Shaky Town: A Novel - Tapa blanda

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Lou Mathews is the author of L.A. Breakdown and a longstanding instructor at UCLA Extension’s acclaimed Creative Writing program. His stories have been published in ZZZYVYA, New England Review, Tin House, Black Clock, Paperback L.A., and many fiction anthologies. Mathews is also a journalist, playwright, former restaurant critic, and passionate cook. He has received a Pushcart Prize, a Katherine Anne Porter Prize, and an NEA Fiction Fellowship, and is a recipient of the UCLA Extension Outstanding Instructor Award. He lives in Los Angeles, California.

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When I retired, I decided I should be the Mayor here because I have seniority. I moved here in 1922. I was five years old. Nobody else has lived here longer. Mrs. Espinosa will argue with you, but I can remember when she moved here. It was 1928. Before that she lived in Frogtown. She counts that, but Frogtown is across the tracks.

That doesn’t count. This is Shaky Town.

I’ll tell you how long I’ve been here. After the earth-quake in 1923, when the dam broke, this street was flooded to the tops of the trees. Right where we’re sitting, I floated over it on a raft, in 1923. I tied that raft to an orange tree, right across the street. There was a whole grove then, where the pallet factory is now.

So you’re learning what a wonderful barrio you live in. Historical. That bakery was built in 1930, and Shaky Town has smelled good ever since. That drive-in opened in 1945. It’s the best example of Streamline Moderne architecture in California.

I come down at night sometimes just to look at it. It’s beautiful, all lit up, the carhops on roller skates, and the windmill blades turning.

I bring a copita of brandy and sit here across the street and sip, and I think, Emiliano, you’re just like the Quixoté. He had his windmills and you have yours. Only yours have neon lights!

That’s enough history for one day. You should know about where you live. Now you get to go to work and you’ve learned something. Don’t laugh. You should learn some-thing new every day. It’s like the bankers say, Pay yourself first. Put something into savings before you pay your bills. Here comes your bus.