The Art of the Pimp: One Man's Search for Love, Sex, and Money (7 page)

Shortly after we moved in, we were over at my wife’s parents’ house for dinner. They had a son, Shirley’s older brother, who worked for the phone company doing house calls and repair work and such. It was a good job, a job that could lead to an office job, and they thought it was more respectable than working at a gas station, so they made some calls and arranged an interview. I wasn’t happy about it, but when I tried to discuss it with my mother she refused to listen. “It’s an excellent job and I expect you to do everything in your power to get it,” she said.

Later that same day, I approached my father and asked if we could go for a drive. I told him I didn’t want to get locked into being a telephone person for the rest of my life, climbing poles for eight hours a day. And I said that even if it did lead to an office job, I wasn’t exactly thrilled by the idea of sitting behind a desk for the next forty years. I said I wanted what the kids at West High had, big houses in Encanto Park and enough money for the good things in life. I said I felt my work at the gas station could lead to a gas station of my own some day, and maybe to bigger things beyond that. “I want to make my own way,” I told him.

My father, God bless his soul, said I should listen to myself; that I shouldn’t let anyone make my decisions for me. And with tears in his eyes he told me that he still regretted taking that job as a mailman, because he knew he would have been much happier renting bicycles to tourists and running a business of his own. “You’re responsible for your child, and for your wife,” he said. “You’re the guy
that has to earn the money to take care of them, so you’re going to have to make the decision, right or wrong, and live with it.”

I was crying, too. I was crying for my father, and I was crying for myself. It was fucking heart-wrenching, but I went back to the guesthouse and told my wife that I wasn’t taking a job with the phone company. Then I had to go tell her parents, and that was hell. They beat me up verbally.
What is wrong with you? We are handing you this great opportunity, and you turn your back on us? And what’s this crazy idea about someday having a gas station of your own—no self-respecting man works in a gas station.
Everybody was down on me. My wife, her entire family, my own mother. The only person who didn’t say a single negative word was my father, and his message was clear:
Be your own man.
That message really shaped the course of my life. To this day, I’m happy to listen, and I listen to everyone. But I’m the guy who makes the final decision, and if things go south I have no one to blame but myself.

We had our first daughter in 1964 and a second daughter, also unplanned, four years later. I couldn’t believe it. At the age of twenty-two I had a wife and two little girls, all because I’d wanted to get laid.

Still, I didn’t complain. I was a good husband, a good father, and a good provider. I was putting in fifty, sixty hours a week at the gas station, and the owner took a liking to me. I was always well groomed, I was polite with the customers, I was honest, and I was a good listener. These were things that had been hammered into me by my mother: “Look people in the eye when you talk to them!” “Pay attention!” “No son of mine is going to wear blue jeans!”
etc.
I hadn’t appreciated it at the time, but my good manners and good attitude were paying off.

I had started off pumping gas, moved up to working in the shop
with the mechanics, and when the boss was away, I was pretty much running the place. There were half a dozen other guys working there, all of them older than me and more experienced, and they were nice enough, but they didn’t work very hard. It seemed like they put most of their energy into selling customers all sorts of shit they didn’t need: “Your transmission’s shot.” “That noise you hear is your brakes rubbing up against the tire.” “I’m going to have to replace your battery.” I don’t claim to have been a saint, but I’d been brought up to be honest and to work hard, so that’s what I did.

BEFORE LONG I DECIDED
it was time to get a gas station of my own. It wasn’t rocket science: You buy gas, you sell gas, and if it’s your place, you’re the one that makes the lion’s share of the profits. So I talked to my boss about it and I talked to the company rep, this guy from Richfield Oil, and they let me lease an empty station on a highway in Phoenix. I had to borrow a thousand dollars from my father to replace some of the older equipment and I only had enough left over for half a load of gas, but as soon as I sold that first half-load I was in business and I didn’t look back.

I was proud of my gas station. This was back in the old days, when the guys at the pumps wore uniforms and bow ties and wiped down your windows and made the glass squeak. I did such a good job that within a year I had a second gas station and the year after that I had a third one. I was racking up awards, too. I got the Cleanest Gas Station Award, or whatever the hell it was called. I sold more tires than any other gas station in Arizona, and the Goodyear people took me for a ride in their blimp — three years in a row. To be honest, I liked the recognition. I liked the fact that I’d show up at a business conference and people knew who I was. By 1971, I was running five gas stations and there was no stopping me. But in
some ways I felt a little out of my league. Most of these guys were better educated and some of them came from families that knew which was the right fork to use at dinner, while I was just a working-class kid with very little knowledge of the larger world around me. It was great being recognized for my success, but I worried that my lack of education would hurt me in the years ahead.

Then my father took early retirement and came to work for me, which was the best thing that ever happened: I was working with my best friend. I had someone to help me with the load, someone to talk to. Sometimes he’d urge me to cut out early, saying he’d cover for me, and I’d hire a sitter and take Shirley to a movie and a fancy restaurant. It was nice having money. We could order anything on the menu.

Around this time, my maternal grandfather died. He’d been an electrician in Chicago, but a few years earlier he’d moved to Phoenix to live with my parents. I was very close to him and he loved me unconditionally, and after the funeral my mother told me I could go into his room and take a little memento, anything I liked. I found a book by Dale Carnegie,
How To Stop Worrying and Start Living
, and that’s what I took. I don’t know why I took it, frankly, because I didn’t even look at it, but a few months later I saw an ad for a self-improvement class based on the teachings of Dale Carnegie and I signed up. I had missed out on college, and in the back of my mind I was always trying to figure out how to educate myself, how to become a better-rounded human being, and this sounded like an opportunity.

The class was at night, with maybe a dozen people attending, and one of the first things they asked us to do was to describe a happy moment. Some of the people had no problem getting up in front of the class and telling their stories, but I was a little tongue-tied.
Still, I managed to talk about the time my mother took a job at a fancy summer camp in Prescott, Arizona, so I would have something fun to do for the month of August. We couldn’t have afforded it otherwise, and it was unlike anything I’d ever experienced — sailing, fresh air, fishing, pretty girls — and until that moment, until I spoke about that long-ago summer in front of the class, I don’t think I had ever fully appreciated the sacrifice she had made to make that happen.

I didn’t know what any of our stories had to do with self-improvement, but I remained intrigued.

The following week we were asked to share another positive experience, going back to our high school days, and I made everyone laugh when I talked about what a relief it was to finally graduate, and to know that I would never again have to dissect a frog. But the third week we had to talk about something sad and when it was my turn I found myself remembering my German shepherd, Pat, who every day would park himself at the front window of our house, waiting for me to get home from school, and who for years was both my best friend and constant companion. When I got to the part where I had to watch him grow old, so old that all he could do was lie on his side and wag his tail a little, I got too choked up to finish, and to this day I can’t think about that dog without feeling a rush of sorrow.

Other people had their own stories — one poor woman had lost a sister in a fire, and had gone back to try to save her, only to be overcome by smoke — and I cried just listening to her. That class taught me that everyone has a story, and that every life has value, and I learned the importance of listening to other people.

More importantly, the class taught me that shit happens in every life, and that to worry about the possible outcome was both illogical
and counterproductive. Worrying had no purpose, and only left one paralyzed with fear and indecision. It was almost an act of self-sabotage. Sure, bad things happened, but worrying was not going to alter the future. The right approach to any challenge was to get the facts, analyze the facts, and ask yourself if you could live with the worst possible result. And if you thought about it with a clear head, you’d realize that the world wasn’t going to end. The lesson I took home with me is that everything in life involves risk, but to not take risks is to not live. People who don’t take risks seldom succeed.

The other thing I learned is that busy people seldom have time to worry. If you’re sitting around doing nothing, your imagination starts running wild, and that’s when the problems start. But if you act, if you keep moving forward, you’ll be fine. Think of a bicycle: If you try to balance it while standing still, it’s not easy. But if you’re moving, it’s a breeze. That’s how I feel about life: Keep moving.

IN 1972, THERE WAS A
terrible gas shortage, but thanks to Dale Carnegie, I didn’t worry about it. The worst possible outcome was that I would lose everything and I’d have to start again from scratch. I didn’t love the idea, but I could live with it because I knew I’d survive. As it turned out, however, I was smart not to worry, because the shortage actually ended up working in my favor. One of the guys who made my oil deliveries said he might be able to make a few of them off the books. I was tempted to turn him down — the whole thing sounded a little shady — but I was responsible for five gas stations by that time and I had two dozen full-time employees. Without gas, I was going to have to start letting people go. If I took the deal, bad things could happen, too. I could get caught and be forced to face the consequences, both legal and
financial. But I wasn’t breaking the law; I was only bending it a little. And to do nothing might have led to bankruptcy and put all of those good people on the street. So I took the risk, knowing I could face the consequences. And I took it again the next month and the month after that.

And, in fact, one day a woman drove up and parked out front and came into the office to see me. She told me she owned a massage parlor on the edge of town, and that the gas shortage was keeping the girls from getting to work. “If you can make sure my girls get gas — and I’m not
asking
for it; they’ll pay for it — you can come visit us anytime. On the house.” So we made a deal. I would always have a little extra gas for her girls, even when the sign said we were out of gas, and it worked out great. When I went to visit the massage parlor a week later, the owner kept her word. I got a very nice massage, which ended when the young lady in question climbed on the table with me and gave me the fuck of my life. It was unbelievable. I had always enjoyed sex, sure, but until that day I hadn’t realized how little I knew about it. So of course I kept going back, a willing student, sometimes three and four nights a week, and I soon realized I had a big problem: I loved fucking and I couldn’t get enough of it.

By this time, my marriage was winding down. Shirley and I been together for eight years, and in the past four — since my second daughter had come along — we rarely had sex. It would be a while before I realized that this was one of the unspoken secrets of Married Life. I’m sure some married couples have sex into their seventies and beyond, but most couples lose interest in each other as soon as the kids come along. And Shirley and I were definitely one of those couples.

As the gas crisis began to ease, I took a look at my bank account
and realized I had had the best year of my life, financially speaking. I’d also had a pretty good year sexually speaking, so I told my father that we had earned a vacation. I paid seven thousand dollars for a brand-new Thunderbird and we headed for San Francisco, via Vegas, a father-son road trip. We were cruising along Highway 95, in Nevada, when we came across a very discreet sign for a brothel. I looked across at my father. “You don’t tell my wife,” I said. “I won’t tell Mom.”

The place was called the Shamrock and it backed up against Area 51, a secretive government base that had long been linked to aliens and UFOs. A big black madam ran the establishment and she had a wonderful collection of girls. It was a lot of fun. Little did I know that many years later I would buy that same brothel, remodel it, and rename it the Alien Cathouse.

An hour later, my father and I were on the road again, still on Highway 95, and we saw a discreet sign for the Cottontail Ranch. We exchanged a look and went for it again. There were a dozen girls waiting for us in the parlor, one more gorgeous than the next, and we made our choices and headed for the bedrooms.

By nightfall, we stopped again, this time at the Moonlite Ranch. Over the years I would return many times to the Moonlite as a happy customer, and twenty years later I bought the place. But I’m getting ahead of myself . . .

WHEN MY FATHER AND I
got back to phoenix, it became apparent that my marriage was over. There was no shouting or slammed doors, but we had both retreated to our own worlds and, like many couples, had only stayed together for the kids.

To get away, I began visiting Nevada more and more frequently. I’d like to think I was doing it to put some distance between my
home and my extra marital activities, so as not to embarrass my family, but it would be more accurate to say that I had fallen madly in love with prostitutes. Every trip seemed better than the last. Those working girls knew how to make me happy. And I felt strangely free in Nevada; I don’t know how else to explain it, except to say that in Nevada I could be my true self. If I wanted to fuck three times a day and more, I did. And the more I fucked, the better I felt. I wasn’t worried about the Meaning of Life anymore. I knew what it was.