👍

---

How were the prices in that store? In 1966 I was in high school and worked for Fred's Music store delivering TVs stereos and appliances. Among other things they sold Curtis Mathis TVs. A customer that wanted a particular model that another store had. That store was locked in the Watts area so I drove there to pickup the TV and deliver it our customer. I recall it had parking lot surrounded with chain link topped with barbed wire and concertina coils. Inside their TVs were all priced at least $200 more than our in the San Gabriel Valley, Azusa. They also charged much more for all services and delivery. Anyway, we got the TV loaded and their warehouse guy cautioned me to follow the direct route back to the freeway, don't stop and hurry since it was about to get dark. I don't know if the prices reflected the cost of doing business in that location or just ripping off the locals.

About that same time a fellow that owned a popular local Mexican restaurant, Pancho Villia's, took a cross country road trip with his wife. He was of Spanish decent, with a typical mustache and slicked back black hair and his wife was a good looking blonde that looked like she was a member of the Swedish bikini team. He told me about stopping at several motels to rent a room for the night and get a, "Sorry no vacancies." response from the front desk. They would drive around he corner, stop and his wife would go in, lo and behold, they had a vacancy.

---

higher than supermarket prices in many other places, but comparable to other mom and pop grocery stores in the area...at the time, there were no supermarkets in that neighborhood or in most poor, all-black parts of town...Mom and Pop stores were much more common then...

Dad's store survived the Watts riots of '65, when the man who lived next to our store, an employee, put out several fires that rioters set, trying to burn the store down...we also had the good fortune to have a solid steel accordion sliding door that protected the entire front of the building, so the store was like a fortress...luckily for us, it kept rioters out on the Sunday we had to close in a hurry when rioting broke out in the streets in front of the store...I watched through the mail slot as thugs broke into the liquor store across the street, looted the place and set it on fire...they pounded on the door, trying to get in...my father, uncle and I cowered in the back of the store, armed with butcher knives...like a scene out of "The Walking Dead"...the door held and the rioters left...Dad could not get LAPD to send a car out to our location to provide an escort to our cars...we fearfully waited until dark, when the streets were clear, and ran to our cars, which fortunately were intact, and drove home...many of the mom and pop grocery stores we passed on the way home were in flames...after the National Guard restored order and we re-opened a week or so later, Dad bought two firearms: a handgun and a rifle...business was great for a few years until supermarkets moved into the area...

At the time of the riots I was spending the summer working at a horse ranch in Newhaul. The owners wife grew up with my mother and she was married to an LA County Fireman. He was a captain in Canoga Park but was called in during the riots. He later spoke about knowing fellow firemen that had been shot at during the riots. It was unbelievable to him as well as myself, that anyone would be shooting at firemen, it was a bad time.

---

All this talk about Oscar...…..no love at all for Felix?

They are waaaaaay to political for me.

Didn’t watch and really don’t care 🤷‍♂️