Well--my last spring in school. As I may have said before, those few months were some of the easiest and most enjoyable of my teen years. No, I did not go to the prom or banquet or a lot of other things I might have wanted to do, but the chores may have eased just a bit--Mom helped me a little more than she had and some other issues were distracting Dad so he was not on my case all the time about what was or wasn't done and how things were done. And Charlie Mike was getting older and more responsible and willing to help me. I think very quietly Mom did try to make this time as good for me as possible and I deeply appreciate that..
Feb 14, 1962, Wed
Yes, I got Valentines. Not many but enough shall we say? School was okay. ‘Reen was absent. I wonder why I’m not the only one who gets to quit writing themes but I missed one more than anyone else. We had an assembly celebrating Arizona’s 50th year of statehood. In art I matted one each of ‘Reen’s and my pictures to send in to an art show. I got in the mail Jose’s second letter, a lovely old fashioned Valentine and then six lovely red roses by a florist! The latter I concealed in my ‘house’ (the shed in the shop yard) so I would not have to answer any embarrassing questions. They are now just a Valentine from an “anonymous admirer”!! They are lovely though. I rode Annie and led Prez for about half an hour. She really is lame in her right forefoot. We drove out o the pasture and doctored Ritzi’s leg. She is getting much better. I’m awfully glad because I as awfully worried about her. This evening I have not done much--eat peanut butter cookies, read and re-read Jose’s letter, eat an orange etc. Today has been pretty good for me. I’m afraid my luck will break pretty soon though. I can’t expect every day to be good. At least I haven’t had a headache for the past two days. It is 9:15 now so I guess I will get ready to take a midweek bath. I’m going to be cleaner from now on. It is a girl’s duty to keep herself neat and tidy. Time to say adios.
Mostly Valentine's Day had not been a big deal to me for ages. There were quite a few times I got no Valentines at all and wasn't seriously grieved by that. Right at that time, I was in the most intense or connected phase with Jose, the Pen Pal in Utah. To get real florist flowers was quite amazing! That did not happen again for a very long time!
To clarify, we rented two houses in lower Clarkdale side by side. We lived in one and the other was storage, a kind of office, Dad's wood workshop, a photo darkroom in the kitchen and so on. We called it the "shop house. " It had one of the typical metal sheds in the back yard, which had a wooden half-wall dividing it and wooden floor and probably originally used for coal? . We used the one behind the residence house for a tack room. Anyway the one I mention was just junk storage and Charlie Mike and I kind of appropriated it for our purposes. It was a safe place for my flowers which I knew would cause a huge kerfuffle if they were seen!! They kept well in the coolness there too. I wish I had a photo--it was a unique thing in my life!
Of course I still rode at least some almost daily and the critters had to be fed, cleaned up after and often one or more doctored. I've mentioned Ritzi before. She was pretty but had a wild streak to some degree and was prone to injuries and sore feet. I'm not sure what had happened this time but recall she had a nasty wire cut on one leg. It probably got infected but was too cold at this time for screw worms. A certain kind of fly lays eggs in wounds and the larva then eat the damaged flesh; that is okay but don't leave them there too long! There is a medicine to wash them out.
That semester I was not the least worried about grades. I had no hard subjects and could almost count on 1s in my main classes--except Mr Doubek in Chorus. I guess he did not like me because I only got a 1 the final six weeks after it had been announced I was going to be Valedictorian! I have no clue what he held against me, really. I did not normally have too much homework unless I was working in a term paper or special project so I goofed off some evenings.
I have to giggle about the "girl's duty." Those old houses had an added on shower on the back porch which had no heat and got little use in cold weather. We bathed the old farm way in a laundry tub or the kitchen sink. That seems very weird and primitive now! I have really appreciated 'normal' bathrooms the rest of my life. I am so spoiled now I use an electric heater in mine so I never have to step out of the shower into any chill at all! Anyway keeping clean was a bit more of a challenge under those conditions.
I was so used to 'bad' days or at least unhappy, depressing or very dull ones so I always feared that a run of nice ones was not going to last and dreaded return to the "normal'' get-through-this-however-I- can type. Maybe I was too hard to please? I once wrote a poem about "determined to be dolorous," and in some ways I think I was.
Again not much in the photo area and probably repetitious. So, me that spring, in one of my favorite outfits. I had my hair real long and liked it. Next Jose with some of his fencing students. He was an instructor at BYU on several active/skill type things. Then mule Annie up in Mescal Canyon; she was good and reliable and a very ordinary looking mule--brownish black with no markings. And last Prez, another mule. He was more tan-brown and a big stout and steady ride. I used them both a lot and was very fond of them both.
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