Yo Yo the Rabbit Eater

I just got off the phone with our friend Bob Mac and he shared another great story with me, so I decided to shared it with you. As some of you may know from earlier posts, Bob was a Yellow Jacket in Wilmington, CA in the late 40s. He was deep in the mix of the post war So Cal scene. He is a great guy and full of great stories. One of the places the guys like to ride was the LA river bed near Long Beach. It was an unimproved sandy river bed unlike the concrete river that runs through the rest of the city. They'd go down there, race around, drink some beer and depending on the beer consumption, spend the night. One of the guys that used to hang around was a gentleman named Arnold "Yo Yo" Balinger. Yo Yo was apparently all that. He was described by Bob as, well, crazy. At night the guys would ride around the river bed and chase rabbits. Seems as though once the rabbits were "trapped" in your headlight they couldn't escape. So the guys would sweep on in, lean to the left and grab the rabbit by the ears. They'd ride a few yards and let Bugs go. A test of skill if you will. Well someone ran over one of those rabbits and it killed him, so he was taken back to the campfire to impress the ladies. As manly men we all know how much dead woodland creatures impress the chicks! I guess the girls were a little grossed out by the dead rabbit, but this was not good enough for Yo Yo, so he torn the rabbit in two pieces, then bit into it and removed most of it's guts. Bob was standing right next to Yo Yo when he did this and was not prepared for the carnage, so he turned his head to the right and proceeded to barf. For some reason neither of them hooked up with any ladies that night. Thanks Bob. I love your stories.
FHJ

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