PHOTO by DANIEL DE BOOM

Shooting photos at the scene of the body found floating in the ocean off Granada Ave. Tuesday morning reminded me of another time I saw a dead body.

I was a truck driver for a liquor warehouse back then and we would routinely go out with 40 stops a day for liquor stores, restaurants and pretty much any establishment that had a license to sell liquor. My company encouraged us to get those stops done as fast as possible by that paying for a full 10-hour day even if I finished my work in less than those 10 hours. I was younger and full of energy and could usually finish my shift in around 6 to 7 hours if nothing unforeseen slowed me down.

This particular day the body of a dead man in his late 20’s/early 30’s blocked the entrance to Falcon Liquor Store on Broadway and Falcon. The cops were standing around waiting for the coroner to arrive.

Shit! How long is that going to take, I wondered to shrugs all around. “Whenever he gets here,” I was told. I looked down at the body that was going to keep me from enjoying those precious few hours of daylight work that I lusted for. Some kind of weird foamy spittle had leaked from his mouth and rested on the dead guy’s chin. It was greenish in color. Probable drug overdose, I figured, although in reality my medical experience was limited to whatever maladies had been treated on Thursday night’s episode of ER.

“I think there’s enough space around his head that I can wheel my hand truck inside the store,” I said to the cop leaning against the wall next to the body. He gave with another shrug of his shoulders that I took as acquiescence and proceeded to wheel my load around the dead guy’s head, not touching a single hair in that very limited amount of space. Just like that I was back on the road racing the clock for those extra couple hours.

I was a different person back then, obviously. But, would I do the same thing now that I did that day? I like to think the years have changed me, matured me. Now I’d probably grab a nap in the cab of my truck and soak the company for as much overtime as I could.

Tags: dead body, liquor stores, Long Beach, ocean, Photos