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26 Beverly Hills Gothic
Above
Birdene and a boyfriend before Joe in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.
With Joe in a photo booth snapshot taken shortly after their marriage.
Opposite
My handsome, blue-eyed, blonde, dimpled father and me, 1940s.
BIRDENE MARRIES JOE
AND GAMBLES IN GARDENA
My mother did have lots of friends, men and women, and when I stayed with her that summer, friends would come to visit. I remember one man who had an eye tattooed on each shin, so when he sat down, his pants would move up and, on each leg, just above the top of his socks, a large eye would stare at us!! Eerie!
My mom dated several men and finally married Joseph Tourek, whom she met playing poker at a casino in Gardena. They were wed September 28, 1953, in Mexico. Joe was a good-looking man, with thick, gray hair and probably reminded her of Sidney. The resemblance stopped there! For starters, he was gentile and he was an admitted anti-Semite, which portended a marriage from hell.
However, Joe was a great cook, and my mom gladly let him prepare meals. After they were married for a few years, she gained a lot of weight and Joe took
“credit” for “fattening her up”! It was a weird relationship, but they enjoyed their almost daily outings to Gardena to play poker at one of the large gambling casinos. In the early days, the clubs sent a limo or station wagon to pick up steady clients, also offering complete steak dinners for $10. Birdene enjoyed it all.
After ten years, my mom decided she had had enough of Joe, saying he was “too crazy to go on living with,” and they separated. I don’t think they ever got a divorce, but they did keep in touch until he passed away. She kept going to Gardena to gamble, even though the clubs stopped sending limos and she had to take taxis.