My First 56 Years

their choice. The bedrooms were really small.Between the two outside bedrooms there was a large room. We were told this was a sewing room. The bathroom was off of that room. It was tiny but it had a bathtub and a shower.
The cockatiel I had traded the love birds for died when one day I had been practicing piano and Chuck was playing in the kitchen of the old house with Suzy, she was the Pekinese that we had gotten to replace Dusty when he again followed the ditch and was lost. After three weeks of searching and not seeing hide nor hair of him we gathered the worst. One day I heard this scratching on the door. When I checked it was Dusty! Dusty appeared to be fine and we were glad to see him.
Chuck and Suzy were playing in the kitchen. She always got excited when she was around the bird. Chuck asked her if she wanted to see the bird and took the bird out of the cage. Casey was the bird's name. Casey was very tame and would walk on your fingers, using them as a ladder. Casey was afraid of the dog and fluttered off Chuck's finger. Suzy jumped up and grabbed the bird. Every bone in Casey's body was broken. I came into the kitchen to see what all the fuss was about and found Casey on the floor by the washing machine. I was so mad and crying, I took the broken bird to the barn where Charles was working. I told him what Chuck did. I don't remember much about it I was so upset. Chuck tells me he got a whipping but I just blocked out everything.
We got another cockatiel and we place him in the sewing room. This bird just wasn't the same as Casey. He wasn't as tame and would fly all around the house. I couldn't catch him long enough to hold him still to clip his wings. He wasn’t Casey so I didn't put forth much effort to train him. One day a Jay bird was flying around outside and the new bird was screaming at the top of his lungs. He could see the jay outside flying by the window. I heard a crash, when I went to investigate; the jay had flown into the window, which was closed at the time, and the bathroom door which was open. Landing head first into the side of the toilet!
Dusty had developed some kind of disease and no matter what kind of loving care I gave him he died in the big barn. I never knew what was wrong I just thought I would encourage him to eat soft foods, force feeding him if I had to. He kept coughing and gagging. He acted like he had a sore throat. He spit up a lot of clear phlegm. Since it wasn't green I ruled out infection. I had been riding Stony and Silver always got upset when we'd take one of the horses out and leave the other behind. We think Silver stomped him and killed him but we don't know if he was already dead before that or not. He was out of the barn and in the lot with Silver when we found him.
We also got to go on vacation with Mary Ann and Bobby and their family. We planned a trip to San Diego in July of 1985 before the move to Highland in December. They had bought a fifth wheel trailer. It was very nice with all the amenities you would need. The kids, Chuck, Jenny, Connie and Kelly rode in the fifth wheel and Bobby, Mary Ann, Charles and I were scrunched up in the front seat of the pickup. The pickup was new but it only had a six cylinder motor. The fifth wheel was huge for the little truck to pull. We drove all the way across Kansas on I70 through the mountains of Denver Colorado. The scenery was so beautiful. We stopped at KOA campgrounds on the way. I picked up pretty rocks I found in every state.
In Utah we stopped because there was "hill" that had a path leading up from the road to the top. We talked Bobby into stopping so we could climb. Everyone got out and Charles and I started to climb, and climb, and climb. I have always been a little frightened of high places after I grew up. I didn't notice how high it was until I heard Mary Ann yell for me to look at her and smile! I turned around and there were these little ant people staring up at me with tiny cameras! I sat down and it was awhile before I could stand up again. Charles had already made it to the top and Jenny wasn't far behind. I forced myself to keep going because I knew I'd never get the chance again in my lifetime. When I got to the top it was just a thin line between the edge and about a thousand feet below to the ground. Charles was skimming the top carelessly without a care in the world! Now I had to figure out how to get back down. I slid some on my behind but the ground was rocky and sandy. I couldn't endure the pain of that exit, so I planted my feet and walked down.
It was a hundred and ten miles from Green River Utah's gas station to the next station the sign said so we had to fill up the truck there. The land was really pretty .The hills were made of rock and had a pinkish cast to them. All you could see for miles and miles was desert and rock formations.
I can't recall the name of the next town, 110 miles from Green River but we stopped there and got more gasoline. Going up and down the rocky mountains in Colorado was slow going and it took a lot of gasoline.I70 would take you up sometimes 10 miles before you could come back down again. Mary Ann made Bobby take it slow all the way sometimes not going more than 2 miles an hours. She thought of the worst, what if the trailer somehow became unhitched from the truck etc... It was a fifth wheel and it wasn't like it was connected to the truck with a ball and a hitch.
We traveled through Nevada and stopped at a KOA camp in Las Vegas. We unleashed the truck from the trailer and decided to go to the Hoover Dam just outside of Vegas. The road leading to the dam was narrow and steep. Mary Ann who is also afraid of heights couldn't take the experience much longer so we headed back to the camp. We drove through Las Vegas at night to see all the lights and Charles and I stopped at the little gift shops along the old strip. The new strip wasn't what it is today, I don't think they were finished building it yet. It was over 110 degrees Farenheight. There was air conditioning in the trailer, Thank God. The heat would drive you back as soon as you opened the door. We waited until evening to check out the campsite. There were swings and merry go rounds for the kids to play on. Connie and Kelly took turns to see who could make Chuck fly off the of the carousel type go around. Charles and I rented these go carts and drove them around the park. That was fun. There was a man with a guitar singing in the shade of a big tree by the concession stand. I thought surely he would be famous some day. Maybe he is; I don’t recall his name.