Memoir Monday , April 25, 1962

 All downhill from here or nearly so--just a long month left of my schooling.I knew I was good to graduate and there were no classes I feared to fail. Almost coasting for a bit but life was still not all roses and sweets. Chores, work, issues...it was what it was.

April 25, 1962, Wednesday

 Maybe the ball is rolling at last? Well, at any rate, I hope so. It was kind of cloudy and cold today. School wasn’t bad. I decided to write on Kipling and Stevenson for my second term paper. McLarney okay’d it. I’m still reading Exodus. It’s a darn good book. In Civics we had a test. I think I only missed one or two of seventy or so. Not bad, huh? Reen and I ate in the gym because it was so cold and windy out. We didn’t do much in art class except prepare for our Student Art Show which is to be April 30-May 20 at the Jerome Art gallery. No mail for me today.  I bought a “Toni,” a new diary and some index cards. I rode Cinder just long enough to lead Prez around for awhile and we did the chores out of the truck. The folks seem to be enthusiastic about the Sasser ranch so guess I’ll have to get some enthusiasm for it too. It really could be a made into a nice ranch. I really don’t care to much where we go so long as we get a place that we can move to right away after school is out. I spent the evening thinking, wrote to Jose and just loafed. We put off fixing my hair for another night. It looks pretty scroungy now but I don’t care. I’m not trying to impress anyone. Well, I only have one more day to be eighteen--crazy, no? I can’t say I’m too excited about getting older, though. Oh, hell with the mess. Tomorrow I really must fix my hair and then on Friday I’ll begin a new era. I hope we do go somewhere early in the summer. Maybe I can have Reen come and spend part of the summer with me. We’d have a cool ball exploring etc. if she could come visit me at a new place of ours. I daren’t hope too hard. Adios.

Weather was changeable then, just as it is now though perhaps a bit cooler  and also wetter than it is now. Still to be too cold to sit outdoors for lunch at almost the end of April seems not quite right.

Term papers. I always liked to do comparisons. Not sure why except it made it easier to hang your premise and go on from there. A did xyz while B did uvw, etc.. Kipling and Stevenson were always rather favorites of mine in English Lit, both men of their time and somewhat adventurous and explorers who wrote about many things--some for kids and more for adults, poetry and prose. The Victorians were much less prone to staying in a small box than folks even of the middle 20th century, much less today. I have never really liked specialization. I am given to making a snide comment about someone who is an expert on the ant's left hind leg and knows nothing about the rest of the ant! Renaissance woman are us or at least I aspired to be.

I dimly recall that art show. Ms Mahoney had us go up a few days later and hang things. Both Maureen and I had several pieces that were displayed, I think. 'Reen was a much better artist than I was. I may even have gotten an honorable mention or some such though. I might still have a bit of my old work in a big portfolio case along with posters, maps and other stuff.

My purchases: "Toni" was a brand of home permanent and I wanted to get my hair nicely done before the end of the term. I always had very fine hair, though never sparse or too thin, but it would be super curly for a week or two and then go back to almost straight again. I laugh to read "I am not trying to impress anyone." That was so me a that time. No guys in school were the least but interesting to me and with  my normal riding hat on, the blue collar "young and restless" fellows I noticed and was noticed by could not see much of my hair. They were probably not looking at that anyway. LOL. I kept my diary or journal mostly in steno notebooks at the time and was filling them up faster as I began to write more each day. Note cards for the term paper--and maybe later for my speech when I knew I had to make one at graduation.

The ranch mentioned was over somewhere around Prescott. For several years  we were constantly 'going to get' this ranch or that and move and have better facilities for the livestock business. Unfortunately it never happened and I got very cynical and bitter about it after a time. This one was kind of bleak or not pleasant to my view as I dimly recall. More on that later. In June  I will move  ahead to another block of time in my old  journals. That will cover my real cowboy girl years from June 1962 through August 1966. 

Nineteen--oh m'gosh! Was I really ever not quite there? Apparently so, or at least my old avatar was. Large sigh. I have no real recollection of that birthday. I suppose we had a dinner with some of my favorites that I asked Mom to fix and cake and ice cream. I don't recall any special gift or anything that I got  though I am sure I got cards and some odds and ends from my grandparents and a few other relatives. Mama Witt (maternal grandma) bless her heart, never ever forgot me and always commemorated special days. She was such a wonderful person and I always knew she loved me. Of others I was not so sure.

Cinder and Prez were regular mules--I know I have mentioned them often, as well as going out to the pasture to feed and check the stock there and all the other chores.  Mentioned or not, those things went on every day, regardless, and about 99% of the time it was mainly me doing it. Charlie Mike would help and Mom on occasion. Dad worked on things in fits and starts, depending on his mood, how he felt and whatever else was going on. It was often easier if he was not taking part! 

Do I dare use NO photos? I really do not have any very pertinent that have not been included more than once before. Let me see:  Okay, Charlie on Prez probably a  year or two later. Prez was a big stocky and stout mule. We all liked him. Then part of the corrals at the pasture on the 'back side' of Tuzigoot, I visited that place once or usually twice every day for a very long time.