Memoir Monday, Aug 15, 1964

Now well into the second full year of that cowboy girl life...or my sentence of  unspecified length to hard labor. Things were going to change for me soon in a small but also very impactful way. I'll feed that part of the story in bit by bit--because that is the way it happened. 1964 was a pivital year and the wheels of change began to turn, v-e-r-y slowly for awhile but moving...yet I did not know.

Aug 15, 1964

Got up about like usual. They had plenty of water so I didn’t bother to water them, just went straight to the pasture. The river was really up. Prez and I waded by the fishing place but by the time the chores were done and I  returned it had dropped two feet. The folks took Alex to the hospital and I went to work. They returned to report he had roseola (?) rosacia(?)  I got a single letter from Laura. Got the chores and leading done by 1:30. We got some fly spray and put it on Chief, Leo, Pat and Prez. By golly, it works. I wouldn’t have believed it but it does. After lunch I finished the 7^th chapter of Cindy That’s been hanging fire for quite awhile and I’m glad to get it done.  Charlie Mike reports that the hombre who is watchman for the work train told him that Dan is only 20 and spending the weekend with a girl in Cottonwood. Shouldn’t let that bug me but I do. Something always goes awry. We did the usual chores to night. I caught Patsy and fed her out of a feedbag, I was so proud. Eve asked me to go to church with her tomorrow but Dad plans to go to the races so I guess I can’t. I’d like to though, really. Maybe next Sunday. Anyway I’ll be all cleaned up for come-what-may. Eve’s curse tomorrow? Damn!  Damn, I’m mad at Dan. I think I’ll ride by on Monday and flirt with all the other guys, especially Charlie, and just ignore him. If he likes me at all that will hurt him, his ego anyway.  

As I mentioned before --maybe in the weekly flashback last Friday?--the summer of 1964 was a wet one.  There had been a rain up the river, possibly coming down Sycamore Canyon or other tributaries, and a fast rise took place. But it subsided fast as well. 

Let's see--Alex was now five and I recall he got a weird rash. I cannot read my own writing on the word but anyway it was diagnosed as not really dangerous but I think he got some antibiotics or other meds for it.

Laura was one of my pen pals and our correspondence finally faded out. I think she got married and maybe moved house not long after this. She was back in the  Eastern US--West Virginia comes to mind.  Cindy of course was the YA novel I had been working on for some time, Cindy Walker being the heroine's name. Yes, it was eventually finished but never published. Eve's Curse was my term for the monthly miseries that usually hit me hard. I had terrible cramps often, due I later found to severe endometiosis.

And then, a Santa Fe work train had come to town. It was a B&B Gang or one that repaired bridges and other structures--mostly heavy carpentry type construction work. They had been there for a while in the late spring and had come back this month due to damage caused by the heavy rains.  Charlie Mike was a big rail fan and fascinated by all the different kinds of work and I was somewhat interested also.  In the spring I had gotten curious about the small red sports car one guy drove and had ridden by and struck up a conversation with some of the guys. It was a Corvette and belonged to a young guy named Dan or Danny. With my lack of social life and contacts, I got at least midly interested in that guy. This time he had come back with a different car--a 1959 Plymouth Fury. It was metallic blue and white, very cool (more than a Corvette to  me but had it been a T-bird maybe not so much!) Being a muscle car fan, I really wanted to get a ride in it...but that was not easy to manage.The Charlie I mentioned here was the foreman of the gang, and I was a bit put off by him at this time for reasons I never could later explain. And I did not flirt with him... I really never did.

So some photos: Evelyn (Morales-nee Graves) and me a bit later when I did go to church with her. The Plymouth Fury parked near the work train area. A general view of what a work train looked like--at that time they had old box and passenger cars converted to bunk houses on wheels for the crew. This practice has long since died out but Charlie Mike did get to experience it in Colorado with the D&RGW  about a decade later when he started to work on what became his life-long career.