Abel left New York and returned to Handerspoon’s Cove a few weeks later, thinking revenge was sweet. He figured he had all the information he needed to complete his mission and there were many in Handerspoon’s Cove that needed to answer to what had happened to him as a child. It was too bad he couldn’t have killed his worthless parents, but they died before he had a chance. There was a deep fury in his heart, but he chuckled to himself when he thought of how frightened the targets must have been when he released his pet on them. The little brats he found in the cave were scared shitless. He recalled watching many times when the nutty old parson went camping with them and often thought of what he would do to him. Then, there was the man, Corey Tomas, a few years before who had discovered him in the cave with his pet, he knew he couldn’t let him tell what he’d seen. Corey had begged for his life, disgusting man.
Abel had a difficult time dragging his heavy body to the boat, pulling the boat out to sea with his boat and making it appear that Corey had been attacked by some mysterious, sinister entity at sea. Then, there was the secretary. She was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. ‘Twin Sister’ was a chore he’d delighted in getting rid of, something he’d wanted to do for the longest time. He’d actually enjoyed wringing her scrawny old neck. He’d found out so much about Handerspoon’s Cove, and he could write a book about it. There were many in town that had secrets to hide, secrets he could use to his advantage. He was so involved with his thoughts he almost laughed aloud and had to catch himself.
He didn’t attempt to hide as he had before and openly roamed about in the village. No one seemed to pay any attention to him since there were several strangers wondering about helping to rebuild the town again. It was difficult to hide his contempt as he mingled with the townspeople, but realized it had been many years since anyone in Handerspoon’s Cove had seen him, since he’d been a boy. So, there was no danger of anyone in the town recognizing him with the full grey beard he’d grown. He was just another curiosity seeker as far as they were concerned. After roaming about the town for a few hours, he returned to the caves. His pet was eagerly awaiting him, her red eyes glowing with devotion.
Remembering my life
What is the first thing I remember in my life? I think it was when my parents went to an outside dance when I was very young. I don't remember where it was or how old I was, but it was at night and the dance was held on a huge platform, at least it looked huge to me. The music was playing as the dancers twirled around the dance floor and the song being played was called Walking the floor over you by country singer, Ernest Tubb. I know he probably wasn't there, but the music was from a record player or a radio. Someone was holding me on their shoulders so I could watch the dancers but I don't remember whether my parents danced or not.
I was born May, 18, 1934 in Oklahoma in a small community called Lone Rock. It was in Western Oklahoma close to Cogar, Okla. and Minco, Okla. wasn't far away. My parents had been married about a year when I was born and we had to live in a dugout, since they were too poor to afford a real house. I'll explain later about a dugout. My Dad was an old time fiddle player and could sing too and Mom could play an organ or piano. She learned to play a guitar and often accompanied my Dad on the fiddle. Dad and his brother Jim also played for dances when we lived in Welty, Oklahoma.
My first days at school are dim but I remember going to a school in a place called Brushy Mountain in Eastern Oklahoma, where we lived in a log cabin. I can also remember a Christmas when my uncle Jim, my Dad's brother, dressed up like Santa Claus. He was carrying a sack on his back and had brought some small gifts to me and my sister Barbara. I can remember looking out a window of the little log cabin and seeing him walking across the yard. There was snow on the ground and I can also remember that he could also be very cruel sometimes too. Especially once when he had me and my sister watch him as he deliberately killed a kitten by taking it by its hind legs and slamming its head against a tree. That has stayed with me for years. I always figured my uncle Jim had a touch of cruelty in him, especially when it came to cats, he acted as though he hated them.
The school I went to probably wasn't too far away, but it seemed very far to me. I had to walk across a field and across a busy highway to go to school. Once, I caught a student, one of the girls, stealing a cupcake from my lunch sack. She calmly ate it in front of me with no fear of retaliation whatever. Then, another student, possibly her, stole something from another student and laid the blame on me. The teacher questioned me and I was too afraid to speak up for myself. Nevertheless, I didn't receive any punishment. I don't know how long I went to that school, but it didn't have very many happy memories for me.
I don't know where we moved to from Brushy Mountain but probably was when one of Mom's cousin's, Troy Randall invited us to go to California with them. One thing I remember about the trip was all of us were in a car and it was at night. I think it was raining and we'd passed another automobile and its headlights blinded Troy. He cursed the other driver and the car turned around and came back after us. Bummer! It was the county sheriff. Troy had cursed out the county sheriff. He was very apologetic as the sheriff bawled him out and told him he'd better not behave that way in the next little town ahead. Because the town was a very rough little town and the people that lived there wouldn't take that kind of language. The way the sheriff put it was, "they'll get you." The town was called Bristow. He didn't give Troy a ticket, but did give him a warning and a big scare.
We ended up in California in a place called Chowchilla. I went to school there but don't remember how long, since my parents were working in the fields and we had to live in little houses that had boxes above the door where you'd put a quarter in to get thirty minutes of electricity. If you didn't have a quarter, you lived in the dark. Once, dad put a slug in the box and it worked and I remember seeing him whittle on it to make it the size of a quarter. I don't remember much about the school except the milk. I didn't like it because it was always warm and tasted funny. I think it was powdered milk.
The camp we lived in had irrigation ditches that we children played in. It was dangerous because any moment the water would come through them. Once, I was out playing in the dirt and a boy ran over my hand with his bicycle. The wound left a scar on my hand for years, but it has faded by now. We eventually left Chowchilla and went back to Oklahoma. But I'm not sure where we went to from there, but probably to Sallisaw Okla., where my brother Donny was born. I was about six years old when he was born and can remember bringing in a letter I got from the mail box. I asked Mom was my new little brother was in it. I suppose I was thinking we were going to get a brother. I'm maybe a little mixed up on the time, because I think Donny was born when we went to California.
Speaking of little brothers Donny was an ornery little rascal when he was little. He'd throw cow patties or chicken crap at Barb and me when he didn't get his way. He'd also run over the cat's tail with his tricycle or chase the old rooster. He'd do something ornery and blame Barb by saying."Barbie deed it."
When he got older, he'd tease his younger sisters, LaWanna and Virgina. LaWanna would scream, but Virginia would call him the dirtiest names she could think of.
When I was about two or three I can remember playing in our yard after a rain and the rain caused the ground to be really smooth and I could draw or write on the dirt. My sister, Barbara and I would play a game that I was Miss Clops and she was Zatiestood. Hearing that tickled uncle Jim and for years, he'd tease us about it and called me pencil neck and Barbara, button eye.
Another game we played was, Mean big girl and good big girl. We'd get a couple of long sticks, one stick would be good big girl and the other mean big girl who was always picking on good big girl. Mean big girl would dig in the ground and disturb a bear and he would always eat her for punishment. Once I had a doll that I'd hang in a tree and it rained on it. Dolls at that time were made out of sawdust I guess, since the doll's face peeled after it got rained on. I also once left a little doll on Dad's old truck's running board. I never saw that doll again.
I can remember once after a rain Dad attempted to drive the truck up our drive way but couldn't because it was muddy and slick. But my uncle Floyd, Mom's sister Nola's husband had a little car that zipped right up that drive way. However, I don't know how Dad eventually drove up it. After Sallisaw, Welty Oklahoma was where we lived for several years but why we moved there I'll never understand, but my grandparents, my Mother's parents, lived there. They had been living there for a couple of year I guess. Grandpas' brother, Uncle John Hunter lived there too and at one time had owned a blacksmith shop.
I remember going to his house and his wife, Aunt Laura always smelled funny because she dipped snuff and was always spitting in an old can. Sometimes she'd spit in the ashes that sat in a pan on the floor in front of the wood stove. Phew! Welty was a small town, but had a couple of grocery stores when we moved there, but they're all gone now. I think the town died when the railroad didn't go through the town. I started to school in Welty about 1942-43 and my first teacher was Miss Neely. All the kids loved her and she was a sweet person. She was tall, a little heavy and had short dark hair, styled like the roaring twenties hair style.
Going to Welty school was quiet an experience. We had an old coal stove and Miss Neely would send the boys out to gather coal during the winter so we would keep warm. One boy named Weldon would always sit in the back of the class room and let out loud farts deliberately and the teacher would order him to leave the room. She soon stopped that when he acted as if he enjoyed leaving, so she'd make him open the windows instead. Once all the kids came down with an itch all over their hands, I think it was caused by a little bug. Miss Neely always had something to doctor the kids with however. Then several times the kids would get lice too and there was Miss Neely with the sulphur and lard. One little Indian boy named Billy would come to school in a big coat several size too big for him and would be barefoot, even in the winter. But he'd only show up maybe once or twice during the school year and the kids would tease me about him.
Dad soon got frustrated over no work and we left Welty once and moved to Washougal, Washington where my Mom's uncle Riley lived. Uncle Riley and Aunt Bertha were nice but I don't think they appreciated messy kids.
I threw jelly on their nice clean floor once and got a spanking for it and my sister Barbara peed on their nice bed. I went to school a short time while we lived there and can remember playing with toys I'd never had before. After school, Mom was supposed to come after me I guess, but the teacher was ready to put me on a bus when she showed up. Everything at that time is a haze, but I didn't realize it then, but I had very bad eyesight and saw things as someone sees under water. Anyway everything was very dim to me, but I thought everyone saw things like I did. I didn't learn until years later when I got glasses how different things looked.
I remember the strawberry shortcake that Mom made while we were living in Washington. Her Uncle Charlie lived there too and his wife, Aunt Etta showed Mom how to make it. She used real whipped cream, not the imitation stuff like we use now. Uncle Charley built us a little house and tried to help us but we only stayed a short while because my Dad had a job laying dynamite during a road construction job. He didn't like doing that so he told Mom to save up money to go back to Oklahoma because he didn't want to die there. So she saved money and we loaded up our stuff and went back home.
What I didn't realize then, that my Dad was mentally ill and often threw fits out of desperation because he couldn't make a decent living. He would loose his temper very easily, but I know he was frustrated a lot over how to take care of his family and that could cause anyone loose it, I'm sure. Dad had an old truck and it was a pile of junk, but we were on our way back to Welty, Oklahoma. I don't remember much about the trip except my sister Barbara and I peed all over everything in the back of the truck, because Dad wouldn't stop for us to go to the bathroom, except to grab a bite to eat. He was so anxious to get to Oklahoma.
The people in Welty weren't very friendly and behaved like we were aliens. They treated our family very poorly and made it difficult for Dad to find work except the lowest type of work. I never understood why they behaved that way since several of them were related to us. It was very rough living in Welty, we had no electricity or running water and had to use oil lamps and burn wood or coal. Our water came from a well and the water tasted awful. I suspect it was bad, but we never got sick over it.
I can remember helping Dad saw wood with a long saw and it was so hard. He'd gripe at us because we weren't strong enough to pull the saw. I had to pick up wood chips to put in the stove to make it easier to start the fire. Our house was always so cold and we never could get warm enough. Mom would put something on the walls called building paper, when she could afford it. Usually it was anything she could find to put over the cracks on the walls to keep out the cold. She would make a paste out of flour and water and soak rags in it and then stuff the rags in the cracks in the walls. When we went to bed, we had all the covers we could find piled on us and several of us kids slept together and we'd always get peed on by at least one of them. There's nothing like warm pee on your back, but if you moved during the winter and the cold air hit you, you'd freeze.
Once, during one winter, Dad poured water on the kitchen floor and it froze almost immediately. He skated on it to make a point to a visitor of how cold our house was. But who that visitor was, I don't recall. Mom made quilts out of everything she could find to keep us warm in the winter time and during garden times, she canned everything. But she always had trouble canning corn, it seemed to always spoil. We always had a big garden, but we were always hungry too because the food didn't last long. Taters and beans just don't last long. Dad made us kids bug the potatoes, that is, pick potato bugs off the vines and squish them, Yuk!
We had a large family, six kids, but our house was small and we even had beds in the living room. I believe it was a one or two bedroom house, if you wanted to call it a house. It was a miserable existence. One of our neighbors was a doctor and his wife. Doc was weird, but his wife, was nice and we often used her cellar when it was stormy. Doc was a druggie and used morphine to get high and I don't know what else, but doctors in other towns didn't respect him. I think he was also a child molester because his wife hinted at it when she told Mom not to let the girls be around him. It was rumored that his own daughters left home because of it and there were also rumors that he'd killed a man years ago. That part of Oklahoma had a lot of tornadoes. Once before we lived there, Uncle John was blown up against a fence during a tornado.
I went through grade school in Welty and did well in my grades. But when I entered high school, I didn't do nearly as well and think it was mostly because of my eyesight. In our area the school allowed the children out early to help in the crops. Our family always left Welty to go to another place in Oklahoma to pick cotton so we could have money to live on. When we got back home we were always late getting back into classes. In my freshman year I had algebra and it was totally alien to me and since I'd lost so much school, I was way behind in it and never caught up to the rest of the class. So I failed algebra. Unfortunately, the teachers in my school weren't interested in seeing that I made better grades, all they were interested in were the children of the well off parents.
Living in Welty wasn't the most exciting experience that a person could go through. In fact, it was a very brutal life, especially for children. My memories of Welty aren't very pleasant, since we went hungry most of the time. I remember one particular time when Dad had to leave to find work in another state. He and several men from the neighborhood went to Kansas to work in the wheat harvest. He was gone for several weeks I suppose, but to a kid time doesn't seem to move like it does when you get to be an adult. While Dad was gone, we ran out of money and food, so apparently he'd not been able to send money yet.
Mom was a proud woman and didn't like to ask for help, but she went to the store to ask for more credit to buy a few groceries. But we already owed more than two hundred dollars and the owner, Clyde refused to let her have any more. But he was a nice man and seemed genuinely sorry that he couldn't let her have any groceries. So we went home. Mom had a small amount of flour left and maybe shortening and baking powder. She made a pancake out of it and divided it among all of us children and leaving none for herself. I don't remember what year that was, and how many of us there was, but probably the three older children, Barb, Donny and me, me being the eldest. But it was on a Sunday and later years, along came the next three children, Lawanna, Virginia and Jerry.
Anyway, Mom fixed the pancake and we ate it and then went to Sunday school. My stomach growled the entire time I sat in Church. It was miserable, since my stomach really complained loudly. After Church we went home and found a large slab of bacon on the table, and along a side of it was three dozen eggs. I've always wondered who left the food and believe it was the grocery man, Clyde. Later, that day here came a truck with a large box of groceries from my grandparents who lived in another town. Mysteriously, they'd learned of our plight and sent the groceries to us. So we ate well for a while.
During my school years at Welty there was the usual bully at school and her name was Helen Ruth. Her parents were local farmers in the vicinity and had lived in Welty for years. Helen Ruth was a stocky little girl with blond hair, a jutting chin and a mean disposition. Trailing along a side of her was Bonnie a snerfy little sob sister that took Helen Ruth's abuse. Helen Ruth bullied everyone, including the boys. Everyone was afraid of her. Mostly she always seemed to leave me alone, except one time she and I got into a few words over something I don't even remember. She pushed me into the ditch along a side of the dirt road that we walked to school on.
But one time she actually seemed to have a good side to her when she gave me some of her clothes she'd grown out of. But when I heard her making smart-ass remarks about it to her buddies, I never wore those clothes again. Eventually, later years, Bonnie turned out to be called the town whore when someone caught her and her boyfriend at the cemetery and it was spread everywhere they left condoms laying around the graveyard. That's small towns for you, nothing like juicy gossip to keep things interesting. As for Helen Ruth she became big and fat and ended up marrying a sailor that beat the crap out of her. I guess I should feel sorry for her but maybe she got her comeuppance.
The holidays were always anticipated in Welty, especially for the kids. Every year I had the secret belief that old Santa was really going to do right by me that year. But every year it was the same we only got a piddly little gift, a small bag of fruit and candy, while the rest of the neighbors kids got oodles of gifts. Of course being a kid we didn't realize that our poor parents were the Santas' and couldn't afford to get us much. The school always provided the really poor kids a small gift, which was usually a cheap vanity set or a diary, a bag of candy and fruit, otherwise most of us probably wouldn't get anything.
After my freshman year we locked up our house and moved to Alma Arkansas for a while where my Dad's brother, Perry lived. There were strawberries and other berries to pick and Dad thought that he might be able to make a better living there. We moved to a place called Georgia Ridge and it wasn't far from Alma where Perry lived. I started to school in Alma and liked it a lot more and I did much better in my classes than I did at my previous school. The teachers in Alma acted more concerned if one of their pupils had problems and tried to help them. That was where I found out I needed glasses. One of my teachers noticed I was having trouble seeing and notified my parents. But I suspect they already knew it but had never been able to do anything about it.
My sister Barbara also had problems with her eyes and one of her teachers noticed it and told my parents. Neither she nor I was able to get glasses until we were both out of school though. I didn't finish my senior year and lacked three weeks graduating. I was really foolish in doing that and have always regretted it. But at the time I thought I was doing the right thing. My parents were having a difficult time providing for us and I had the idea that if I moved out and found work, there would be less pressure on them. One of our neighbors also encouraged me to do that too, but later she told Mom she regretted encouraging me to do it because she realized it was the wrong thing to do and as a result I lost out on graduating my senior year.
I left Alma and went to Fort Smith to stay with my Aunt Nadine who was living in Fort Smith. She was married and had a small child, but I think the baby was with my grandmother because I don't remember seeing her. Nadine's husband could sing like a bird but was a jerk and thought he was God's gift. He treated her like dirt and many a night I'd hear them fighting, so I finally decided to do something about it. One night after I heard them fighting, I left the apartment and went to the police and turned him in. But they refused to do anything about it, their excuse was they'd have to catch him outside the apartment.
I went back to the apartment and found that Nadine had left her husband and that made a difficult problem worse. I had to leave because there was no way I was staying in that apartment with him. So I left and went to a hotel and got myself a room.
The next morning I went out to find work, but since I was very inexperienced I had a difficult time finding work. Eventually, I found a job in a factory that made plastic baby rompers, but I wasn't fast enough to suit them and soon lost that job. So I prowled the streets trying to find another job. After a few days of not finding a job, I became desperate. I was running out of money and too proud to call home. I went to a restaurant, sat down and ordered a cup of coffee. I ate the bread sticks as I drank the coffee, since I was too broke to buy a meal. As I felt in my purse, I found that I didn't even have the money for a cup of coffee. Embarrassed, I left the restaurant without paying and they didn't even attempt to stop me. I guess they felt sorry for me.
The next day I stopped in a small café with the hopes of finding a job there. The food smelled so good it almost caused me to pass out. The waitress noticed I wasn't acting too well and offered me a plate of food. As a result, I got a job there and worked there for quite a while. I became friends with the waitress and learned that she was from New York and her name was Ann York. She offered to let me move in with her and I accepted because the hotel was too expensive. Ann was also instrumental in introducing me to a nice crew-cut Marine, named Matt whom I ended up getting a terrible crush on. Nonetheless, he treated me respectfully like his kid sister and raved about a singer, Theresa Brewer. Matt also took me to my first wrestling match in Fort Smith. That's where I saw Gorgeous Gorge the wrestler. Ann and I roomed together for several weeks, but soon she left with her boyfriend, the cook and they both went back to New York. In the meantime I had found another job at a local drugstore that had a soda fountain.
For weeks I had been visiting the drugstore, learning how they made sodas and sandwiches and when I applied for work, I told them I had experience working at a fountain. I worked for several months at that place and met a girl named Wanda B. She always wanted to be in the rodeo and would tell stories about her poverty-stricken family. Her words were, ' they were so poor they didn't have a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out'. Several boys worked there too and their favorite target was a girl named Bonnie who always had the clap, according to them.
Clap is a venereal disease. Their favorite words were, 'well, Bonnie has the clap again.' I figured they must have had first hand knowledge. When we ran around we always ended up at Porta Brothers Restaurant. It was a really cool place ran by Italian brothers, or so they claimed. The place was dark, with an aura of mystery and always played the top tunes of the day on their juke boxes. Yeah, they had juke boxes in the 1950s'. Their little machines you put money in, usually dimes or quarters to play music. And then, there was the drive inn that had foot long chili dogs with cheese. Oh man I wish I had one now, they were so good.
I later moved to another drugstore called Godt brothers that was located in the downtown area. I worked there about two years and enjoyed working for them. The drugstore was run by a family of German brothers and they were very nice to work for. There was Mr. Henry, Mrs. Henry, who called everyone, 'sweet darling' and their son, don't recall his name. Mr. Bill and last but not least, chubby Mr. Florence Godt. They insisted we call them misters, but by their first names. All were brothers that ran the drugstore and Mr. Florence taught me a few German words while I worked at the drugstore.
Godt Brothers was a hang out for soldiers that was stationed at the local Army base. Fort Smith had an Army base called Camp Chaffee and now I believe it's called Fort Chaffee. Most of the soldiers that came in the drugstore were broke and mostly just hung around trying to pick up the waitresses. I remember one named Rachel who was a feisty little girl that didn't hesitate to give her opinion on everything. There was another one, named Daisy who was blond and very pretty. Then, there was tall goofy looking Wilma who was married to a serviceman and was always squalling. He was eventually caught cheating on her, but I don't know what happened after that. There were several girls that didn't work very long at Godt Brothers and I forget who they were, but there are some that stays in my memory.
After work, I dated a few soldiers while I was in Fort Smith, but we mostly just walked around because none of them had enough money to do anything with and usually I had to go to work. Once we even went to the grave yard because we were broke and bored and got run off by the cops. Most of them were good kids, just lonely and away from home. There were a few jackasses, like one called Connor that ripped off my sister Barbara's guitar and hocked it. Dad had to get it out of a pawn shop where Connor had hocked it. Oh I didn't mention that Barbara soon quit school too and moved in with me.
We rented a room from a woman called Betty Mumy and she was an ex-rodeo queen. Her husband was Syrian and owned a liquor store. They rented rooms in their home to young women and several of the girls that rented were nurses at the local hospital. Betty Mumy was like a mother to the girls and insisted they be in at midnight, unless they were working. Unfortunately, gossips in Alma where my folks were living told my family, I was pregnant and running wild in Fort Smith, which was a lie. I worked most of the time and really didn't have the time. When I wasn't working at the drugstore, I briefly worked at the hospital as a nurse aid and thought seriously of going into nursing, but things got in the way and that idea went by the way side. I think I found out I didn't have the money for training.
Another girl named Barbara B. moved in and she was a slob. She left her used sanitary pads laying around and Mrs. Mumy got on to her about it several times. Barbara B. told us about her mentally ill brother and later we heard he'd murdered his own mother and left her head in the Catholic Church in Fort Smith. Gross! Another Barbara M. moved in after this one left. Her brother, Glenn was stationed at Camp Chaffee and they were from Aushtabula, Ohio. Barbara M was a flake and conned my sister Barbara G. into going to some little hick town in Arkansas. They got a job at a café and a few days later when they showed up at work the place was locked up. I guess the owner went broke. Anyway, they broke into the place, ate up the pie that was left there, but had no money and no place to go. So they went to the fire department for help and the firemen let the girls sleep on a mattress in the fire department. I always wondered why they went to the fire department, but it was probably better than the police station, since they'd probably put them in jail for vagrancy. Some way, however, they managed to get back to Fort Smith and Mrs. Mumy let them move back in. She was a nice person.
Some of the local business men also hung out at the drugstore. I don't know if they thought they could pick up the waitresses, but none ever did. One was a funeral director named Stanley and I think his family still has a funeral home in Fort Smith. Another one was a barber named Perry. He had a little black mustache that we would tease him about and if we called him Percy, it would make him mad. And then there was Hank, the owner of a music store who was an ex-pro Yankee base ball player. There were many interesting people that came in Godt Brothers and I had a lot of fun meeting them.
I eventually got another job at a drive-inn called Dairy Queen. The boss was named Elmer and he constantly yelled at the carhops. But it was fun. Daisy also worked there a while. There was a girl named Nellie that worked at the drive-inn too and claimed to be German. Once an Asian soldier tried to date her and she insulted him by telling him that 'Germans didn't date Japs.' He was a nice guy and I thought it was kinda shity of her to do that. I think she ended up pregnant and marrying a much younger guy. The drive-inn job soon folded and I went back to Godt Brothers. I think they were very patient with their workers, because they didn't hesitate to rehire them when they wanted to come back. When I went back to Godt Brothers, a new girl, Jody was working. Her real name was Hazel and she was from Ozark, Arkansas, but everyone called her Jody. She was thin, had a slight hump back but everyone liked her. She had a great sense of humor. She and I became pretty good friends and decided to move in together to save money. Jody met a soldier named AL and he was Greek. But he was bossy and soon they broke up. I met an Italian soldier I dated a couple of times and he met Mom once when she came to Fort Smith to visit us. He called her Mother in-law and she thought that was really funny. He even tried to give me a ring, but I wasn't ready for that and I broke it off. I never saw him again.
Once, while I was still living at Mrs. Mumy's boarding house, my sister Barb had started smoking. We happened to look out the window and saw Mom coming to visit. Barb threw the ashtray, lit cigarette and all under the bed. The room was filled with smoke when Mom came in, but Mom didn't say a word. I knew she knew though, because she had that knowing look in her eyes. Incidently, Mrs. Mumy didn't allow smoking either. I hadn't started smoking at that time or drinking either, later. I'd pull those stunts. Hee, Hee. Sometimes I wonder how I survived those times, but I was so ignorant. I think I'd rather be old and smart than young and dumb.
Come to think of it, Nadine, Barb and I used to sneak around and smoke grape vines, or steal Grandpa's Kools and Dad's PA ( Prince Albert tobacco) when we were living in Welty. We also smoked rabbit tobacco, which are dried rabbit turds. Weren't we smart? Once, Nadine made some sheep-shire wine in a fruit jar and hid it in the woods. Later we went back to check it and it smelled, 'pew yew'. We didn't drink it. Sheep-shires are little plants that have a sour taste and we always chewed on them. It's a wonder we didn't get poisoned.
Barb and I decided to take music lessons in Fort Smith when we found a place where an old guy and his son gave music lessons. I took up the steel guitar and Barb the standard. It was a lot of fun and soon we got to perform on the local radio station. While we were there, a young guy named Herman R. who was learning to play the guitar too, was about seventeen, I guess. He was a natural and could really play well. He was a nice guy and later years in 2009 I saw his obituary on the Internet. We quit the music school when Barb got her guitar stolen. Dad found it in a pawn shop and got it out and called the Army and told them about it. The guy that stole it got in trouble, but I don't know what happened to him or if he got kicked out. Barb told me later that he'd raped her too. Poor little Barbie, she's gone now and has been for more than ten years.
Jody's sister decided to go to California and invited her and me to go along. I was eager for adventure and went with them. I don't remember whether my parents knew about it or not. I was reckless at that time and thought I could do anything. I was master of my universe. As we were traveling to California, Jody's sister made a remark that they were about to run out of money for gas and might have to sell ass to make it the rest of the way.
I wasn't looking forward to that, but fortunately we made it to their destination, which was Stockton. I made a decision not to stay in Stockton and immediately caught a bus to Los Angeles where Nadine and her current husband Gene were living. Sensibly, I phoned her to let her know I was coming.
When I got to Los Angeles, the bus station was in the worse part of town, skid-row. The place stink and there were weird characters running everywhere. Luckily, I got a cab right away and told the driver the address and he took me to the wrong place. But he was nice and took me to the correct address and didn't charge me any extra. I stayed one night with Nadine and Gene and the next day Jody showed up. So we went out and found our own place and found jobs at a Woolworth store. She worked in the makeup department and me at the stationary department. One day Jody and I decided we wanted to get drunk so we went to a liquor store, got a bottle of sloe gin, went back to our little dull apartment and got snockered. I got so sick I've never been able to taste sloe gin again.
As I was throwing up in the sink, Jody was washing my face and saying. "I'll be damned, one drunk washing another drunk's face."
After work, Jody and I ran all over LA and once heard some Marines from Camp Pendleton yelling at us and one said.
"Hey I know you."
As it turned out I did know him. He was a boy, named Robert K that I'd went to school with, in Alma, Arkansas. He was a football player and had been in Barb's class. He was always teasing her by pulling her hair and she soon grew tired of it and stabbed him with a sharpened pencil. He never bothered her after that, but he told me he teased her because he thought she was cute. But Barbara didn't see it that way, she thought he was just being mean.
He and Jody hit it off though and later got married. For a while we all had fun together, running around Los Angeles with Robert embarrassing us by wearing bright red pants and pretending to be gay. Robert had a buddy who was a little red haired guy named Odis B and soon he and I were dating and eventually got married. Odis and I moved to another little town, San Clemente that was near the base, but that didn't work out and soon we went our own ways. I got a job at a restaurant in San Clemente and moved out. Odis was a good guy and wasn't mean to me, we were just not ready for married life, I guess.
Jody and Robert went back to Arkansas and I never heard from her again. I liked Jody and often wondered what happened to her. I eventually left Los Angeles and moved back to Oklahoma. I stayed in Bristow for a while instead of moving back to Welty.
While I was in California, my folks moved back to Welty. Nadine and her husband Gene had moved back and were running an old cruddy hotel on main street and in the meantime, he was running illegal booze. Many a time the law was after him, but he was very fast and evasive and they never caught him. Once Barb and I went to their hotel and saw a nasty old Indian slut named Lillie that had a herd of men after her. It was so embarrassing. They actually did it on an old couch right in front of us, so we hightailed it out of there. There were a lot of weird characters that lived in that hotel, mostly drunks. One crapped in the sink in his room instead of using the bathroom and Nadine had to clean it up.
Barb had gotten trouble in Fort Smith and had come back home. She had met a guy that was moving out of his room at a hotel and he told her he'd paid the rent up. But as it turned out, he owed rent and had run out on it. The law showed up one morning about one A.M. and arrested Barb for vagrancy. She was in jail until the local welfare agency helped her get back to Oklahoma. During that time, I made a wild hair trip to Corpus Christi, Texas, stayed a month or two, and had to call home for money to get back to Bristow. Nadine was the one that was gracious enough to send me the money. I don't think I ever paid her back and now, that she's gone, I feel bad that I didn't.
Later, Barb and I moved to Tulsa to find work and while I was there I found that I was several months pregnant. After Odis and I broke up, I didn't known I was pregnant when I came home from California. I worked until I was in my eighth month at a drug store and Barb found work at a Chinese restaurant. I finally went home to Welty and Mom contacted the county commissioner to get me a ride to Oklahoma city hospital to have my baby because they didn't have a car and none of the neighbors would give us a ride. But poor little baby Terry died just a week after he was born and is buried in Welty Cemetery. Someday I want to go there and find his grave to put a marker and flowers on it. I miss my sweet little baby.
Tulsa was where Barbara met Tony, or rather met Tony again. As it turned out, he'd also been in the Fort Smith jail for selling magazine subscriptions and was keeping the money. He made the mistake of selling to a judge's wife. He was a trustee in the jail when Barb was there and he just walked out of the jail in Fort Smith, left Fort Smith and went to Tulsa. I don't know how he ended up working in the same restaurant as Barb was. He worked in the kitchen and was always afraid the law was after him for escaping jail. Tony was a character. A few years later he and Barb broke up and we lost contact with him, so we have no idea what happened to him.
What a dugout is.
DUGOUT
A type of dwelling, shelter, or other structure that is wholly or partially below ground constitutes a dugout. Dugouts were often carved into the sides of hills, banks, or ravines and were enclosed by a front wall built of sod or logs. Where the terrain possessed little relief, dugouts were hollowed out of the ground to a depth of about two to six feet. They were typically rectangular in plan and measured between twelve and eighteen feet on a side. The roof was supported by purlins, logs, or poles extending the length of the dugout.
Online Address: http:www.//digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/D/DU003.html
Later when I was working in Tulsa I met Ray Maze, my children's dad. After a few months of dating we got married and left for California. We ended up in Holtville, California and my two older children, Tom and Sandie were born in the nearby town of Calexico and two sweeter, cuter babies were never born, at least in my eyes. Later when we moved to Washington state, my daughter Pamela was born in Yakima. She was the cutest thing and when they brought her into me at the hospital, I thought she was one of the little Yakima Indian babies because she had a lot of dark hair. Tom and Sandie were little blond baldies, but Pam was much fairer and more delicate than the Indian babies, they were very dark and stockier.
We stayed in Washington for a while until Ray got the wonder bug again and we moved back to Oklahoma. We stayed with Dad and Mom for a while then made a trip to Texas when Pam was about ten months old. We were living in San Antonio when President John Kennedy was killed in Dallas. After that we came back to Oklahoma. We moved to Bristow and in 1964 Greg was born and when he was about eight months old he caught pneumonia and had to be hospitalized for ten days, he was in oxygen for five days. He was so sick we thought we were going to loose him for a while. But God was good and little Tater got well. He was such a handsome little guy and I always called him my special Tater.
Ray decided to go to California by himself to look for work and me and the kids stayed with Dad and Mom. Later, I don't know how long he eventually sent after us. So we caught a train in Bristow and went to Holtville, Calif. We were living in Holtville when my youngest son, Jason was born. We were living on a farm outside Holtville when Jason was born in ElCentro, California. He was larger than my other children, but he was the sweetest little baby and I felt like he was an angel sent to me for a while and that I wasn't going to have him very long. Isn't it strange how a person feels things like that but tries to push them out of their mind?
The years passed and all of us grew up, my children with me. We had some very difficult times but we loved each other very much. Ray left us several times while we were in California and the kids and I had a difficult time surviving, but we made it. We left Eureka California, then moved back to Oklahoma where my family was. In 1976 Ray and I divorced, he came to Oklahoma once to see the kids but we never saw him again after that or heard much from him. He died in 1990. After a short period of being on welfare, I worked for the Creek County Nutrition program for twenty years, retiring in 1996. There are a lot of things I'd like to change but know it's not possible, so I'll take what the Lord gives me and go on from there. We finally lost Jason in 2007 when he took his own life, the pain never goes away and I'll never get over losing him. But years ago when he was born I knew he was only here for a short time. Just a loan from the Lord, but I thank the Lord for my other children and that they're all doing well.
Tom joined the military when he was seventeen, married and divorced. Lost his first baby, a girl while stationed in Texas, but had another sweet little baby girl. Years later, he had heart surgery and a terrible accident while he was working for the city of Bristow and was out of work for quite a while. But he's drawing disability and doing fairly well now. But I know he'd rather be working and be able to do more. He was married a few times, has a daughter who along with her husband is now a missionary in South Africa. My little first born is now a grandfather too. Sandie and Pamela are both married to great guys and have children and grandchildren. Amazingly, both girls have been married close to thirty years, that doesn't happen much in this day when divorce is the norm. Tater is also married to a sweet girl and is a father and grandfather too. Doesn't time fly? It seems like only yesterday when we first moved back here in 1971. My gr-grandchildren is almost as old as my children were when we first moved here. But I wouldn't trade my life for anything, although I'd like to add or change a few things, maybe.
