Baja Bernie - 3-23-2007 at 02:19 PM
Dean Fluss was drafted into Army early on in the Second World War. He spent the entire war filling body bags in one campaign after another. This
experience had a tremendously negative effect on such a young man. He came home a nice, but a little strange, young-old man. He drank a lot and then
every once in a while he drank not at all.
Dean was a professional undertaker who gave many of the older Hollywood Stars their last makeup session. He worked for years at Forest Lawn Cemetery
before he went into semi-retirement. Even after he moved to La Salina he was called back occasionally to make someone more presentable.
Digger always bragged that he returned to the States in First Class accommodations. It seems that they used “The Queen Mary” to transport our guys
back from Europe after the war. First Class—I don’t think so—they crammed over three thousand men into a space meant for about 1200 people. The trip
from France to San Francisco took a very slow 28 days.
Dean and his wife came to camp in the late 70’s. They bought an ocean front lot and built one of the larger homes in camp. A short while later they
bought the lot next door and built a small casita, which they attached to the big house. We were all a little surprised when his wife suddenly left
camp and moved back to Southern California. ‘Digger,’ sold the big house and moved into the Casita where he remained until shortly before his death.
Dean began (continued) to spend most of his time chasing the local ladies in and out of the bars in Ensenada. His first lady friend was a younger,
very attractive native of Baja. She had a terribly explosive temper! On more than one occasion, while dancing and drinking with ‘Digger’ in the
Cantina; she would walk up to some big gringo guy and knock him on his ass. She really enjoyed kicking the hell out of some unsuspecting guy. Rosa
was one tough gal! We later found that she had been a professional woman wrestler in Mexico. Some said that she was part ‘Yaki’ Indian, all said to
stay away from her when she got mad!
Once after a big fight with Digger she turned him into the Federales. When they came to his casita and searched it, they found his .25 cal automatic
right where she said it would be. They took the pistol and they took him. We didn’t see Dean for more than a few days.
It cost him a couple hundred bucks to get out of the Ensenada Jail. He never saw that gun again. He did see the lady wrestler a few more times
before moving onto a little tamer woman.
Digger was a mild mannered guy who had an awful time with his alcoholic consumption. He just could not live without a woman at his side. He died a
few years back and the camp has never been quite so boisterous since his passing. We think of him often.
FARASHA - 3-25-2007 at 11:19 AM
Bernie - triggers memories of my own - AND - it seems BAJA attracts this type of guys - >f<
Baja Bernie - 3-26-2007 at 06:46 AM
Wonder if that has anything to do with the fact that 'Baja is all about forgiving.'