So 1962 was a momentous year for me. Finally graduated and then more or less voluntarily accepted a four year sentence of indentured servitude. That will be covered later. I am about ready to move ahead a few years and leave the school daze behind here in a few more weeks. Stay tuned, FWIW.
Jan 31, 1962
I woke up at 8:00, almost too tired to move and knew it was no use trying to make it to school. We talked awhile and I hope we’ve got a few things settled. We drove out before breakfast to feed. After eating I walked up town to get the mail. No family or business news. I got an announcement from Lin who has had her baby. It was a girl on Jan 22. I also got a letter from Jose. “Hola, Alegria, mi aiga, mi querida” and twenty nine pages followed!! We rode in the afternoon, Dad on Prez, Charlie Mike on Rosie and myself on Annie.. We rode all around above the lake and came out at the pasture. We chased the horses and made them run. Ritzi is so pretty it almost hurts. I’m so grateful that her leg is healing. They say that Leo Greenough died on Monday night in his sleep apparently. Well, I suppose it had been coming for a long while but I am sorry anyway. I wish I had sent him a Christmas card and Dad wished he’d gone to see him once more. But it’s too late. I must remember that. There comes a time when it is too late to do everything. I must write a poem about that sometime. In The Montana Legend I’ll have to have my hero get up off his sickbed and ride his favorite mount down the slide slope to his death so that “all those women won’t stand over my body forgetting me in their hate of each other.” Now I am tired but content, or at least somewhat content. Tomorrow I guess I’ll have to go back to school but I don’t care. Nothing is too bad. I am sure we are going to succeed and that two men love me: Jose and Wayne. What more can I ask?
Did a bit of name dropping here so will have to do some 'splaining. This last semester I was trying not to miss too much school but there were days I had to take a mental health day or recover from some kind of trial or trauma. Guess this was one. Some sort of family drama, no doubt. All too common.
Lin was one of my early girl pen-pals. Since we started writing, she had gotten married and now gave birth to her first. Debbie is now older than my "baby daughter" so --well 62 to 22--Y'all can count. Anyway Linda and I are still in touch. She has had some serious health issues and has lived in an assisted care place for some time now but we are still BFFs and always will be. Sadly my one time pen-pal and HH Jose was not so long lasting. About a long year after this he 'jilted' me for a new lady he had met. I wrote scads of maudlin poems...
Ritzi I have mentioned before. She was about a year old here and growing up very pretty. The three animals we rode were all mules. Prez and Annie we had for along time. Rosie was sold not too much later.
Leo Greenough was a well known Verde Valley character, a 'dude rancher' and lion hunter. He and Dad were friends and Dad went on a number of hunts and expeditions with him. I had a strange sort of crush on him for a long time. He was one of those "larger-than-life" people who ought to be in a novel! I'm still working in fits and starts on that! By coincidence the older sister of one of my closest friends in Clarkdale, Evelyn Graves Morales , worked for him for many years and inherited part of the ranch after his passing. Shirley Graves Burton passed away a coupe of years ago.
For a realistic pessimist, I could be a rosy-glasses optimist at times. I think mostly I was trying to convince myself because I really knew better. Happily ever after was strictly in fairy tales. I guess one reason I write HEA romances...since maybe there can be sometimes.
And now some photos: first Mr Greenough and two of his hunting hounds. Then Prez under saddle; he was a big husky mule. Next me holding Mindy (my right) and Annie (my left. She was tall and leggy but a good mule. And last, Linda Bush Pflug with Debbie and her hubby, Dick about 1964.
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