Monday through Friday. After school he would go to work with his uncle. Then he would go home at about 9 pm. One the weekends, he would work from 8 am to 10 delivering the newspapers, then from 11 am to 9 pm he worked at the chicken place. From all the money Fran received, he would give $60 a week to his mo to help the family out. This caused some difficulty with Fran’s stepfather since he felt really mad that Fran was making as much money as he did granted Fran worked about 15 more hours a week than his stepdad, yet he made the same kind of money. With the money Fran made, he was going to buy a car and fix it up, then join a car club. That’s all Fran had on his mind. He was going to buy a 57 Chevy and paint it peral white with red and black, plus rims- “Craigers”- a fully hydro system on all four wheels with individual wheel jackrabbit system plus a high fidelity sound system. All this would cost lots of money and Fran would work hard to save the money to get his dream off the ground. But when he reached 16 years old, he found out that things don’t always go his way. Since a new car cost too much Fran had to settle for a used car. Instead, he bought a 1962 Chevy, which was a good car, but all his friends told him that 62 Chevys had no reputation for being a nice cruiser. Fran used it to got back and forth to school and work. In fact, now tht Fran had a car, everyone always wanted to go places with him all the time. In fact, they went to a big park on Fourth of July one summer htat was in a neighborhood a ways from their normal partying area. But now they had a car to go father from home, but at that park, Fran and them ran into some local gang members from that neighborhood. They asked Fran and his friends where they were from. Fran told them he was not from a gang, while the others told them where they were from. Thos guys left and Fran, his girlfriend, and the rest of the group set up their picnic area so they could wait to see the fireworks. About an hour went by when suddenly those guys came back and a fight broke out. In the fight, Fran got hit in the head with a bumper jack. Luckily, Fran had put his right arm up to stop most of the impact, but still most of the hit still caused him to go unconscious. When he woke up , he was at his girlfriend’s house on the sofabed. He sat up with a tremendous headache. He then saw his girlfrien’ds mom. She told him what happened and said to rest up and not to worry about anything, that his mom had already been informed, and that he was staying for the night. They told him not to worry, that no one should worry since his girlfriend’s dad was a doctor. Fran’s car was parked outside so there wasn’t much to really worry about. A couple of days passed by and Fran had now fully recovered, not to mention that he had a bum on his head with a big gash. He was pretty much back to normal now. Fran had a real good time at his girlfriend’s house. They had sex regularly and twice they slept together all night. Then one night, after they had sex, when Fran pulled out, some went on the coffee table without them noticing. Her mother saw it and she gave them both a lecture on the use of condoms for protection and for the prevention of diseases (std’s). And they agreed to use condoms in the future. Then Fran met this guy that was a hardcore gang member and all the toehr towns wanted to put him siv feet under. They all knew him quite well. He owned a1965 Rivera, really nice with a heavy red primer paint job. The guy just wanted to trade clean across the board. Fran took it and for a while, as he drove to different places, gang members would follow him to where he was going and they asked him about the car. He would tell them that he had just bought it and that he was the new owner. The guys asked Fran where he was from. Fran told them that he wasn’t from a gang, that he belonged to a car club. They asked him which one and Fran madea very quick answer to that question. “Our car club name is Los Hermanos Solanos, which means the Brothers Alone".

    The guys told Fran that the Brothers Alone could come and party at their neighborhood whenever they wanted.” Fran told them that he would take them up on that in the future and the guys left. Now Fran knew where those guys town was at and where they hung out, so with the money Fran saved, he fixed up the Rivera more than just nice. He had electronic doors put in and also the doors went up and down instead of outward. He put Hydraulics on all four wheels with scrap pads on the rear under the gas tank. Then he want to Tijuana, Mexico to have the interior done with “white diamond tuck.” The stereo system was state of the art for that time period along with a color bar and equalizer set with six of the high quality speakers on the inside and two ten inch outdoor speakers on the outside hidden behind the front grill. The paint job a s a pearl black with white and a the rims were true spokes. Inside the wheel wells were painted white with orange cruise lights for night. The car was a work of art, beautiful enough to be in a car show or in low rider magazine photos. Fran was actually the only member of Los Hernmanos Solonos, and that was not good. As Fran went cruising up to Whittier Boulevard, a popular cruising area for low rider cars, Fran and the girls that went with him drew a lot of attention. They stopped at Jack in the Box to get something to eat. It was Fran, Arlene, Twinkles, Lynn and two other girls. While they were eating some guys came up to Fran and said, “We saw the plaque you have on your rear window that says ‘Los Hermanos Solanos,’ we never heard of that car club.” Fran told them that it was a new car club. The guys asked him how many cars he had in his club. Fran told them there was only twenty, but they were growing and they planned on being bigger than the car clubs that already existed, which had about 140 cars. The guys asked him, if they wanted to join, how would they go about doing it? Fran told them that all they had to do was meet at the park and they would be initiated, but that they had to own a nice looking car. So Fran stepped outside to check out the car. The guys also asked what benefits Fran’s club had to offer that the other clubs didn’t have. Fran told them that for one thing, ‘Los Hermanos Solanos’ can travel anywhere they wanted to many because they were neutral with everybody and they were not from any neighborhood. Not like the other car clubs that started in one neighborhood and they seemed to always fight to defend it. For another reason, he explained, for the guys to see for themselves as to the type of girls that party with ‘Los Hermanos Solanos’ like Arlene and them that were eating in Jack in the Box. The guys then asked what park do they meet at? Fran told them which one and four of the guys said they wanted to join. Fran told them it was cool and for them to meet next Saturday at the park, 8 pm, and the guys left. It was Friday night. It was still early. It was only 9 pm so Fran and the girls went back on the boulevard to go cruising with music blasting. The girls would picks up their blouse and show their tits as they passed guys parked by their cars. In some cases, they would moon them, exposing their and ass and pussies. When they bend down, guys would jump in their cars to follow Fran and the girls, and when Fran and the girls would pull over and park, the guys would ask Fran how they could join the club, and in some cases, guys would touch the girls tits, and they would finger and bang the girls. But by the end of the night, thirty giuys wanted to join the car club of ‘Los Hermanons Solanos.’ The next night they had 20 candidates. On Saturday there was 15 more for a total of 65 members when the following Friday came, they had 10 more members wanting to join. On that Saturday of the 75 members that were to be initiated, only 50 guys were there with their cars. Fran and the guys initiated each other until everyone had gone though the process. Fan told them that the club fee was $10 a month. The rear window plaque was $35, and that the windbreaker jackets with the clubs name and logo was $48.

    They were also to vote on the car club officers. Fran told them that even the position of president, which Fran held for the first month, was up for grabs in order to make everything right in the club. So they all voted for Fran for three reasons: 1) since no one in the car club knew each other yet, the most obvious choice was to vote for the person that they all knew and brought everybody together. 2) Fran had already held the position so there was no reason to change. 3) Fran had the only plaque on the rear that had the car club name. The voting was over, they now had a car club president, vice president, secretary treasurer, and master at arms. It was the job of the M.A..A. to control any unruley people during parties and to set up traffic guards when cruising from one place to another. After they had finished the initiation, they all planned to go to Whittier Blvd. to go cruising. Now all 50 cars got on the road and headed toward Whittier Blvd. As they approached their first light, the eighth and ninth car pulled out in front to stop the traffic on both sides while all cars passed the light even while it was red. Then those two cars got in the rear of the line. It was continued until they got to the boulevard. Once there, they all parked in and around Jack in the box. While they were there, a few of the guys showed up and said that they wanted to join, but didn’t show up and they found out then that fifty of the car club ‘Los Hermanos Solanos’ were now present and they could see for themselves that a club existed. Besides 50 guys being there, 72 girls had gone with them and everyone cruising the boulevard were looking at them. Other car clubs had about 140 to 175 cars in their car clubs, but they would never all get together in one place. Suddenly this new car club was showing great strength on the boulevard. A lot of guys with great looking cars were now stopping to find out how they could join the club. A lot of the girls that were cruising the boulevard invited ‘Los Hermanos Solanos’ to some parties for the following weekend. Fran accepted each invitation. The following Friday, they all cruised the boulevard on their way to a party. When they arrived at the party that the girls invited them to, it was dead and boring. With ‘Los Hermanos Solanos’ there for an hour, the party came to life. The party girl who was having her birthday told her mom tht the party was a total flop and she was sad before they showed up. Then the mother of the birthday girl noticed that her daughter was having a lot of fun and she was very happy. The mother talked to Fran and thanked him for making her little girl happy on her birthday. Even the neighbors were calling to see what was going on. There were a lot of beautiful-looking cars all over their neighborhood and her daughter must know a lot of people. The neighbors wanted to come check out the party. They partied til about 4:30 am, then everyone went home on Saturday at of the guys would be at the park to be initiated. When Fran got to the park, there was a lot of cars already there. Fran knew that these cars were not their regular members and when Fran got to the parking lot, he noticed it was a lot of the guys that wanted to join. There were about 60 new members that night. They all went and cruised through the boulevard, 110 cars on their way to another party. The car club kept growing every week. Within a few weeks, ‘Los hermanos Solanos’ car club was now 270 cars strong and fun and partying was all they did. They all looked good. They all had badge windbreaker jackets and plaques on the rear windows. They were the talk of the boulevard. Mostly every neighborhood wanted them to come and party. In fact, some girls invited them to a park party. And since Los Hermanos Solanos was way over 270 cars and they had been around for over a year, the cops had already started to harass them. They told Fran that while on City Street, they could caravan only in a group of twenty cars. So Fran could lead the first group of 20 cars to the park party and as they approached the park, it was a very large park with 4 different entrances and a downhill slope of roads heading toward the center of the party. Fran and 20 cars drove on down the hill from out of the entrance. And there was already about 90 cars already about 35 of them from another car club. 55 cars were of the guys that lived in the neighborhood. Fran and the 20 cars of ‘Los Hermanos Solanos’ all parked next to the other cars and the girls that invited them came up to Fran and the guys and they started talking. Some of the girls started dancing and one of the girls came up to Fran and started kissing him; Fran kissed her back. The girls that came with Los Hermanos Solanos had already gotten out of the car and they went to mingle with the guys and girls that invited them. But not everyone was happy to see them there. The brother of the girl Fran was kissing had stepped on over to hit Fran and the car club up, then Sandra told her brother to back off. Sandra’s brother told Fran that Los Hermanos Solanos just came to cause problems, drink their beer, and steal their girls. A lot of guys started to surround Los Hermanos Solanos while Fran replied, “We have our own girls and music,” and then he opened the trunk of his car, “and we carry our own beer. We just came to have fun. We don’t want any problems.” Sandra’s brother told Fran to leave or they would have problems, so Fran told all of the car club to get in the cars and to make sure no one was left behind that came with them. Then Sandra and some of her friends got in the cars too! Sandra’s brother told her to get out of the caro f those chicken shit motherfuckers. Fran started the engine of his car and put it in reverse. Fran told Sandra’s brother that they didn’t want to have any problems and he didn’t want anyone to get hurt.

    Sandra’s brother said, “The only ones that will get hurt is you pussies.” Then he grabbed Fran’s car door and told his sister to get out of the car. Then Fran floored it and peeled rubber in reverse and Fran went back 70 feet and slammed on the brakes. Then Fran popped open the trunk and pulled out the bumper jack. The rest of the car club did the same. Sandra asked Fran not to be he told her that he could not allow to be challenged and just run. Fran then walked up toward Sandra’s brother and told him, “You’re Sandra’s brother so I won’t be fucking you up, one of the other guys will.” Sandra’s brother replied, “The only one that will be getting fucked up is you. There’s more of us than there is of you!” Fran answered, “Oh really? Look over on the hill.” Just then the second group had arrived and that group saw what was going on, so two cars blocked off the first exit, while the rest of the cars started circling the park. On the second time around the park, the group looked large, the third group had arrived now there was 60 cars at the park of Los Hermanos Solanos car club. Two more cars blocked the second exit of the park while the rest of them kept circling. Fran leaned on one of the cars and said, “You haven’t seen nothing yet; this is only one-eighth of the cars that will be here. So what do you want to do?” Sandra’s brother and the group around him kept looking around at the group of cars get bigger and bigger. Then Fran’s crew blocked off exit number three with two cars, then on the fourth exit, the car club of Los Hermanos Solanos started to drive down to the center of the park where Fran was. Two cars blocked off the last exit. The group of cars spread out in the parking lot about 90 feet away. All the guys got out of their cars and the trunks all popped open. Crowbars, bats, chains, and bumper jacks started coming out. As they started walking toward the guys that were around Fran, the rest of the car club arrived and started circling the park as the guys in the parking lot stopped ten feet from the other guys, they stood there and started staring and mad dogging the guys waiting for Fran to give the order to fight. Los Hermanos Solanos were hitting their palms with the bats, others were just swinging their chains in a circle, while still others were tapping the bumper jacks on the cement. The group of cars circling had now parked and trunks popped open and the guys started walking downhill. They looked real good all wearing their club jacktets, ironed out, and they all wore black glossy shoes, but they were ready to fight. As soon as Fran gave the order, now there was over 320 members of Los Hermanos Solanos at the park. The guys that “hit Fran up” were now surrounded. Sandra came up to Fran to tell him not do anything, and that her brother didn’t mean it, her brother just liked to act really big around the guys and girls of his click. Fran thought about it and then he grabbed Sandra and started kissing her. After that, Fran asked Sandra’s brother what was his next move. He replied that he didn’t have any problem with anybody from Los Hermanos Solanos and that they could come and party with them anytime they want in peace. And suddenly, at that moment, about ten cop cars showed up. They started to circle the park looking for an entrance to the park but they saw every exit was blocked off. Fran told his club that the fight was over with the guys at the park, but that the real enemy was circling the park and they need to be cut off. So all of Los Hermanos Solanos went up to the edge of the road and as the cops came by, a couple of cars pulled out in front of them, blocking the road. A couple of cars blocked off their rear. The cops panicked and they popped out of the cars with their guns out. Then the Master at Arms walked out toward the cop cars and yelled out that the leader of Los Hermanos Solanos wanted to talk to their person in charge and that no one would be hurt. One of the police officers holstered his gun and walked toward the M.A.A. He then took the officer to Fran, then Fran asked, “What seems to be the problem, Officer?”

    The officer replied, “This is an unauthorized assembly and everyone needs to leave now.” Fran answered, “This is a party at the park and there’s no reason to leave. It’s all legal.” The officer said, “I want all of you to get in your cars and leave right away.” fran answered with, “NO. We’ll stay here and party for as long as we want and there’s nothing you can do about it. Now if it was regular people here parked all around the park, and in the parking lot, you wouldn’t be here. But since we’re a car club, you feel you can harass us and push us around. Well you have another thing coming. We’re staying, so bring a lot of cops back before you come back. And by the way, this is only one quarter of our car club. The rest will be here soon. And if you want peace, that’s cool too! Just don’t bother us and we won’t mess with you. Now you can go, and don’t come back.” The police officer answered, “I’m a police officer and you can’t talk to me like that.” Fran said, “I said you can go now.” The M.A.A. told the officer, “Let’s go.” And they walked away. The officer told the rest of the officers to put their guns away ad get in their cars. The roadblock was removed and the police cars started leaving. At the same time other cop cars showed up, but they turned off their sirens and lights and caught up to the other cop cars. They all left. Fran and them partied until two in the morning when they went home. Months went by and the car club grew and grew. Los Hermanos Solanos partied in every town and every city and had no big problems. The car club had gotten such a good reputation that other car clubs invited Los Hermanos Solanos to a big event in San Jose, California and Fran accepted. By then, the car club had 410 cars in their club and once on the freeway it was the most awesome sight to see. Everyone had their eyes on Los Hermanos Solanos. The news had their helicopter overhead filming, the California Highway Patrol had to block off onramps to keep the cars moving to their destinations. They didn’t like it, but Los Hermanos Solanos were not the only ones on the move. There were 52 other car clubs on the freeway heading toward San José, but they were the largest. The next size down was about 315 cars strong, yet Los Hermanos Solanos had about another two hundred and ten people wanting to become members. But they had to wait until after this big event. Everything went off without a hitch and before Fran got home, the Vietnam War was brewing up. Fran had heard it in the news that the draft was going to be started, but the government didn’t want to jump right into that quite yet. They were still on the voluntary system. Still, on the way home, Fran took a hard look at his life as to where he had been and where he was going and during the long drive home, he thought about what he wanted to do with his life. Fran knew that he wouldn’t be president of the car club for the rest of his life, and he knew career week was coming up and he would have to decide what he would be for a career. Fran got home and gave it a lot of thought. He first wanted to become an astronaut, his second choice would be to be a firefighter, and third, and astronomer, after that a teacher, or a pilot of a jet fighter. When career day arrived, Fran filled out all of the forms for every type of career he wanted and on top of that, he filled all of the military branch forms: navy, army, air force, and marines. He had various choices to pick from. None of which had to do with what he wanted, but most of them were very interesting lines of work for a nice future. Then, after thinking carefully, Fran decided to join the navy and see the world. He signed up and then he went to the car club and told them that he had to leave to the military and that a new president had to be elected. Fran was sorry to leave Los Hermanos Solanos, but Fran could see that after two years of leadership of the car club, the fun and challenge had died out. He also saw that he needed to do something better since he had promised to his mother that he would someday get married, have some kids, buy a house, and start a business. Fran figured now would be a good time to get started. The navy would give him a date for him to leave for boot camp with a 90-day preparation delay program so Fran could settle all of his affairs before he left. The car club all agreed that he should stay as president until the last day. By a month later, Fran and the car club went to a party they got an invitation to and when Fran stepped in, a lot of the girls clung to him, but only one girl caught his eye. Fran walked right up to her and asked her if he could sit with her. She said no, and then he asked her name.