Canned Heat's first album cover.
Canned Heat is an American rock band that was formed in Los Angeles in 1965. The group has been noted for its interpretations of blues material and for its efforts to promote interest in this type of music and its original artists. -- Wikipedia
He walks in about 8 PM at night, points the gun at my belly and says "give me all the money in the cash register or I'll blow your fucking head off." So I did, and he left.
Apparently the criminals were above average. They must have watched and waited until there were no cars pulled up in front, so when the robber walked in, there was only one customer in the store, local radio DJ Mark Sherry (his radio name, I've forgotten his real name), who lived down (east) and across San Miguel Avenue in an apartment and walked to the 7-11 store occasionally. So when the police arrived, I overheard who he was and we got to be friends. He was about 10 years older than I was, and I went with him on a couple of occasions to things like judging "battle of the bands" and beach rock concerts (Youngbloods in Santa Cruz was one). The Salinas AM radio station was KDON and is still in operation as KDON 102.5 FM.
Also in the store at the time were two of my friends in high school, hanging out. The robber ordered everyone to lie down on the floor behind the counter while I filled a paper sack with money and checks. Even the pennies! They got several hundred dollars, and lifted the wallets of the other three. I got to keep mine, probably an oversight on the thief's part.
Anyway, Mark Humphries (with whom I still correspond from time to time), Steve Clasmeyer (dated and lived with Georgie Deighton, Len Deighton's (the author's) neice) and Bobby Katner used to hang out and have various adventures. Bobby wasn't in the store the night we got robbed. Mark is stable with liver damage from hepatitis C, and Steve died a few years ago from the same thing. Both got it from shooting heroin. Lucky I got out of town when I did, eh? I was drafted.
Mark, Steve, and I used to hang out and listen to music, etc. Some of our hippie/biker friends turned us on to Canned Heat's first album, Boogie with Canned Heat, and we would drink wine and pass around joints with them. We liked "On the Road Again," and played it for Mark Sherry. He then played the single on the Salinas top 40 station, and the next thing I knew Canned Heat had a hit single ("On the Road Again," short version) and was touring California. They played the gymnasium at Hartnell college in Salinas. I saw Canned Heat again at The Warehouse in New Orleans, Louisiana, a month or two after Grateful Dead got busted while playing there. I was in tech school in the Air Force then at Keesler AFB in Biloxi, Mississippi.
So nobody got hurt, the insurance company covered Monte and Connie Carpenter's (store owners) loss, and Mark and Steve and I became friends with a local DJ who knew a lot more about music than just top 40. I don't think the robbers got rich, but that night they must have had a good time.
Email Richard dot J dot Wagner at gmail dot com