A fickle thing, memory

Rico says that it'll come as no surprise to those who know him that he's been having, shall we say, some difficulties with memory since his hospitalizations (as in, don't ask what he had for dinner last night), but some stuff does seem to bubble to the surface, unbidden:

The first story is about one of Rico's early jobs (he was trying to remember all of them, just for the mental exercise), back in the mid-1960s, when he worked as a cage cleaner in a pet store in downtown Palo Alto. (The clerk, now doubtless an old lady, was then a very cute young blonde woman, which made the job worthwhile.) One of the pets was a spider monkey named Molly. She was unsellable, due to her nasty personality, but one day Rico opened her cage (at which point Molly usually retreated to the most distant corner) and Molly, to Rico's surprise, came over and was all cooing and lovey-dovey, to the point of wrapping herself around Rico's neck, with her prehensile tail actually curled around his nose.
This, needless to say, startled Rico, but the clerk explained that, once a month, Molly got sweet and loving like that; probably post-menopausal, if her human equivalent is anything to go by...

The second story is of a memory of Rico's childhood, when Rico and his father went to a Seals ice hockey game at the Cow Palace in Daly City, near San Francisco, with a next-door neighbor, John Steers (a John Wayne lookalike, in size and attitude). During the game, a 'discussion' about behavior was had with some nearby spectators (yes, they were drunk), and that led to a 'let's have a fight' moment following the game. Rico's father, being concerned that Steers (himself a little inebriated) would get hurt by the two or three other idiots, took off his jacket (handing it to Rico, who was about ten at the time) and offered to wade into them. Fortunately, the other guys decided it wasn't worth it, and went away. It was the only time that Rico ever saw his father even offer to fight anyone, and remains a proud memory. (Rico says his dad will doubtless not remember this, and probably deny it ever happened...)

Rico says he'll continue to post crap like this as it comes up. If you don't like it, don't read it...