A Move, A Job and Lots of Men
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| Southwestern Bell |
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 for a Caesarean section birth for the mama Poodle. Don't ask me why they just didn't get Buck fixed. Anyway, we had Buck now, and he was good except that he wanted to run away and find a girl dog.
Buck was becoming very attached to us and was an excellent watchdog. He didn't like men, no men, period. He even hated my uncle. Anytime a guy came around me, he positioned himself between the guy and me. If the guy moved or talked too loud, he would start growling and showing his teeth. Good dog.
I had just been offered a job as a service rep in the North Dallas SWBT business office. Finally! Finally, I was going to escape "those women." I was so excited. It would be quite a bit more money for me, and I would be working with people close to my own age. I didn't quite have enough time in my title to leave where I was, but the two departments negotiated my release, and I was able to leave the next week after I was offered the job. I could hear The Halleluiah Chorus in my head; I was leaving, halleluiah, halleluiah, halleluiah, And in the near future Mary would leave and become a Frame Dame, and Kent would leave and become a Mr. Telephone Man, installer. Loretta had already left because of marital issues. Who would they pick on now? Maybe they would self-implode from stored up hate. That would be good; France could go to make copies and discover that the whole office was nothing but plaster and goo and false eyelashes and bread wrappers.
That weekend I found a place that I wanted to move to. It was in Carrollton on the edge of Farmers Branch. It was a very nice apartment complex. The place had beautifully manicured grounds with willow trees everywhere. A nice pool. Several decent playgrounds for the kids. We would move in 2 weeks.
We made a move. I didn't really own a lot of stuff. Many of my things had not been recoverable from my marriage. My sweet uncle helped me pack up, and we loaded everything in his pick up truck. When we got to the new place, he helped me set up the beds and settle in. He was the best uncle. This was the first time the kids had seen the place, and they loved it.
I had to find a babysitter. I found a girl about my age, but she was pregnant. I thought that I could find another sitter for them before she gave birth, so I decided that she would be okay.
The first day I started working at the new place was great. I would have to go to training for at least 8 weeks, maybe longer depending on the other people in the class. But on this day, I was just introduced to my boss and his boss and then sat beside an experienced person to file her records along with everyone else. Some of my classmates had not been released yet to start their training, so I was waiting for them for the class to begin. I became the FILING QUEEN of the office. I filed for everyone. It was better than sitting at my old job so I could deal with it. As it turned out, I would have to wait about 6 weeks for the class to start. Fortunately, they gave me other duties to perform, as well.
My boss, Mike, was the same age as me. In fact, almost everyone was close in age within just a couple of years difference. The atmosphere in the office was so much better than where I had been. But, it was noisy as hell. Everyone was talking on phones with different levels of loudness in their voices. I got to listen to some of the calls, both sides of the conversation. Some of the customers were absolutely bonkers. It was funny at times, and other times it was stressful. But all of the reps were very professional and business-like. They never reacted to the anger they were subjected to by the customers. I wondered how they could be so cool when I knew that they were angry. Boy, I didn't know if I could do that; I had a hot temper when it came to someone insulting me or screaming at me. I thought that all of the people working there were angels of mercy. They must be.
I had already planned a vacation with Mary before I had exited from the other office. Since my classmates were not due to be released yet, I was able to go as planned. We were going to drive to Corpus Christie, the Gulf of Mexico, and then go to San Antonio. Ola! But first, I had to teach Mary how to drive a 4 speed. And that wasn't easy.
Okay, okay, so I learned how to drive a 4 speed when I was 14. It was easy for me. But not Mary. Good grief, I thought that my head was going to go through the windshield every time she took off in first gear. It reminded me of a bucking jackass. Surely I would get a double whiplash before Mary mastered the moves. It took about 2 weekends, dedicating several hours at a time, before she could finally take off in first gear without either stalling the car or killing the passenger. Finally, we went out to drive on the street; we had been practicing in a school's parking lot. It was safe, secure, with no hills and no traffic to deal with. But I made her drive where she was on a hill stuck in traffic and could easily roll backward. That had always been the thing that scared me the most. When I was first learning it, I was terrified to do it, and I would stall the car out four or five times in a row. I had to make sure she could do it. I could see the terror in her eyes. It's bad when you stall it the first time, but then you get so nervous after that that you stall the car again. It was the pressure of having to do it right. It was nerve-wracking, and if a cop was the one sitting behind you on a hill, it could almost make you nauseous with fear. Your heart would be pounding in your chest, and you would say, "Please don't let me stall out, please!" That was a prayer to the clutch god.
After a few little booboos, Mary started getting more confident. Now she was doing very well. She was a "VW driving Queen." Almost. I can't remember now if she even drove the car on the trip. I have this stamina thing where I can go for about 36 hours without sleep and act normal. This was going to be about an 8-hour drive to Corpus and then about a 4-hour drive to San Antonio. We were only going to Copus for a few hours. I just wanted to see the beach and the ocean. Then we would head out to San Antonio.
The morning of the trip, which was a Saturday morning, we left Dallas about one in the morning. I was driving. Mary couldn't wake up, so she spent a good deal of the trip leaning against the passenger window slobbering all over it. Geez, I'm laughing at how funny that was. I would pass other cars, and she would have her head bobbing against the window with human yuck all over it. It was not a pretty sight. I had been driving for several hours, and the sun was finally coming up. It was empty fields on either side of the road. I saw this big black thing in the distance standing up, holding on to a cow. I popped Mary on the arm, "Wake up, wake up. Look, look, a black man is screwing a cow." She woke up, I pulled onto the shoulder, and as we got closer to it, we could see that it was an enormous bull pumping away at this poor little cow. It looked very violent to me. It was my first glimpse of fornicating livestock, and it obviously left an impression on me as here we are 41 years later, and I can still remember every detail. I was mesmerized by it. Cars would pass and beep their horns either at the performing sexual entertainment or at us watching it. I can't be sure about that.
After that, Mary stayed awake. She had to wipe the spit off the window and her face so she could enjoy the view. And then, in the distance, I saw this big bridge rising up. It was a pretty big drawbridge. I didn't want to drive over it, but it was too late to stop; no shoulder was available. I just held my breath and went for it. Whew, that made me nervous. And below us was the Gulf of Mexico.
I loved the ocean, I was so excited. Mary was a well-traveled person, an ocean expert. When we finally got down to the beach, you could actually drive your car, my little bug, through the water. How cool. The beach was the color of cooked sugar, not white but almost white; the water was much bluer than on the Atlantic coast. Then we got out to look for shells. Mary found bunches of beautiful sand dollars. I didn't even know what they were. I loved it, exploring it, and then I thought, "what is that?" I was bending over to pick it up, and Mary started screaming at me not to touch it. She said it was a Man of War jellyfish. It looked like a baggie with a little blue tint on it. But I had been stung by a jellyfish at Chesapeake Beach when I was very young, and I remembered that pain. I didn't want that again. I just let Mother Mary show me the ropes. We played around on the beach for a couple of hours, and then we left for San Antonio.
I knew a lot about San Antonio. I knew there was a military base close by, and I knew there were tons of young guys around and many, many bars. This was going to be a great vacation. But first, we had to find a place to stay. The hotel we wanted to stay at was full, so we drove around all over and finally found one right by the Alamo. I think it was called the Alamo Inn. We got a room and freshened up. Mary had to make sure there were no drool traces on her face.
We walked down to the Riverwalk, which was a sub-level in the center of the city. It was all built right alongside the river. It was lush with green tropical plants and flowers. There were eating establishments and bars and gift shops everywhere. It was a single woman's dream. And did I mention the men? Tall men. Short men, old men, young men, boys. Testosterone everywhere you looked. It was a male candy store with fine offerings, and Mary and I were both hungry. Literally, we were hungry; we had not eaten.
We sat down at one of the cafe's riverside courtyards. We could see everything passing by in either direction. We ordered drinks and food. We were checking it all out backward and forwards and inside out. Yeah, it was like that. A Manorama. A Manateria. The good, the bad, and the ugly. But honestly, I really didn't see anything that was hard on my eyes. I could hardly look at my food, the food on the plate. I wanted to hurry up and eat, which if you knew me you would know that was an impossibility, I ate very slow. How can you chew when you are so distracted? We would finish eating, walk the Riverwalk, and then leave to get some sleep to really party the next day. This would be the only night we would get a decent amount of sleep.
Tomorrow the itinerary called for fun, fun, fun.
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