Vernon Dailey outside of Berkeley Bowl West on Heinz Avenue. Photo by Pablo Circa.

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.