Page 36 - Been There… Done That!

Gary Graham
“I’ll tell you what. I’ve got a mirror out back that has a small piece of chrome skinned back and I can let you have it for ten dollars plus tax.” I guess he had a feeling that he wasn’t going to get a score off of us, so at least he could get rid of his crappy mirror. As he was installing the mirror, I asked Ed Craig if he could give me a few bucks to pay the guy and Ed turned to the guys and asked if they had any money. When they said no, Ed said, “Sorry, I don’t have any either and why are you asking?” “Don’t you remember me telling the guy all we had was thirty-seven dollars?” I asked.
Well that was just great because all I had were hundred dollar bills and we could possibly get our ass kicked by that big bastard. I told Ed to go to a café and see if he could get them to break a hundred. In about fifteen minutes Ed came back and said, “The only way they will bust a hundred is if we would spend some of it on food.” I told him to go back and buy some sandwiches to go. After quite a bit of time passed, Ed came back with change for the hundred. I asked what took so long. He told me they kept looking at the hundred and finally said to him that Frank Sinatra, Jr. had been kidnapped and his ransom paid in hundred dollar bills. Those bills weren’t that common in 1963 and that’s what caused all the confusion. After Ed got the sandwiches, I couldn’t find a volunteer to go pay “Baby Huey,” so I trudged to the counter and asked how much I owed him. He replied, eleven dollars and change and counted it back to me with a grin I’ll never forget. He told me, “You’re good” but don’t ever come here again. That wasn’t a problem..
We finally arrived in California and drove straight to Hollywood. I will say it was intimidating at first because we were just a bunch
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