“The '50's”

By Frank Baltazar

1950 was the year I turn 14 years old. Nothing much happened that years aside from going to the Olympic to see Art Aragon trash my hero Enrique Bolanos and Beto's brother stealing our rabbits for his wedding dinner.

1951 was the year I got my first tattoo (“kiki”-51-) on my right arm. Went to see Art Aragon fight Jimmy Carter twice, with Keeny Teran fighting on the under card on the second fight, also got to see Enrique Bolanos fight Eddie Chavez and Keeny fighting Gil Cadilli on the same card at the Hollywood Legion. Late summer-early fall went to Moorpark, Ca. to pick walnuts, had a great time in Moorpark, fooled around more then work .

1952 was the year that the Simons Brickyard became part of history, a history that left us with some happy and sad memories, happy because even though we were dirt poor we still led a happy life, sad because we had to leave the only home we had known, I wrote some of my memories of the brickyard before, so I won't get into them here. It was in August that we left Simons for good, got on my dad buddy's truck and headed north to Hollister, Ca. where we found work picking plums, after we were done with harvesting the plums we worked picking grapes in a mountain range called “El Gavilan”, after two weeks of picking grapes we headed back to SoCal. We lived with my maternal grandparents in Pico, now Pico-Rivera, Ca. until my dad was able to find us a house to live in, which wasn't long. Late '52 I started working the weekends at the Whittier Car Wash and I was ready to buy my first car, which I did in December, I bought a 1938 four door Chevy that ran more on oil then gas for 55 dollars, five bucks a week.

1953 was a nondescript year, beside meeting girls nothing much happened, going to school, working the weekends at the car wash and cruising and listening to Hunter Hancock play R&B music on my ride was the order of the day.

1954 started out the same as '53, that is until April, when I met Connie. In the summer after working up north for a bit I started working full time at the car wash and that gave me enough money to put oil in my car and take her to eat at “The Spot” on Olympic Bl. in Montebello, Ca. On Sundays I would get paid and get off work at 2:00 PM, after going home to clean up, I would go pick Connie up at her house in Jimtown, go to The Spot and order a pastrami for each of us, after eating it was time to cruise the barrios, Simons, Canta Rana's, Jimtown, El Ranchito, and of course E.L.A..
As summer turned into fall things with Connie and I were getting serious, in December we decided to get married, it was a great way for Connie and I to end the year.

1955 was a time for both Connie and I to get used to married life, I went to work full time at a car dealership (paint shop) and Connie stay home, it was a quiet year., not much happening.

1956 was a big year for us, after nearly two years of marriage our first child was born, our beautiful daughter Linda was born on August 21, remember going to pick Connie and baby Linda up from Los Angeles County General Hospital with my late sister Mary Ellen's then boyfriend, later husband, Danny, and goofing off like kids in the hallway of the hospital. Connie and I spent the rest of '56 bonding with our baby.

1957 was again a quiet year. Watch Linda take her first steps as she turned 1 year old, it was also the year I turned 21, I could now drink a beer legally. I can't say how old Connie was without maybe getting thrown in jail.

1958 was another big year for Connie and I with the birth of our first son, Fernie, who was born on April 14. He was later to be known in the boxing world as Frankie Baltazar Jr.. Not long after Fernie was born a friend of Connie's asked her if she would like a job, after we talked it over she decided to take the job, which is how I became a kept man later on in our marriage.

1959 we spent all our free time watching Linda and Fernie grow and do what kids do.
It was, all in all a great decade to be alive.