Woke up to clear skies. Weather says rain tonight and tomorrow. This will be the third storm and since it is supposed to be windy probably the worst. We will just have to wait and see. Was so hoping for clear weather tomorrow.
The desert is in bloom and plan to visit on Monday or Tuesday. The peak of the wildflower season is supposed to last through the first two weeks of March. So am hoping for more than one trip over there. E.R. is going to the auto races in LV next weekend. He is leaving on Wednesday after picking up his brother from the airport. They will stay the night at Barona. Then it is up to LA then to NV and then on to IL for a couple of weeks. So he is not going to be here later for a trip to Borrego.
Yesterday morning I opened the door for my cat Tuffy and he took one look at the rain pouring down and backed up. We lived in Washington state my freshman year of high school...the winter of '55-'56. While we spent many summers up there that was the first winter. I still remember the long rainy weeks. My stepfather at the time was a fireman at Ft. Lewis. He worked 24 and was off 24. My younger sister, Barbara, and I went to school at Fife. Fife was a combined school of elementary, junior, and senior high.
We had first gone up to Milton Washington in the summer of 1954. Bob came down to get us and we drove up the coast route and saw the redwoods. We drove accross the Golden Gate bridge. Bob kept getting lost and it took him awhile to find how to get to it. Bob and Mama were supposed to get married that summer, but they were not getting along. Bob's daughter was there and things were tense. There was a custody hearing and they sent me with Bob and Anita to the court house in Tacoma for it. The judge talked to Anita in his chambers and when he came out he let Anita go with her mother. Bob was upset by that and it meant that he had to pay child support for her too.
My father and stepmother came up to visit us that fall and it was decided that we would come back to California with them. They drove us back in their car. The previous school year we had lived off and on with them. Because my mother was testifying at a family custody and kidnap trial. But that is another story. I graduated from eighth grade at Lakeside. Same school Hailey goes to now. I liked living with my Dad and stepmother. I loved my mother but life was always tense with her. She got angry easily and it was hard.
Mama came for my eighth grade graduation and then we went back on the train to Washington. That trip we went on the ferry across San Francisco Bay to meet the train on the other side. The summer was peaceful when Bob and Mama were not fighting. Weekends when Bob wasn't working, they used to take us to Auburn to stay over at our aunt and uncle's place. Then go out for the evening. Most times they would come back angry. My aunt and uncle fought too. One time we were all sleeping in our cousin's room and heard them arguing. My aunt would say she was going to stand on the train tracks and let a train hit her. Then she slammed doors through the house going out. Pretty soon she slammed the doors coming back and they would yell at each other again. I don't remember how many times they did this before it got quiet. Anyway Mama started letting us stay home while they went to Auburn. We used to hear them come back because they would be arguing. Until we stayed with Daddy and Marlise our bedtime was 7:30 at night. that was much too early but Mama wouldn't change it. Marlise let us stay up later. First eight and then 8:30. Mama wasn't happy about that. When Mama and Bob went out she made us promise to be in bed by 8:30. We used to stay up watching TV and when we heard the car we would run upstairs and pretend to be asleep.
The second day at Fife I had an anxiety attack. I sure didn't know what was happening to me. Someone from the school drove me home and everyone pretended I had the flu. I stayed home the next day and then went back after the weekend. I was fine after that.
My stepfather, Bob Bloomquist, burned himself in a backyard trash fire. This was in the fall of 1955 before Christmas. My mother was cooking fried chicken and it was almost dinner time. Bob came in the house with his shirt all burnt and skin dripping from his arm. Mama didn't drive, but Bob's brother in law was next door. Ralph drove my mother and Bob to the hospital in Auburn. My sister and I waited for them to come home and they didn't. The chicken got cold on the stove. Finally Mama called and told us to go ahead and eat. The chicken was cold and we didn't feel hungry. The next day Barb and I went out to look at where the fire was and saw where Bob had run after he was burned. He ran through the yard until he threw himself down and rolled to put out the fire. He later told us that he had thrown an old paint thinner can into the fire and it had exploded and set his flannel shirt on fire. Back then they didn't sell clothing that was sort of fire protected.
Bob was in the hospital for weeks. Ralph used to drive us over in the evenings to visit Bob at the hospital. Mama didn't work and so money was very tight. I remember the cold storm that was unusual for Western Washington. We had an oil heater in the living room and the pipe under the house froze from water in it. To get things going the pipe had to be heated up. With Bob not there my mother had to crawl under the house and light a rolled up news paper to warm the pipe. She was so scared that she would set the house on fire or blow it up that she made Barb and I stand outside in the back yard in the cold.
We had icicles hanging from the house and a rose bush by the house was covered in them. It was beautiful. Barb and I lived through the days. My Dad sent a small amount of child support and Bob must have gotten some sort of disability. But things were tight. I don't even remember our Christmas. Finally Bob got out of the hospital, but he couldn't pass the physical to go back to work. He had to go in for therapy. Bob and Mama argued a lot.
Bob went to work at Boings for awhile. He still couldn't get back on at Ft. Lewis. Fife had a ninth grade graduation and I wasn't even going to go to it. My teacher drove me home to change into a nice dress and I did go to the graduation. The dress was one I had made in Home Ec class. They were big on all the girls taking Home Ec in high school up there. No family was there. I had it all the year before so it didn't seem important to me. Barb totally missed out on a grade school graduation ceremony.
The next summer wasn't much better. We started school in the fall. That October my Dad and Stepmom flew up to see us. My mother talked them into taking Barb and I back on the plane to San Diego. We had to change planes in LA. Barb and I had put our clothes in two big suitcases. We rolled them up real tight so we could pack everything we had. The next flight was going to Miami with a stop in San Diego. That was back when no flights originated in San Diego. Then they told the San Diego passengers that San Diego was fogged in and that we could pick up our luggage from a cart. Ours wasn't there. My dad got them to stop the Miami flight take off to get our stuff. We came down to San Diego in an old bus. Miserable trip.
We started school at Grossmont. Since I was already in Home Ec they made me stay in it even though at Grossmont it was an elective. The teacher didn't have enough books and she gave me one that belonged to a girl that was moving. Something happened and she came back for awhile. So I had to give the book to her. She moved and took the book. Three years later I had to pay for that book to graduate. The teacher marked me down as having the book. Not fair. I tried to tell them that, but they were not interested and the teacher was not there anymore. My first experience with bureaucracy.
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