March 1967. I had my orders to report to Camp Pendleton, Staging Battalion. That meant another trip to sunny Vietnam. Fuck it. Just out of the brig at El Toro MCAS, I thought of going AWOL. I caught the afternoon shuttle out of LAX to Frisco. I could let my hair grow and hide out amongst the hippies.
My bud Little Richard, former squad leader, was waiting to pick me up at the airport. As we drove back to Sausalito, I told him my plans. All he said was that he got us tickets to the Matrix Club and that we were going to see this new band called The Doors. After hearing those guys play “The End”, I knew what I was going to do. One of the reasons I came up to Frisco was to pick up my '61 “Poncho”- a 348 cu.i. 4 spd wide track bubble top Pontiac. Little Richard - a man I had trusted with my life (he had been my squad leader in Nam) - had her in storage. She was a Honey. One of the finest cars I would own. She would get me away.
I had been court-martialed and busted back to private and fined my lousy little paycheck for 6 months. Having made beaucoup money at El Toro transporting Marines to LAX for $10.00 a head, I purchased 5 old fast large cars- a Pontiac, an Olds, and 3 full sized Chevy 8 passenger wagons. The Marine Base at El Toro had only city buses to LAX. It was a 3-4 hour ride on a hot city bus. I saw that I could provide a service to the plane load of Marines coming home from Vietnam daily. My transport averaged 45 minutes. (Do the math: 6 x32=192 x $10 =$1,920 minus $150.00 a day overhead, another $100.00@ $20.00 per driver a trip they bought their own 31 cent a gallon gas.) I paid off the 61 Poncho and sold the rest of the cars to the drivers. After getting busted for doing this Illegal act, I did my time at El Toro Brig. Little Richard had banked my nearly $75,000. I was set.
After hearing The Doors, I bought their 8-track tape. Little Richard talked me into reporting to STAGING BN, Camp Pendleton. Monday morning we drove through the Main Gate at Pendleton with The Doors playing ”The End”.
1968. When I came home, I sold that “Poncho” to Little Richard and bought a new Harley, a Road Runner, a Ford Mustang convert. In the immortal words of famous writer Jim Northrup, I pissed the rest away!! I kept the Doors. These guys were fuckin' real. The only group the Stones were afraid of.
Seems that rhetoric “Only the good die young” is true!!!
R.I.P. Jimi, Janis, and Jim! Rat
No comments:
Post a Comment