It seems that 1965 was not a good weather spring. Maybe not quite to the extent this year has been with really serious floods but just so many ugly miserable days! Trying to do even the most basic necesary work was a real ordeal.
April 3, 1965 Sat
Gee whiz, will this rain never end? Got up and fed on a damp morning, another damp morning. Before Mom could drive us out it was raining so we had to feed in the rain. We came home and I hurriedly changed to run over to Cottonwood. We bought some stamps, got gas and a few things at Ball’s. No mail for me today. I was keenly disappointed. Maybe I made Dusty mad by saying I couldn’t go out with him. We did the midday home chores and Charlie Mike and I tinkered with the bikes during a lull. Came in to eat lunch just as it started raining about 1:00. It rained all afternoon steadily. I fretted, wondered where someone was. Finally got out out all my old writing ideas etc to read. Reading about Richard Edwards, Curly, Blondie etc. made me nearly feel ill. It kind of shook me for awhile but Dusty isn’t quite that stripe of tiger--or skunk. If only--that’s all I can say. Dad, Charlie Mike and I drove out in the rain to feed. The road was pretty bad. It wasn’t cold, at least. I wrote to Tee and Mary this evening while listening to my three “mood music” records. Now I don’t know what I’ll do if it is still bad tomorrow. It is raining steadily now and has been for quite some time. If only it doesn’t snow… Maybe we’ll have a flood. Oh well, it can’t rain forever. To bed and to dream. I think Dusty would like that book. I’ll have to let him read it (that western I read yesterday). Must run. I’m cold. Wish someone was here or I was there.
I am, not sure why I changed to go to Cottonwood unless I was sopping wet. That was very likely. Normally the regular work clothes were good enough to go run an errand or two. Ball's was the super market that had once been one of Selna's stores.No mail on a day that was already rather glum. Just more of the same. Charlie Mike was trying to keep two bikes working and that was not easy. We respoked many damaged wheels and patched tires--at least bike tires were easier to patch and refill than truck tires! Often times only one would be operational though, despite our best efforts.
As hard as it was to do the full day's normal work on good days, it was worse in some ways when I could not get out and be active. It was boring and a risky opportunity for "talks" to get started. I guess that did not happen this time. So I found busy-work of sorts and read old journals and other stuff I had written including partial stories and probably thought about both Cindy and my training articles.
I felt very stupid remembering some of my ill-concieved crushes and flirtations. None of them had ended well at all and I was embarrassed to have been that foolish and run some real risks. I was sure Dusty was not the same kind of guy most of them had been. He had been very open and honest with me. The fact he was still legally married though separated and living apart while trying to figure out how to resolve the sitution with his son did disturb me though. He later told me he had started to get a legal separation and finally did so some months later, the first real step to change his life. .
Tee and Mary were some of my pen pals. I am sure I mentioned Tee before. She lived in Chalmette , Louisiana and they had Quarter Horses. I have little recollection of Mary (Corley? that may have been her name). I had several later friends named Mary and they are hard now to differentiate! I was a bit bored with writing letters really, but there were several I continued with for awhile--all girls now as I had jettisoned the guys, one by one, so only Dusty remained. He was not an avid reader but would try a western once in awhile if I recommended it. He really did not have a lot of time to spend on it.
It was now too mild for a fire but the house got cold on those gray days and by bedtime the best place to be was under the covers. If I had owned a personal radio or a small light to read by it would have been pleasant! But of course I did not have either, so it was just day dream in the dark or fall asleep and really dream.
Photos? The bottom is one which just popped up on FB this evening and I was like whoa! Well, that was a familiar view--but without the black smoke. So today and above it, about 50 some years earlier. Same general site. And first is Charlie Mike with one of his (our) bikes. This was obviously in the summer but one of those we'd repaired and we had used. It was a girl's bike and he later swapped it for a boy's bike. I would never have ridden in a skirt anyway so did not want it.
No comments:
Post a Comment