Scotty's Wisdom

 Scotty's Wisdom




     Since we were last inside the South Gate institution of Ashton's Market why leave when such insight into the mysteries of the universe are available right there. The thing about Ashton's was that it was like the geographic center of the Gate with the Hogan residence just Billy-steps away and Disa working practically next door at the Bank of America. Across the street was the painful dentist Dr. Schecter who I shamefully stiffed after he repaired a wreck of the teeth in my twenty-something mouth. While old Chuck Ashton founded and oversaw the market it was run by his sons and a ne'r do well mentioned before as "Scotty." This Scotsman was a very good pal of John Barleycorn  and was reduced to peddling a bicycle around town since his drunk driving convictions had stripped him of his liscense and area cops knew him by sight. Normally, if they saw him in an automobile they could assume he was sozzled. However, this inebriate Jock was  popular with the sheltered housewives who frequented the butchers case because of his accent. Also Ashton's meat section was known to be honest and of good quality. This was duriung a time when the old Depression generation shoppers were transistioning toward Super Markets with everything packaged, even the cellophane wrapped meat that might be brown inside with a red myoglobum exterior. When Safeway or Alpha Beta set up shop, satisfaction was not guaranteed for the old guard who continued to go local. Grace Sheehy drove all the way over to Downey to buy her meat and even the great Jimmy's Meat Market on State street became "Hector's Carcineria." My boomer-generation peers still stopped into Ashton's and knew most of the checkers, produce guys and butchers by name. So, it was 1977 and my dead-end bum living in  South Gate was no longer tolerable and on a whim I drove out to Fullerton State and took out a $2000 loan to enroll in Library School. I was spending a lot of time at Leland Weaver branch on Tweedy and the beautiful librarians there made it seem like a great place to earn a living. So, I was standing at the butcher's case at Ashtons where I had heard many an ignorant statement before and Scotty asked me what I was up to. I told him I was going to school to be a librarian. It still was mostly a women's profession but I was getting used to the idea and loved the reference part of the job. So I tell Scotty about being a librarian and his wise response was "why do you want to take a job away from some old maids!" Yeah, he said that. My only retort at the time was "you dumb shit, when is the last time you were in a library?





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