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RIP Rickey “the Pirate” Taylor

I’ve always been grateful that I made amends with Rickey. Sometime after the events detailed below, I left LA for a few months and gave Rickey the final t-shirt, the one we’d been holding onto for ourselves. They were cool shirts after all. Rickey was ecstatic. Not just to have a shirt to sell, but I think he was also grateful to break the detente that had existed between us for months. Who knows. It was hard to tell with Rickey. When I returned, he ran down the street to greet me warmly, remembering I’d been away and noticing I’d lost weight on my jour-ney. From then on, our encounters were short, but warm and friendly. I never gave him any money. Maybe he asked if we wanted to buy something a few times. He wasn’t pushy. He often tried to hug us or help with bags… the same old Rickey from before all this nasty t-shirt business. And then we moved to Oakland. During our last visit down-town in May, we saw Rickey. It was a pleasant reunion right there on the corner of Sixth and Spring. He tried to sell us a video camera. We kept it brief. Like always. Rest in Peace, Rickey. I’ve had a lot of beefs with people over the years, but none ended with truly letting bygones be bygones. You were a class act. There will only be one Downtown Pirate.

© 2011-2014

Originally published in Piltdownlad #5: The Detour Guide

Illustrations on pages 4-7 by Irina Dessaint

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Rickey The Pirate immortalized on the chalk board in front of Spring for Coffee. Art by Nick Knudson.

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The postcard. Art by Nick Knudson.

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While Rickey was hustling these cards, a local news channel interviewed him and they shot a close up of the card.

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Rickey’s list of pre-sales.

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Since we spent all our money on t-shirts this year, we couldn’t afford any other presents for the folks...