Bio Billy

That's my old pal Bill. His folks moved to Beverly hills from Long Island in about 1959 or so. I met his brother Rick first, who was known as "Richie" in NY. Heh. We don't do "Richie" out West here. Too Eas' Coas', even though there's lots of transplants. Through him I met Bill and we've been friends ever since. Rick hung with the surfer crowd and Bill hung with the greasers, but I hung with 'em all.

Bill's a cab driver in Santa Monica. He got the nickname 'Bio Billy' from the bio-diesel-capable cab you see in the picture. There aren't enough filling stations that offer bio-diesel yet for him to use it all the time, but he does when he can. The cab is an '87 M-B with 250K miles on it. Bill says it sounds like gravel in a garbage can, but I thought it ran like a watch. Well, maybe a pocket watch. It's the biggest Mercedes sedan I've ever seen and was very comfortable to ride in. Huge back seat. Most of the times I've ridden in the back seat of anything, I was sitting on my hands!

Him 'n me and Mrs. G all went out for breakfast last Saturday. Bill rode us in the cab, for which I was mighty grateful. For free, too! The traffic in SoCal is about ten times worse than I remember it and I welcomed any chance I could get to let the blood flow back into my fingers and the grip marks on the steering wheel dissipate.

We had a good visit, albeit too short, but that's the way it goes. Even though Bill and I went to different schools, it was definitely a good part of my 'reunion' trip.