Willie And Joe

By Frank Baltazar

In the summer of 1973, we took a trip to Phoenix, Arizona to take some kids to box, on the trip was John Martinez and Gary Orchard, both were boxing trainers and friends of mine, also going for the ride was my brother in law Willie and my wife’s brother in law Joe, plus about six kids that were going to box. When I invited Willie he said he would go, but with one condition, that I had to promise to take a picture of him with a big Indian woman, I promise to do so, not knowing how I was going to accomplish that, Joe said that he would go just to get out of town.

Willie and Joe, who did not really knew each other, said that they would ride in the camper with the kids, riding in the cab was John and Gary with me driving. It was late afternoon when we left La Puente heading east on I-10, as we reach the Palm Springs area we made a pit stop at a rest area, as soon as I stopped, Joe jumped from the camper yelling.
“I am not riding with that SOB any more!” pointing at Willie.
“What’s wrong Joe?” I asked
“That SOB is crazy!’ said Joe.
“Okay Joe, you ride in the cab with John and I, Gary will you ride in the camper please?” I said
“No problem Frank” said Gary.

We get back on I-10 and travel eighty miles or so before we made another pit stop in the middle of nowhere. Joe had calm down and said he would ride in the camper with Willie again.
“Are you sure Joe?”.
“Ya, it’ll be alright”.

Another eighty miles or so we made another pit stop, this time its Willie who jumped out yelling.
“I not riding with that SOB!” pointing at Joe.
“Damn!, you guys are worse then some married couples I know!,” I told them.
I was beginning to feel like Dear Abby.
“Willie, you ride in the cab with us!, John, Please ride in the camper” I said
“No problem” said John.

We get back on I-10, after traveling some miles we made another pit stop, now Willie said he would ride in the camper with Joe.
“Okay Willie, but if you guys keep on fighting I’m going to leave both of you here in the middle of nowhere” I said

“Gary, Will you drive, please?”
“Sure Frank”

Its about 2:00 AM when we get into Phoenix and we’re hungry, as we are looking for a place that was open at that hour we spotted a Jack-In-The-Box that was open, Gary drives through the drive thru and in doing so hits and knocks Jack of the pole that he was on, after going through all that we still parked in their parking area, I went inside and what do I see?, two Indian women that had to be size 5 by 5, okay maybe not 5 feet wide, but you know what I mean, I seen them and I did a u-turn and ran to the camper.
“Willie!, Willie!, come with me and bring the camera!”
I shot some pictures with Willie and the two Indian women, Willie had a big smile on his face as he stood between both of them.
“Thanks brother in law for taking those pictures” said Willie
“I said I would, didn’t I ?”
“Ya! you did”
“Hey Willie, are you going to show them to Annie”
“Don’t know”.
I don’t know if he ever showed them to Annie.

After eating we drove to the motel where some rooms were waiting for us.
That night the kids fought, as tired as they were from the long trip, they all still won their fights.
After the fights we adults went to a country club and listen to some shit-kicking music.

Next morning we started our drive back home, we left Phoenix and stopped in Buckeye, a small town a few miles west of Phoenix for breakfast, we found a restaurant that had a table big enough for all of us, we all ordered, and when the waitress took Willie’s order she had to sit down as she couldn’t believe what he had just ordered, he ordered half a dozen pan cakes with an egg in between each pan cake, that’s six pan cakes and six eggs!, what made the waitress sit down was this, he also ordered a "side order" of bacon and eggs, hash browns and toast, he ate the whole thing!, after eating he drank a beer and slept most of the way home. At least that way Willie and Joe didn’t fight…..