Читать книгу The Pleasures of the Damned - Charles Bukowski - Страница 36

the lady in red

people went into vacant lots and pulled up greens to cook and the

men rolled Bull Durham or smoked Wings (10¢ a pack) and the dogs

were thin and the cats were thin and the cats learned how to catch

mice and rats and the dogs caught and killed the cats (some of the

cats), and gophers tore up the earth and people killed them by

attaching garden hoses to the exhaust pipes of their cars and

sticking the hoses into the gopher holes and when the gophers came

out the cats and the dogs and the people were afraid of them, they

circled and showed their long thin teeth, then they stopped and

shivered and as they did the cats rushed in followed by the dogs.

people raised chickens in their back yards and the roosters were

weak and the hens were thin and the people ate them if they didn’t

lay eggs fast enough, and the best time of all was when John

Dillinger escaped from jail, and one of the saddest times of all was

when the Lady in Red fingered him and he was gunned down

coming out of that movie.

Pretty Boy Floyd, Baby Face Nelson, Machine Gun Kelly, Ma

Barker, Alvin Karpis, we loved them all. and there were always

wars starting in China and they never lasted long but the

newspapers had big black headlines: WAR IN CHINA!

the ’30s were a time when people had very little and there was

nothing to hide behind, and that Bull Durham tag dangling from

the string coming out of your pocket—that showed you had it, you

could roll with one hand—plenty of time to practice and if somebody

looked at you wrong or said something you didn’t like you cracked

him one right in the mouth. it was a glorious non-bullshit time,

especially after we got rid of Herbert Hoover.