Me and John Mulligan
by "Big Gene" Townley
Back when I lived in Garden Grove, I spent a lot of time
with John Mulligan. The people I worked for were right next door to The
Cave. One night I was at the shop and John looked over the fence. He asked
me if I was going over to our shop later because he wanted to work on his
truck. Ruth was in town and there was not room at their shop. He picked me
up in his Ford Econoline pickup with a V8 Chevy and we started down Garden
Grove Blvd. When we went by the Big Boy, John said, "Dave Beebe and
Frank Fedak are in the Big Boy." We swung around, went back, and let
the air out of both their tires. Back in those days, everyone did that. Most
of us, if we were going to the Big Boy, took an air tank. Then we headed for
our shop.
I had a nice shop on Trask that the man I worked for had
built. We worked on John's truck and then someone said, "Let's get
some wine." I remember it was on a Thursday night and none of us had
any money. We put what we had on the table and found we had enough for three
bottles. John and I got in his truck and headed for the liquor store. When
we started into the liquor store, I saw a sign on the door that said,
"We take BANKAMERICARD." About two months before, my bank had sent
me one of these BANKAMERICARDs and I had looked at it and put it in my
wallet. We went over to the clerk. I showed him my card and asked him what I
could buy with it. He looked at me and asked, "Are you Gene
Townley?" I said, "Yes." He said, "Do you have an
ID?" I gave him my license, he picked up the phone, and when he got
through, he said, "You can buy up to $750.00 worth of anything in the
store." We got a case of wine, a case of beer, a box of peanuts, and a
jar of beef jerky, and back to the shop we went.
After about two hours, a cop who used to come by all the
time showed up with his partner -- a German Shepherd. He used to block off
Trask so we could fire the motor to check it out. He talked to us awhile and
then asked if he could borrow our restroom. While the cop was in the
restroom, Mulligan said, "Big Gene, you ain't got a hair on your ass
if you don't go get in the back seat with that dog." I got up, went
over, opened the door, yelled at the dog get over, got in with the dog, and
started petting him. He laid down on the seat by me and acted like he liked
me -- that wine makes you do funny things. The cop came out and saw what was
going on -- by now I had rolled the window down -- and he drew his gun.
Mulligan asked him as calm as he could say it, "You're not going to
shoot Big Gene, are you?" You guys who knew John can probably see him
saying this. The cop said, "I may have to shoot the dog if he makes a
move toward Gene." By now, the dog is licking my hand. The cop said,
"Gene, please open the door, get out, and shut the door." I got
out and shut the door but the window was still down. The cop had his back to
the car, chewing me out, telling me how lucky I was Clancy didn't chew me
up. I told him Clancy might attack a crook if he sicked him on one, but I
was sure if he knew you weren't a threat he wouldn't hurt you. I said,
"Clancy -- come here, boy." Old Clancy jumped through the window,
ran over, jumped up in my lap, and I started petting him. The cop finally
got Clancy back in the car. He asked us to please not say anything about
this deal and left. He would still come over but he always parked three
shops down.
The next day after I got paid I went down to Reath's to
get our crank. As I walked in the store I saw on the window, "We take
BANKAMERICARD." I guess you know where that led.
"Big Gene" Townley
glennanevada@email.msn.com
