My First 56 Years

Charles was the husband; he was supposed to know everything. I got so tired of expressing my opinions and have him smirk at me as if he was appearing to listen but didn't care how sensible my ideas were, he was going to do things his way. That usually proved to be costly and when he found out his way wouldn't work he'd try my way. I’m talking about car repairs. Jenny and I would be able to hear certain a new rattling in the car, but Charles was deaf in his right ear and he couldn't hear anything. He said, “When they get loud enough for me to hear them I will do something about it!” He did this one day when he was driving to St Joseph, when he got to the 28th street exit the front wheel fell off. He finally got the car under control enough that he could pull over and make a change.
I told Bill I wasn't getting rid of my "sissy dog" as he called him. He resented the fact that I had to check on him and make sure he was cool enough and had enough water in the summer time. Pebbles was used to staying inside. I didn't have a fence around the yard at the trailer so I had to keep him tied up outside. The summers in Kansas and Missouri were extremely hot exceeding 100 degrees often. The humidity is thick as paste. We stayed at his mother's central air conditioned home in St Joseph on weekends, usually at night when his Mom and Dad weren't there. I got off work every other weekend.
At this same time bickering and petty arguments exploded between us, due to the heat and living conditions and just plain not getting along. We always got over them quickly enough. I was in love and had my head in the clouds most of the time. The next door neighbor in the trailer court was asking me questions one day when Bill was there and he slipped his arm around me to show that I belonged to him. I was so unbelievably happy.
Cooler weather finally reared its ugly head around September and by October it was time to shop for Christmas. I always had to put presents on layaway. Bill liked Indian and wolf memorabilia so I stopped at the roadside gift shop outside of Wathena across from Fleeks Market. They had snakeskin belts etc. I put all my things, about 200.00 on the counter and expressed my desire for a layaway account. I made my deposit and went away with the feeling that this was going to be the best Christmas ever! I drove to Wal-Mart on North Belt Highway and put items away for Jennifer and Chuck.
The Glamour Shots photography came to St Joseph that fall so my friend Lee Ann and I went to East Hill’s mall. I sat for several hours getting makeup and trying on different costumes. I begged Lee Ann to not tell Bill as I wanted the photography sessions to be a secret until I got the pictures back. Lee Ann lived on Gibson Drive in a trailer court in St Joseph. Bill introduced her to me as one of his friends. On Sundays we'd go to her trailer and watch the Chief's football team play. I hadn't been much of a football fan but she and Bill and her boyfriend really got into hooping and hollering every time the Chief's got the ball or something good happened. I tried to understand it but the game went so fast with very little explanation of what was happening. The announcers figured if you're watching then you already know the game. Bill tried to explain some of it to me but it was hard to explain and watch at the same time. I got so I just watched and started to figure it out on my own and waited until commercial to ask about anything I wasn't quite sure about. This seemed to work out better. Slowly but surely I started to get the jest of the game and started to look forward to Sundays. Monday nights too eased its way into my life, soon I became a die hard fan and wouldn't miss a game.
In the eighties there were the Royals games and Charles and I would sit for 3 hours and watch the Royals destroy every team they played. I was crazy about baseball and when the Royals won the World Series in 1985,beating the Toronto Blujays and before that the St Louis Cardinals for the Governor's cup, the crying and screaming for joy lasted until April of 1986.All Hell broke loose and the Royals were barely in the playoff's each year after that. We hardly watched another Royal's game.
When I figured out football in 1992 there wasn't any other game that could come close to the excitement. The Chief's was a good ball team and won a lot of games. They won the Super Bowl in 1970 but hadn't been able to win one since, however the excitement was that they came so close almost every year!
With the small fights and disagreements Bill and I shared we got along for the most part. One day I was at the bar and Bill and I were having one of our "squabbles" when a cute young man I was playing pool with offered me a ride home. We ended up at his apartment and he introduced me to a buddy of his. When the buddy left he told me his problems
with dating girls and I told him my problems. We got close and it was nice having a man's point of view. He lived in an apartment house close to the hospital. When I'd get off work during the week I'd find little notes on my windshield under the windshield wipers telling me to come up. He lived in a run down apartment building just a couple of blocks from the hospital.
I'd go, against my better judgment. We laughed and reminisce about all the things that had gone wrong from day one in our lives. He was crazy about some girl that had dumped him but he was thinking about taking her back etc... I filled him in on the goings on with Bill and me. I told him about the Glamour shot pictures I had taken and thought it was taking a long time to get the proofs. I was telling him about all the items I had bought for him at the little gift shop in Wathena. I finally confessed that I probably shouldn't see him anymore because I knew that I loved Bill and didn't want to do anything to mess that up. He said he was going to ask that girl to marry him anyway.
I had gotten my proofs and was excitedly showing them to everybody. It was going to be another couple of weeks when I would be able to get the whole package I had spent over 200.00 on. The pictures were so good I couldn't believe how they had turned out and I couldn't wait to show them to Bill.