The speaker looks back on a time "earlier in America" and on a friend he once travelled with. The opening is bitterly cold: they drive west, and the car's tires stick to the road. The friend is then pictured as a "gunman" who menaces shopgirls. The word is probably playful, a kind of swagger, since the girls adore him anyway. The poem lingers on his looks: slick "rat-sleek" hair, flashing glasses, small dirty teeth. These are not flattering details, yet the speaker records them with fondness.
The speaker also notices small things the friend enjoyed, like the girls walking with folded arms through the cold for coffee. The phrase "asshole buddies" suggests a rough, easy closeness. The two of them were waiting for "a life to come," and the closing "Sweet life" can be read as hopeful, or as wistful, because it comes from looking back. The mood is nostalgic and affectionate, with a rough edge. The title suggests the whole memory may be tinged with drink, and with youthful, careless confidence.