion brought about a transcendent state of duality. Of the carnal and the holy - All merging, with both of our total senses overlapping. Energy we could feel, see and taste. Suzette's body writhed with the influx of knowledge. She was moaning in the permeation of pleasure, both earthly and celestial. Webs of sound, light and energy imbued her as she ramped up to the launch pad.

"....I need you so black magic woman I can't leave you alone," finished the lyrics as Santana moved into their ferocious version of Gabor Szabo's “Gypsy Queen” and I gave Suzette a hand. She began to hit a major O as the percussion resonated and rolled all over her body.

She repeatedly called out the Lord’s various names followed with multiple affirmatives, four letter words, various commands to be ravished and other beautifully profane incoherent ecstatic ramblings which only culminating lovers reaching for a new zenith would fully understand and hallow. I watched her lovely face increasingly glow as wave after undulating wave lapped through her being – her passion flower had bloomed like the rose color in her cheeks – sensational inundation.

Led Zeppelin’s “Custard Pie” revved up just as the abrupt feedback end of “Gysy Queen” made you expect, “Oye Como Va.” Suzette wound down with its copacetic syncopation. We had just passed Hollywood High and were now approaching the signal at La Brea and Sunset by the Seventh Veil and Tiny Naylors as Robert Plant began to sing.

“Drop down, baby, let your daddy see – Drop down mama, just dream of me – Well, my mama allow me to fool around all night long – Well I may look like I’m crazy, and I sure know right from wrong – See me comin’, throw your man out the door – Ain’t no stranger, I been this way before – Put on your night shirt and your morning gown – You know by night I’m gonna shake ‘em on down – Your custard pie, yeah, sweet and nice – When you cut it, mama, save me a slice – I like your custard pie – I tear off a piece of your custard pie – I tear off a piece of your custard pie – I tear off a piece of your custard pie – Now, drop down – drop down – drop down ….”

Suzette basked in the gleam of the recent crest of sensations, tilted back in her seat alternately gazing at the sky and me. We were passing Schwab’s and heading for the long gone Pandora’s Box corner.

She asked if I enjoyed her interpretive dance. Who wouldn’t? Lord God Almighty, was I gonna give her my affirmation when we got to the hotel.

The lights and the music continued to bombard the senses. I momentarily looked in the sky to see the moon becoming completely full. I briefly glanced at Suzette who was also transfixed on the bright sparkling which was made so novel and much more wonderful in our altered state.

She adjusted her seat back up, gently kissed me on the cheek and bent down to pick up her top from the floor before putting it back on.

“Whew! This stuff is really good!” she exclaimed, “And what a perfect place to trip … let's cruise up the strip and see who’s playing at the clubs before we check in.”

“You’ve been reading my mind all along, Suzette … you didn’t mind me giving you a hand back there did you?” I asked devilishly.

By this time the Zeppelin tune had completely faded out and Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers gently interceded, letting us both know that the cosmos leaves nothing to chance.

“Oh, no. I really wanted your fingers on the trigger. What took you so long?”

“I dunno, I guess I just got kinda caught up in the view …”

Tom Petty began singing and we listened like needy sinners receiving the gospel from the Messiah:

“White light cut a scar in the night – Thin line of silver – The night was all clouded with dreams – The wind made me shiver – Black and yellow pools of light – Outside my window – Luna come to me tonight – I am a prisoner – Luna glide down from the moon.”

While still absorbed in the wonderful, underrated Petty tune, we both giggled like trippers when the giant Bullwinkle appeared on our left by the Dudley Do-Right Emporium. The approaching spinning neon showgirl just below the Chateau Marmont was also something to behold with our super powered vision - The rock ‘n’ roll billboards for Alan Parsons Project's I Robot, Cheap Trick's In Color, and Yes' Going For the One, were equally amazing.

I lit a cigarette for Suzette, feeling its warmth in my lungs and digging the glow of its cherry.

“You tore it up nicely …., “ she offered, as I gave her the smoke, then lit another for myself, while she exhaled her first drag. “… This song’s incredible … and so’s this cigarette … like warm god-like food for my lungs and blood … mmmmm ...Luna, for sure ...”

Petty continued: “The clouds are all silver and black – Floating around me – Luna come into my eyes – Luna surround me – With black and yellow pools of light – Fall by my window – Luna come to me tonight – I am a prisoner – Luna glide down from the moon."

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

* I have maintained for years that the Santana band was never the same after Jose Chepito Areas left.

** For more on the concept of tongue rape suffocation consult Jonathan Eisen’s book, “Twenty Minute Fandangos and Forever Changes,” a rock anthology. Or simply remember how you felt the first time you really experienced Side Two of the Beatles “Abbey Road.”

[Thanks for the chronosynclastic infundibulum, "Hal." -- DA]

Hollywood and Beyond the Infinite – The Third Monolith – Paradise Flossed – Part 3C - A City Of Two Tails

Without speaking, we exchanged random transient snippets of thoughts and knowledge relating to the various goddesses of the moon – Luna, Coyolxauhqui, Selene, Ix Chel, Diana Lucifera, Lona, Olapa, Artemis. Our mutual love and obsession for mythology and the occult was harmoniously revealed in our momentary, yet intensely profound eye-to-eye contact.

We beamed revelations non-verbally, using photoreceptive visual perception as a gateway to the visual cortex, which could only in its current enraptured state, process, in nanoseconds, the haphazard, disparate stream of cogitation that had been transmuted into light wave energy. Cognition zipped through the eyes and blasted at the back of the skull. ZAPP!!!

Wisdom flowed and was made manifest in bright radiant colors around the joyous wrinkles at the edges of our eyes. We plunged like yearning and awestruck initiates, peering curiously into realms of sage, spirit, sorcery and sex. And this deep, mutual, innermost warmth, brought about by our deliberate altering of our circadian rhythms, indicated a secure comfort which betrayed our nascent intimacy.

“Oh, my bright morning star,” Suzette said in soft and rather dramatic tones as the music played. “My sweet, sweet Lucifer. Keep shining. Your light next to mine.”

I knew instantly what she meant and it confirmed the extra sensory precursors to her words. There was nothing satanic about the reference. The ancient Romans called the morning star (Venus), Lucifer. Literally, Lucifer was “the bearer of light.” She knew that I fully understood this, along with her implication that she was imaginatively assuming the role of Luna. Thought transference was abundant and effective. There was no devil in the details.

While in bed at my home the night before, Suzette told me she had recently completed a course on Greek and Roman mythology at Chico State. The subject was near and dear to my heart. I actually got out of bed and grabbed a few related books from my shelves and we read passages from them in the nude before idealistically commingling into a fantastical attempt at god-like sexual utopia.

The music continued: “The clouds are all silver and black – Floating around me – Luna come into my eyes – Luna surround me – With black and yellow pools of light – Fall by my window – Luna come to me tonight – I am a prisoner – Luna glide down from the moon”

With the Petty tune repeating its second verse and the lysergic full-moonlight gracing and illuminating her long, flowing, windswept, blonde curls, Suzette had joined the ranks of the mythological deities incarnate. There was no choice but to kiss, worship and adore her.

I quickly pulled the car into The Source parking lot and we caressed and kissed passionately for 10 everlasting minutes. Our hearts beat powerfully into one another, as head-to-toe we became one mighty intermixed erogenous zone. This love was blazing. Lust and desire engulfed us. Libidinous primal thirst begged for quenching. We steamily melted.

We trembled in each others' arms, minds electrified, momentarily oblivious to the bustling world around us, pausing with shivers down our collective backbone as we considered the ardent inferno lit with our melded tongues, lips, bodies, psyches. An overture to the inevitable oncoming Magnum Opus - A transcendent tantalizer for the festive entree. Jericho’s trumpets before the shouts! Seismic, craving vibrations presaging The Big One!!!!

“Let’s bone, already,” I said breathlessly, with my usual eloquence, as I started the car up and began to merge onto Sunset near Carney’s, “Lord … you’re such a f**kin’ turn on!"

Suzette smiled and traced the obvious bulge in my pants with her fingers as she leaned in and softly kissed my lips, and then my neck. She started unbuttoning my Levi’s while she quietly said, “I just want to be with you sooo bad. Mmmm ….. I can’t wait, baby …. Mmmm, …. yeah.”

The Sunset Tower and the Sunset Plaza Hotel blurred by on our left as we took in absurd billboards of sensually clad women making love to giant liquor bottles, between Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Smokey and the Bandit and an enormous, maniacal “Young Ted” promoting the spread of Cat Scratch Fever. The humor and overall cheesiness of the era was magnified significantly and grotesquely by Dr. Hoffman’s discovery.

The live version of the Jefferson Airplane’s “Plastic Fantastic Lover” erupted in percolating photo-voltaic expression as the equalizer lights wildly exploded with delight. Suzette now had me in her gentle love grip. She passionately kissed my neck, further opening the genie’s vase. She knew exactly what she was doing to me. She rubbed it and made an obvious wish as Jorma, Jack and Spencer furthered our love with their incendiary interaction and blessed its pointed little head.

“You’ve got Marianne Faithfull lips,” I said ecstatically as she held me intimately and smiled widely. “Perfectly plump and luscious. Hot and wet. Born to entice and wail. So sexy. And delicious. C’mon, give me another taste, babe.”

Suzette brushed my hair aside with her hand, gently kissing and licking my ear into which she uttered, “I love you so much I just wanna eat you up, my sweet baby. Oh yesssss …. Last night was so bitchen that I wanted to swallow you up, … you know, …. It was so intense of a come that I wanted you to somehow pound yourself all the way into my body … we merged so damn perfectly …and in my mind I wanted you to completely enter me and live in my skin …Do you understand what I’m trying to say?”

I assumed her question was rhetorical when she breathed heavily into my ear before lusciously and passionately French kissing it. Suzette and her perfect lips then went to work on my neck, with her warm hands verifying the desired throbbing results in my Levi’s.

“Ooh yeah, don’t stop …. “ I muttered under my breath as she cast me completely under her spell. She obliged as Marty Balin and the Airplane flew low and loud over the Sunset Strip.

“Her neon mouth with the blinkers-off smile is nothing but electric sign. You could say she has an individual style. She’s part of a colorful time.”

Now, the entertainment biz billboards and landmarks blurrily accelerated past like a rhythmic Chuck Braverman stroboscopic time capsule. The Riot House, UFO Lights Out, The Kentucky Fried Movie, The Comedy Store, Styx Grand Illusion, Roger Moore as James Bond: The Spy Who Loved Me, a gigantic semi-nude Joey Heatherton hawking The Happy Hooker Goes To Washington, Dino’s, The Tiffany with the midnight and 2:00AM Rocky Horror showings posted on the marquee, The Marlboro Man, Ben Frank’s, Orca, The Babys Broken Heart, The Rescuers, Pepe’s*, The Last Remake Of Beau Geste, Tower Records with images of Foghat Live, Iggy Pop Lust For Life, Doobies Livin’ On a Fault Line, Jay Ferguson Thunder Island, Firefall Luna Sea, Grateful Dead Terrapin Station, Mink De Ville, Kiss Love Gun, Ry Cooder Show Time!, Cherry Hill High, Licorice Pizza, The Classic Cat, Turners Liquor, Grand Theft Auto, Filthy McNasty’s, Sun Bee Liquor, New York, New York, Power Burger, Bad News Bears Breaking Training and ……… The Whisky a Go Go whose marquee read: The Runaways; The Weirdos!!!!

“You see who’s at the Whisky?” I asked Suzette as she pulled herself away from me and glanced at the marquee.

“We gotta go,” she said emphatically while bursting into laughter, “Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch Cherry Bomb!”

“I know,” I said laughing, “I haven’t seen ‘em since they played the Civic with Cheap Trick on April Fool’s. I have a friend who’s obsessed with them. He used to drag me along to their early shows. He’s friends with Kari Krome.”

“Cool, yeah, I saw them at the Goldenwest Ballroom in Norwalk before they had a record deal,” Suzette exclaimed. “Let’s get our room and come back here.”

“Yeah, I could dig a little bit of Cherie Currie prancing around in a skimpy negligee, tonight,” I said lasciviously. “How ‘bout you?”

“Well, yeah …. But I’m not sure how you meant that … you know,“ she said somewhat puzzled as we cruised past the Roxy and the Rainbow. “I suppose if I was a switch-hitter I’d be attracted to her, but I’m not.”

“You just don’t know it yet,” I said laughing gleefully and teasingly as Gazzarri’s came into view. “There’s at least two constants with chicks that I’ve discovered over the years in my vast experience. One: They all love downers and ludes. Two: They’re all lesbians in some way shape or form. So face it, either you just haven’t admitted it or you haven’t gotten there yet.”

“Jeez, you’re so insightful,” Suzette laughed mockingly, knowing I wasn’t completely serious. “Tell me what other truths you have found about women, oh wise one?”

“Well, grasshopper, ..... they’re like musical instruments,” I said pulling into Gil Turner’s Fine Wine & Spirits. “They all have their own idiosyncrasies, peculiarities, feels and tonal quality. But even the humblest ones make beautiful music in the hands of a talented player with the fire on his fingertips.”

“You’re crackin’ me up, babe,” Suzette laughed blushingly as I parked and turned the car off. “But you may be right. Though I don’t think the reverse is true. Some men are incapable of ‘making beautiful music’ no matter how talented the player.”

“Agreed. Another thing about women that I’ve found to be largely true is that what they tell others they want from a man, isn’t really what they want. I know what they really want, but won’t necessarily cop to. It’s my mission to make that basic self-evident truth resoundingly clear to them,” I chuckled as we got out of the car making our way into the store, still tripping, but momentarily and conveniently ebbing, as we had to put on a public face. “What’s your poison?”

“I could dig a touch of the bubbly,” Suzette smiled adoringly. “That’d be romantic.”

“Champagne it is! And we’re gonna go first class all the way. It just so happens I’m loaded tonight so let’s get a couple bottles of Dom!” I declared.

“You don’t have to do that, babe ….”

“No, I really want to,” I interrupted, “I’ve never had the stuff before and want to find out what great champagne tastes like. We’ll be a couple of Moet et Chandon cherries in the hotel, ha ha. And while we're at it, let’s get some of those tasty and pricey import cigarettes.”

“And fine chocolates,” Suzette interjected as she began surveying the display in Gil Turner’s. “Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we drink Andre Cold Duck in Chino, ha ha.”

I laughed, telling her I would never stoop so low as Andre. I walked over to some baskets of huge sexy looking strawberries and surreptitiously placed a large juicy one in my mouth without chewing it. I joined Suzette at the chocolates where I kissed her and passed the enormous strawberry into her mouth. She laughed and gagged a bit as she accepted the sweet and sexy gift.

We bellowed exuberantly as we trippily shopped through the store. I somewhat facetiously told her that I got my kicks watching women pick out and handle fruits and vegetables in the grocery store. We laughed till it literally hurt.

The fluorescent lights were super intense and we could hear them buzzing much louder than average human beings. It was like being in a giant Radarange and getting crispy critterized. But in a hilarious way.

Eventually we brought our goods to the counter, which consisted of two bottles of 1970 Dom Perignon, a designer tin of Dutch bittersweet Droste chocolate, a large box of Godiva Chocolatier nut and caramels, a pack of Players cigarettes, a pack of du Maurier cigarettes, and two champagne glasses labeled “Bride” and “Groom.”

The rather dapper clerk seemed amused at our demeanor obviously unaware that we were frying our brains out on a hallucinogenic substance. We both found his uncanny resemblance to the younger Ronald Colman more than a bit spooky. It must have been the acid, but when he spoke the similarities with the revered actor grew even more creepy. His somewhat lushy speech echoed that of Sydney Carton in a Tale Of Two Cities.

“My, my, love is in the air,” he said delighted in his rich Colman voice as he rang up the champagne glasses. “Did you two just get married, perhaps?”

“No, no … we just liked the glasses for their beauty and irony,” Suzette laughed as she tried to keep herself reasonably together and then waxed irresistibly playful. “We just met in the parking lot a minute ago. I had a fight with my husband and I told him I was gonna screw the first guy I met. My horoscope said this would happen.”

The clerk looked a bit puzzled and uncomfortable, not knowing whether Suzette was putting him on or not. She was a good little actress. I left the counter to fetch one of the small baskets of humongous sexy strawberries. When I did, I placed another one in my mouth as before. I put the basket on the counter and French kissed Suzette another sweet gift from the garden. She choked, delighted, then drooled strawberry juice from the side of her mouth. We cracked up.

I paid the astronomical tab and we grabbed our goodies. We walked out like two twinkle-eyed star-crossed kids leaving the malt shop to go make out on Mulholland Drive.

Suzette couldn’t resist, so as she walked out she began delivering the famous line, “It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done ….”

The Ronald Colman clerk cut in as we reached the exit, “It is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.”

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

* Pepe's occupied the building which I believe is currently the Red Rock Café. Earlier in the year 1977 “Hadla” had accompanied me to Hollywood for a gig my band had. We ate at Pepe’s. “Hadla” ordered spaghetti. Apparently she was used to having spaghetti at Vince’s where they have glass table containers full of parmesan cheese. She grabbed the container on Pepe’s dim lit table and liberally poured sugar all over her noodles. It was a very memorable moment!

Hollywood and Beyond the Infinite – The Third Monolith – Paradise Flossed – Part 3D – Degustibus Non Disputandum Est

We giggled into the parking lot and I quickly skipped like a child around the front end of the car to the passenger side. I opened Suzette’s door for her, while holding the bag with the champagne bottles in my other hand. I motioned for her to have a seat as I said, “Mademoiselle?”

She got in the car smiling at my playfulness while she carried the bag with the chocolate, strawberries and cigarettes. “And I thought chivalry was dead ….. Merci monsieur!”

I closed her door then leaned down and kissed her rapturously. Then I smiled and winked, “Voulez-vous …. tentatrice?”

Suzette laughed saying, “Laissez les bon tempts rouler!”

“F***in’-A” I joyously responded as I rounded the car and got in. She kissed my neck like Vampira.

I pulled the car out of Gil Turner’s and back onto Sunset past The Celebrity Club where Pat Collins, “The Hip Hypnotist,’” held court. Then I made a left into the Cock ‘N’ Bull parking lot.