More "Tales"....

This is the continuation of the April 28 post........................





So, life with Lee in Southern California began. It was all new and entertaining and Lee, as Dave and I expected, seemed to soak it up. We dove into the huge omelets and pancakes at "Lee's Surfrider" restaurant. Taco burritos at "Taco Bills". Great jazz at "The Lighthouse" and the best Mexican food at Casa Pluido in Redondo Beach. We had a beer or two at O'Shaunessey's pub and Fat Face Fenner's Falloon--(I think really just for the name............) I will never forget Lee's face streaming sweat and tears while happily eating the great food at Casa Pluido!


Soon after, I moved up to Hollywood and then Dave and Lee to Playa del Rey. Lee would sometimes come up to visit or I would wander down for the weekend to soak up the good vibes and sleep to the ocean breezes on Dave and Lee's black coach. Frisbee on the beach, wine "tasting" at Delicato's (HOW did they explain the amount of wine poured!!), pool at The Shack ("give me a bottle of Tunderbyrd and a Shack burger----O YEAH!!" was a politically incorrect cartoon plastered on the wall----we loved it!) and all the assorted beach characters. Great times were had. Somewhere I know I have a photo of Lee and "Big Fine Marcia" walking across the park toward me with 6'2" Marcia's long hair blowing in the breeze and Lee in top form cruising along next to her---walkin along on the balls of his feet and just grinnin' at her-----like a wolf smiling at a sheep----both enjoying the moment...........


Lee seemed to like the occasional trip up to Hollyweird to see what kind of life I was living. He had his first sushi at one of the first sushi restaurants in LA---in Westwood---"Asuka's." I had been introduced to it by my buddy Eric Serena. We went there with a client of his to check it out and I was included because she wanted to talk to me about more jewelry like the items she had purchased of mine at Eric's hair salon. That would be Cher. Yeah, that Cher. What initially was seen as eating "bait" became a lifelong pleasure for him. A whole different dining experience. That restaurant was completely into the whole presentation of sushi and Lee seemed to "get it" immediately.


At one point, I had rented a workshop in the back lot area of Paramount Studios off of Gower St. in Hollywood. Lee came up to visit one weekend and we had a great time wandering the late night streets of Hollywood Boulevard with all of the street bums and "walkers" I knew from my time spent working at a jewelry company on Hollywood and Cahuenga. "Lee?---This is the "Professor". He will talk for hours with you about whatever you want if you just keep the coffee coming" and "Lee?"---this is "Tinker Bell." You will be astonished to find out that "she" is not a "she", and on and on and on.............We had GREAT soul food at "South Town." GREAT Hungarian food at "Paprika." I remember we went to my workshop for a bit to let me finish up a jewelry job, one afternoon, before heading out to the Cinerama Dome to watch the first weeks showing of "Close Encounters of the Third Kind." As I was finishing my jewelry work, Lee stood at my second floor window and watched the grips and stagehands walk by below. I told him that I had been honored the previous week to be "flipped off" by Jane Fonda from that exact location. I had looked out that window one day to see a gorgeous redhead walking by with an assistant following, jotting something down on a clip board. I had instinctively "wolf whistled" her and she had just as instinctively spun around and gave me the finger!! I knew that they were filming the "reactor" scenes from "China Syndrome" on the huge sound stages there but I did not put 2 and 2 together and think that this redheaded beauty could be JANE! I waited and watched a few days for her to come back that same way and, finally seeing her, went down to apologize. Just a "no disrespect intended, ma'am" kind of thing and she was nice about it and brushed it off like she overreacted, too. Lee said, "Really?" You could see that the idea of actually being "IN" Hollywood instead of just hearing about it was something new and fascinating to him. He got a real "dose" later that day when we were leaving and I started to back out my parking space only to wait for 2 people I saw passing along my side of the car. I rolled down my window and said "Hey, Stevie" to Stevie Nicks. Fleetwood Mac was in the middle of rehearsing their epic "Rumours" album on those same sound stages and I had seen and talked to Mick Fleetwood a few times and tossed a casual "Hello" to Stevie in passing. As we pulled away, Lee was all over me "That was Stevie Nicks!! You have to go back, I wanna talk to her!" No, I said, there was that unspoken "code" that I could not break by us going back and harassing her while she headed to the studio. He accepted that but was SO obviously dazzled by the whole thing!!


We definitely had our connections through music. I am still surprised at his varied tastes. Whether it was "Death Valley Tunes" such as The Doors "Riders on the Storm" or "Soul Kitchen" or, of course, a wide selection of Pink Floyd or our beach daze "Blue Note" jazz series, he enjoyed it all. I would call him up and say "It's Stanley Turrentine day here at Chez Sauve and I just put "Salt Song" on." He would say, "Oh MAN! I remember those days!!" Or in conversation, I would say "Any major DUDE, could tell you!" and he would go off on a rant about his favorite Steely Dan songs. Linda Ronstadt? I will say right here and now that she is one lucky lady for never having met Lee. There was some MAJOR lust there! We went to my buddy Don Randy's "Baked Potato" jazz club and I took him probably to one of the best concerts I ever saw. Joni Mitchell at the Universal Amphitheatre on her "Blond in the Bleachers" tour with Pat Metheny and Robbin Ford on guitars, Herbie Hancock on keyboards, John Guerin on drums, Airto on percussion, Tom Scott and his LA Express horn section and Jaco Pastorius on bass. On a warm, soft, summer breeze, LA night under the stars we witnessed..............magic. Plain and simple. Magic...............


We also found we had similar tastes in books----especially those that you think of as only yours. We both enjoyed getting lost in the complete fantasy world of "Lord of the Ring." That series of books provided the perfect escape into a different world when you were having a tough time.I was especially surprised to find that he was a fan of John D. McDonald's detective novels with his central detective/hero, "Travis McGee." There was something of Lee in the charismatic, scarred and worn "salvage expert"/detective/loner that was always helping people in trouble and out there tilting at windmills. I could see it. I could definitely see it....
I must admit that we both connected with the madness and dementia of Hunter S. Thompson's "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas." That story, much to our own amusement, rang WAY too true!


And, of course, if you were going to be around LEE, you had to accept his constant need to be "right." I will admit that I tried not to buy into the game. If you did, it was an endless, no win situation. For me, if you felt you had a better marinade to a steak or the secret to opening a stuck jar or WHATEVER, this was fine with me but of infinite importance to Lee. Part of his "makeup." In fact, with what I will admit was his amazing hand/eye coordination talent, he very well may have had a certain amount of this "righteousness" locked into his DNA. Who knew?


He liked to come visit me at my brother Dave's old cabin up in the mountains of Big Bear---across the lake in Fawnskin while I was there "de-toxing" from my life in LA. We had some old oil lamps there with the tall glass chimneys. We would lite them as the day faded away and get the fire going in the fireplace and spend the night talking and listening to the logs crackle, using the lamps and the firelight as our only light into the night. One morning, as I was cleaning the blackened glass chimneys, Lee said, "You know, if you trimmed those wicks properly, you wouldn't have to do that."..............................................
(I am DEFINITELY not getting into this, I thought) "OK,' I said, "Trim away!" Shaking his head in dismay at my feeble knowledge of wick trimming (How could a loser like this survive up here??), and with a "I'll need a really sharp knife, too" thrown in, he proceeded to trim them-----straight across. "See," he said, "That's the way they should be done!" "You're right," I acknowledged, "How could I have EVER thought otherwise?" "YOU, are now the official wick trimming KING of Fawnskin!!" (we BOW to you oh wick trimming GOD! You genius of all wick activity. A frickin' wick trimming GENIUS you are!!!! etc etc etc....................he smiled in triumphant "rightness"....................


I had been getting back into my acoustic guitar playing after a long ------how shall I put this? ----drug induced---lay over. Working on the old songs that I used to play with my buddy Pete and at assorted coffee shop venues way back when. So, that night, knowing that Lee liked my singing and playing, I started out with "Hesitation Blues" ----basically an identical version to Hot Tuna's---suited to single guitar. Lee liked that one, so for my next, I said "and this ones for you!!"---sliding into "Keep your lamps trimmed and burning"-----again, a Hot Tuna song but originally done by Reverend Gary Davis. Hot Tuna souped it up a bit but I had dismantled it and taken it back down to the "longing to come home" song that it originally was.........
Lee sat there with a big grin on his face and, when I was finished, said, "Thanks for that".......
I knew a thing or two about keeping them burnin' myself and just wanted to get the message across....................
GOOD times were had and, of course, a bit of danger thrown in there to spice things up every once and a while..........
I do recall coming back from some excursion with Lee in his big red and white Jeep pickup and getting into some argument/cutoff/bumper tag/hassle with this little jazzed up green car full of ----hmmm?----how do I put this properly??-----latinos? heading off across the diagonal raised road heading over the marshes to Playa del Rey. Lee road their bumper for a while and took it as far as he could until they motioned us over and Lee obliged. "Now what?", I said. "Fasten your seatbelt, " Lee said as he very slowly slipped into the lowest 4 wheel drive and started to creep forward as, first the driver, and then the other 2 of our newest acquaintances got out of their little green "pinata." Lot's of rolled shoulders and hand gesturing was going on as the first of them got to the front of our hood. That was when Lee floored it and, blasting past them, slammed into their back end and pushed their little car down into the ditch. They were running around like pissed off fire ants as Lee backed up, gave them a hearty wave, and headed back home to the beach..............."adios muchachos!!!"


I can proudly announce right here and now that i am a proud member of the "R.O.D.W.L." Club. That would be the "Rode one down with Lee" Club...
Now------I had heard of a few motorcycle related "dust ups" that Lee and Dave had been involved in, so was not completely unaware of the potential danger involved when Lee showed up at my Hollywood apartment one fine morning and announced that he had 2 tickets to the Dodgers game and that we should take his bike for a ride down to the game. "What could go wrong?", I thought as I grabbed my heavy Levi jacket, donned his spar helmet, crossed myself and headed off to the game. Now, for those of you who don't know, the Moto Guzzi motorcycle is basically an Italian "cop" bike. Strong and smooth. Not too big but certainly able to handle carrying 2 medium/heavy men down to a ball game. I then lived in Beechwood Canyon up by the Hollywood sign, so we headed out east from my apartment down through the side streets to the Riverside Freeway---heading south to Chavez Ravine and Dodger Stadium. As we powered down the on ramp of the freeway, getting it up to about 55mph and over into the 2nd lane, the rear tire blew. Not "lost air." Blew. As in BAMMMMM! And we were immediately fishtailing all over the place. By about the 3rd swerve, Lee yelled, "PUSH OFF!", which I did, doing a kind of back shoulder roll, whacking my helmet on the pavement and rolling almost to a standing position until I rolled forward---realizing that I was now facing BACK into on coming traffic on the Riverside Freeway------------without a vehicle to protect me. The car heading right for me hit his brakes and squealing his tires (and, of course, this was LA! yelling at me as he went by---- "YOU ASSHOLES!!! GET OFF OF THE FREEWAY!!" Ah yes, why did I ever leave?) just swung over into the next lane as I stumbled back to help Lee get the motorcycle off of his pinned left leg. Cars whizzing by us at 65mph, we eventually ended up stopping traffic in the right lane and pushing the bike off the freeway and down the ramp to a gas station where we could secure it. Our day was done and the bike in need of repair so we took a taxi back to my apartment. A cracked helmet, a torn jacket, a few scrapes and bruises and a bottle of tequila later and all was well. Such was life with Lee..................
It wasn't Lee's "bad" energy, I will admit right here---- things just seemed to "happen!"
At that time, I had a 1967 Citroen DS21 Pallas---basically a French "Cadillac" with leather and wood interior, soft "living room" like seats, and an amazing hydraulic system. I had the idea to paint it a bright "Corvette" metallic blue which turned it into a modern version of some "Buck Rodgers" mobile and made it a "statement" car like no other. It had a 5 level hydraulic suspension that could be raised or lowered as you drove to adjust to speed or road condition---from ground level to about 18" higher than usual. Lee loved for me to pull up next to some East LA "Cholo" in his lowrider Chevy and show him what FRENCH hydraulics were all about !!! Like some kind of spaceship coming in for a landing. One time, we were rolling down some LA freeway when the truck ahead of us started to lose his load of 2 X 4s. Lee saw it first and said "Slow down, here, slow down." I reached down and raised the lever that adjusted the suspension up to its highest level---just in case we had to drive over the boards. The first board kind of slid off and spun off to the right. I was trying to get over into the next lane to my left to get away from this guy but, again, this being LA, no one would let me in. (I was getting looks like "I hope you get that board stuck in the front of that fairy wagon, you stupid Frog" or something like that............) As I finally started to edge over, the second board came loose but this one caught and did a kind of "baseball bat" bounce, end to end, and then finally bounced way up in the air. I dropped the suspension down to its lowest as the board came spinning right over our head, just missing us. Lee looked at me and said, "Your damn car just DUCKED under that board!! I LOVE this thing!!"
I could go on and on with endless "tales" of our times together but I'll wrap this up here. I had some of my best times with Lee. Standing on the rim of the Grand Canyon, all alone in a snow storm. Tossing the frisbee back and forth in the sunset sand of Playa del Rey beach. Walking through the springtime forest with the light angling sideways through the mist and my dog Jake desperately chasing bunnies up the path through the trees ahead of us. "White shorts" golf on the back "9" of Furnace Creek golf course in Death Valley at 6am.(called "white shorts" golf because, well, after a few days in the desert sun, from a distance, it looked like we all had white shorts on when, in fact, we had nothing on at all) Quietly staring into the "firecaves" in the fireplace at Fawnskin as the light dwindled and the flames flicked around the remaining logs and, of course, walking the rim of "The Crater" in Death Valley, through the vast, silent dawn, with Lee sticking his favorite flowers up in his hat.
I've had people ask me if I believe in God. I usually dance around that question by saying that I'm not so sure about that, but I do know that there is some form of afterlife, or a heaven if you have to call it that. A place where entities or memories, or energy from our lives exist. I know this because I KNOW that my dogs are there, patiently waiting for me. My Dad is sitting there smiling and my Mother wondering, "Is that my Tommy?"
And now, I know, that sitting there, in front of the fire, is my buddy Lee.
Keep the lamps trimmed and burning, pal. I'll be there with "Tales to tell, buddy, tales to tell."


Lee R. Bowman died May 4, 2009. His ashes will be spread in his beloved Death Valley on May 3 & 4, 2010 by family and friends who loved him and miss him as much as I do. I cannot join them , so honor him and his memory with these stories. There will not be another like him.