Saul & Cesar

It was a hot summer day in 1976 between first and second grade when The Flores family moved into 3416 Baxter, the green house next door to the apartments where we lived. They had arrived fresh from Richmond and were loading all their stuff into the house through the garage.

They were a fairly large family…two boys, three girls and their parents. I was curious but shy watching them work, attempting to be inconspicuous while standing near, and sort of behind, their massive green boat of a car. You know, like everyone Else's at that time. (I'm realizing there were an awful lot of notable green places and things in my childhood.) As was usual for such a beautiful day in late 70's Napa I was wearing only a pair of navy blue cut-off corduroys and an ever-darkening tan.

The two Flores boys were older than me by a good three or four years at least. I was a bit intimidated at first but soon the oldest boy, a pudgy but articulate kid, approached me with confidence and authority and introduced himself as "Saul". I'd never heard of such a name before. "Saul?", I asked. "You mean, like 'Paul' with an 'S'?" Weird. As if that wasn't a strange enough name for me to ponder, I then met his younger brother whose name was Cesar. A tall, slender character, Cesar was intelligent and well spoken like Saul but also a bit smug and quite a smart-ass.

We started hanging out instantly. In fact, I'm sure we were together until after dark even that first day. They had a pretty dang impressive hot wheel collection and Saul even had his own names for most of them. At one point he and I were playing with his cars in the backyard near the side of the house when he turned and said to me in a tone much like an overly intellectual English teacher, "You know, it looks to me like we're going to be the best of friends." I was so happy. This cooler, smarter, older guy found me worthy of his "best" friendship!

Saul was a leader and always very persuasive. He had a way of making everything sound incredibly cool and exciting. Even if it wasn't I'd tag along. The first time he was ever at my place was the afternoon he decided he wanted to see the 1976 King Kong film, which was playing that day on HBO. His family didn't have HBO, but mine did. I believe we'd just had cable hooked up that day, in fact. Though I had no interest whatsoever in watching the movie I was all too happy to accommodate. After all, I felt lucky he chose to hang out with me at all.

My Mom didn't seem too happy with the idea of this strange kid, whom she wasn't quite sure about, barging in to use the TV. To make matters worse she'd just had the navy green living room carpet cleaned and nobody was allowed indoors until it dried, including Ro and I. We ended up sitting in the little side patio watching the movie through the open sliding glass door. I was squirming a bit having created what seemed to me like a pretty uncomfortable situation. Saul won Mom over in no time, though. He was the ultimate charmer and had no problem being the ultra-polite Eddie Haskel figure minus, for the most part, the sneaky intentions.

Cesar was always pulling pranks. Once on a particularly hot day he suggested we get a drink of water from the hose in the backyard. He made sure he took his drink first. Then it was my turn and I started gulping like a thirsty camel. He cranked up the hose full blast and water came shooting into my throat faster and with more intensity than I could handle. I began coughing and choking while Cesar just laughed. It seems like a dangerous stunt but he was always so calm and confident with a big smirk on his face as if he knew nothing bad would actually happen.

I wasn't the only one who endured Cesar's antagonizing. Any kid on the block who was
younger than him got it from time to time. The ultimate target was Craig (or, as we called him, "Craig the squished egg") who lived a few doors down from my family in apartment 5. It's funny how every single group of kids has that one outsider who gets unending loads of shit from everyone. Craig got it good...and often. One example that comes to mind is a time we were all playing in the Flores' yard. It was another one of those hot days and we were messing around with the hose. Cesar pointed it in Craig's direction as if to threaten complete aqua annihilation. Craig started whining, "Noooo! My my Mom said I can't get all wet!" "OK, I'll only get you a little wet." smirked Ceasar, calm and assured as usual. "Noooooooooo!! My Moooom saaaid I caaaan't get aaaall weeeeeeet!! "OK, I'll only get you a little wet." Back and forth they went, each repeating the same line. Craig never figured out what Ceasar was doing and eventually ran off frustrated and in tears. Cesar simply smiled his mischievous smile and laughed just as he always did before ditching the hose in favor of the next adventure.

It took a little longer for me to get to know the three girls, Judy, Martha and Silvia, who were all younger than the boys. At first they were a bit stand offish, though I'm sure my shyness didn't help. Befriending people like Saul and Cesar has always been easier for me because they're extroverts and therefore do all of what I consider to be the hard work. When the other person is shy or aloof in any way things have potential never to get off the ground. Out of the three sisters Silvia proved the toughest sell. Even after her initial weariness subsided and we'd finally established a friendship there was a short period, probably a year or two in, when she hated me venomously. Wouldn't talk to me at all. To this day I have no idea what it was about. But then, we were seven or eight years old. It was probably absolutely nothing.

Though at first I didn't realize it, I had a bit of a crush on Silvia. One of very few times when I actually spent the night at the house Silvia and I slept next to each other in sleeping bags in the living room. The adults were snickering and joking about how cute we were and, I suspect, making comments about us as though we were a little couple. Since the grown ups in the family usually spoke Spanish, I often didn’t know what was being said, though body language and facial expressions usually gave them away to a certain extent. Silvia was annoyed and probably somewhat disgusted by the ribbing, but I secretly enjoyed it. Though it was embarrassing I liked imagining that what they were saying was true. Once Saul said to me, "If you ever want to date one of my sisters, that's OK, but if you get 'em pregnant, I'll kill you." He was, of course, speaking to a seven year old kid who could barely even spell the word pregnant at that point.

As with most things in my life, music played a big part in our friendship. We were always listening to records and the radio. The hits of the day would waft through the yard from whatever radio/cassette combo they happened to have at the time. Saul would profess his admiration for songs like "Just A Song Before I Go" by Crosby, Stills & Nash, and since his and Cesar's taste in music was far more sophisticated than mine, I would take note. To this day that very song reminds me of Saul and takes me back to those long hot days playing at their house. Another such song is "Arrow Through Me" by Paul McCartney & Wings, which was released a couple of years later. I remember Saul buying a cassette of the new Wings album "Back to the Egg", which contained that song, and playing it over and over in the backyard. He talked it up, of course. "Hey! I got something really cool. The new Wings album, check it out!" Saul said it was cool so you'd better believe it was!

Also in Saul's unending arsenal of neat stuff was his collection of Playboy magazines hidden in the shed in the back yard. He wanted to turn the shed into a sort of clubhouse where we could look at his magazines whenever we wanted. For ultimate secrecy he decided we needed a code word for them. After two or three ideas were kicked around then discarded, Saul finally arrived at "y's". He explained, "The last letter in Playboy is 'y', so we'll call 'em 'y's!". Genius, eh? In the end we never really had our clubhouse in the shed. We ended up sneaking into the field on the other side of the backyard fence to check out the coveted "y's".