Raw Peanuts Eaten During A Blizzard
Feb 20 '06
The Bottom Line It's 1974, and I'm "temporarily" sharing my apartment with a friend-in-need--and starting to wonder if she'll still be there when I graduate in 1976 (IF I graduate in 1976)...
What to do about Mary!?!...
The arrangement was originally supposed to only be temporary: Mary's roomie had moved out of their apartment to go to college in another part of the state, and Mary had been stuck with a rent that she couldn't pay on her own.
It was the summer of 1974, and my folks and I would soon be leaving for a trip West (mostly, out in San Francisco to visit Uncle Finley and Aunt Marce but, also, traveling other places, too).
Before my folks and I left for our trip, Mary and I would stay in my apartment together. After that, she would be there by herself while we were away. Finally, she would be finding a place of her own a.s.a.p. so I could better focus on my studies once school had started.
These were the plans--but this isn't how it turned out.
Part one of the plans went as planned, and Mary and I were having as much of a non-stop slumber party as we could while she was still going to work as a waitress most days.
This, in fact, was how we'd met.
When my folks had come down at different times to visit me (on the southeast side of Indianapolis) while I was going to school, we'd eat at this wonderful place called Dutch Oven Pies. One time, we had Mary for our waitress, and we liked her so much that we made it a point to sit at her station whenever she was working.
So, in a short time, she was not only our waitress but, also, our friend.
Even though she worked for Dutch Oven Pies, she never grew sick of the food there and enjoyed eating there even on her days off, so we'd often eat there together.
Anyway, when Mary lost her roomie, my folks told me that it would be okay with them if I wanted to have Mary to stay with me during the summer so she would have the chance to look for a new place that she could afford on her own--either that or else find another person looking for a roomie.
I wasn't looking for a roomie. I liked having my own place, keeping my own hours, and choosing my own times to have friends in, play my stereo, etc.
However, I, too, was all for helping Mary out--while making it clear to her that I would be wanting the place to myself again shortly after classes resumed. This was agreeable to her.
Anyway, when my folks and I were ready to leave for our trip, I returned to the family home a night or two before to pack.
On our way to head out West, we stopped by the apartment to see how Mary was doing. She was all excited because this guy who lived catty-cornered from us had asked her out. I was very pleased, because I thought that he and Mary would make a nice couple, and I'd just introduced them shortly before I'd left for Anderson.
By the time that we'd returned to Indiana, Danny and Mary were pretty much of an item (at least, in Mary's opinion).
Mary had quit Dutch Oven Pies to work at their sister place (Laughner's Cafeteria) next door, because it sounded as if it offered better pay and benefits. However, she then decided that she was disappointed in the set-up at Laughner's and had quit there. Otherwords, she was now unemployed.
Mary--as it turned out--wouldn't be moving anywhere else fast.
I think she thought that she was about to be swept off her feet by Prince Charming, so why bother to get another job.
Then, Danny let her down as gently as possible, but he still let her down. The three of us still remained good friends.
I drove Mary to this pizza place to apply for work, and she got on there part-time.
We were making progress...
Meanwhile, school was in session.
More than a little boy-crazy, myself, I'd fallen madly in love over the summer with this really neat guy named Allen. He was ten years older and simply thought of me as a good friend (and, even more than that, as a prayer warrior for him during his illness as well as being the niece of the guy who filled in his teaching position while he was on sick leave), but I thought I could win him over. Anyway, he lived 600 miles away in Iowa--and, with his illness coming back, was now living with his parents in Missouri.
In Indiana, I hung out with this fun guy named Herbie. He was interested in me romantically, but I was always honest with him and told him that I just thought of him as a good friend. He seemed to be fine with that, so we had lots of fun hanging out together.
I was having a blast with my life, but I was also very serious about my studies, and, in the afternoon, Mary would be at the apartment with the TV blaring cartoons and game shows while she lounged on the couch doing word search puzzles. I swear she sometimes had that TV going so loudly that I could even hear it from the bedroom down the hall with the door closed!
Even though I liked studying in the library and other places on campus, there were times when I wanted to study at home, so I was disappointed to find out that the place now sounded like the inside of an arcade.
Sleeping with Mary wasn't any picnic, either.
It was fine while we were both still awake and engaged in girlish chatter, but it was after she went to sleep that the problems began happening.
Mary was rather hyperactive, and this carried on into her sleeping hours. Once or twice, I was even almost kicked out of bed! Getting kicked while remaining in bed was bad enough.
Finally, I decided to make a bed for myself on the couch and let Mary have the double bed to herself--but I didn't do this until sometime down the pike. After all, I'd been expecting her to find her own place, so I'd thought that this was a temporary arrangement, and she was fun to gab with while we were both awake.
She got the job at the pizza place.
At first, she worked several days and, also, received great tips.
Then, one night, she came home announcing that she was getting married!
I had already gone to sleep for the night, and it must have been after midnight. She shook me awake to tell me the great news, all about the guy, and how he was going to be marrying her as soon as he was able to buy a big, two-story home for them. They'd be having lots and lots of babies!
We stayed up most of the night celebrating--gabbing and dancing to the music on the radio--and it was a wonder that I wasn't late for class.
It seems as if she and her latest Mr. Right had met when she'd waited on his table, and they'd gone out as soon as she'd gotten off work for the night.
Unfortunately, it turned out that the guy was just telling her what she wanted to hear--but we didn't know that then.
I met him a few days later, and he seemed to be really nice.
It really hit Mary hard when, just weeks later, she found out that he'd just been stringing her along. She spent the evening crying. Of course, this wasn't the time to suggest that it was time for her to move.
By now, I'd made the decision that she could go ahead and stay through the rest of the first semester, as I was either going to flunk out of college or I wouldn't. Of course, I didn't.
She'd cut her hours at the pizza place way down in order to spend more time with Mr. Right. After they broke up, she decided to find a place closer to home where she wouldn't have to take the bus or depend on someone else to drive her.
So, she ended up working for Marty's Diner in the strip mall next to our apartment complex--one whole day per week or two at the most.
She really tried to make it up to me for now living with me rent-free, as she was making so little that neither my folks nor I had the heart to ask for even her share of the utilities.
One way she did this was to do my laundry.
Something called a body-sweater was popular around that time. This was a stretchy top that would snap under the crotch in order to keep it in place and tucked in under a skirt or a pair of jeans or slacks.
She washed my favorite one--and I ended up giving it to my cousin's daughter who wasn't quite six years old at the time, as it would now fit her much better than it did me!
I thanked her for being helpful but said I would take care of my own laundry from now on.
In the meantime, she found another Mr. Right--but that didn't last long at all.
Finally, someone--though I don't remember just who did so--suggested that she might like to join the Navy.
She seemed to be pretty happy about that and came home and told me the news that she was joining the Navy!
Mary had finally found her niche--even though she ended up getting honorably-discharged after boot-camp. Eventually, she would find a nice guy who wanted to marry her as much as she wanted to marry him. Last time I heard from her, they were still very happily married. They hadn't started their family at that time but had plans to. But it's probably been close to 30 years since I heard from her last. I still wonder how she's doing...
She wanted to spend some time with her mom, stepdad, and siblings down in Tennessee before going to boot-camp, so we'd be driving her down there as soon as the semester was over.
Everything was turning out for the best...Mary would be starting out 1975 with what seemed as if it would be a great career move for her with benefits, and I would, once more, have the place to myself (even though the smoke from her cigarettes would still be present in my curtains even when I moved back to Anderson in the late summer of 1976 and, during the rest of my stay, would emit this stale odor whenever I happened to brush against them). Allen was getting better, and I hadn't even come close to flunking out of college!
Mary would stay at my apartment for a few more days after I'd gone home for Christmas break in order to pack. We would then drive back down there to pick her up and take her to Tennessee, and she'd be leaving for boot-camp from Nashville.
We got up very early that morning to drive down and pick up Mary, and we had a very pleasant ride down to the farm outside of a mountain village where Mary's family lived.
We stopped to eat at a downtown Nashville location of Morrison's Cafeteria before driving on out to the farm.
Mary's family seemed happy to see her, and they also wanted to thank us for being such good friends to Mary, so they gave us a big bag of raw peanuts grown on their own farm to take home with us.
After visiting there for awhile, we headed back to Indiana, stopping in Bowling Green, Kentucky to visit awhile with my paternal grandpa and step-grandma.
They told us that they heard that the weather was going to get bad, so--unless we wanted to spend the night (and, perhaps, a few more days should we really get snowed-in)--we'd better get on our way.
As we weren't prepared to stay out at that time, we decided we'd better get back on the road.
The snow began falling fast before we'd even gotten within 20 miles of Louisville, and we ended up being in a blinding blizzard to where it took us hours to get home.
But we didn't mind, because we were all together in our cozy car, and it would be Christmas in a few days. We made this a period of quality time discussing all sorts of things, and my dad finally said, "How about cracking open some of those peanuts?"
The bag of peanuts was back on the floor of the backseat (and I was riding in the backseat), so I was in charge of serving the peanuts.
I cracked some open and passed part up to the front where my folks were and ate the rest of the serving.
We wondered if WIRE's signal could be heard from where we were. This was a country music station that was, at the time, located at 1430 on the AM dial. We were pleased to find out that we were able to get it from 100 miles from the station at that time of night.
By now, Dan Stevens ("The Midnight Cowboy") was at the mike spinning much-loved songs and chatting away.
He had a caller on the line, and they were discussing how there was also lightning and thunder going on with this blizzard, which they agreed was a rare event.
There might have been, but we wouldn't have known it where we were without having been told, because we neither saw nor heard it, and the radio had a clear signal that contained no static.
What we did see that night was the snow falling beautifully around us like swirling feathers as we inched our way back home.
Inside our car it was warm, toasty, and filled with country music, relaxed conversation, the aroma of raw peanuts (not to mention the cracking open of the same and their wonderful taste)--and, most importantly, our car was filled with love and happy memories being made to cherish forever.
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AinsleyJo
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Member: Ainsley Jo Phillips
Location: Anderson, Indiana
Reviews written: 267
Trusted by: 218 members
About Me:
AJ is up bright-and-early this Halloween morning!
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