Fako

5/14/2014

Fako was this proto-beatnick I met at Lucky's where I found a job when I first got to the Bay Area. He has remained  a contact person and friend for many years, with two exceptions, one absurd but typical of our up and down fortunes together. He spent seven years in prison (Solidad) and didn't talked to me for 15 more years because a girl friend didn't like me for asking to check the score of a Super-bowl game, so he threw me out of the house on her instruction, as liking football was contrary to her hippy-dippy religion. And to think I traveled a thousand miles to see him after no-see for seven years. I was pissed and I wasn't sure if I ever wanted to hear from him again. But 15 years later he called and apologized for his behavior. He came to visit shorty after that. When we first met I was real greenhorn from the Midwest. I had no idea what an avocado was, nor did I know any beatniks, some kind of wild man I thought. Fako had Musical ambitions at the time and hung with players of different quality. He was a piano player himself. I was too green to judge how good or bad he was. I went to a number of Jazz joints with him, hearing local talent in San Jose and real pros in SF---Dave Brubeck, Sonny Stints, , many others of that caliber, all of which warmed me up to the beatnik movement or what  rob. My first date with Sue Baker was to a poetry reading in SF. I can't remember who the poet was. Fako and his beatnik friends though I was cool enough to be sworn into the club.   They actually voted on my qualification. I didn't hear about the vote thing to later. I faded away from the club scene after that, as Fako life too shifted to the different life. He fell in love with a Prostitute and they had two boys. She complained about not having much money so he bought a gun and tried to rob a jewelry store with a loaded gun--a dumb mistake.It failed miserably. He was sentenced to seven years during which time he got his after-prison meal ticket, working in waste management. He was also away from the rest of the prison, a good thing for him as he developed a real hatred for black men there. His attitude was a spur under my saddle, but he wasn't about to change any time soon. When he got out he got a job in waste management in Monterrey, Ca. Thirty years later he retied at $50,000 a year pension. Just goes to show you crime does pay, or not the way it would. One of his sons just retired from 35 year service in a atomic submarine. The other son is a Mormon and he hardly even mentions his name.