Becoming a Writer
La Cucara, the Kook
San Miguel de Allende, Portal Allende Circa 1940
…I spent many an hour in the Cucaracha listening to the inebriated
American veterans who hung out there: Benny Freiling, Pill John,
Crazy Richey, Diamond Lil, the Sherriff, Three Dollar Bill, Freddy,
Dennis, Tom McGinty, El Chivo, Halito, Otto, Johnny Burke,
and Lou Breck. (Some of these men were to become the leaders of
the first American Legion Post of San Miguel de Allende that was
to be founded in 1971.) These were not nick names of my invention,
but were “earned” by them!
Benny would be in the Cucaracha from the time they opened until
late afternoon drinking Cuba Libres (Fidel had not ruined the
name of that marvelous rum drink yet), and talking about any
subject under the sun. He was the very first member of the Beat
generation, even before Kerouac. He was very cool! He came to
Mexico to die and he accomplished it in a relatively short time.
Dennis was a retired disk jockey/radio personality from Wisconsin
who had been a war correspondent. He could hold forth on any
subject indefinitely and often did. The more Dennis drank, the
softer he talked so that by the late afternoon he wasn’t audible at
all, and ended each day talking to himself. At times he would
walk around town with toy mice pinned to the epaulets of his
shirt, some sort of criticism of the military I presume. One day,
too far into a discussion with Benny to stop, Dennis sent for the
barber and had a shave and a haircut sitting in his chair at the
Cucaracha, drink in hand.
Pill John earned his nickname by passing out pills to anyone for
any ailment they might have. It wasn’t long before everyone
caught on that he had no idea what pills he was dispensing for
what ailment. I think the last straw was when he applied foot
ointment to Crazy Richey’s eyes because they were red! And Crazy
Richey, it seems got his nickname as a radioman in the U.S. Navy
where he had gone nuts, his words, listening to radio static year
after year. He finally snapped one night, he told us, and snuck into
the Captain’s cabin where he dumped laundry detergent in the Old
Man’s face while he slept to get out on a Section 8.
Richey delighted in spinning clumps of his hair into spirals, one
on each side of his face, and another sticking straight up into the
air, and making silly faces at children on the street. The Mexicans
loved it, just one more crazy Gringo.
Three Dollar Bill was a diminutive red-haired, freckle faced,
cane carrying old queen who came from New York, and could lisp
and camp it up with the best of them about all things show
business. He was high camp long before the phrase was made
popular.
He had the bad habit of playing his records too loudly on his portable
record player ’til the wee hours. After complaining ad naseum the
other tenants in the Infierno apartments bricked up his doorway one
night, the only exit from his room. They only let him out two days
later because the landlord, who had been in on the joke, made them.
One day he slipped on the cobblestones, broke his hip, and was
“shipped out” in a station wagon for the V.A. hospital in San
Antonio, Texas, and dumped in the emergency room.
El Chivo, never did hear how he got his name, was a section eight
from the Battle of Iwo Jima who remained sane enough as long as
he took his meds. He chained smoked marijuana and sculpted when
he could, and we shared, as roomates, the “House of Miracles” for
a time. The House of Miracles got its name because of its
location next door to the Calvary chapel, but we often thought it
was so named because every bus that lost its brakes coming down
the Salida de Queretaro crashed into it to stop itself. Well,
Chivo got off his meds and stayed off, and when he began wearing
a three foot long machete around town he was also “shipped off.”
Halito and Johnny Burke were probably the sanest of the lot
although Hal was legally blind and regularly drove around town,
eventually in a golf cart. Hal and Otto were great buddies
(Otto seldom said a word) and would spend the day bending their
elbows and having discussions with anybody who would listen. One
afternoon Otto disappeared for awhile, and in the morning,
leaning against the door of the Cucaracha was a wooden casket
with Otto stenciled on the lid. Just Otto’s sense of humor, he
lived for years after that. Keep in mind that these were two of
the Legion’s Commanders, you can imagine the rank and file!
San Miguel de Allende, Portal Guadalupe and Jardin
Living and Writing in Mexico 
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