Classic American West Coast Boxing

[Randyman]

Rick...I have told and retold these stories to my kids, and other family members so many times. My sister-in-law ask me to write'em and post'em on Facebook, well as you know I'm no writer, I told her I would try and what I have posted are the results of my trying....
I have posted them here and on Facebook.

Frank, for someone who claims he is no writer, you are done one hell of a job!! As you are telling your stories I am seeing them in my mind.

Randy

Randy, your're being too kind. I was reliving everything as I was writing, thats was the only way that I could put those days into words..

Well, it's working because we are reliving those days with you!

[kikibalt]

Randy, don't know if you clicked on the Simons link, you can see the houses which we lived in, we were dirt poor, but happy....

[Randyman]

Tales From The Simons Brickyard
“Caper of The Missing Rooster”


When we were living in Simons, our neighbor was a little old lady, Panfela, we called her Panfelita, Panfelita lived by herself and when she needed something from the Mom & Pop store she would ask me to go for her, she would ask me two or three times a day, I would jump on my bike go to the store for her, when I would come back and give her what she had order, she would tell me “might God pay you for your kindness” I would say to myself “yes because you will never pay me a dime”.

Anyway, Panfelita had a big white rooster, getting ahead of myself here on the rooster story.
In Simons there was lots of open land and the roads were all dirt, we didn’t have street lights. At night us young kids would light up a fire, one night one of the guys had an idea, “lets go steal Panfelita’s white rooster and we’ll cook him here on the fire”, so here we go about 4-5 of us kids, now this rooster was big and mean so nobody wanted to go into the coop and get him, finally Gilbert who we called Pachie said he would go into the coop, now Pachie was the smallest of us guys, don’t think he weighted more then 60 lbs, Pachie goes into the coop and suddenly there‘s a cloud of dust and all we could see was Pachie little feet stick out of the cloud of dust now an then. After a while Pachie won the fight and got the rooster, but let me tell you, that rooster beat the poop out of Pachie.

We ate the rooster.

Next morning my Mom and Panfelita were talking over the backyard fence, Panfelita was crying, I walked up to them and ask “what’s wrong?”, my Mom looked at me and said “somebody stole her rooster”, my mom gave me that looked that told me she knew I had something to do with the caper of “The Missing Rooster”.

We were not bad boys, I would like to think that we were just a little “mischievous”

Panfelita was asking God to Bless you. In the long run God did bless you Frank. With a great family and friends that think the world of you. That's a life worth living.

When I was about six years old both of my parents worked. I had to go to a babysitter up the street from us. The lady, Sarah, had a son named Rudy and a daughter whose name I don't remember, that were close to my age. They had a chicken in the backyard. They really loved that bird. One day the father killed it for dinner and the kids were really tore up about it. They were crying up a storm and they refused to eat the chicken. Well, guess who ate most of the chicken? I think they hated me for a while.

Randy

[Randyman]

Randy, don't know if you clicked on the Simons link, you can see the houses which we lived in, we were dirt poor, but happy....

I did see it Frank. What a classic photo. Those must have been good times.

Randy

[Rick Farris]

Frank, for someone who claims he is no writer, you are doing one hell of a job!! As you are telling your stories I am seeing them in my mind.

Randy
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Frank, Randy is right. When you write these stories I see them in my mind like I'm watching a movie.
Only a true writer can put the reader into the story as if they were actually there.
You do this with every story you share, and we feel a part of the adventure.
As Randy pointed out, you are on a roll. This is classic stuff that would make for one helluva script.

-Ricardo

[Randyman]

Frank, for someone who claims he is no writer, you are doing one hell of a job!! As you are telling your stories I am seeing them in my mind.

Randy
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Frank, Randy is right. When you write these stories I see them in my mind like I'm watching a movie.
Only a true writer can put the reader into the story as if they were actually there.
You do this with every story you share, and we feel a part of the adventure.
As Randy pointed out, you are on a roll. This is classic stuff that would make for one helluva script.

-Ricardo

The Dead End Kids in the Barrio.

[Randyman]

Tales From The Simons Brickyard
A Pachie Story
“I Ain’t Squawking”

We’re now about 17 years old, we were shooting pool at the Simons Pool Hall in Simons, Pachie is walking around with a joint on his ear, after a while he left. About a week later he is at the pool hall again, he tells us that after he left the pool hall the week before he was pull over by the cops, and that one cop told him he was under arrest for having a joint, Pachie: “where is the evidence?”, the cop took the joint for his ear, cop: “here it is”
He was put in the back seat of the cop’s car and ask, cop: “where did you get the joint?”, Pachie: “I ain’t squawking”, cops pull him out of the car and kicked his ass and let him go.

Poor Pachie was always getting his ass kicked, first the rooster, now the cops.

Nothing "Chicken" about a Gamecock . . .

Frank, your rooster story is a good one! I kinda know how Pachie might have felt when he tangled with the rooster.
When I was 17, and training at Flores Gym, a man in his 50's showed up with a young heavyweight prospect. The heavyweight had been a USC football player who had washed out. The old man was a lot of fun (50's was an old man to me in those days), and his daughter would become my first love. The man's name was Karl Nelson (Randy De La O would meet Karl)), and the family lived in Monterey Park. The first night I visited his daughter in the family home, Karl asks me, "Have you ever seen a cock fight?" I said "No", and he went on to tell me that every prizefighter should see how gamecock's fight, usually to the death. The following week, he tells me of an old friend of his who raised gamecocks in San Dimas. The guy had several acres and a big barn. On occasion, he would hold secret cockfights in the barn. Karl invited me to one of these secret cockfights the following week. On the night we arrive at the property, we must turn our headlights off as we enter the property, and park in the back where cars could not be seen from the road. Inside the barn we saw a number of cockfights and had a lot of fun betting, etc. I was just 17, and thought it was cool to attend this "secret" event. One of the gamecocks that fought had won three previous matches, and won that night. However, the cock lost one of his eyes in the fight, and suffered a broken leg. He was thrown into a pile of dead cocks and as we were leaving it was discovered that the unbeaten cock was still alive. Gamecocks aren't soft barnyard roosters, they are hard muscled and strong. You cook up a gamecock and that will be one tough bird to chew. One of the young "trainers" a kid from Mexico, was going to pull the cocks head off and then defeather him for a meal. My friend Karl said, "Don't try to eat that bird, he won his fight. I'll take him home." Well, Karl brings the ailing gamecock home and within a few weeks, the bird looked in fighting shape. The leg seemed to heal and although half blind, the cock ruled the roost in my friends backyard. I remember that when I'd spend the night there, that gamecock would wake the neighborhood every morning when the sun came up. One day, Karl asked me to go into the pen, pick up the gamecock and put him in the garage. The bird was in no mood to be handled. It flew into the corner of the pen and I had him trapped. I reached down and attempted to grab the bird and it retaliated by punching my hands with his claws. Like a boxer, a gamecock punches with his feet. In a real fight, it wears metal gaffs, which are like spears. However without the gaffs a gamecock punches, and they punch hard! I finally got hold of the bird by restraining his legs, but I could feel a lump swelling on the back of my hand. Once I had his legs tied up, it reached down and grabbed my arm with it's beak. When I walked out of that pen my girlfriend and her father were laughing so hard they were in tears. My shirt was torn, I had blood running down my arm and I soon had a golf ball sized bruise right below my knuckles. That bird kicked my ass before I got hold of it. Karl couldn't keep the bird and gave it to me. I couldn't keep the cock in family's Burbank home, so I ended it giving it to one of Johnny Flores amateur flyweights, Manuel. Manuel used to take the gamecock around on a leash, but Johnny told him not to bring him to the gym because it would crap all over the place. Manuel would let it off the leash as we trained and the bird would pirch himself up on the ring ropes, on top of the scale and rubbing table, leaving a pile of crap wherever it landed. We didn't see Manuel for awhile, and when we finally did we asked him about the gamecock. Manuel lowered his head and told us, "he bit my cousin". The cousin didn't like being bitten by the gamecock, and later ate him for dinner. After that experience, I had a gamecock emroidered on the back of my red velvet boxing robe. The first night I wore that robe into the ring in a pro fight, Jimmy Lennon Sr. introduced me as "The Burbank Gamecock". I still have that robe, so maybe I'll shoot pic and post it. Thanks for that rooster story, Frank. It brought back some memories.


-Rick Farris

Rick, that was too funny. man I was laughing my ass off! That's another one for Americas Funniest Video.

Randy

[kikibalt]

Frank, for someone who claims he is no writer, you are doing one hell of a job!! As you are telling your stories I am seeing them in my mind.

Randy
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Frank, Randy is right. When you write these stories I see them in my mind like I'm watching a movie.
Only a true writer can put the reader into the story as if they were actually there.
You do this with every story you share, and we feel a part of the adventure.
As Randy pointed out, you are on a roll. This is classic stuff that would make for one helluva script.

-Ricardo

The Dead End Kids in the Barrio.

Thats what we were Randy, but we didn't know it.....

[Rick Farris]

Tales From The Simons Brickyard
“The Hole On The Wall”

When I was about 12 years old I had a friend, Richard, aka Lunga, Lunga had a cousin that moved in with his family, she was 18 at the time. Now in Simons the houses were just wooden shacks without insulation, and outhouses, people would built wooden shacks to be use for bathing, Lunga’s bathing shack had a hole on one wall, when the cousin was going to bathe Lunga would go around telling all of us guys “she bathing, she bathing”, us guys would get our pennies, nickels and dimes, we would get in line and Lunga would stand against the wall by the hole and take our money, the more we paid him the longer we could watch the cousin bathe, the next day we were looking for bottles to take to the store for refunds for the next bath. Don’t know how many here are old enough to remember when you could take bottles to the store and get refunds.

I used to collect soft drink bottles and turn them in. Remember filling paper bags, boxes, etc. and taking them to the store for a 3 cent refund, or something like that. In your case, Frank, the money was well spent. By the way Frank, I wouldn't have minded running with your group. After all, you and your buddies worked your way into the Follies Burlesque House on Main Street. Me, I couldn't lie or sneak my way into that place.

You would had had some fun for sure Rick, the girls at the Follies used us as gofers, go for this, go for that, but hey, we were happy to do it....

Frank . . . Being a "Gofer" for the Follies girls had to be a lot more fun than doing it for Panfelita.

[Randyman]

I used to collect soft drink bottles and turn them in. Remember filling paper bags, boxes, etc. and taking them to the store for a 3 cent refund, or something like that. In your case, Frank, the money was well spent. By the way Frank, I wouldn't have minded running with your group. After all, you and your buddies worked your way into the Follies Burlesque House on Main Street. Me, I couldn't lie or sneak my way into that place.

You would had had some fun for sure Rick, the girls at the Follies used us as gofers, go for this, go for that, but hey, we were happy to do it....

Frank . . . Being a "Gofer" for the Follies girls had to be a lot more fun than doing it for Panfelita.

Suddenly my childhood seems pretty bland.

[kikibalt]

Tales From The Simons Brickyard
A Pachie Story
“I Ain’t Squawking”

We’re now about 17 years old, we were shooting pool at the Simons Pool Hall in Simons, Pachie is walking around with a joint on his ear, after a while he left. About a week later he is at the pool hall again, he tells us that after he left the pool hall the week before he was pull over by the cops, and that one cop told him he was under arrest for having a joint, Pachie: “where is the evidence?”, the cop took the joint for his ear, cop: “here it is”
He was put in the back seat of the cop’s car and ask, cop: “where did you get the joint?”, Pachie: “I ain’t squawking”, cops pull him out of the car and kicked his ass and let him go.

Poor Pachie was always getting his ass kicked, first the rooster, now the cops.

Nothing "Chicken" about a Gamecock . . .

Frank, your rooster story is a good one! I kinda know how Pachie might have felt when he tangled with the rooster.
When I was 17, and training at Flores Gym, a man in his 50's showed up with a young heavyweight prospect. The heavyweight had been a USC football player who had washed out. The old man was a lot of fun (50's was an old man to me in those days), and his daughter would become my first love. The man's name was Karl Nelson (Randy De La O would meet Karl)), and the family lived in Monterey Park. The first night I visited his daughter in the family home, Karl asks me, "Have you ever seen a cock fight?" I said "No", and he went on to tell me that every prizefighter should see how gamecock's fight, usually to the death. The following week, he tells me of an old friend of his who raised gamecocks in San Dimas. The guy had several acres and a big barn. On occasion, he would hold secret cockfights in the barn. Karl invited me to one of these secret cockfights the following week. On the night we arrive at the property, we must turn our headlights off as we enter the property, and park in the back where cars could not be seen from the road. Inside the barn we saw a number of cockfights and had a lot of fun betting, etc. I was just 17, and thought it was cool to attend this "secret" event. One of the gamecocks that fought had won three previous matches, and won that night. However, the cock lost one of his eyes in the fight, and suffered a broken leg. He was thrown into a pile of dead cocks and as we were leaving it was discovered that the unbeaten cock was still alive. Gamecocks aren't soft barnyard roosters, they are hard muscled and strong. You cook up a gamecock and that will be one tough bird to chew. One of the young "trainers" a kid from Mexico, was going to pull the cocks head off and then defeather him for a meal. My friend Karl said, "Don't try to eat that bird, he won his fight. I'll take him home." Well, Karl brings the ailing gamecock home and within a few weeks, the bird looked in fighting shape. The leg seemed to heal and although half blind, the cock ruled the roost in my friends backyard. I remember that when I'd spend the night there, that gamecock would wake the neighborhood every morning when the sun came up. One day, Karl asked me to go into the pen, pick up the gamecock and put him in the garage. The bird was in no mood to be handled. It flew into the corner of the pen and I had him trapped. I reached down and attempted to grab the bird and it retaliated by punching my hands with his claws. Like a boxer, a gamecock punches with his feet. In a real fight, it wears metal gaffs, which are like spears. However without the gaffs a gamecock punches, and they punch hard! I finally got hold of the bird by restraining his legs, but I could feel a lump swelling on the back of my hand. Once I had his legs tied up, it reached down and grabbed my arm with it's beak. When I walked out of that pen my girlfriend and her father were laughing so hard they were in tears. My shirt was torn, I had blood running down my arm and I soon had a golf ball sized bruise right below my knuckles. That bird kicked my ass before I got hold of it. Karl couldn't keep the bird and gave it to me. I couldn't keep the cock in family's Burbank home, so I ended it giving it to one of Johnny Flores amateur flyweights, Manuel. Manuel used to take the gamecock around on a leash, but Johnny told him not to bring him to the gym because it would crap all over the place. Manuel would let it off the leash as we trained and the bird would pirch himself up on the ring ropes, on top of the scale and rubbing table, leaving a pile of crap wherever it landed. We didn't see Manuel for awhile, and when we finally did we asked him about the gamecock. Manuel lowered his head and told us, "he bit my cousin". The cousin didn't like being bitten by the gamecock, and later ate him for dinner. After that experience, I had a gamecock emroidered on the back of my red velvet boxing robe. The first night I wore that robe into the ring in a pro fight, Jimmy Lennon Sr. introduced me as "The Burbank Gamecock". I still have that robe, so maybe I'll shoot pic and post it. Thanks for that rooster story, Frank. It brought back some memories.


-Rick Farris

Rick, that was too funny. man I was laughing my ass off! That's another one for Americas Funniest Video.

Randy

I too laugh my ass off as I read Rick's story...

[kikibalt]

I used to collect soft drink bottles and turn them in. Remember filling paper bags, boxes, etc. and taking them to the store for a 3 cent refund, or something like that. In your case, Frank, the money was well spent. By the way Frank, I wouldn't have minded running with your group. After all, you and your buddies worked your way into the Follies Burlesque House on Main Street. Me, I couldn't lie or sneak my way into that place.

You would had had some fun for sure Rick, the girls at the Follies used us as gofers, go for this, go for that, but hey, we were happy to do it....

Frank . . . Being a "Gofer" for the Follies girls had to be a lot more fun than doing it for Panfelita.

I agree, and we got a few cents too....

[Randyman]

Roger. We miss you. Get your ass back on this thread!!!

[kikibalt]

You would had had some fun for sure Rick, the girls at the Follies used us as gofers, go for this, go for that, but hey, we were happy to do it....

Frank . . . Being a "Gofer" for the Follies girls had to be a lot more fun than doing it for Panfelita.

Suddenly my childhood seems pretty bland.

My childhood was anything but bland as you can see. what I enjoyed most I think was hot wiring my sister's boyfriend's car and him thinking that some body stole his gas....

[Randyman]

Frank . . . Being a "Gofer" for the Follies girls had to be a lot more fun than doing it for Panfelita.

Suddenly my childhood seems pretty bland.

My childhood was anything but bland as you can see. what I enjoyed most I think was hot wiring my sister's boyfriend's car and him thinking that some body stole his gas....

Good "honest" fun compared to the kids today.

[kikibalt]

I have a pic of Lunga, the star of the "Hole On The Wall" story, as soon as I find it I'll post it, its here on the thread already, but who knows on what page....

[Randyman]

Anyone interested in the Kelly Pavlik vs Sergio Martinez fight tomorrow night on HBO? Might turn out to be interesting. I thought Martinez did a good job against Paul Williams back in December of last year. I though the fight was his. He proved himself to be a tough customer. Great endurance too. Pavlik's only loss was to Bernard Hopkins but he sort of got exposed a bit in that fight.

Matinez' only loss other than Williams was to Antonio Margarito back in 2000. I think he might just surprise Pavlik. Regardless I hope it turns out to be a good fight.

Randy

[Rick Farris]

Training a Gamecock . . .

The best fighting gamecocks in the world aren't just tossed into a pit to fight. Of course, you don't have to convince any true gamecock to fight, they just do it naturally. However, this is a big betting activity where thousands of dollars change hands within the course of an evening. Naturally, to increase a bird's chances of winning they are trained, just as boxers are conditioned to fight. They are fed a special diet of grain, weighed daily, they are put on a tread mill-type device that builds their leg muscles, and they spar with other cocks. When they fight, they have steel gaffs (spears) tied to their legs, however, for sparring, they have a leather pads strapped on instead of the deadly gaff's. Watching these spar in training with the leather "gloves" is fun. It is not unusual for one cock to be KOed by another after catching a glove to the head. They are weighed several times daily, just as one would keep an eye on a boxer's weight. When they appear in the pit, they are a beautiful animal. The conditioning and diet gives the birds strong, beautiful feathers, and they have that "Roberto Duran" look in their little dark eyes. These are real fighters and I totally respect these little animals. Although most people are repulsed by two animals fighting to the death, it is a big business and there is even a monthly cockfighting publication, "Grit & Steel".
In a cock fight, you often will not know when a bird had received a deadly shot. Suddenly you will here a "death rattle", which is the sound that comes when a cock's lungs are filling with blood. Someone will yell out, "I hear a rattle, which one is it?" Suddenly one will just fall dead. Often the winner will be so battered that they will also die later.


-Rick Farris

[Randyman]

Training a Gamecock . . .

The best fighting gamecocks in the world aren't just tossed into a pit to fight. Of course, you don't have to convince any true gamecock to fight, they just do it naturally. However, this is a big betting activity where thousands of dollars change hands within the course of an evening. Naturally, to increase a bird's chances of winning they are trained, just as boxers are conditioned to fight. They are fed a special diet of grain, weighed daily, they are put on a tread mill-type device that builds their leg muscles, and they spar with other cocks. When they fight, they have steel gaffs (spears) tied to their legs, however, for sparring, they have a leather pads strapped on instead of the deadly gaff's. Watching these spar in training with the leather "gloves" is fun. It is not unusual for one cock to be KOed by another after catching a glove to the head. They are weighed several times daily, just as one would keep an eye on a boxer's weight. When they appear in the pit, they are a beautiful animal. The conditioning and diet gives the birds strong, beautiful feathers, and they have that "Roberto Duran" look in their little dark eyes. These are real fighters and I totally respect these little animals. Although most people are repulsed by two animals fighting to the death, it is a big business and there is even a monthly cockfighting publication, "Grit & Steel".
In a cock fight, you often will not know when a bird had received a deadly shot. Suddenly you will here a "death rattle", which is the sound that comes when a cock's lungs are filling with blood. Someone will yell out, "I hear a rattle, which one is it?" Suddenly one will just fall dead. Often the winner will be so battered that they will also die later.


-Rick Farris

Tough little bastids!

[kikibalt]

Lunga, the star of "Hole On The Wall"



Unknown, Beto, Richard and Lunga

Simons...Circa 1951

[Randyman]

Lunga, the star of "Hole On The Wall"



Unknown, Beto, Richard and Lunga

Simons...Circa 1951

Look like some good guys Frank. As Archie and Edith Bunker would sing: "Those were the days".

Randy

[kikibalt]

Lunga, the star of "Hole On The Wall"



Unknown, Beto, Richard and Lunga

Simons...Circa 1951

Look like some good guys Frank. As Archie and Edith Bunker would sing: "Those were the days".

Randy

I wonder what happen to the cousin?....

[Randyman]

Lunga, the star of "Hole On The Wall"



Unknown, Beto, Richard and Lunga

Simons...Circa 1951

Look like some good guys Frank. As Archie and Edith Bunker would sing: "Those were the days".

Randy

I wonder what happen to the cousin?....

She probably got a job at the Follies!

[Randyman]

For those that did not see the Paul Williams vs Sergio Martinez fight I posted it on my blog.

http://boxing-ring.blogspot.com/

[kikibalt]

Look like some good guys Frank. As Archie and Edith Bunker would sing: "Those were the days".

Randy

I wonder what happen to the cousin?....

She probably got a job at the Follies!