Dick Frank was a radioman aboard the U.S.S. Everglades, AD24, during the Korean War and served in the Mediterranean. An uranium prospector in Southwest Texas during the 1950s, he later got a B.S. in geology, which he was never able to use. He became a widower at fifty. A wanderer … Here he is on his maquina de Iibertad (freedom machine), Big Red II, a month before his 68th birthday. He’s leaving Big Spring State Park Texas, heading for Mazatlan on the Mexican Riviera this time. On the Honda were his 187 Upchurch tapes and a rough manuscript. All his worldly belongings.

After taking in Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker Suite in Mazatlan’s magnificent opera house, he got mugged by three rough characters and fought his way out. In the scuffie, he lost his prized Dallas Cowboys hat. (See atop his head.) A high price to pay for culture.