Why Not ? -3
I stopped drinking when I was 35; I’m near 60 now, but I was always very curious about people, even when I was a drinking man. I had a friend named Dan who was a guy that any man would take advice from. He was a weightlifter, long haired, motor-cycler, tattoo guy, and he worked as a bouncer at the bar. One day I asked him, “Dan, why is it that you don’t drink?” He looked at me straight in the eye and told me, “Dale, I just don’t dig it anymore.”
Now, that’s what I tell people why I don’t drink. “I just don’t dig it anymore.”
The Tucker -5
The Tucker. Let me tell you about the Tucker. When I lived in Hermosa Beach around 1988, there was also around the neighborhood a particular car: a Tucker. In case you don’t know what that is, a futuristic car built in 1949, by a man named Tucker. There were actually only 51 built that year. In 1988 when the value of any car was always less than 2 million dollars, the Tucker’s commanded $250,000, whichever few Tuckers were still around. The one in Hermosa Beach was in perfect condition it used to cruise around to the Mickey’s deli and up and down the beach. Just great but the real story behind the Tucker is:
One day I went over to my friend’s mechanic shop because I always like to talk to mechanics, and we were drinking beer out of green bottles and just sitting at Friday afternoon at 6:00. All the cars were done and the customers were gone. We’re sitting in the office drinking out of our green bottles and from next door runs a guy into our office and he asked, “Hey would you help me move the car that’s parked in the driveway out here?” My friend Bob immediately countered, “We will if you show us the Tucker.” The guy thought about it for a minute, then he agreed, “Okay.” Anyway, we pushed a car out of the way onto the tarmac, and then he took us inside the garage. He pulled the cover off the car, and there was the Tucker. I don’t remember which number it was it might have been 48 or 49 but I actually sat in the Tucker and was able to look at the shift knob. The shift knob was very similar to a new Toyota shift knob. It was a h pattern but it was not on the console, it was on the steering column. It was just about 3 inches across from first, second, third, and fourth. That’s my story of how I got to sit in a Tucker. That’s not the end of the Tucker story.
The Tucker in Hermosa Beach was owned by a couple of brothers who made a little side money selling drugs. One year the DEA busted the brothers and claimed that the car was purchased and restored with ill gotten gains from drug sales and confiscated it. I heard that eventually the DEA gave it to the Smithsonian Institution.
So there in the Smithsonian Institution is the Tucker that I sat in.
Don’t Drop It -7
Back when I used to have a sales job back in 1989, I worked with a couple of girls that were cousins. They wanted to include me and invited me to their families’ dinner for Thanksgiving. I was a non-traditional guy because most of my family is in New York and I’m in California. I went and was seated next to their sister and young cousin who was about 6 years old. She noticed when I picked up my glass that I had my pinky out on my wine glass, and she looked at me and informed me, “I know what that means, that means you’re being polite.” I didn’t say anything but went back to my what I was doing. (eating bread) ?
Eventually, she picked up her water glass, and her pinky was conspicuously on the glass, down under at the bottom of the glass, near the stem. I asked, “And what does that mean?” She replied, ”That means I don’t want to drop it.”
Gemco -9
If you’ve lived in California for any amount of time, you may remember an old department store. Remember department stores like Sears or Montgomery Wards? How about Gemco? It was about 20 or 30 years ago that Gemco was going out of business. The store was in Long Beach and I was living in South Long Beach at the time.
I went into the store in North Long Beach when they had about two weeks left before they were going to close the doors for good. I had just read a book, “You Can Negotiate Anything.” I was trying to buy some stuff and have a Christmas toy sale. It was near about Christmas time; would have been 1985, I think.
The sign outside of the Gemco announced that everything inside was going to be 50% off; I was ready to go in and shop. I was kind of wandering around the store aimlessly; eventually the P.A. announced that everything in health and beauty for the next 5 minutes would be 25 cents. I quickly rushed over to health and beauty, and though the shelves were picked pretty bare, there was a whole selection of Hawaiian Tropic tanning oil, which usually goes about $5 a bottle. It was untouched. There was maybe 60 or 70 of them they’re on the shelf, and I took as many as I could fit into a box and was running to the checkout line (they had a special checkout line for these 25 cent deals), and the announcer said, “If you’re not in line already you’re not going to get the 25 cent deal from health and beauty.” I was bummed.
I decided to walk around the store a little longer, and see if they’d announce another special. Sure enough they did. It was on health and beauty stuff and the price now was going to be 10 cents. I grabbed the box of Hawaiian Tropic Tanning Oil and I ran over to the line and I was like the first person in line and I got the whole box maybe 30 or 40 Hawaiian tropic tanning oils for 10 cents a piece. Regular price: $5 a bottle.
I was pretty excited and was thinking about my book, “You Can Negotiate Anything.” I thought I’d try to talk to the manager, and get a better price than 50% off on some of the things, and so that I could have my toy sale for Christmas. I found the manager and I told him that about my story that I had bought health and beauty stuff for 10 cents and I said, “I liked that and I want to buy some more stuff. I want to have a toy sale or a sale of some sort.” He replied, “Pick out whatever you want and put it in some shopping carts, and come and see me, and I’ll make you a price.” He claimed, ” It won’t be pennies on the dollar, but it’ll be close.” I filled up three shopping carts with all kinds of stuff: clocks, baseball gloves, sneakers, kitchen utensils, you name it, if the department store had it, I had it.
The manager saw my shopping carts filled up to the top and told me, “Okay, $50 a shopping cart.” That was a crazy deal, I loved it and I put that stuff out into my car. I decided I needed a truck because I was going to buy more stuff. I needed somewhere to put it. I also decided that I needed to get a helper, because people were shopping out of other people shopping baskets because there was so little left in the store. They might get looking at something that somebody has already picked out.
I found one of my friends who had a son and I explained, “I’ll give you all the toys your son wants for Christmas but you just have to come and help me and keep people from shopping out of my cart.“ I took my friend and I had a borrowed truck and I went to Gemco again and I picked out three shopping carts full. Fifty dollars a piece, bought those put them in the truck, came in got another three shopping carts, and I did this until I spent $800 in shopping carts. On the last times when I showed the manager of my shopping carts he directed, “Come with me.” He took me to the area where they sell all the Chinese tools and the hangers for pictures on the wall and three or four screws, or washers at a time, and they were all still on the pegboard. He declared, “You have to get all this stuff out of here for me, do me a favor.” I put everything in boxes and put it underneath the shopping cart that I already had. I was going to get the hardware for the same price, as it fit on the bottom of the shopping carts. I had two boxes of stuff that I was able to sell for like 3 for $5, and people would love to sit and go through my boxes.
On my very last shopping cart the manager told the cashier that I was going to pay 50 bucks, and the cashier saw my shopping cart. The manager was leaving the store for the last time ever, his job was over. This cashier saw I had a bicycle on top of the shopping cart. I was going to get that all for $50, she didn’t believe it, and so she ran out into the parking lot after the manager, and told him that I had a bicycle on my shopping cart, and he told her, “$50.”
On a corner lot in Long Beach before Christmas by a few days I had a friend who let me use his yard to have a sale. I was selling things for half of the marked price. I had a lot of stuff, you figure 16 shopping carts full I made $400 the first day of the sale and $400 the second day of the sale. I got all my money back and I still had a garage full of stuff to sell that lasted me about 6 months. I’d throw open the garage door every once in a while and just have a sale when I needed money. It worked out great. It wasn’t the most money I made in a day, but it was very close, $800 in 2 days, that’s pretty good for me.
Needs Engine -10
Back when I used to work on cars and sell them to make money, my friends would always be on the lookout for a good deal for me. One time a friend told me he knew about a Mazda RX-7, but it needed an engine. I get that all the time from people, and if it needs a valve job, they’ll say it needs an engine; if it needs a piston, they’ll say it needs an engine. I asked him, “How exactly do you know that this car needs an engine?” He explained, “You go to the car, you open the hood, you look, you see—no engine.”