Classic American West Coast Boxing

[raylawpc]

My uncle Larry has passed away



Lawrence S. De La O "Larry"

Lawrence "Larry" S. De La O, 96, passed away December 23, 2009 in Los Angeles, CA. He is survived by his wife, best friend and companion of forty two years, Frances "Panchita" De La O.
Born in New Mexico and raised in a two-room Dona Ana adobe, Larry worked cotton and vegetable fields in the Southwest, and ran a successful shoe-shine boy operation before riding the rails to Southern California during the Great Depression. There, life as a pachuco helped develop his business skills as owner of pool halls, night clubs and pawnshops, and his talents as jeweler, ace pool shooter and expert card player (including work as a Nevada casino pit boss). An extraordinary musician, dancer, singer and entertainer, he played any number of instruments by ear, joining mariachi groups and forming personal friendships with Mexico's Golden Age entertainment stars, including José Alfredo Jíménez, TinTan, Pedro Infante and Jorge Negrete. (José Alfredo dedicated his masterpiece "El Rey" to Larry.) An Army veteran, a man with a genius memory and an unbounded sense of humor, a prolific creative joke-teller, a loving husband and caring dad and grandfather, a generous humanitarian at heart, and life-long friend of members of the Raymond Apodaca Family of Las Cruces and the Fountain Family of Old Mesilla. Larry is and will be greatly missed. He was "one of a kind".
A memorial service will be held Saturday, January 23, 2010 at 1:30 p.m. at Calvary Mortuary 4201 Whittier Blvd., Los Angeles CA 90023, 323-261-3106. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations be made to the American Legion.
Published in Las Cruces Sun-News on January 17, 2010

Randy, I'm sorry to hear about your uncle.

[dagosd2000]

My uncle Larry has passed away



Lawrence S. De La O "Larry"

Lawrence "Larry" S. De La O, 96, passed away December 23, 2009 in Los Angeles, CA. He is survived by his wife, best friend and companion of forty two years, Frances "Panchita" De La O.
Born in New Mexico and raised in a two-room Dona Ana adobe, Larry worked cotton and vegetable fields in the Southwest, and ran a successful shoe-shine boy operation before riding the rails to Southern California during the Great Depression. There, life as a pachuco helped develop his business skills as owner of pool halls, night clubs and pawnshops, and his talents as jeweler, ace pool shooter and expert card player (including work as a Nevada casino pit boss). An extraordinary musician, dancer, singer and entertainer, he played any number of instruments by ear, joining mariachi groups and forming personal friendships with Mexico's Golden Age entertainment stars, including José Alfredo Jíménez, TinTan, Pedro Infante and Jorge Negrete. (José Alfredo dedicated his masterpiece "El Rey" to Larry.) An Army veteran, a man with a genius memory and an unbounded sense of humor, a prolific creative joke-teller, a loving husband and caring dad and grandfather, a generous humanitarian at heart, and life-long friend of members of the Raymond Apodaca Family of Las Cruces and the Fountain Family of Old Mesilla. Larry is and will be greatly missed. He was "one of a kind".
A memorial service will be held Saturday, January 23, 2010 at 1:30 p.m. at Calvary Mortuary 4201 Whittier Blvd., Los Angeles CA 90023, 323-261-3106. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations be made to the American Legion.
Published in Las Cruces Sun-News on January 17, 2010

Randy
My condolences to your family. May your uncle rest in peace.

[dagosd2000]

Chicago weather.
Twenties today and snow on the ground.
The older I get, the less amusing this crap is.
Character builder my as. Im ready for some sun. 8)

NEVER CALL IT HOME AGAIN

During the 50's there was a lot of leaving the big cities and moving out to the suburbs. That was also a period for east coast transplants moving to the west coast. The mid 50's was when my parents came out to California.Many people did around that time. My dad ,being a Marine stationed at Camp Pendleton, convinced him that someday California would be in his future.

Hear someone from back east who comes out to California and he has one or two reasons. The weather in California is great(the west coast at least)and the neighborhood back home has gone to hell.

I used to go back to Chicago a lot to visit relatives,but those people are either dead or have moved away like my family did. Some have come out here to San Diego where I live. The last time,about five years ago,when I went back to the Windy City to the old neighborhood where my grandmother lived,it was a depressing site to see. The house isn't there anymore. The University Of Illinois at Chicago occupies the spot now. I guess it's safe inside the school perimeters,but step outside of that and you see a lot of hypes and whinos. Those trash cans with the fires inside of them to keep the bums warm in the winter. Litter sprewn along the curbs and sidewalks. It seemed that no one cared. Not a big pride in the neighborhood.

They say you make your own happiness. Lot of truth in that. Sometimes though when you go back home you realize that that home is only a childhood memory. So if I go back again,I'll know I'll take a drive past Polk and Oakley Boulevard. I know what I'll do this time. I'll stick my head out the window and yell,"Hey Uncle Chaz. Take that meatball sandwich out of your mouth!."

Rog, the neighborhoods you mentioned have gone through the transformation of gentrification.
All fixed up pretty now.
I dont know,some gentrification kills the character. Numbs the soul or something. I dont know. Maybe its me.
Believe me Rog, I think you would be happier pallin around with guys singing songs around a burning garbage can sharing a bottle than you would be standing in line with yuppie humps waiting on the newest Frappucino double latte capucino at the Starbucks that took the trash cans spot.
I know you my friend.

I avoid the yuppie crowd with the frappachinos. Mostly taco eaters and beer drinkers

[THEHAMMER321]

[quote="kikibalt"]Rick,
Most people knew that Tony loved to party, so one time after we came back from one of his big fights, don't remember which one, but it might have been the Robin Blake fight, a fight in which he got paid lots of money, well the Saturday after we got home about 5PM he is getting ready to go out, he start taking stuff out of his pockets, out comes a roll of $100 bills, I ask Tony how much money he had there, he said 35G's, so I ask him what're you doing with all that money?, he tells me he is going out with some friends, I told him not with all that money you're not, I took the 35G's from him and gave him 5G's and told him, blow that if you like, but come Monday you and I are going to the bank and deposit the 30G's that I am holding for you, we did go to the bank and put the money in a C.D, which he still has, my wife is hold the C.D for him.
To be honest I think that Tony has forgotton that he has the C.D because he never ask about it, my wife say that she will turn it over to him when he is 55 years old , he is now 47.[/quot Good for you Frank, I did a lot of gambling in my life and my dad would try and discourage me but I thought I was the smartest guy on the block when I would win 10 thousand or more he would say next time you go out take a thousand and let him hold the rest, sometimes I would other times I would try and win a million and I would make it home flat broke every time,you are good parents Connie and you sometimes us kids need to be told what to do

[kikibalt]

NEVER CALL IT HOME AGAIN

During the 50's there was a lot of leaving the big cities and moving out to the suburbs. That was also a period for east coast transplants moving to the west coast. The mid 50's was when my parents came out to California.Many people did around that time. My dad ,being a Marine stationed at Camp Pendleton, convinced him that someday California would be in his future.

Hear someone from back east who comes out to California and he has one or two reasons. The weather in California is great(the west coast at least)and the neighborhood back home has gone to hell.

I used to go back to Chicago a lot to visit relatives,but those people are either dead or have moved away like my family did. Some have come out here to San Diego where I live. The last time,about five years ago,when I went back to the Windy City to the old neighborhood where my grandmother lived,it was a depressing site to see. The house isn't there anymore. The University Of Illinois at Chicago occupies the spot now. I guess it's safe inside the school perimeters,but step outside of that and you see a lot of hypes and whinos. Those trash cans with the fires inside of them to keep the bums warm in the winter. Litter sprewn along the curbs and sidewalks. It seemed that no one cared. Not a big pride in the neighborhood.

They say you make your own happiness. Lot of truth in that. Sometimes though when you go back home you realize that that home is only a childhood memory. So if I go back again,I'll know I'll take a drive past Polk and Oakley Boulevard. I know what I'll do this time. I'll stick my head out the window and yell,"Hey Uncle Chaz. Take that meatball sandwich out of your mouth!."

Rog, the neighborhoods you mentioned have gone through the transformation of gentrification.
All fixed up pretty now.
I dont know,some gentrification kills the character. Numbs the soul or something. I dont know. Maybe its me.
Believe me Rog, I think you would be happier pallin around with guys singing songs around a burning garbage can sharing a bottle than you would be standing in line with yuppie humps waiting on the newest Frappucino double latte capucino at the Starbucks that took the trash cans spot.
I know you my friend.

I avoid the yuppie crowd with the frappachinos. Mostly taco eaters and beer drinkers

And the cheap wine....

[kikibalt]

Rick,
Most people knew that Tony loved to party, so one time after we came back from one of his big fights, don't remember which one, but it might have been the Robin Blake fight, a fight in which he got paid lots of money, well the Saturday after we got home about 5PM he is getting ready to go out, he start taking stuff out of his pockets, out comes a roll of $100 bills, I ask Tony how much money he had there, he said 35G's, so I ask him what're you doing with all that money?, he tells me he is going out with some friends, I told him not with all that money you're not, I took the 35G's from him and gave him 5G's and told him, blow that if you like, but come Monday you and I are going to the bank and deposit the 30G's that I am holding for you, we did go to the bank and put the money in a C.D, which he still has, my wife is hold the C.D for him.
To be honest I think that Tony has forgotton that he has the C.D because he never ask about it, my wife say that she will turn it over to him when he is 55 years old , he is now 47.[/quot Good for you Frank, I did a lot of gambling in my life and my dad would try and discourage me but I thought I was the smartest guy on the block when I would win 10 thousand or more he would say next time you go out take a thousand and let him hold the rest, sometimes I would other times I would try and win a million and I would make it home flat broke every time,you are good parents Connie and you sometimes us kids need to be told what to do

Yes, sometime kids need to be told what to do...

[THEHAMMER321]

How was that drink and cigar last night Frank

[kikibalt]

How was that drink and cigar last night Frank

Great Hammer, man, I thought I was somebody last nite....

[THEHAMMER321]

Frank you ever see Henry Hank fight, my late father used to talk about him a lot he was from Detroit my father got to know him when he fought in Louisiana my dad said he could really hit I saw he fought in California a couple of times so I thought maybe you saw him fight,also rodolfo Gonzalez of the 60s and 70s any connection to rodolfo Gonzalez of the early 1980s who fought Claude Noel for the vacant lightweight title

[kikibalt]

Frank you ever see Henry Hank fight, my late father used to talk about him a lot he was from Detroit my father got to know him when he fought in Louisiana my dad said he could really hit I saw he fought in California a couple of times so I thought maybe you saw him fight

I don't recall ever seeing him fight life, on tv?, a few times, Hank was imo a fighter's fighter, in other words he came to fight, never stunk the joint out....

[THEHAMMER321]

Frank you ever see Henry Hank fight, my late father used to talk about him a lot he was from Detroit my father got to know him when he fought in Louisiana my dad said he could really hit I saw he fought in California a couple of times so I thought maybe you saw him fight

I don't recall ever seeing him fight life, on tv?, a few times, Hank was imo a fighter's fighter, in other words he came to fight, never stunk the joint out....

That is my kind of fighter dont like these clowns who come to do ballet and run and the guys who are calling the fights say what ''a superb boxer they are'' when in my opinion they should be thrown out of the ring maybe I shouldn't say this but Ali might have made that kind of boxing fashionable and so many guys try and copy that,but I am with you I like a guy who comes to fight

[raylawpc]

I saw Hank at the end of his career when he had very little left in his tank, and he did not look good. That said, judging Hank for that fight would be like judging Ezzard Charles for his performance against Alvin Green.

[THEHAMMER321]

The two Rodolfo Gonzalez the 1 from the 1970s and the 1 from the 1980s any relation I know some of you on this thread know the Rodolfo the one who fought late sixties and 70s

[kikibalt]

[kikibalt]

[Rick Farris]

Frank you ever see Henry Hank fight, my late father used to talk about him a lot he was from Detroit my father got to know him when he fought in Louisiana my dad said he could really hit I saw he fought in California a couple of times so I thought maybe you saw him fight

I don't recall ever seeing him fight life, on tv?, a few times, Hank was imo a fighter's fighter, in other words he came to fight, never stunk the joint out....

That is my kind of fighter dont like these clowns who come to do ballet and run and the guys who are calling the fights say what ''a superb boxer they are'' when in my opinion they should be thrown out of the ring maybe I shouldn't say this but Ali might have made that kind of boxing fashionable and so many guys try and copy that,but I am with you I like a guy who comes to fight

Hammer . . . By the way, welcome to this thread again! It's really good to have you here. I had a trainer when I was a kid, his name was Bobby Bell. Bob came from Detroit and worked many rounds in the gym with Henry Hank. In the late 60's, Bell would show me a move and then tell me, "That's just the way Henry Hank would do it." I'm with you on the clowns, too many in boxing today. Somehow people got the idea that guys who run away are "boxers". All a runner does is prove he doesn't want to fight. A "boxer" is a guy who can make an opponent miss, and then make him pay.


-Rick Farris

[THEHAMMER321]

I don't recall ever seeing him fight life, on tv?, a few times, Hank was imo a fighter's fighter, in other words he came to fight, never stunk the joint out....

That is my kind of fighter dont like these clowns who come to do ballet and run and the guys who are calling the fights say what ''a superb boxer they are'' when in my opinion they should be thrown out of the ring maybe I shouldn't say this but Ali might have made that kind of boxing fashionable and so many guys try and copy that,but I am with you I like a guy who comes to fight

Hammer . . . By the way, welcome to this thread again! It's really good to have you here. I had a trainer when I was a kid, his name was Bobby Bell. Bob came from Detroit and worked many rounds in the gym with Henry Hank. In the late 60's, Bell would show me a move and then tell me, "That's just the way Henry Hank would do it." I'm with you on the clowns, too many in boxing today. Somehow people got the idea that guys who run away are "boxers". All a runner does is prove he doesn't want to fight. A "boxer" is a guy who can make an opponent miss, and then make him pay.


-Rick Farris

Rick you are right know Jose Napoles is one fighter who comes to mind when you talk about good boxers he would make you miss than make you pay but he didnt run btw Thanks for the welcome on here

[THEHAMMER321]

I am glad I found my way on to this thread because on the boxers of the past forum these guys come up with some ridiculous claims such as is Rafael Marquez better than Ruben Olivares I mean these guys are smoking some good stuff lol

[kikibalt]

The two Rodolfo Gonzalez the 1 from the 1970s and the 1 from the 1980s any relation I know some of you on this thread know the Rodolfo the one who fought late sixties and 70s

The Gonzalez from the '60s-'70s, I know real well, the one from the'80s I met one time, it was at the Olympic Gym, we, Frankie, Tony and I were there when he came in with an entourage, one of his people ask if Gonzalez could sparr with Frankie, Frankie had already sparred that morinig, I said, you can sparr Tony, Ok they said, but we want 4 rounds, 4 rounds you got I told them, in the second round Tony hit Gonzalez with a beautiful left hook and even with 12 oz.gloves he hurt Gonzalez, at the end of the second round they said "Thats Enough"...

[Chuck1052]

Randy, I am sorry to learn that your uncle has passed away. Hope that you, the rest of his family and friends accepts my condolences.

- Chuck Johnston

[kikibalt]

Having albondigas and home made tortillas tonite, perfect for this weather/rain we're having...

[dagosd2000]

Frank you ever see Henry Hank fight, my late father used to talk about him a lot he was from Detroit my father got to know him when he fought in Louisiana my dad said he could really hit I saw he fought in California a couple of times so I thought maybe you saw him fight,also rodolfo Gonzalez of the 60s and 70s any connection to rodolfo Gonzalez of the early 1980s who fought Claude Noel for the vacant lightweight title

Hammer
I asked Rodolfo about the other "Gato". The "Gato" we know down here who was the lightweight champ told me he was not related. It's funny though if you look at the other guy's record they have him fighting his last fight in my wife's hometown,Jiquilpan. The Gato that we on the forum know started his career with several fights in Jiquilpan. That was 1960.

[THEHAMMER321]

Having albondigas and home made tortillas tonite, perfect for this weather/rain we're having...

speaking of homemade Mexican food reminds me of a funny story a lady from across the street from us when I was a kid came over my house she was from new Mexico and she brought over some salsa and chips,I see the chips they are different colors I say did you put food coloring on those to make them red and blue and purple she said no I thought she was lying I had never seen chips like that,years later I started seeing them when I went to different Mexican restaurants

[dagosd2000]

NO HAPPY ENDING

If you read this story you might understand why I put this title to it. If not,then either you're a clean liver or you just haven't surfed the web enough for exotic web sites.

Yesterday morning I woke up with a terrible back ache. A pain in my shoulder blade that went up into my neck. I did some stretching,but I must have hurt it in the gym or while I was asleep. I know Kaiser ain't going to admit me and their emergency room would turn me down for just a back ache,so I decided to try out one of those accupressure massage parlors. I figure I got a legit excuse.

There's a slew of these Oriental parlors in San Diego. Not that many in LA. I don't know if it's because of the servicemen down here or what,but San Diego has always had a lot of them.They're all these Asian joints, and take this to the bank,all these gals live in Korea Town in LA. They drive down to San Diego then go back to Korea Town on their days off.

Anyway this gal tells me to lie down on my stomach. I tell her I've got this terrible pain and if she could work it out. The pain was so bad that I had trouble just lying on my stomach. Well the next thing I know she jumps on top of my back and starts walking on it. I'm screaming like someone has stuck a Samurai sword in me. I'm telling her to stop.
"Baby! Please no more! You're hurting me!"
Well maybe she doesn't understand English except for "How much for a happy ending?" because she didn't get off. She's still stomping around up there and I almost passed out. Finally I turned over and threw her off.

Needless to say,I woke up this morning with a welt the size of an orange on my back. I went to Kaiser emergency and told the receptionist what had happened with Miss Happy Feet. Everyone in the emergency room was in stitches(bad pun).The doc told me that she inflamed a bursa and for me to take some Ibupropen. In two to three weeks the swelling will go down.

Funny thing,the doc at Kaiser was an Asian.
"I know about those treatments,"he said. "I stay away from them."
You can bet he knows there's no happy ending in those parlors,unless you don't have a sore back.

[kikibalt]

Having albondigas and home made tortillas tonite, perfect for this weather/rain we're having...

speaking of homemade Mexican food reminds me of a funny story a lady from across the street from us when I was a kid came over my house she was from new Mexico and she brought over some salsa and chips,I see the chips they are different colors I say did you put food coloring on those to make them red and blue and purple she said no I thought she was lying I had never seen chips like that,years later I started seeing them when I went to different Mexican restaurants

I never seen'em Hammer.... :(