The Blue Cafe' in downtown Long Beach was packed with an odd and
unlikely assortment of bad-assed bikers, lusty ladies, yammering
yahoos, 'reformed' drug dealers, dead-beat friends, free-loading
fools and soulfull, high struttin', rack-stacked babes, for the 2nd
Annual Bikernet Superbowl Bash. The police weren't called (a good
thing considering Bandit's stagger as he left the joint) and the
bouncer remained seated downstairs, inspite of the racous good-time
being had by the Bikernet Revelers.
Jon Towle
"You know, it's not polite to point....."
John Towle, the master illustrator, can usually draw with Spydeco
sharpness (aplomb?), but after his last psycho-relationship, he's
lucky if he draws flys.
Digital -Biker, Pilot, Web Monkey, Nutcase....
The Digital Gangster flew down from Washington (and damn were his
arms tired!) in an open cockpit Biplane (we barely recognized him in
the leather helmet and flapping Ascot when he landed), and Ray
Russell from Australia, sent a contingent, Small Ron from Idaho, to
take notes.
Bandit & Idaho Ron
He brought a partner who immediately hit on one of the girls- they
slithered silently out of the party.
Since the party rocked our world yesterday afternoon my mind is
still a swirl. I'm still not sure what happened after the second
Jack Daniels. Hmmmm, let's see. Did I really touch her there? How
many drinks did I have? Did Digital make it to the airport alive in
that contraption he was flying? Where is the Touring Chop? These
and more will be sorted out. The last of the evening is a blur to
me now. As I was making my way outside, this toothless, old
Chinese lady stopped me and started bending my ear about the
history of the Blue Cafe'. As best I can remember, this is how her
story went. The Blue Cafe building was constructed in the mid '30s
in Downtown Long Beach initially as a whore house with a basement
opium den. Nextdoor was a Chinese laundry. Sailors, oil workers and
Chinese Junk builders clamored through the broad swinging doors
each pay day until shortly after the anti drug enactment in
1937.
"The Old Ball & Shane"
The old woman's story continued. I know it sounds a bit
improbable, but she had a sweet, mushy smile in that wrinkled old
face. I'm always a push-over for the charms of the ladies, no
matter what their age. Of course, I was in no shape to argue by
the time I was leaving the party. It made sense at the time. I
never argue with the Chinese. Her story contines. The Joint
became known as the Chinese Laundry in order to conceal the
nefarious activity behind the stinking dirty clothes facade. A raid
in 1942 Jailed most of the management except for a wise old Chinese
women (you guessed it) named Dorothy Wu. Sin's great grandmother
took over. She ran it as a legitimate laundry until the war broke
out and Dorothy hooked up with Vince's great grandfather and again
it became a speak-easy with rooms upstairs. By the end to the War
the women's movement was making "Kill Joy" a household term and
ladies of the night were jailed and labeled prostitutes, a horrible
term for women who understand their men better that their wives do.
It was a control trip, and an ugly one at that.
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