Still in high school. Did it really last dang near forever? It certainly felt that way at times but in others, it was over much too soon. Graduation and then you feel you have to quit being a kid, at last a "teenager" even if you aren't into the next decade quite yet.
April 11, 1961
Today was not bad at all. I got thru my make-up tests and two book reports okay. No sweat, like they say. I’m still determined to stick to my ‘take it easy’ policy. No use worrying, actually. School passed uneventfully. I reckon I can live through it for seven or eight weeks more. I only got one letter from a guy I quit writing to. Well in fifteen days I will be eighteen. I reckon this is going to be a pretty special birthday. I’ve just got a feeling that way. I keep thinking how much I wish Wayne was here. I know we’d have a cool time. I want a guy, not just any guy quite but a guy. I want one the other gals will be jealous of. (Shame on me, huh?) We did the chores via the truck so there was no riding tonight. I hope Rio comes up over the weekend. I won’t get a letter from Wayne tomorrow but I will get a letter tomorrow and my birthday will be special. The odds are 2 to 1 or 3 to 1 at least. Pretty good, no? And Wayne will come around June 1. Whee. Bye, G
Spring was coming along and there were warm days and then cool and windy ones--just like there are today. Apparently I had missed a day, either sick or 'ditched' or went somewhere with my folks' permission so I had to catch up on a little school work. Obviously not a chemistry test!! I was telling myself to quit worrying about that one class. The rest were not hard as a rule and I usually had my work done on time, either in study hall or at home, occasionally during a lecture, probably in history.
I'd become a bit blase about my ongoing pen pal project but I still looked eagerly in the mailbox on my way home each afternoon. Wayne was a favorite at this time but I did tend to blow hot and cold depending on the latest letter I got, maybe a phone call or perhaps someone else piqued my fancy. "Rio" was a local guy, a one-time rodeo rider and he was trying to break a little horse we had that purely loved to buck. Not exactly a crush but he kind of fascinated me. I made him the hero of a 'ranch romance' story I was writing about this time. Yes, even then at almost eighteen I was writing fiction or at least trying to, and convinced I was going to be a writer.
I had a deck of regular playing cards and I do not remember the exact system but I would ask a question and then obtain an answer by what card I picked. In the long run it had little real effect but I was hoping/wishing that turning 18 would have a powerful effect on my life. Did it? Not much! We were no longer doing birthday photos as had once been a family tradition so I have few to no pictures of me at this time. I didn't have my own camera yet, either. Thus finding anything applicable to illustrate this particular memory will be hard. C'est la vie. I'll look a wee bit...
Okay--this is one of my girl pen pals who came to Cottonwood with her folks (she lived in western Colorado a a town called Rifle) and we were able to go riding. She was on Annie and I was on Trixie. The next is me in a dress I had made. I think the occasion was the graduation that year (1961) when Vickie Cranmer and I were kind of hostesses at the reception after the ceremony. And last, one of my drawings, of "Rio" the hero of my story "The Ransom of Rio del Sangre." It was a kind of Zane Grey type tale. I lost that hand written manuscript long ago.
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