Bean Hut Days

This is a story collection based around an Anaheim taco stand called The Bean Hut. We are free to surf crisp waves all year, and to star in bad beach movies. We are the young people of Orange County in 1956. Formally known as the La Palma Drive-In, Joe Cano’s Mexican restaurant is where Marlon Brando picks up his son from Saint Catherine's Military Academy, and eats a quiet Bean Hut lunch. This is where the Street Sweepers Car Club, the original bad asses, invent hotrods. The Righteous Brothers, Bill Medley, and Bobby Hatfield, sing our souls. John Griggs, president of the Street Sweepers, teams up with Timothy Leary to form a religion based on Orange Sunshine LSD, Maui Wowie weed, and surfing. It was a big success, imagine that. This Anaheim Diner is where Jimmy The Weasel stands guard, while West Coast Mafia boss Jimmy Regace and his son Anthony have tostados after big Anaheim--Savana football game. Beach parking along the coast is open all night. At secret coastal spots around fires of dead orange wood, we sing folk songs with Steve Noonan and Jackson Browne. We are Boom Babies who bust out to invent life in the fast lane. We race our freeway world in a sunshine victory-garden cars. Gas is less than a quarter, roads are new, and wide open. Disneyland admission is a dollar, and Knotts Berry Farm is free. These are the stories of those Bean Hut Days.