Segarini: Growing Up in Stockton – The Fat City Chronicles 1

During its early years, Stockton was known by several names, including “Tuleburg”, “Fat City,” and “Mudville”. Captain Weber decided on “Stockton” in honor of Commodore Robert Field Stockton. Stockton was the first community in California to have a name not of Spanish or Native American origin.

I didn’t have anything written for today’s column, so I pulled this one out of my old archives and updated it a bit and added more pictures for your dining and dancing pleasure. Thanks to the overwhelming response to last month’s column, (available at this link: Stockton California), I thought you might enjoy another trip down memory lane, this one, a short tale about an early step forward in my journey into a life of music. My sincere thanks to all of you who responded to me with your own stories and memories. Keep ’em coming.

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When I was 13, I was one of those kids who wanted to make records. Sing, play, and tour with the Dick Clark Caravan of Stars. Ride the bus with the other 14 acts on the bill, going on stage every night to do my two hits, wedged in somewhere  between Donna Loren, and Dee Clark or Jackie Wilson. The funny thing is that we all thought we could do it. All the top rock and roll artists at the time were just local acts that had spread across the nation one radio station at a time until we saw them on Bandstand, or Lloyd Thaxton, or, if they were HUGE, Ed Sullivan. Those shows were the goals, back in those days, not the means to an end. Television was where you saw the stars, not people that wanted to be stars.

When I was 15, I entered a talent contest to appear at the Stockton Police Widows and Orphans fundraiser at the Stockton Civic Auditorium. A massive 2500 seater that looked like a library from the outside, a gigantic, (to me, anyway), concrete shrine to pillars, a pair of stone California bears big enough for three or four of us to climb up and sit on, and an impressive interior, built in the late ‘30’s or ‘40’s. It was a beautiful structure that still stands today, and the venue in which I saw my first rock and roll show a year earlier.

Rebel With A Cause

My cousin Phid, having been booted out of every school in the Bay Area, and after serving 2 years in the Navy, had come to live with us because his parents wouldn’t allow him to come home.

Phid was a ‘Juvenile Delinquent’.

He had a pompadour, a couple of tattoos, dressed like James Dean, and drove a cherry, dropped and souped up Merc. At 13, I suddenly had an 18 year old ‘brother’, and, as it turned out, a mentor in the ways of all things Teenage. The look, the rituals, the lifestyle, and most importantly, the music. It was Cool School, and my life was changed forever.

I went from Glenn Miller, Dean Martin, and the Four Freshmen, to Chuck Berry, The Everly Brothers, Doo-Wop, and most importantly, Buddy Holly. Good God, I even LOOKED like Buddy Holly.

Besides having access to Phid’s sock drawer, (which contained his Playboy, Adam, and Swank, collections, I was also privy to the parties he and my cousin Diane would throw. They were basically right out of an American-International Rock and Roll movie. Wild dancing, crazy music, free-flowing beer, and sloe gin.

There were chicken races for pink slips, switchblade knives, car clubs, and Lucky Strikes. For me, it was Hogwarts with a better curriculum.

Phid took me to see the Dick Clark Caravan of Stars show at the Stockton Civic as a present for my birthday. The tickets cost just US$2.00. 14 acts, a couple of songs each, and I had seen them all on TV and listened to all their records, thanks to Phid’s sterling collection of 45’s. I HAD to do that. I HAD to play the rock and roll. I HAD to play the Stockton Civic.

Now it’s 2 years later, and I have the opportunity to achieve that goal.

I had started writing when Phid moved in with us. At 13, in my 8^th grade Social Studies class, I had penned my first three chord masterpiece.

“I’m just lightin’ up a cigarette

My folks ain’t never ever caught me yet

They’re lookin’ for me

I know they are

Uh Uh Honey

Get in my car

‘Cause I’m a Juvenile

Oh oh oh

Makes my heart go wild

Well, I love rock and roll

So let’s go”

…and so forth.

I’m surprised I can still remember it. I can’t even remember the lyrics to a song I wrote last week.

If you must sing, go with the horse…

So 2 years later, at 15, I must have been a little better, because I passed the audition and made the final cut. I was going to be in the talent contest portion of the Police Widows and Orphans fundraiser, sharing the stage with 12 other hopefuls, and some actual stars. Dee Clark, (Raindrops),  The Dovells, (Bristol Stomp), featuring lead singer Len Barry, (1,2,3) who went on to destroy his career by bad mouthing the Stones and others on the Johnny Carson Show, and Johnny Crawford, a young actor from the very popular ‘Rifleman’ TV show, who eventually had a big hit record on the radio…something about ‘Cindy’s Birthday’. Dee, Johnny, and Me

I gave it my all and managed to come in third, after an Asian kid named Chance that sang opera, and an honest to goodness rock and roll band called The Jades, who won the contest with an inspired version of  Link Wray’s, “Rumble”.

I forget what I sang, but The Jades didn’t. A year later, they asked me to become their lead singer, and for 2 years, I got to cut my rock and roll teeth on Elvis, Ricky, Fats, Chuck, and Richard. I was the youngest guy in the band, the only single guy in the band, and the only one that didn’t work during the day as a pipe fitter, a plumber, or a meat packer. That year, with me in the band, (2nd from the left in the picture below), we played the Birth of a Star Benefit not as contestants, but as one of the headliners…waaaaay down on the bill…but headliners.

The leader of The Jades, guy by the name of Risty Val, (no, that’s not a typo), was a transplanted cowboy from Oklahoma and the elder of the group at 26. He gave me a great piece of advice:

“Music’s just like ridin’ a horse, boy. Go with the rhythm, go with the feelin’. Let the horse lead and stay on him. He knows where he’s goin’…all you gotta do is go with him”.

He fired me two years later.

The reason?

I grew my hair long…but I’m still on the horse. Thanks Risty, it is still great advice.

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This is a link to a video I put together a couple of years ago in tribute to growing up in Stockton. You’ve seen some of the pictures, but there are others you probably haven’t. I will continue to search more out, and if you have any from the ‘good old days’, send me a jpg, and I’ll include them in the next Fat City Chronicle. Thanks. Growing Up in Stockton

And as long as we’re doing this….

What was your favorite Radio station from your youth and why. Whether it was coming out of a transistor radio under the covers at night, your dad’s console radio when the folks were out to dinner, or in the car when it was the only way your parents could shut you up. The station with the hits, the Boss Jocks, the laid back fm pioneers, or the provider of the music that changed your life. What was that station, and why did you love it?

Just email your thoughts to the email address below or post a comment further down.

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Segarini’s regular column appears here every Monday

Contact us at dbawis@rogers.com

Bob “The Iceman” Segarini was in the bands The Family Tree, Roxy, The Wackers, The Dudes, and The Segarini Band and nominated for a Juno for production in 1978. He also hosted “Late Great Movies” on CITY TV, was a producer of Much Music, and an on-air personality on CHUM FM, Q107, SIRIUS Sat/Rad’s Iceberg 95, (now 85), and now publishes, edits, and writes for DBAWIS, continues to write music, make music, and record.