Watts Going On?

When I returned from my mission, I applied for a job for 7-11. It was owned by Southland Food Corporation at the time, and that in turn was owned by Lady Bird Johnson, the wife of President Johnson. I was hired as an assistant manager of one of the stores on Boulder Highway near Las Vegas. After a little time, there was an opening in Las Vegas for a manager. I took the job. I really liked it. They sent an older man to the store to be trained as an assistant manager. He was a friendly man and was doing pretty well.  

The company had a contest for all of the stores, and my store won. What I won was a keg of beer. I was not really interested in it, and so I gave it to the assistant manager. He had been looking for a car for transportation. I wanted to sell my 1958 Cadillac and he wanted to buy it, so after work one day he took the keg and drove the car home for his wife to look at it. I didn’t see him for a few days after that. He just didn’t show up for work. I think that the keg was not a good thing.

Like my car except my car was blue

I went to where he lived to get my car and found that he had moved to California. I found out where he had moved with my car. I took the bus down and then a taxi to his home. There was my car. I went and knocked on his door and got the keys and was going to head out for home. His daughter came out as I was driving off and stopped me to get a pistol from the glove compartment. She apologized for her dad and said she was sorry he had taken my car.

I headed off for home, but the brakes were not working all that well so I pulled off to a small gas station. The owner just looked at me and asked what I was doing in that part of town. I explained what I was doing. He told me to sit in the back room, and he fixed my car. He came out and asked if I knew what was going on. Apparently, there was a riot going on near where I was. I was in the middle of Watts. The owner of the station was a black man, and he wanted to help me and get me out of the area. He told me to drive down two blocks and turn right and get on the freeway and don’t stop until I was completely out of the area. I followed his instructions and was able to get home safely.  

As a side note, I had been wearing my contacts for so long without stopping on this trip that I had scarred my cornea. I had a pair of sunglasses and that is what I had to wear home even in the dark. I never could wear contacts again. My eyes finally healed and now I wear just glasses.

I felt bad for Joe, but I couldn’t afford to give him my car. I hope things finally worked out for him.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Some of My Testimony

Image
November 2019 Carl Stubbs As a young man, I wanted to follow in my father’s footsteps as far as the Church was concerned. He had a strong testimony of the gospel, and he instilled that belief into me by his example. There were many people in my life that helped me along the way. I soon learned that the Church was true, but that all of the people who were members were not always so, including myself. Some of the men that were influential in my life besides my father were Frosty Traasdahl, Karl Snow, Glenn Snow, Jake Williams, Bert Whitney, M J Christensen and Bishop Cheeseman. I’m sure there were others, but these are the ones that come quickly to memory. One that I met prior to my mission was Alma Sonne who was the one that called me on a mission. I have always believed that the Church was true and have known that all of us are not exempt from the temptations of the world. I believe that we are all attempting to do our very best with the abilities that we have been given. As I went...
Read more

The Board of Education

Image
As I watch several of my children who are in education work during this coronavirus, I see them using the internet to reach their students. This writing will probably let you know that I started teaching many years ago. I will help you out with that. The first year I taught in public school was 1968. It was at Orem High School. Carl Stubbs in classroom D-2, 1985 In my room, D-2, the chalkboards were black. Not long after, it was determined that green was a much better color, easier for the students to see. I was not teaching there long before they came in one summer and put in the new improved green boards. They were still called blackboards by the teachers and students. These boards worked just fine for many years. I should deviate from the story of boards to let you know that my penmanship is not good. In fact, it is terrible. In fact, I remember in college I would take good notes, but have to hurry home and type them before I forgot what they said. I had a difficult time...
Read more

Kansas

Image
Written on October 12, 2020 As a young man between eighth and ninth grade, I had the opportunity to go from Boulder City to Kansas to work on my uncle’s farm. I say given the opportunity, but I was really just shipped out. His farm was in the southwest corner of Kansas. Looking back after sixty-two years I realize that my parents, my dad, in particular, wanted me out of town. I’m not sure why, but I guess I was not all that enjoyable to have around. I can’t even remember the name of the little towns they lived by, but I remember the farm. I suspect that my uncle Harry and his wife Inez were not that excited to have me there, but they treated me ok. I was there for about three months. They had two sons who were older than me. Duane was eighteen and Manley was about twenty. An old wheat truck like the one on my uncle's farm I got to work on the family farm driving a tractor, a large wheat truck, and a 1947 Kaiser-Frazer car. After work and on the weekends, I was allowed to driv...
Read more