Tina was happy to do it, too. Since she was not quite ready to fully commit to having a real Oakland boyfriend—someone scary to drive her around East 14th and show her life in the streets—my friends and I provided Tina with a kind of walk-on-the-wild-side middle ground, a social safari where a rich girl could make her existence seem grittier and more extreme without having to actually experience true dangers. In exchange for that escape from the dreary doldrums of Piedmont life, Tina gave us rides and brought us girls to hang out with.
