A FRIEND

1969 I was working in North Hollywood California at a company that
specialized in irrigation and supplies. We would sell direct to the
public and contractors.
I started working there when I was 24. I started at the bottom and
worked my way up doing more responsible things, making deliveries and
selling at the counter. It was a great job, I enjoyed it. The employees
and the boss were real nice. It was a small company and we were growing
each year, I would work the counter for a few hours and then make
deliveries the rest of the day.
It was pretty hard but I was young and didn't mind the hard work. It
was myself the owner and two other employees. When things would slow up
we would stand around the coffee machine and have a quick staff
meeting; we talked about hiring a new man to make deliveries. The owner
kept saying he could not afford to pay too much for a driver. He made a
few phone calls later on asking around to other businesses if they knew
of a driver and one of his friends said that his business was pretty
slow and I have a black man that makes deliveries for me and he is a
real nice guy and knows the town real well. Maybe he'll work out for
you, I'll ask him if he wants to go by and talk to you sometime after
work. The following week this black guy came over asking about the job
driving, he came up to me at the counter and said" hi I 'm Dave, I came
about the job. I said " hi and introduced him to the owner. The owner
talked to him for a while and hired him. He was and older gentlemen in
his early fifties, he seems like a real nice guy and friendly. After
working a few months, he and I got to know each other pretty good; we
got to be good friends. The owner would have me send him out on
deliveries, and when we could, we would have breaks or lunch
together.
We would always talk together when he was not on deliveries. After a
year we were the best of friends. Him and I were not making a lot of
money, but one day I noticed on the front seat of his truck a racing
form, after a minute or so we started going back into the office, I
said do you play the horses? I noticed you have a racing form in your
truck. I do once in awhile but they are hard to pick.
I told him I don't know any thing about horse racing, Where is there a
race track around here? He said" not too far from here, do you stop and
play at the track? No, I have a bookie; I placed the bets through him.
If you want to look at it, take it home with you and read it. Maybe you
will have better luck than me, check it out and see if you can pick a
winner. I know I'm having trouble picking a couple of good winners by
myself. Sure why not, sounds like fun I'll look at it. I grabbed it and
we went around behind the building and he showed me different things
about it. I pretty much knew what he was talking about. I told him, I'd
take it home and study it. When I got home I was looking at the form
and trying to figure out what was so hard about picking winners. I kept
saying to myself why does this seem so easy to me, it seemed like I was
gifted. I was laughing my wife said" what is so funny in a racing form?
Doesn't seem that hard to pick a winner out of here. Maybe you can make
some extra money you are always pretty lucky. I kept telling her this
is pretty interesting it doesn't look that hard. After two or three
weeks looking and studying all the racing information and form's just
playing around marking some picks, often showing that I was winning
some of the races. I was dying to try to see if I could win for real so
I asked Dave if he could make a small bet for me through his bookie and
how much would I have to bet. You could bet $2 to win and $2 to place
and that means if he wins or comes in second you win. I said" that
don't sound bad, I have $4 maybe I could win some money. Dave said"
sure if you pick the right horse and he laughed and I looked at him and
I started laughing too and I said we'll see.
I gave him $4 and told him what horse I wanted to play he looked at the
form and said ok. Dave went out on a delivery and I waited all day to
see if the horse had won. I was so excited waiting for Dave. I noticed
him backing in the yard and I walked out to him and the first thing I
said," did it win? Yes it won; I was so excited I could not believe it
won. Dave said" yes and then he started laughing. I didn't think it
would win but I put $2 on it myself. How much did we win? I won $7 and
you won $10. We where both laughing back-and-forth, we won. Dave, are
they running tomorrow? Yes, what the heck, we'll try again tomorrow. As
the weeks went on we played the horses on and off, it seemed we were
winning quite a bit. We were having a break in the yard sitting on back
of the truck and Dave said, you really are good at picking these
horses, I know for some reason it's easy for me to pick the winning
horse and its fun. I said, in a couple of weeks do you want to go to
the track on a Saturday or Sunday and see what we can do? Dave said,
when people see a black man and a white man together, I don't think
they like it especially when they are having fun like we do. The hell
with them, your my friend and nobody is going to say anything. We'll go
in about three weeks. Almost three weeks later, we went on a Sunday to
the track. I had about $200 Dave had about $300 we planned to make some
money.
We were real lucky right off, we won 3 races. Than the seventh race was
coming up and Dave said as soon as this race is over I have to go. Ok,
let's bet heavy on this race. We both bet a $150 to win and $75 to
place. Then the race started, they came around near the stretch and we
were so excited when the horse came down the stretch it seem like we
were running faster to the finish line than the horses. It won easy; we
both won $1100 on that race. We were laughing and jumping all over,
people were watching us some of them were tearing their tickets up, I
think they were a little mad they did not win.
We left the track, I told Dave to drive careful. I will see you Monday
at work. Ok, you'll have to show me how you picked those winners.
Laughing getting into his car as he drove off he yelled out see you
Monday friend waving the money. When I got to work that Monday my boss
said he had to talk to me. We went into his office, and when he shut
the door he turned and looked at me, Norm, I'm sorry to tell you your
friend Dave was robbed Saturday night in the parking lot at the
apartments where he lives, they shot him in the head. " He's
dead."
That was 33 years ago.

A story by Norman Clifford 2-19-02