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St. Nick's Outlaws
By Jim Colombo
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Copyright 2001 Jim Colombo
Chapter 45
It was Monday, December 3rd, the beginning of hell week, and Jim was excused
from taking written exams on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday because his index and
middle fingers were in a splint. He and would take his exams in January while everyone
else went through the typical fire drill on Monday, and on Tuesday, re-writing term papers
and getting ready for finals. On Wednesday Jim had the splint on his index finger replaced
with a smaller splint. Thursday morning he went to the team dentist and had an impression
of his mouth made to make a bridge for his two missing teeth. Jim had eaten soft food for
a week, and now it was time to have a real meal. He went to Doggie Diner on Van Ness
and Eddy for lunch, and ate two double chili cheese dogs with a side of onion rings, and a
chocolate shake. For dessert he went to Remo’s across the street and ate a medium
sausage, mushroom, and black olive pizza, and drank two large cokes.
He took a long walk along Van Ness Avenue, and passed by Horse Trader Ed’s
used car lot on Ellis Street. There was a red 1955 Cadillac convertible with black and
white cowhide seat covers, and a set of longhorns attached to the hood. The folks in
Texas would appreciate its charm. St. Nick’s was two blocks up Ellis Street. Jim
recalled the time when Steinway needed a second, and they became good friends. The
time Tom Portello chased Jefferson down Van Ness to Market Street, and caught him. Jim
had never seen a big man move so fast. Jefferson was a middle linebacker, black, and on
the track team. He had stolen Portello’s lunch, and the guys thought that Jefferson had
said something about Portello’s ugly girl friend. Jim continued walking down Van Ness
and peeked into Tommy’s Joint on O’ Farrell Street and he saw people eating buffalo stew
and turkey chili. One of the first things Jim wanted to do when he became twenty-one was
to go to T.J.’s and have an imported beer and a plate of buffalo stew.
Jim's classmates finished exams, and they were free men for three weeks. The
awards dinner was that night, December 7th, Pearl Harbor day. The Alumni Association
had donated porterhouse steaks for the dinner. The guest speaker was Admiral Stevens
from the Seventh Fleet stationed on Treasure Island. He spoke about how modern the
Navy had become compared to when he was an ensign in 1941. He talked about
teamwork and the lessons the players had learned. Admiral Stevens congratulated the
team for winning the city championship, and finished his speech by telling all that they
had a duty to preserve this great nation. Admiral Stevens was a very inspiring speaker.
Each member of the team received a trophy and a football block to sew on their varsity
sweaters. Jim now had a varsity championship letter in football and baseball. His father
was very proud of him. That night Coach Kepen announced the All-City team. Augie,
Rensom, and Jim had made the team. The halfback from Galileo had injuries during the
year and never played to his potential. Jim was happy for Rensom and would take him to
the Chuck Wagon for dinner. Rensom was the heart of the team. The team gave a special
award to Garcia as the soul of the team. He received a trophy and a block letter, because
he had made the team when the season began. It was a special year because the
Outlaws had won respect and St. Nick's was now the big dog in the city.
The following Monday Jim went to visit Lupe at City of Paris where she was a
saleslady and a model when they had fashion shows. Jim planned to work at City of Paris
for Christmas, but the doctor said no activity for a month. He couldn’t lift weights or work
at City of Paris, and felt useless. There was a fashion show that day and Lupe looked
glamorous and poised. She enjoyed dressing up. Jim admired her new confidence. Mr.
Crenshaw and Rudy were surprised to see how feminine she had become. Lupe was
graceful and had a beautiful smile. At the end of the fashion show Jim waited for her and
said,” You look like you really enjoy being up there.”
“I do. I enjoy wearing nice clothes.” Lupe wore a little makeup, she was exercising
every day, and had good muscle tone and posture. Jim asked her if she wanted to pursue
being a model. “No. I’m too short, but I can work here part time as a model and saleslady
after Christmas. This is my football. I will enjoy it, and then one day walk away.”
Jim spoke with Rudy for a while. Rudy and his partner Jerry were very happy
living together in the Castro district where homosexual men were creating a community
and their version of society. They were organizing as a political group and demanded to
be heard. The Castro was sanctuary for homosexual men who came out and now enjoyed
the light of day. They lived in old Victorian flats that they painted with lively colors like
blue, yellow and green. The lower Castro was in a renaissance. Men from all parts of the
country were coming to find acceptance, liberation, and love. Jim had noticed the change
in the neighborhood. The Castro was livelier, and becoming the center of the universe for
homosexual men. Lesbian women began to join their ranks. They now had a safe haven
to live and love as they preferred. Jim had delivered newspapers when he was twelve
along Castro Street. Then, the white or beige homes were filled with blue-collar people
who were islands in their neighborhood. The Castro now had vitality and the community
had a quest for identity and expression that was gaining momentum spreading throughout
the Castro from Market and 16th Streets to the top of the hill on 22nd Street. Jim didn’t
agree with their sexual preference, but he respected their zest for life. Rudy was a
talented tailor and a decent human being, and if the issue of sex was removed, he was like
anyone else.
Unfortunately, sex was their battle cry and it polarized them from mainstream
America. They were branded as radicals along with Blacks, women, and college students
who demanded change in the sixties. The word radical permeated the mindset.
Mainstream America had left the fifties with a witch hunt for communists during the
McCarthy era, the threat of Russian ICBM’s with nuclear warheads aimed at America, and
an American spy plane was shot down in Russia in May of 1959 prior to a peace
conference. There was tension between Russia and America and the sabers of war rattled
on the horizon. President Kennedy and the New Frontier gave hope as the sixties began
with the attempt to send men to the moon was exciting. There was energy and vitality in
the sixties. Leaders for civil rights, homosexual rights, and women’s rights were organizing
and protesting the prevailing conditions in society. Conflict and change were the
prerequisite in the sixties. College students didn’t want to join the military and die in
Vietnam. There were others who chose to drop out of society and explore life on their own
terms. The death of President Kennedy in November 1963 created a void that was never
filled. The political leadership that followed with President Johnson moved in one
direction, while society fragmented and moved in other directions. The military-industrial
complex had visions of high-tech warfare that would revolutionize war. Buttons would be
pushed and rockets would be launched. War was now a mathematical equation of
attrition with X number of bombs over Y number of faceless people equaled victory. They
no longer bombed the enemy, they surgically removed targets of strategic need. America
was enforcing its global policy to secure its vital national interest. Society was busy
spending money on new cars, homes, and entertainment while there was an exodus to the
suburbs. Each was in search of a dream and everyone had an agenda. It was like the
Oklahoma land rush. All of them were rushing to a point somewhere out there.
There were other changes in the mix of society, such as the drug culture and
psychedelic music that were starting to gain a following. Marijuana and LSD were the
preferred drugs of escape. The narrow end of Golden Gate Park on the corner of
Haight and Ashbury Streets is called the Panhandle and had low-income apartments on
Haight Street. Ashbury Street was at the base of the hill going up to Parnassus Street and
at the top of Parnassus Street was the University of California Medical School. The
medical student lived in the cheap apartments along Haight Street. Musicians lived in the
Haight Ashbury and played at the local coffee-houses. It was 1963 and a radical wind
was blowing. Out of necessity students and musicians lived together in a communal
environment sharing expenses. They were creating a liberal interpretation of society,
learning from their diverse experiences in life, and protesting society. It was a time to turn
on and tune in to one’s inner self. In the early fifties they were called Bohemians and liked
jazz music and poetry. Then they were part of the beat generation called Beatniks after
the Russian satellite Sputnik. In the early sixties they were called Hippies because they
were hip or in the know. Their music was folk and they sang about protest and challenging
authority. The birth control pill was available, fostering the sexual revolution and the drug
culture was turning on to new vibrations. Like Prohibition, it was cool to openly talk about
drugs and pass a joint with friends. One of the popular songs at that time was “Take a Hit
on Me.” Blacks, women, and homosexuals demanded equality. College students and
hippies wanted peace, not global involvement. There was a severe gap in ideology
between the generation in power and the coming generation. There was a group from
England called the Beatles. Rock and roll had veered a little with surfing music, but this
new stuff from England was an invasion that captured the young girls. Jim respected his
father as a veteran of World War II. He and his dad disagreed about duty, and if the
United States were attacked, Jim would join. He wouldn’t be a pawn in a chess game of
global policy. Vietnam was a distant war that was the wrong war at the wrong time for the
wrong reasons. The younger generation sought change in their own way. Everyone had
dreams, and they lost more than a president the day John Kennedy was assassinated.
They had lost their innocence and simple way of life. In a brief time span they went from
Leave it to Beaver to the Man fromU.N.C.L.E.
They say that television is the window of a society and in the fifties there were
simple comedies with I Love Lucy and Leave It to Beaver. Home life was stable. The
older generation had gone through the Depression and World War II, and were very
patriotic. They didn’t question the policies of the government or the church. They thought
in terms of neighborhood, not global policy. All they wanted was to own their home, have
a good car, a steady job, and save money for college or retirement, the American dream.
Jim's parents worked hard, went to church, and were good people. That’s all that mattered.
The nation had shifted into a sphere of political involvement with Eastern Europe, Russia,
Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Vietnam. The Government's agenda was securing
America's national interest, and strategic locations for its military to police the world.
The younger generation wanted to live in peace, so they challenged government
policy. They didn’t have grand visions of global influence. It wasn’t their job to police the
world for big business. They would defend their country if attacked, but this was
imperialism. This was the Military Complex that President Eisenhower warned of. It was
the monster with an insatiable appetite.
Then Vatican II changed the mass from Latin to English. The priest now faced the
altar, and the mystery Communion, as well as the presence of the Holy Ghost was gone.
The Gregorian chants that set the mood of being humble in the house of God were gone.
It was no longer a spiritual experience receiving the body of Christ. Before a priest gave
Communion, now the laity gave Communion. Maybe the Priest was just a man like
anyone else. Once they saw the magician taking the rabbit from the back of his black coat
with tails and putting it into his top hat, the illusion was gone. Going to mass was not the
same. Jim and his classmates had studied Latin to become altar boys. Now the mass was
in English, and the boys were no longer participants, just reminders from the past. First
you doubt your government, next your religion, and then you start to wonder about a lot of
things.
Change takes time in a society and its culture. The sixties were a whirlwind of
radical change. Some dropped out with drugs, other were exposed to the horror of war,
and never came back mentally, only physically from Vietnam. Some took a wrong turn
and went to places that they hadn’t plan to go, or become people that they hadn’t
planned to be. Each paid a price for the radical changes in the sixties. Lupe and Jim
were shocked watching television each night as they saw race riots and fires in American
cities, students protesting on university campuses, and the National Guard confronting
them. The war was here, not in Vietnam. The ghettos and campuses were the
battlegrounds. Each night Jim and Lupe saw the world getting smaller as they watched
the window of the world displayed on television. Their music was changing. They had
enjoyed the sounds of Motown about love. Now it was songs of protest, folk songs, and
the English. The number one song was “Soldier Boy” by the Shirelles. Some were still
numb from the loss of Camelot. Brother Matthew said time was change, not motion. In
1963 Jim's world changed rapidly. He wasn’t looking forward to 1964. In June he would
leave St. Nick’s, his haven of friends, and sports. For everything gained or learned there
was a price to pay. It was time to ante up. The future was at hand.
