<Begin Segment 22>

MN: And you started to take on a more leadership role in the Black Juans, and then you got this nickname called the General. And how did you get to be called the General?

JM: Well, most of our older members, as the years went by, were drafted, and they left. And so all of a sudden, J-Flats was sort of quote/unquote "defenseless," you know. Because as I mentioned to you, we had all these sixty, seventy people, alliances there, we could, you know, if you get us, well, we can come back at you all over the place while we were gone. They were all in the army. And I didn't want to go, you know. I was just, I got a deferment. I just got hold of a lawyer and gave him some money and he got me a deferment. And then at the same time, I had bought a brand-new car. I wasn't about to give that thing up. It was a beautiful car, it was a Plymouth Valiant, you know. You know, you could use it in the Batmobile movies, it had a swept fin, it was white and gold, and it had two antennaes coming out of the back. Whoa, man, I was driving that sucker around. I had, everything was just so, the pipes gave out a mellow "brrrrr," you know. It was, believe it or not, they had transmissions that you could punch. So, boy, that was something. I got hold of this young lady, and we went to the movies. And you know, going into a drive-in, trying to re-park your car, especially you have one of these monster cars, and you try to squeeze it, you're punching this and that, at the same time, trying to keep your arm around her, it was more, too much for any one man to deal with. And then I was going to have to give that up, 'cause I got this "greetings from the President," and I said, "Oh, no, it's not gonna happen." So that left me by myself all the time. And I think everybody realized now that J-Flats was rather defenseless, except they have the Baby Black Juans. So now everybody was taking shots at the Baby Black Juans. They were, like, pretty close to crumbling, you know, because they don't have the experience, they don't have, you know, the wherewithal. And I was the one living connection to the, what was there, and why they wanted to be called the Black Juans.

So one day I'm driving by, and they looked so beaten down and dispirited, I just pulled over and talked to them a little bit. And yeah, I could see why people need leaders. I could really see it. Because they don't just need leaders, they need, sort of need what you call iconic leaders. And that's bad, but it's a need that people have. We want somebody to lead us to be this more than human creature. So they saw me as this link, and I said, "You need to do something, to show that you're not afraid of the west side or something." They said, "Well, what shall we do?" And the thought came to (me), "Go on down to Hody's." Hody's was their drive-in restaurant on the west side, it was a, I believe it's either La Brea... it's right at the foot of Baldwin Hills. But that's where all the west side folks are. I said, "Go on down there." Now, I figured out they may get into it, that's possible. On the other hand, there's fifty percent chance they may not get into it. And that would be good, because in a sense, you could claim that you went and invaded their territory. But if we did nothing, you got a hundred percent that the club will dissolve. So I figured out, yeah, go on down there. Go down there and see what's happening. Just let 'em know you're around. And so they thought, "Hey, that's a great idea," so I could see them all huddling, seeing which cars they would go down there. They had about two carloads, two or three carloads, they were going to go down to Hody's. I said, "Yeah, that sounds good." I said, "Well, go to it." Then all of a sudden -- I don't know why it always happens to me, but it happened too many times in my life. I still remember a guy telling me, "Aren't you coming with us?" [Laughs] And I realize now that if I said, "No," they wouldn't go. And if I said, "Yes," I had to go. But our mores at the time was you don't get involved into the battling of the younger folks. They really put you down. My standings would have dropped. "What's wrong with you?" I would have been really looked down upon. So anyway, I said, "Okay, I'll go down with you." They weren't gonna go unless they could follow me down. So I'm driving as low as I can, I hope nobody sees me.

So I got to the, I got to the outside of the drive-in, and then (...) I said, "This is it, this is it, I got to leave. I can't stand the shame of this much," so I took off. I said, "This is it for me. You're on your own now. Whatever happens, happens. Well, as luck would have it, none of the west side was there. So the Baby Black Juans kind of got to roam around strutting, doing their thing like, "Yeah, where are the west side folks? Here we are." They had one renegade from Gardena, we used to call him Little Richard. He's actually a big heavy-set guy. The guy always had (...) a pistol with him and apparently Richard was walking along, kind of leading the crowd, waving his pistol around at Hody's. But that became legendary for them. They got there, and there was a... what was it? A public relations crew. The word got out, "Oh, the Baby Black Juans came down to Hody's of all places." And they were walking around, you know, oh, you could just see the difference in them. You know, they were like, you know, "Wow, we did this." Then all of a sudden, I became, now, elevated to the guru, you know. "Oh, that's the General from the old Black Juans. He told us to do this." Lord have mercy. Because the way the name General came about was we used to go to Linda Lea to see movies sometimes. And I think in one, there was a Japanese movie, and there was a Lieutenant Matsuoka. You know, everybody busted out laughing. So they started calling me "Lieutenant" when I left there. And my cousin said "Hey, you can't call my cousin nothing but a lieutenant. He's a general." So now I became General, you know, which was... they were wolfing on me, so to speak, just making fun of me. But the younger people, they just took it at face value, and I was the one that dictated that we launched this assault on Hody's, you know, now I became the link to the old guys and I became the, you know, if I said this, it was that. I became like an iconic leader. And anytime I showed up at a dance or something like that, it was, "Oh, the General's here."

I took a few advantages of it sometimes. Because I remember walking into a few dances, and I'm surrounded by admiring people. And the people at the door, they're frightened to death. They don't know whether to ask me for money or not, because they don't know whether, they think, "Maybe he's gonna use that as an excuse to tear this dance apart," 'cause there was a bunch of folks there. I just kind of give 'em the hard-eyed look like, "Are you gonna dare to ask me for money or what?" [Laughs] Lot of times they wouldn't. It would catch in their mouth, and I would just kind of walk by. Which added even more to my mystique. So anyway, that's how it came about.

<End Segment 22> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.