From Rifle & Pack, to Wolfman Jack

I got into San Jose just in time to help my folks move from the house they just sold, into a new one they'd just bought further north in Newark. Dad still worked in San Francisco and it would make for a shorter commute.

They insisted I stay with them until I got established back into civilian life, but I only agreed to it if they'd let me chip in each month toward the mortgage payment as long as I was there. So, I had a place to crash and even a spot in the garage for my old Chevy, which by then was needing a rebuild.

Finding a job was a bit trying at first, as I had nothing on my resume but shooting a bazooka for Uncle Sam..........and believe it of not, NO employers out there were looking for bazooka-shooters at the time!

I found a temporary warehouse job at Raymark Cargo up in Oakland, and a couple of months later, found a permanent job at the St. Regis Paper Factory in Fremont (right across the I-17 freeway from Newark). Nice, short commute!

I started three lifelong hobbies in that fall of '69 and spring of '70. A love of old cars, playing the guitar and gun collecting.

I bought a "second" '57 Chevy. A station wagon this time, to use for a work car and haul parts for the rebuilding of my 2-door hardtop. Dad was a professional mechanic and helped me build a new "327" to replace the old "283." After the "break-in", Bob Fisher, a hot-rodder who worked at DeLavall Turbine in Hayward, helped me build that motor up further, into a full-race competition mill, along with other modifications from one end to the other, and soon I was able to "go out and play" on Saturdays at the local Fremont Dragstrip. It was also a pretty serious "street cruiser" on Friday nights.

The movie "American Grafitti" depicted Turlock California in 1962, but they could have filmed that right there in Fremont as far as I'm concerned. Cruisin' the strip over there at night was unforgettable. The boulevards were FULL of Impalas and Bel Airs, T-Birds, Mustangs, GTO's, Corvettes and 4-4-2's, street rods and modifieds of all types. The burger drive-ins, the chicks, the drive-in movies, the side-streets, ducking the cops, it was all there. When they made the "Grafitti" movie years later, I thought............"Man I got to LIVE that time!" It was really something.

And Wolfman Jack was on the radio, baby! For those who might not know, the "Wolfman" was somewhat of a "mystic spirit" of the airways. He played the oldies, took phone calls, and said a lot of crazy things that actually made more sense than things that were considered "normal!"

I do not have----nor do I suspect anyone ELSE has-----sufficient flow of speech to accurately describe Wolfman Jack to anyone who never got to hear him, except to say that when you heard his show, it didn't matter WHAT was going on in your life.....good, bad or in-different, when the old Wolfman got to howlin' all over the airways, you just knew that somehow, everything was gonna be cool, and whatever problem you had would work itself out.

And the "Wolfman was EVERYWHERE".......much to the dismay of the FCC, his relay stations far exceeded the wattage allowed, but he broadcasted from just over the border in Mexico for a few years, and they couldn't touch him. To many, Wolfman Jack (Bob Smith was his real name), was one of the early pioneers of "fighting the system." One of the original "outlaws", which only ADDED to his radio popularity!

I remember a call he took one night from some depressed guy whose girlfriend had just broke up with him, and he wanted the Wolfman to play a particular song for him. The Wolfman said he would, but FIRST the caller needed to do something that would cheer HIMSELF up. He needed to do some "spy-work."

"Spy-work?"

"YEAH MAN...........WHERE DO YOU LIVE, AMIGO?"

"In an apartment."

"UPSTAIRS OR DOWNSTAIRS, MAN?"

"Upstairs."

"YOU GOT ANY BUSHES AROUND THAT PLACE?"

"Yeah."

"OK BROTHA'...........HERE'S WHAT I WANT YOU TO DO.......YA LISTENIN'?"

"Yeah."

"GO DOWNSTAIRS AND GET IN BEHIND THE BUSHES....Y'UNDERSTAND?"

"Yeah."

"THEN I WANT YOU TO LOOK BOTH WAYS UP AND DOWN THE STREET AND MAKE SURE THEY AIN'T NOBODY COMIN'!.....GOT THAT?"

"Yeah."

............."THEN....I WANT YOU TO GO AHEAD AND WHIZ IN THE BUSHES!"....."JUST GO ON AHEAD AND WHIZ IN THE BUSHES-----IT'LL MAKE YA FEEL BETTER, MAN..........AND I'LL PLAY THAT RECORD FOR YA BABY!"

The guy was suddenly ecstatic and said "THANK YOU WOLFMAN!"

....and then the old Wolfman, in his "customary telephone farewell says.............."BYE!!"

I LOVED Friday nights. Go home after work, shower & change, crank the old Bel Air up, pick up your date and head out to the strip, or the beach or some dark place under the stars.............or maybe all of the above! The midnight cruises along Half Moon Bay, dice swingin' from the rearview mirror, little fake dog on the rear shelf with the head bobbin' up & down, raw horsepower rumbling out through the headers burning that 104-high-octane pump gas (at 38 cents a gallon), chick sitting beside you and through the speakers------------"ALRIGHT BABY.......MY MY! STAY ALIVE, AIN'T NO JIVE, HERE'S A LITTLE FORTY-FIVE, BY THE LATE GREAT BUDDY HOLLY, ON THE WOLFMAN JACK SHOW! HAVE MERCY!!

It'll never come again. Here in 2011, we don't even HAVE an "oldies" radio station here in Idaho.

And in 2011, I'll be cruising through town here, in the old 64 Fairlane or even the 56 Olds, and a carload of kids will zip past me in some little Honda with wheels that look like they came off a Peterbilt...............you can barely hear the little "hamsters" churned up through the tiny exhaust, and when I roll up next to them at the light, there's this "BOOM-BOOM-THUMP-THUMP", their windows are rattling from it.

I just think to myself................."Pity what it's become..........."

The light turns and they "zip" off. I just ease back in the seat and listen to the glass-packs as that old Hydra-matic shifts from 2nd to 3rd, while the dice swing from the mirror and the hulagirl wiggles on the back shelf (I couldn't find the "dog").........and I realize how blessed I've been.

However far this country continues to go into the toilet, I can still find a little solace in knowing that I got to live here when I did! I wouldn't trade it for ANYTHING!

The "good old days" really WERE. If ya think NOT, look at what 50's & 60's "collectables" are bringing today at antique shops and on EBay! When was the last time there was a NEW car show in a park?

In 1956, two grand bought you a new Chevrolet Bel Air, YOUR choice of engine, transmission and differential options, TWO-tone paint, generous chrome instead of pin-striping, room for SIX ADULTS comfortably, trunk room for plently of luggage AND a FULL-SIZED spare (not some "donut").....they didn't ALL LOOK ALIKE, and it was built well-enough that you could still be driving it 50 years later if you chose to.

Today............for THIRTY grand, you can have.................