Hollister Ca., 1973

By Frank “kiki” Baltazar

On the Memorial Day weekend of 1973 we took a trip to Hollister, Ca. to visit some friends of Mom & Dad’s. We packed my camper with over 18 people, mostly small kids. The adults were my sister Annie, Willie, Mom, Pops, my brother Mando, my daughter’s boyfriend Mike and Connie and I. We left our house early Saturday morning and we headed north on State Highway 99 to State Highway 152, at State Highway 152 we turned west and drove over the Pacheco Pass and dropped into Hollister. It was about 7:00 PM when we arrived at my parent’s friends in Hollister. We all met and said hello to the friends, then Mom, Pops and their friends started talking about the old times, so I said to Mando and Willie:

“Let’s walk around town and find a place to have a beer”

“I was wondering when you were going to ask” said Willie

Hollister is a very small town, but they might have more bars than downtown L.A.. We hit a few of the bars, had a beer here and there, then we found the “The One”, don’t remember the name of the bar, but this bar is where you’ll find all the action you can hope to find in a small town like Hollister, it’s on the main drag, which is only about ten blocks long. We walked in and seen that they had pool tables in the back, after ordering some beers we walked to the back, I leaned against a shuffleboard table to watch two guys shoot pool, as I’m leaning against the shuffleboard table a lady, and here I used the word “lady” loosely, walked up to me and gave me a shove causing me to spill some of my beer

“Out of the way” she yelled at me

“Lady, if you want to use the table, just say so and I’ll move, no need to shove me” I said.

She then gets in my face and said: “Get out of the way”

She than proceed to spit on my cordovan's, I had just shined my shoes the night before, and the “Lady” spat on them! I got piss! I looked at her face and I looked at my cordovan's, next thing I knew my beer is running down her face

“Call the cops” she yells at the bartender

“You guys better leave, she will call the cops, and she about runs this town too” said another lady to me.

We proceed to walk out with Mando in front of me and Willie walking backwards watching my back. The cops had arrived and getting out of their car as we are walking out the door, one of them said to me. “What’s going on in there?”

“Some ass-hole is raising hell” said Willie

As the cops ran inside the bar, we ran like hell down a side street and found another bar. We’re sitting at the bar having a beer when Pops walked in

“Where the hell have you guys being?”

“Don’t ask Pops, you don’t want to know” I said

“I being looking all over town for you guys, you know what time it is!? It past midnight, and them people want to go to bed”

We left the bar and walk back to house, everybody is in the camper waiting for us, Mom and Pops said good by to their friends and we drove off. By this time everybody is piss at us.

We drove seven miles south on State Route 25 to Tres Pinos, now Tres Pinos is so small there isn’t a stop light or stop sign in town, nor do they have sidewalks, we found a place to park and sleep for the night, some of us rolled out sleeping bags, Willie set up a two men tent and sleeping bag, close by was a bar, Mando and I went in for a beer, Willie went to sleep inside his tent, as we’re coming back from the bar I could hear Annie yelling at the top of her lungs:

“Damn you Willie! where the hell are you!?” At the same time she is poking Willie’s tent with a broomstick

“What?” said Willie as he poked his head out of the tent

In the morning after we cleaned up we drove five miles south to Paicines General Store to buy some provisions, (beer), afterward we drove back to Hollister and took Route 25 west to the San Juan Bautista Mission, Mom wanted to see the mission, Mando and I wanted to see the wine tasting room. We tasted just about every kind of wine they had, finally the wine server ask us: “Are you guys buying or just drinking?”

“We haven’t found a good one to buy yet” said Mando

“Well you’re not tasting any more wines”

We bought a bottle, went outside and sat under a tree with our bottle of wine.

After Mom had seen the mission and Mando and I, (Willie didn’t drink wine, he was a beer guy), drank the wine, we headed south on California 101. It was getting late on us so we pulled into a rest area for the night, we rolled out our sleeping bags on the lawn, dang! Just, as we were going to sleep the automatic sprinklers want on, we had to move to the bathrooms to sleep. The ladies and the kids slept in the camper, Pops slept in the cab of the truck.

Next day after cleaning up as best as we could in the bathrooms of the rest area; we headed south on 101 again, but not before Pops told me
“Mijo, no more drinking, okay?”

I was driving and Mando and Willie, were riding in the cab with me, Willie had ran out of beer and wanted to stop to buy some, but Pops had said “No more drinking”. I could see that ahead of us were some stores, I said to Willie:

“Willie, I’m going to stop up ahead and pull into the parking lot of those stores, I’m going to pull up the hood of the truck, so if Pops wants to know why we stopped, I’ll tell him the truck is running hot, in the meantime you run to the store and buy your beer”

Pops gets off from the back of the camper.

"What’s wrong mijo?’ said Pops

“Nothing much Pops, the truck just running a little hot” Pops goes back to the back of the camper just as Willie is coming back with his beer.

We get back on 101 and from there it’s a straight drive home without any more stops.

I can say that not everybody was a happy camper by the time we arrived back home.