LIVING DANGEROUSLY

FAY drove up from Phoenix, actually Eloy, Az in her '49 Dodge sedan..a few dents, faded paint. We bought a gallon of Peach Ice Cream, packed up all our belongings and headed off, passing the ice cream back & forth, to San Francisco (via Las Vegas, Tahoe etc) We slept in our car most nights pulling into manicured driveways sometimes and other times we would get a motel 6. Somewhere and sometime during this trip our car started steaming, looking like it was going to blow up so we pulled over on the side of the road on this very baron part of hwy. 66 and got out....We had no clue about cars or what it could be and of course, no cell phones in those days...we had to wait for someone to come along and help us.

Finally, an old car, a similar age as ours, pulled over. A short frumpy little couple, probably in their 60ies, got out..."Yah need some help, girls?" Yikes...they could be murderers...what were we going to do. Oh my God. "Wahl...ah think it's the water hose," the man said. "Why don't one of ya gals stay with the car and one come with us?"I can't tell you how we decided, but I went with them...we went to Prescott and everything was closed......it must've been a Sunday, but some how we got a hose, Fay was still alive (and so was I, thank God again) the hose was fixed and we drove back to Prescott where we had to spend the night to fix the radiator.If I had to give them names, it would be Eddie Boy and Flossie.
When we reached San Francisco, we had $5 between us. We drove directly to a used car lot and sold old Bessie for $80.00..that was our first months rent...we rented a small studio apt. in the same neighborhood as the used car lot, close to the beach. Let's just say, it was not UPSCALE. We went out job hunting ( by bus) and both were hired at the Bank of America. I was in the business district on Montgomery St. at the Int'l Banking Office and was put on this archaic bookkeeping machine. (like I had any idea of how to use this thing!) They very soon placed me at the teller window and I did the receiving of the large funds from Int'l businesses which were brought in by couriers.
My boss, whom I sat next to, made passes as often as he could get away with it. He was disgusting but there was no way I could do anything about it. I desperately needed this job.

In the meantime, I thought I would so much rather be a secretary, so I signed up with the bank's shorthand class that they gave in the evenings. ( I wasn't too good at this either!)I stuck with it for awhile and ended up knowing a girl from Hawaii in the class. She said her brother and DICKIE LEE, a friend from Hawaii were also living in the city...Let's all get together!

Fay and I stayed in our apartment and ate most of our dinners at the bar across the street. The bartender, had his eye on me, (of course he was another bad boy) and would give us free sandwiches with our beers. His name was SPIDER. His real name was Robert Chacon. He was fair colored Mexican and was Codeine Addict. He would ask me to pick up cough medicine for him down at the neighborhood pharmacy and I would as a favor....I didn't think much about it. Later when Fay and I moved to Potrero Hill, he began stalking me and wanting me to be his girlfriend. When I finally told him to get lost, he slit his stomach in front of Fay and we never saw him again. That is, not for many years and not in San Francisco.