they drove us back to the office and we sat in our school chairs again. then two snot-nosed kids came out with cans of beer in their hands. one called off names and the other gave each man his money.
on a blackboard written in chalk behind the heads of the snot-noses was a message:
“ANY MAN WHO WORKS FOR US 30 DAYS IN A ROW
WITHOUT MISSING A DAY
WILL BE GIVEN
A FREE
SECOND HAND SUIT.”
I kept watching as each man was handed his money. it couldn’t be true. it APPEARED that each man was given three one dollar bills. at the time, the lowest basic wage scale by law was one dollar an hour. I had been on that corner at 4:30 a.m. now it was 4:30 p.m. to me, that was 12 hours.
I was one of the last names called. I think I was 3rd from last. not a one of those bums raised hell. they just took the $3 and went out the door.
“Bukowski!” the snot-nosed kid hollered.
I walked up. the other snot-nosed kid counted out 3 very clean and crisp Washingtons.
“listen,” I said, “don’t you guys realize that there is a basic wage law? one buck an hour.”
the snot-nose raised his beer. “we deduct for transportation, breakfast and so forth. we only pay for average working time which we figure to be about 3 hours or so.”
“I see twelve hours out of my life. and I’ve got to take a bus downtown now to go get my car and drive it back in.”
“you’re lucky to have a car.”
“and you’re lucky I don’t jam that can of beer up your ass!”
“I don’t set company policy, sir. please don’t blame me.”
“I’m going to report you to the State Labor Board!”
“Robinson!” the other snot-nose hollered.
the next to last bum got up from his seat for his $3 as I walked out the door and on up to Beverly blvd. to wait for the bus. by the time I got home and got a drink in my hand it was 6 p.m. or so. I really got drunk then. I was so frustrated I banged Kathy 3 times. broke a window. cut my foot on broken glass. sang songs from Gilbert and Sullivan, which I once learned from an insane English teacher who taught an English class which began at 7 a.m. in the morning. L.A. City College. Richardson was his name. and maybe he wasn’t insane. but he taught me Gilbert and Sullivan and gave me a “d” in English for showing up no sooner than 7:30 a.m. with hangover, WHEN I showed. but that’s something else. Kathy and I had some laughs that night, and although I broke a few things I was not as nasty and stupid as usual.
and that Tuesday at Hollywood Park I won $140 at the races and I was once again the quite casual lover, hustler, gambler, reformed pimp and tulip grower. I drove slowly up the driveway, savoring the last of the evening sun. then I strolled in through the back door. Kathy had on some meat loaf with plenty of onions and crap and spices in it just the way I liked it. she was bent over at the stove and I grabbed her from the back.
“ooooo …”
“listen, baby …”
“yeah?”
she stood there with the large dripping spoon in her hand. I slipped a ten into the neck of her dress.
“I want you to get me a fifth of whiskey.”
“sure, sure.”
“and some beer and cigars. I’ll watch the food.”
she took off her apron and went into the bathroom for a moment. I could hear her humming. a moment later I sat in my chair and listened to her heels clicking down the drive. there was a tennis ball. I took the tennis ball and bounced it on the floor so it hit the wall and zoomed high into the air. the dog who was 5 feet long and 3 feet tall, 1/2 wolf, leaped into the air, there was the snap of teeth and he had that tennis ball, up near the ceiling. for a moment he seemed to hang up there. what a beautiful dog, what a beautiful life. when he hit the floor I got up to check the meatloaf. it was all right. everything was.
NON-HORSESHIT HORSE ADVICE
so, the Hollywood Park meet has begun, and naturally I have been out a couple of times, and the scene is not very variable: the horses look the same and the people a little worse, the horseplayer is a combination of extreme conceit, madness and greed. one of Freud’s main pupils (I don’t recall his name right now, only remember reading the book) said that gambling is a substitute for masturbation. of course, the problem with any direct statement is that it can easily become an untruth, a part truth, a lie or a wilted gardenia. yet, checking out the ladies (between races) I do find the same oddity: before the first race they sit with their skirts down as much as possible, and as each race proceeds the skirts climb higher and higher, until just before the 9th race it takes all one’s facilities not to commit rape upon one of the darlings. whether it is a sense of masturbation that causes this or whether the dear little things need rent and bean money, I don’t know. probably a combo. I saw one lady leap over 2 or 3 rows of seats after getting a winner, and screaming, screeching, divine as an iced-grapefruit vodka across the top of a hangover. “she’s getting hers now,” said my girlfriend.
“yeah,” I said, “but I wish I had gotten there first.”
for those of you unfamiliar with the basic principles of horse-wagering, allow me to divert you with a few basics. the difficulty in the average person leaving the track with any money at all is easily propounded if you will follow this — the track and the state take roughly 15% out of each dollar bet, plus breakage. the 15% is divided about in half between the state and the track. in other words, 85 cents out of each dollar is returned to the holders of winning tickets. breakage is the penny difference on the ten cent breakdown of the payoff. in other words, say if the totalizer machine breaks the payoff down to a $16.84 payoff, then the winning player gets $16.80, the 4 cents on each winning bet going elsewhere. now I am not sure, because the thing is not publicized but I also believe that on, say, a $16.89 payoff, the payoff is still $16.80 and the 9 cents goes elsewhere, but I am not positive of this and “Open City” certainly can’t afford a libel suit now or ever and neither can I, so I will not make this a positive presumption, but if any “Open City” reader has the facts on this, I do wish he would write O.C. and advise me. this penny breakage alone could make millionaires out of any of us.
now take the average goof who has worked all week and is looking for a little bit of luck, entertainment, masturbation. take 40 of them, give them each $100, and presuming that they are average bettors, the general medium based upon a 15% take, forgetting breakage, would have 40 of them leaving with $85. but it doesn’t work that way — 35 of them will leave almost completely broke, one or two of them will win $85 or $150 by sheer fortune of falling upon the right horses and not knowing why. the 3 or 4 others will break even.
all right, then, who is getting all this money that the little bettor who works a turret lathe or drives a bus all week, loses? easy: the betting stables who send off bad-form horses in a spot that it is profitable for them to win in. stables cannot make it upon purse money alone, that is, most of them can’t. give a stable a top handicap horse and they are in, but even they must resort to pulls and deliberately bad races in order to get weight off for a top money race. in other words, say a top-weighted horse gifted with 130 pounds by the track handicapper for an early $25,000 race will tend to lose this race and get weight off on that performance for a later $100,000 race. now these statements cannot be proven but if you will follow this conjecture you might make a little money or at least save a little. but it is the stables who must race in the lower class races with lower purses who must maneuver their horses for a price. in some cases, the owner of the horse or horses himself is not aware of the maneuvering; this is because trainers and grooms, hot-walkers, exercise jocks are grossly underpaid (in time and effort put in, compared to other industries) and their only way to get out is to put one over. the racetracks are aware of this and attempt to keep the game clean, to give it a holy sheen of honesty, but for all their effortsbarring tough guys, cons, syndicates, operators, from the track, there are still “goodies” put over on the crowd, a so
-called pig who “wakes up” and wins by 3 to 10 lengths at odds of 5 to up to 50 to 1. but these are only animals, not machines. so there’s an excuse, an excuse to haul away millions in wheelbarrows from the racetrack, tax-free. human greed will not relent, it will continue to feed itself. the communist party be damned.
all right, that’s bad enough. let’s take something else. besides the public being automatically wrong just by instinct (ask the stockbroker — when you want to know which way to move just move the opposite from the big crowd with the small, scared, tight money). but the something else is this: a possible mathematic. taking the dollar base — you invest the first dollar, you get back 85 cents. automatic take. second race, you have to add 15 cents, then another 15% take. now take 9 races and take a 15% take — on a break-even basis — upon your original dollar. is it just 9 times 15% or is it much more? it would take one of these Caltech cats to tell me and I don’t know any Caltech cats. anyway, if you have followed me up to here, you must realize that it is very difficult to make a “living” at the racetrack as some starry-eyed dreamers would like to do.
I am a “hard-nose”: that is, any given day at any track you just ain’t gonna take much money from me; on the other hand, I ain’t gonna make much. naturally, I have some good plays and I’d be a damn fool to reveal them to everybody because then they would not work. once the public gets onto something it is dead and it changes. the public is not allowed to win in any game ever invented and that includes the American Revolution. but for “Open City” readers I have a few basics that might save you a little money. take heed.
a/ watch your underlay shots. an underlay is a horse that closes in odds under the trackman’s morning line. in other words, the trackman lists the horse at 10 to 1 and it is going off at 6 to 1. money is much more serious than anything else. check your underlays carefully, and if the line is just not a careless mistake by the trackman and the horse does not show any recent fast works or a switch to a “name” jockey, and if the horse is not dropping weight and is running against the same class, you will probably get a fairly good run for your money.
b/ lay off the closers. this is a horse, that say closed from 5 to 16 lengths from the beginning call to the last and still did not win and is coming back against the same or similar. the crowd loves the “closer,” through fear & tight money and stupidity, but the closer is generally a lard-ass, lazy and only passes tired horses who have been running and fighting for the front end. not only does the crowd love this type of junk-horse but they will consistently bet him down to odds less than 1/3 of his worth. even though this type of horse continually runs out, the crowd out of fear will go to him because they are tight up against the rent money and feel that a closer possesses some kind of super strength. 90% of the races are won by horses on the front end or near the front end of all the running, at plausible and reasonable prices.
c/ if you must bet a “closer” bet him in shorter races, 6 or 7 furlongs, where the crowd believes he does not have time “to get up.” here they go for the speed and are stuck again. 7 furlongs is the best closer’s race in the business because of only one curve. a speed horse gets the advantage of being out in front and saving ground on the turns. 7 furlongs with one curve and the long backstretch is the perfect closer’s race; much better than a mile and a quarter, even better than a mile and one half. I am giving you some good stuff here, I hope you heed it.
d/ watch your toteboard — money in American society is more serious than death and you hardly get anything for nothing. if a horse is listed at 6 to 1 on the morning line and he is going off at 14 to 25 to 1, forget it. either the trackman had a hangover when he made his morning line or the stable just isn’t going that race. you don’t get anything free in this world; if you don’t know anything about racing, do bet horses that go off close to their morning line. large overlays are nil and almost impossible. all the little grandmamas go home to eat bitter toast with gummed teeth upon Papa’s retirement death certificate.
e/ only bet when you can lose. I mean without ending up sleeping on a park bench or missing 3 or 4 meals. the main thing, get the rent down first. avoid pressures. you will be luckier. and remember what the pros say, “If you’ve got to lose, lose in front.” in other words, make them beat you. if you’re going to lose anyhow, then to hell with it, get you a dancer out of the gate, you’ve got it won until they beat you, until they pass you. the price is usually generous because the public hates what they call a “quitter” — a horse that opens daylight on the pack and still manages to lose. this looks bad to them. to me a “quitter” is any horse that does not win a race.
f/ any profit-loss venture is not based upon the number of winners you have but upon the number of winners at the price. empires have been built upon one quarter of one per cent. but back to basics, you can have three 6 to 5 winners in 9 races and wash out, but you can have one 9 to 1 and one 5 to 1 and get over. this does not always mean that a 6 to 5 is a bad bet, but if you know little or next to nothing about racing, it might be best to hold your bets between 7 to 2 and 9 to 1. or if you must indulge in wild fancies, keep your bets between 11 and 19 to 1. in fact, many 18 or 19 to 1’s bounce in if you can find the right ones.
but, actually, a man can never know enough about horse racing or anything else. just when he thinks he knows he is just beginning. I remember one summer I won 4 grand at Hollypark and I went down to Del Mar in a new car, cocky, poetic, knowledgeable, I had the world by the nuts, and I rented myself a little motel by the sea and the ladies showed up as the ladies will when you are drinking and laughing and don’t care and have some money (a fool and his money are soon parted) and I had a party every night and a new broad every other night, and it was a kind of joke I used to tell them, the place was right over the sea, and I’d say, after much drinking and talking, “Baby, I come with the WOOSH OF THE SEA!”
ANOTHER HORSE STORY
the harness racing season has been under way, as they say, for a week or 2 now, and I have been out 5 or 6 times, perhaps breaking even for the course, which is a hell of a waste of time — anything is a waste of time unless you are fucking well or creating well or getting well or looming toward a kind of phantom love-happiness. we will all end up in the crud-pot of defeat — call it death or error. I am not a word-man. I do suppose, tho, as one keeps making adjustments to the tide, we can call it experience even if we are not so sure that it is wisdom. then too, it is possible for a man to live a whole life of constant error in a kind of numb and terrorized state. you’ve seen the faces. I’ve seen my own.
so during all the heat wave they are still out there, the bettors, having gotten a little money somewhere, the hard way, and trying to beat the 15 percent take. I sometimes think of the crowd as hypnotized, a crowd that has nowhere else to go. and after the races they get into their old cars, drive to their lonely rooms and look at the walls. wondering why they did it — heels run down, bad teeth, ulcers, bad jobs, men without women, women without men. nothing but shit.
there are some laughs. there have to be. walking into the men’s room between races the other day I came upon a young man gagging, then shouting in fury: “god damn son of a bitch, some god damn son of bitch didn’t flush his shit away! HE LEFT IT THERE! the son of a bitch, I walked in and there it WAS! I’ll bet he does that at home too!”
this boy was screaming. the rest of us were standing there pissing or washing our hands, thinking about the last race or the next one. I know some freaks that would be delighted to come upon a potful of fresh turds. but that’s the way it works — the wrong guy gets it.
another day I am sweating, battling, scratching, praying, jacking to stay 10 or 12 bucks ahead, and it is a very difficult harness race, I don’t even think the drivers know who is going to win, and this big fat woman, ponderous whale of healthy stinking blubber, walked up to me, put that stinking fat against my body front, and squeezed 2 little eyes, a mouth and the rest into my face and said, “what are the hands on the first horse?”
&n
bsp; “the hands on the first horse?”
“yes, what are the hands on the first horse?”
“god damn you lady, get away from me, and don’t bother me. get away! get away!”
she did. the whole track is full of crazy people. some of them come there when the gates open. they stretch out on the seats or on a bench and sleep all through the races. they never see a race. then they get up and go home. others walk around just vaguely aware that a race of some kind is going on. they buy coffee or just stand around looking as if life has been stunned and burned out of them. or sometimes you see one standing in a dark corner, jamming a whole hot dog down the throat, gagging, choking, delighted with the mess of themselves. and at the end of each day you see one or 2 with their heads down between their legs. sometimes they are crying. where do losers go? who wants a loser?
essentially, in one way or another, everybody thinks that he has the key to beating the thing, even if it is only such an unjustified assumption that their luck must change, some play stars, some play numbers, some play strictly time, others play drivers, or closers or speed or names or god knows what. almost all of them lose, continually. almost all their income goes directly into the mutuel machines. most of these people have unbearably fixed egos — they are tenaciously stupid.
I won a few dollars Sept. 1. let’s go over the card. Andy’s Dream won the first at 9/2 from a morning line of 10. good play. unwarranted action on beaten horse running from outside post. 2nd race — Jerry Perkins, 14 year old gelding nobody wants to claim because of age, drops into $15 claimer. a good horse, consistent within his class, but you had to take 8/5 under a morning line of four. won easy. third race won by Special Product, a horse that broke in his last four races at long odds. he broke stride again this time, pulled up, righted himself and still came on to beat the 3/5 favorite Golden Bill. a possible bet if you are in touch with God and God is interested. ten to one. in the fourth race, Hal Richard a consistent 4 year old gelding won at three to one, beating out two shorter choices that showed better times but no winning ability. a good bet. in the fifth, Eileen Colby wins after Tiny Star and Marsand break and the crowd sends off April Fool at 3/5. April Fool has only been able to win four races out of 32, and one local handicapper tabs him “better than these by five lengths.” all this on time effort of last race in better class when April Fool finishes seven lengths out. the crowd is taken again.
The Most Beautiful Woman in Town & Other Stories Page 11