We got up Saturday morning when it was still grey out and went to Terminal Island and San Pedro and Wilmington and Long Beach to see who was having beers at 7 a.m. Mostly they were people who work hard at off hours—bartenders included—and people who finished all the work they’d ever do, like the cranky, fish-eyed retiree in a baseball hat I saw duplicated every place I visited. “Takin’ pictures of the derelicts?” he asked at one—maybe, or respectable veteran die-hards. If no one mentioned Bukowski in the issue, then I’ll do it here: “Life was good, life was funny,” he wrote as an old man, remembering. “Plenty of bars, full bars. No TV sets. What a time. What a life. Crazy things always happening, followed by more crazy things. Now, it has simmered away.”

ANGIE’S FABULOUS WEST, LONG BEACH Played .38 Special on the jukebox and added a Dylan song at photographer’s request. Actor born and raised in Compton who says he had to pay $300 just to meet his agent, who told him, “You’ll be the only long-hair I’ve got.”

THE FOC’SLE, WILMINGTON Dispatcher who got off early today. There’s always workers in here, he says, Monday through Sunday, and if you came at 10 or 11, it’d be like Cheers. He first came to the Foc’sle 20 years ago, he says, “and there were old-timers even then.”

ANGIE’S FABULOUS WEST, LONG BEACH Dad had a real-estate office downtown—still remembers the address (“127 East Fourth Street”) and what replaced it (“Burger King”). Came to Long Beach in 1959 with the Navy: “Five thousand college girls used to converge on the Pike.”

ANGIE’S FABULOUS WEST, LONG BEACH 7 a.m. in December and two robbers came in and one jumped over the bar. She dumped out the napkin-holder and smashed him on the head, and when he threw a barstool at her, she threw it back and they ran away.

THE FOC’SLE, WILMINGTON Waiting for his brother for 30 years? His brother was a longshoreman. Maybe he would be coming by? “No source of information,” he said. “No source of information!”