Oh my goodness, he’s at it again. The life and times of Vernon Dailey continues. Lately I’ve been thinking about my early years here in Berkeley, specifically my first couple of cars. I got my first car at 17, a 1963 sky blue Pontiac Bonneville. I loved that car, but one day while I was driving down Sacramento Street the engine died on me. I was right next to this old junkyard, Tim’s Junkyard on Sacramento and Alcatraz, so I pushed the Pontiac onto the lot and tried to jump it with their help. It didn’t work so I decided to scrap it right there on the spot. They gave me a little bit of money and that was that.
Then, when I was 21, my girlfriend’s mom gave me my second car, a 1963 apple green Pontiac Catalina, because she heard I was catching a bus and leaving town for a while. She figured by giving me a car I would leave town (and her daughter) even faster. Long story short, I did leave town with that car, but I took her daughter with me, and she was real upset about that.
But those feelings didn’t last long. Soon after we left Berkeley, my girlfriend Rosalyn and I got married, and her mom’s anger turned into happiness. She gave us a dining room set for our new home, an apartment in West Oakland. This was back in 1978.
I’ve been thinking a lot about my mom, too. I was always a daddy’s boy, but my mother was a true friend. I would tell her everything, and didn’t hide nothing from her because she always had a way of finding out anyway. She lived to be 105 years old, just two months shy of her 106th birthday.
My nephew Michael Dailey published a book with Dr. Cornel West called Truth Matters: A Love Revolution that includes photos and writing about my mother, who was Michael’s grandmother. The book refers to her like a modern-day Harriet Tubman.
A huge thank you to everyone in Berkeley, Oakland, and Fairfax—you guys keep me going!
Vernon Dailey is a Street Spirit vendor who sells the paper outside Good Earth in Fairfax and Berkeley Bowl West in Berkeley.