She's Sherrie

Southwestern Bell I was in the market to move.  I just wanted to get out of Dallas proper for a while.  I would start taking the kids and driving around on the weekends to see what area I could afford.  I wasn't in any hurry.  I wanted to find a place with a pool for the kids.  I thought that would be fun for them.  I could take them after work and on the weekends.  They could play in the pool, and I could sit and fry.  (tan) Before my life got easier, it became a little harder.  One evening when I pulled in the daycare, my boys came running out as fast as they could.  They were excited.  There was a dog that somebody had asked the daycare owners to see if they could find him a new home.  And they wanted to take him.  "Please, Mommie, please?"  Okay.  So now we have a dog named Buck.  Buck was a black and white Springer Spaniel.  A beautiful boy.  But he was a bad boy.  He was a Romeo, and he had impregnated someone's toy Poodle, and the owner of Buck had to pay

Friends Friendship is a wonderful thing.  We form bonds with people that we know, love, and trust.  However, after contemplating this for a few weeks now, I have admitted that there are different levels of friendship, different types of friendship, and different expectations of friendship.  There are even specific reasons for choosing the friends we have.  It's not really all that simple, I guess because it deals with people and relationships.  BAM.  People. (eye roll) When we are young, as toddlers, our friendships are probably the most honest and pure.  We see another person that attracts us.  Maybe they are playing with a toy that looks fascinating to us, or maybe they are eating something that looks yummy.  So, we crawl over to them and join them.  Maybe we speak in baby language to them, maybe we touch them, or maybe we touch the thing they have that we want.  If they are open to us, they reciprocate in some way, smiling or laughing, reaching their hand out to us, or may

Jaws Many weekend nights Mary, myself, and my two little ones would go to a drive-in movie.  It was a way to let kids watch movies without irritating other people in a movie theater.  Same for rowdy adults and loud teens. Drive-in movies had been a part of my life since I was a little kid.  The bad thing was, as a child, you really didn't have a say so in the selection of the movie.  There weren't a lot of kid's movies back then anyway.  A few Disney animated movies, about 4 of them, that was it.  I spent many a Saturday night looking over the shoulder of the adult sitting in the front seat.  When we saw scary movies, which would frequently be the case, I would hold my hands over my eyes and peek out between my fingers.  If it was really scary, I would lay down on the floorboard and pull my pillow around my eyes and ears.   If I was lucky, I would fall asleep.   The only movie that I can remember that really scared me was The Creature From The Black Lagoon.  That liza

The Dallas Police Department; Grieve For These Blue Angels My association with the Dallas Police Department lasted for six years.  Through my friendship with Karl and Daniel, I knew about thirty cops.  Friends of friends.  Ride alongs and rookies.  Street cops and traffic investigators.  No detectives, just uniformed guys over three different shifts, most of them working in Dallas's terrible areas.  Some were very experienced, having twenty years on the force.  Out of all of those people, I only knew one bad cop.  And he was an absolute jerk.  He just had personality disorders and should not have been a cop. When I lived in Dallas in the early sixties, the PD had a nasty reputation.  If you think about the time period when John Kennedy was killed, those cops, associated with citizens who had mafia ties, hanging out at titty bars and disreputable places, were a dime a dozen.  Many were very abusive and would use excessive physical force at the drop of a hat.  My knowledge of t

I will not be writing my normal blog for a few days out of respect for the Dallas Police Department officers' deaths in the line of duty.  As you know, portions of my blog include references to former members of the DPD. Their deaths remind me of the anxiety I would feel every time there was a police shooting incident.  My heart goes out to the families of all of the officers whose lives were needlessly taken.  It takes a special type of person to work every day, knowing that you may never return home. Sympathies also are extended to the families and friends of the two gentlemen whose lives were needlessly snuffed out in acts of overkill and violence perpetrated by cops who shouldn't have been cops.  There are always a few bad cops out there who are bullies, thugs, perverts, or psychos who escape under the radar of the hiring and selection processes who are a danger to the public.  May we find a way to weed them out. Hate begets hate. We must learn to overcome this. We mu

Beach Boys 2015 I had a talk with France.  I told him that I was seeing someone besides him.  I assured him that it wasn't serious that I liked this other person and liked him as well.  I let him know that I wasn't interested in choosing between them.  I left it up to him.  I would still go out with him if he wanted to go out, but I would also be seeing the other person.  I did tell him that I couldn't and wouldn't be available to go out all of the time because of my kids; I wasn't just going to dump them somewhere so I could go out.  He said that he wasn't crazy about the changes and he would have to think about it.  Fine, you do that.  And then he acted like a wounded brat at work for a couple of weeks. Downtown Dallas was growing and changing.  The place where I parked my car changed to a monthly only facility and raised their price.  I had to find a new place to park.  Lucky for me, the underground parking at the new city hall had just opened up.  The

Kiss Off? Wednesday morning was the pits.  Wine always gave me THE worst hangovers: throbbing head and queasy stomach.  Having to wake up at 4:30 am didn't make it any better.  I only had a couple of hours of sleep, but I would have a smile on my face later on after Tylenol and Dr. Pepper.  The previous evening had been great.  The next time a cop pulled up to me and asked me if I drink coffee, I would have to fib and say yes.  Nah, I wouldn't do that.  Daniel was a special friend, and I planned on keeping him that way.  Close, but not too close.  That was it.  That was the answer to happiness, at least for me, it was. I thought that I would like the dating scene, but I really didn't.  I was going to try and avoid it in the future.  I didn't like the hype, the awkward conversation, the pretending to like somebody that got on your nerves.  It was just a game.  The only good part was having a nice meal and maybe dancing.  But guys just seemed to think that if you we

Chicago 1974 Tuesday.  It was here.  This was going to be Officer Dan's night.  Maybe.  I had talked to him the previous night, and we decided that he should come over about 9 pm.  Due to the lateness of the hour, we would not be having dinner.  He would eat at a normal time before he came over.  He would bring some liquid refreshment and a Number 5 hamburger from Keller's, a local drive-up hamburger dive. If I was going to get my kids to actually be asleep by 9, it would take some work.  Especially with Jeff, the non-sleeper and wanderer.  Such a difficult child he was.  Temperamental, downright mean to his brother, and defiant with me.  He was the kind of child that you wished that sleeping pills were allowed to be given just so that everyone else could get some rest: no sugar, no cereal, no chips before bed.  I thought I would try hot chocolate and then a nice long bath, for Jeff, not me.  It was worth a try. He had a habit of waking up and wandering around the apart

Fruit Cocktail Cake Next on the venue would be Officer Daniel's visit.  It was just too hard to get a babysitter on a weeknight for longer than an hour or two.  I would just have him come over later in the evening when it was time to put the kids to bed. But right now, it was Monday, Monday.  Rainy Days and Mondays Always Get Me Down.  I always hated Mondays; I guess most folks do.  A three day weekend would have been so nice.  But then I would be in trouble because there were no songs about Tuesday.  Well, Tuesday Afternoon.  But the Carpenters said it best.  On this Monday morning,  I was wondering how France was going to act.  I wasn't sweating it, but I was curious.  Would he ignore me, would he play the part of an injured lover?    Or maybe he would go make his copies elsewhere.  It didn't take too long to find out. I was in the backroom keypunching, and I heard somebody come in.  I looked in the glass, and it was him.  He had a big stack of papers sitting on t

No Eggs For Me What is this?  Breakfast in bed.  Are you kidding me?  I don't even eat breakfast, not for breakfast anyway.  Seriously, you woke me up to eat breakfast?  You eat it and let me sleep.  Was that bitchy?  Yeah, I guess it was.  Dr. Pepper would have been adequate.  And I definitely don't eat eggs that look like that.  Here you take the eggs, I'll eat toast.  I don't like runny eggs; I don't eat sunny side up eggs.  Everything that was coming out of my mouth was mean.  I'm not a morning person; I can't help it.  Don't talk to me.  Don't be nice, just let me sleep and leave me alone.  Please!!  Meeting adjourned. So, France took the hint and finally left me alone.  I hope he enjoyed breakfast.  I  hope he sat in front of the TV or read the paper and did whatever it is that morning people do.  It was a nice gesture, it was.  But I'm not normal, especially in the morning.  And now I had to face a pounding Pina Colada induced headac

Heavenly Sex Finally, it was Saturday.  My ex came over to pick up Glen and Jeff to keep his girlfriend happy.  He didn't have the initiative to do the right thing and be with his kids.  But he would play pretend dad to keep his girlfriend happy because she liked them.  She was very good to them, and they liked her.  At least when she was around, they got to go somewhere and do things.  If it was just them and Mike, he would sleep all day while they sat and watched TV.  I kissed them goodbye and told them to have fun. I went back to bed for a little while.  I never seemed to get enough sleep during the week because I had to get up early and go to bed late.  On weekends I didn't get a lot of extra sleep, but I could sleep until nine.  I could take a short nap and wake up feeling great and ready to party all night.  Maybe I would. France picked me up, and we went to a nice place on Greenville Avenue to eat dinner.  We had some drinks.  France had an appetizer.  He had bee

Being All Things To All People The last person in the world that I expected to be at my door was Jimmy.  He had hitch-hiked to Dallas from Virginia.  And here he was, no warning, no phone call, just bam.  I am sure that not only did I look surprised to see him, I probably looked panic-stricken because I was. I hadn't seen him since 1969 when he drove up to Maryland to tell me that David had been wounded.  A lot had happened to both of us since then.  I invited him in and gave him something to drink; he looked hot and tired.  I guess so; hitch-hiking can't be easy.  He was surprised to see my two little boys.  He knew that they were mine by the red hair.  He was playing around with them, asking them silly questions like guys do. I already knew that he didn't have the money for a hotel room so he would have to stay with us.  That was going to be a problem for me.  How was I going to hide him from the other guys?  My head was pounding. I didn't have anything to eat