I just grab a year at random and find the date so there will be jumping around. Next time I will probably go back a few years. It is all for sh*ts and giggles anyway!
"Jan 18, 1961 Wednesday
Well it was back to school with me again. Evelyn (Graves) and Sharon (Paget) were both absent. We had a test in History and also a movie. I read "Shane" today. It is one of the best books I've read in a long time, a thoroughly different "western." I think I'll call Howard "Shane". If he has read the book he should be flattered. If I can find a copy in pocket book size, I'll send it to him. The whole day passed quickly. On the way down home who should come whizzing around our bus but "Brick." He passed all four buses and kept going. It hit me again watching him, hit me more strongly than ever. Can I ever really give him up inside? I don't know but I'm afraid I can't. Someway I have to see him as soon as possible and talk to him. I have to see if he is really through with me but from the way he watches me in the rear view mirror and the way his hands tighten on the wheel I can hardly believe he is. I got a letter from Jack Byers and Nicki B. I wrote several letters tonight. I have used up nearly $1.00 of stamps and and still haven't mailed off all my letters. Dad and I rode Cinder and Trixie out to the pasture where we fed the monsters. We always run all the way both ways. One of these days Cinder will beat Trix. She is fast but he is faster. Well, I must be going. It is about my bed time. I'm tired as usual and rather thoroughly upset. Damn Brick, why did he have to come back now? If someone does not come along soon I will go back to him. I know it but I am helpless. Adios, Gaye"
Again since most readers will not make much sense of this I'll try to explain--briefly! Okay, I was back in school as of the fall 1960 term, doing my junior year one late now. While I had been out of school I had a letter in the pen pal column of Western Horseman magazine in the Junior Horseman section and had received scads of letters. I tried to answer them all for awhile but finally had to pick and choose even if postage was pretty economical in those days. Howard was one I kept for quite awhile. He had cerebral palsy or epilepsy or something but was fascinated with cowboy stuff and interested in 'fast draw' and all that. He wore black all the time and I later made him a black gaberdine western shirt.
Cinder and Trixie were two of the smaller cow pony sized mules we had gotten and were still working on and had not yet sold. The pasture was some land we leased out on the back side of Tuzigoot and we rode or drove out twice daily to feed and handle animals there. The road was round-about with several; gates so we usually rode down a dirt track and then along the river bank as the shortest route.
Brick (I used a lot of nicknames and code names in my journal just playing safe) was one of my inappropriate crushes who had flirted back with me quite a bit the previous summer and with whom I almost got into some serious trouble. I had told him to get lost but he still had a nearly fatal attraction for me. He was one of those 20-30 age bracket blue collar guys that I called "the young and restless," most of whom would say their wife was married but they weren't--and although I was 'jail bait' still, they were not above seeing how far they could go. I got into that rebellion the previous summer and skated some thin ice, my unofficial 'rumspringa' in response to a very strict home situation. I was not allowed to date at all through high school and had a very limited social life.
And some pictures; The first one is a drawing I did more or less of "Brick" Next is that year's school photos of first Sharon Paget and second Evelyn (Graves) Morales since I mentioned them and last is me in our backyard in Clarkdale. That may have been the next year actually like winter 61/62. I did not get my school photo that year; cost and the fact I did not like it!! Normally I hated my photos!!
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