:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: If you believe that then I have some swamp land in the desert I would like to sell you.... His parties were famous. to this day he and his friends are legends at Damien.... :lol: :lol:
I had zero interest in re-telling the story, and even less interest in having the truest version. There was one of us at those parties. I like my mom's versions though. They are very warm, with soft comfy edges. I think we'll go with those. I have no problem with that. I'm quite sure that I could. Whenever things went wrong there were always 3 words that could be used to summarize the instigator of things spiraling out of control. Hysterical white people. The night in question, I assure you there were no more than 250 people there including the support staff. You're talking about a roughly 1800 sq ft home. 3 bedroom, 1.5 bath. Very typical middle class SoCal home built in the post-war boom. Every single person was inside the home, or in the back yard and the back yard there was not very large at all. In fact, quite small for the neighborhood. A few things you need to keep in mind. This was right before the crack/meth boom reached the suburbs.. by maybe 5 to 6 years. Things weren't that bad. You had to go to the barrio or the hood to find that stuff. The only people doing hardcore drugs in the burbs of SoCal back then were the parents and the occasional despondent youth. Even for the latter, they were always welcome at my parties and they could leave the drugs behind. I had food, booze, women (or men if that's your thing) and great music. I would prefer to avoid live bands because they are too loud and too immobile. Kids, by and large, did exactly as you told them to when faced with authority. This was also just before the 'gangsta rap' era took over the suburbs which really seemed to do all the things to suburban moral values that my grandparents generation always worried rock and roll would do. You also had to know the people at your gatherings. Even if you don't know them personally, you had to know what type of person they were. Who they were, who they knew, how did they find out. There was nothing, and I mean nothing that happened at any of those parties that I was unaware of the entire time. From the guy pissing around the corner against the wall (who'd get tossed about and ejected for that) to the kids sneaking off to have make out or have sex or whatever (another reason to get ejected, although more politely. We can't have any potential ******* rape charges going on and I never gave 2 shits about whether or not how much they 'loved' each other.) Even if new people showed up that I didn't know or someone couldn't vouch for, I could quickly find out who they were and gauge what type of person they were. If you didn't fit, or you seemed like some tosser out looking to brawl, you were gone. That isn't to say a fight or altercation didn't happen from time to time, but they were over very, very quickly. Those parties were almost always a walk in the park. The scarier parties were the ones we'd have over in El Monte, Los Angeles, Irwindale or Pasadena. I personally knew fewer people so I had to rely on the opinions of my trusted few. I had a much quicker trigger there than I did at smaller events. Those were warehouse parties or field/property parties that involved, literally, thousands of people. There was always such a dramatic difference between the police departments.. (LAPD vs suburban cop). The LAPD always had something better to do. They could clear out a 4,000 person party with no more than 4 to 6 cops. I never had an issue with them, ever. The suburban cops were different. They very much were cowboys with a chip on their shoulder. They'd come busting in swinging, spraying or keeping the hand on the gun. That isn't true for all of them.. maybe a third and almost always under 35 years old, but I saw way more cowboy **** in the burbs than I ever did from officers who actually worked in 'bad areas.' I learned long ago the deal to dealing with police officers, at least real ones. You do whatever the **** they tell you to do. You don't lie to them. You shoot straight with them. They won't believe you initially, but you can earn their trust pretty quick. If they tell you to keep it down, you kill the DJ (not literally). If they tell you to break it up, you break it up orderly and make sure you take the initiative in doing so. I never, ever, EVER had a problem breaking up the largest groups and keeping them orderly until they were dispersed. Sure, there will be grumbling. There will be the few people who act the fool. Even the worst of them only requires one semi-sober buddy or go-gooder, who they are friendly with, to get under control. The people see me as their host and protector. Usually, some events during the evening have transpired briefly that have cemented my position as such. I just want you to have a good time. If I hit the lights, kill the music and tell you that you have to go home...or you have to deal with the police. They did. I'd be proactive, organized and made quick work of it. No excuses, no delays, no ********. Sure, there were legal ramifications for everything we were doing but I'd send you all home and stay behind with the police to face it all myself. I'd even have the support staff and/or the kid who owned the house leave to just leave me and the cops. From there, I'd endure the lectures on the potential dangers of it all and they'd threaten me with legal action. The truth of the matter is that they'd spend all night filling out paperwork on the litany of charges, all of which will wind up getting dismissed and or plead down because I'm a minor with no real record. I became quite familiar with many of the officers and they knew I was good on my word. Honestly, the parties in the burbs were always the highest potential for a problem because of the amount of potentially hysterical white people there and the cowboy cops.. They required even more authoritarian, yet friendly, presence... but to suggest that I didn't know of everything going on, and didn't have absolute control of it, is a little insulting. I'm comfortable of my parents thinking less of me and my abilities in this regard. I think that's better, honestly. Of all the hundreds of parties I ever threw, only 2 went bad. The one with the copter and the one next door to my parents house. The 1st went bad when the police showed up swinging and spraying. I was ejected and ordered from the premises in the first minute of the police showing up. The 2nd went bad when my sister and her friends decided that they would take control of the party. She leveraged her position as my sister knowing full well that she was absolutely the one person in attendance that I'd do nothing to and exploited it. It was her best friends house and the night ended with a legendary fight between 2 friends of mine (who were previously working security at the event). Those 2 smashed several windows (that they were thrown through), a microwave (that actually was broken over someone's head) and a few holes in the wall (from missed punches or heads being rammed through them.) I would like to note that all of the damages were paid for by me, entirely, from the proceeds raised by the party that were left over. (my sister and her boyfriend's friends snaked the rest). You gotta be a standup guy, even when things go bad. That's another point I'd like to make. I didn't make a ton of money at these parties. There were people who made several hundred dollars and some folks made a hundred. I never made more than a hundred from any one party. I'd usually make about $20 to $50 for In-N-Out later. It was never about the money, or the power trip, or popularity. I already had all those things. It was about making sure everyone could have a good time.. no bullies, no ********, no drama and a money back guarantee. I always delivered on that promise. I wanted to make sure the guy with the pocket square had just as good of a time as the most handsome football player. And again, I always delivered. Anyone who ran afoul of the mission statement ran afoul of me. We could either make money, get drunk, meet girls and have a good time.. or you could face the consequences. Once you get the latter established as a certainty, you don't have to do that anymore..or at least very rarely. So yeah, could I have shown them how to control a crowd that size? You bet your ass.