Category: Ink

This photo brings back memories. Summer, 1984. I was living in Mesa (a suburb east of Phoenix) with an absolute lunatic. (Another story for another time.)

I took a chance one weekend—knowing full well I might return home to find his dead body—and drove down to Tucson to spend time with friends, away from the madness.

It was a typical Saturday night at The Fineline. My friend Lee and I closed the bar as we often did, and while I lingered in the parking lot (a common activity at this particular club) hoping that even though the cruising had been dismal there might be some cute boy hanging out desperate enough to get laid that he'd hook up with me. (Hey, it happened before.)

This particular evening there was one guy with whom I'd been playing cat-and-mouse all evening. I don't remember who struck up the conversation, but we connected and soon realized we were both interested (in fact, had been interested all evening) but he lived at home, and I was staying in a spare bedroom at Lee's place. I knew he had asked some mutual friends back to his place (actually his mom's place—she was out of town and he lived in a casita in back of the main house) to talk, dance, listen to music and generally hang out because no one really wanted to call an end to the evening. As Lee was leaving I told him I'd be, um…delayed…and he just told me to be safe.

Bobby and I had no idea where we'd consummate things, but for some strange reason I suggested we take a drive up the Catalina Highway to Windy Point. It was a nice overlook and I figured at that hour (now almost 2 am) it would be deserted.

It was. And it was then and there that I discovered my brand new Toyota Corolla SR-5 was not designed for…well, you know.

I learned sometime later that Bobby had a very apropos nickname: "Beer Can."

By the time we got back to town, dropped him off, and headed to Lee's place, the neighborhood was clogged with cars. Lee's place was full of people.

Apparently, someone had passed around the bar that there was an after hours party at Lee's. At one point the police were called. Lee was in tears as he was pushing people out the front door.

Good times.