BOOMER by Tim Engel (smallest ebook reader txt) 📕

and was a beauty. Jill and I would play Moon Monster. I was the Moon Monster and she was the Moon Monsteree. And we would play this game in the backyard and eventually it would lead to us kissing. Kissing. Ah, so as amazing as women were, they were even more amazing once you got to kiss one!! Jill’s Mom would take us places and we’d hang out and I got to be part of their family of sorts. But it wasn’t to last, either. I think I had a lot to learn. I was naïve and immature and I think these girls were looking for someone older (a whole year) who was also an athlete. I think I hurt my love life when I quit football!
It was perhaps around the age of 15 and in 10th grade I was taking yet another French class with a girl named Terrie Jones. She was a cute little thing – short compared to my nearly 6’4”. We were chatting one day when someone came by to talk with her. Terrie turned to me and said “I’d like to introduce you to my sister, Lana.” “Hello, Lana, nice to meet you!” “Hello”. And that was that. Nice to meet her. I’m not sure what happened after that, but I was “between” girls – and was of course, interested in the opposite sex. Lana was attractive. She was an ‘it’ girl. What was the ‘it’? Not sure. But viva la difference. Lana was medium height, had brown hair, high cheek bones, and a booty.
Lana and I also had some common interests. I took Drama class and so did she. I think we had some chemistry, a spark, attraction. She was in the Lynwood High production of Bye Bye Birdie. My family and I were in the audience for the production. Well, Lana and I became pretty close. We spent a lot of time together. I was 15 and she was 17. The older woman. But we didn’t focus on that. It wasn’t important.
She had 3 sisters and I had 2 brothers and 2 sisters. Sometimes when we went on dates or were just going places, we would take Kyle and Sister. We were all family. My first car was a 58 Oldsmobile. Pop bought it from Alita down the street for $100. Yes, in 1970 you could get a decent car that ran and was good transportation for roughly that much. It was probably worth more than that…but in 1970 it was 12 years old. But that car! It was covered with chrome. And had a big, beefy V8 under the hood. And the interior was full of chrome and gadgets. It ran perfect. It had a different sort of color – pink. It was one of the popular colors in the late 50s. so one of the first things I did was to get it painted. Midnight blue. Deep, dark blue with lots of chrome. I loved this car! It was so nice of Pop to buy it for me. I think the equivalent these days would be roughly $2,000 or so. For something that ran and got you from point A to point B.
The Olds had some serious power. Go-power, baby. Once Bruce and I were out cruising around and we met up on Tweedy Blvd. Cruising of course. We were sort of playing bumper tag passing each other. He was in his Ford Fairlane. I very nice car. Fast, too…but we’ll see how fast. We turned on to Alexander headed South toward home. Now, Alexander at Tweedy is a big, wide street. Wide enough to…pass on!? Yes, I thought. Bruce accelerated quickly around the corner and I was right behind him. I thought I’ll floor the big dog and let the 4barrel kick in and see what happens. Sure enough, the big, heavy Olds had the go power and I turned into the oncoming lane to pull up on Bruce. I was gaining on him…even, then passed him. We were probably going 70 or 80 up Alexander. But it was late at night and no one was around. Thank God. No traffic. We were stupid but it was so fun! A rush!! We were both blessed with cool cars. I think his Dad either handed the Ford down to him or bought it for him. But it was a very nice car. In great shape and I think a bit newer than the Olds. It was dark green. But the big, bad, blue Olds covered in Chrome won that day! We didn’t have a big rivalry – just friendly competition. Like when I won the Sting Ray bike races.
One night we were out crusing around and Tom and his buddy Rock Douglas were crusing around in Rock’s super-fast VW bug. Now, this was not any bug. Not any Volkswagen. This thing would run with most anything on the street. Being light and a Bug, Rock had installed a hotted up engine – I think stock was about 1300 cc. He had something like a 2200 with Weber carbs. When it launched, the front wheels nearly left the ground. I had seen him on Bullis road racing a 750 Honda. The supreme stock street bike of the day. And stay right with it through 2nd gear. Well, on this particular night we got into a little bumper tag. Rock and Steve started following Bruce and I so I pedaled down the accelerator and took a right on the street right behind the High School. Rock was closing fast, so what was I to do? Floor it! Soon we’re going 70 / 80 on this surface street. The Olds is big and heavy but in a straight away pulled hard on the VW. Scrubbing off speed and stopping was another thing. It was the late 50s and the focus was big, heavy, chrome, and go-power. Not stopping. This was not a BMW. Nothing resembling a sports car! Pulling up to Carlin we pulled a California stop and slammed on the gas to power slide around the south side of Lynwood High. The Vw grew smaller in the mirror until Bullis road and I had to slow again. Screeeeee! Around the corner and north on Bullis road. Around the corner came the red bullet with Rock and Tom in hot pursuit. We headed up the street doing probably 80 and the signal turned yellow. Slam on the old fashioned brakes and the Olds was getting tired! Brakes were hot and losing their ability to slow us down. We finally pulled over and Rock and Steve pulled along side and the Olds was hot and breathing hard. We laughed and yelled at each other and smiled about the little tour of Lynwood we’d just been on. We had probably chased each other for 15 minutes, but it seemed like a 24 hour at Le Mans to the big chrome beast. Lots of fun!!
What does that have to do with love life? Well, now that I had a car we could go on dates. Lana and I liked going to Lucky Boys and getting dinner. We would go to the movies at the Compton drive in. It was only about 4 miles away. Lucky Boys had taquitos, burgers, onion rings, shakes…all of the basic food groups! We would go to the Lynwood Christmas parades. They had one on Long Beach Blvd and also one on Atlantic. South Gate also had one on Tweedy. Lots of parades. Proud cities, they were! And I remember Hobo Kelly crusing around through Lynwood on a float – going up and down all the streets.
I remember double dating with Lana, her Mom, and her Mom’s boyfriend. We went to San Diego. We drove in her Mom’s 65 Cadillac. Her Mom’s car was dark blue while my Mom’s was more of a green-blue. But her Mom’s was just like my Mom’s. So we cruised down to San Diego for the day. We went to Sea World. Very fun. Who doesn’t like Sea World? You get to see the dolphins and the killer whales. That was an interesting trip.
At times life seemed idyllic and at times life seemed tough. Lana and I didn’t always get along. We sometimes got upset and jealous with each other. So when we broke up I would hang out with Suzi Conkle and she would hang out with Les Jaspers. How often did we do that? I’m not sure. And to make matters worse, when we got back together, Suzi and Les would date. So it was a weird deal to say the least. But somehow we persevered.
We exchanged class rings. So girls in those days if they were going with a boy, would wear his class ring. And to make it fit, they wrapped yarn around it and would even brush it and puff it out to make it look ‘cool’. It was a big deal. And then I would wear her ring on my little finger.
We went to football games and ate lunch together. I went to Church with her at Olivet Baptist Church. It was right down the street – maybe half a block away. Good people there. We did things with the Church – went on picnics. I remember the Pastor liked ‘red pop.’ He was a very nice man. And they had youth pastors and leaders that were always pulling on me to get more involved. To commit. To go to their college, get involved in their ministries. I did to some extent. But they wanted me whole hog and I wasn’t quite ready to make that kind of commitment.

2ND AMENDMENT
GUNS. We started young. Dad had guns around from the time we were wee infants. So as we grew older (8 to 10) we got to handle and use guns. One of my favorite old pictures is Tom and I sitting in the Den on Dad’s red leather couch holding Winchester rifles. Dad always taught us safety first. When we were handed a gun the very first thing we did was to check it to see if it was loaded. All the while handling a gun it was either pointed at the ground or at the ceiling. Never pointed at anyone or yourself. Safety first. Even as kids when all we wanted to do was get our hands on these beautiful weapons, Dad taught us carefully. It became second nature to us. When it was handed to us or when we handed it to anyone, we would be sure to keep it pointed in a safe direction. We never loaded a weapon unless we were at a shooting range