Okay... Here is Part 2 for those who cannot wait till tomorrow...
--------------------------------------------
I got her home and unpacked and started back for Burnet. I have never felt so low, and lost. I had committed a sin according to my religious teachings, and now would have to be reprimanded for it. I had never been in trouble before... religiously speaking. All the way back I kept going over and over in my mind how I had made mistakes... and how I shouldn't have. The wind was out of the North... and very gusty. The roads were somewhat icy and the tread on the tires on my bug was minimal to non-existent. I could only go 45 to 50 mph before I could feel the car start losing traction in the rear, which made the trip longer and unbearable. Just outside Johnson City, a gust of wind hit my car and caused it to totally lose traction. It spun 360 degrees. I was so depressed by this time, however, that I didn't care and just went with it, not even attempting to steer out of the skid. I wound up on the opposite side of the highway in the ditch. A big 18-wheeler driving behind me saw it happen and pulled over looking back in his rear-view mirror to see if I was alright. I decided I had better spend less time being depressed and more time paying attention to getting back to Burnet and flashed my headlights to signal the trucker I was ok. Getting out of the ditch proved to be a challenge, as it was a bit slushy and almost impossible to get traction. I'm just fortunate that my car spun out when no opposing traffic was coming, or I'd have creamed some poor soul(s) going South.
That weekend I went to Austin and bought a new set of tires for my car. They cost me about $120.00. That was the only hot check I've ever written. I remember I wasted no time when I got my paycheck Monday and ran to the bank to deposit it. I was paranoid the whole weekend.
I'm a bit foggy after all of these years, but I think it was another week before I headed South again. This time, I stayed in a local Motel on the Southside of San Antonio. I had to talk to a religious elder and friend that I knew. I had to tell him what had happened and see what I had to do to redeem myself and get back on the right track. That was the hardest discussion I've ever had. I have a habit of sweating when I have to have serious talks with someone. I sweated profusely while talking with Karl. I described as best I could what had happened. He made me realize (like I didn't already know?) how serious it was, and we prayed together for forgiveness... for me, of course. I later left his house and headed back to Burnet.
Gosh... it's been so long ago... I think I remember getting a very apologetic letter in the mail from Laurie. Like she had something to apologize for? It was my stupid fault I let things get out of hand.
We remained close friends. About a month later, I got fired from the Burnet radio station. I was given two weeks notice. I was a bit distraught. It wasn't like I could just go out and get another job right away or anything. I went around South Texas hitting all of the small cities looking for a radio station that would hire me. I found one in Fredericksburg (KNAF) within the first week of looking. I was amazed. I told them I could start the following Monday. After all, it wasn't like I felt obliged to remain in Burnet for the second week since I _had_ been fired.
That Saturday, I was supposed to open up the station in Burnet, and sign on. I took it upon myself to not show up. Sort of a 'get even' with the manager for firing me. Especially since the only two radio station employees left in town would be the manager and the creep announcer that was responsible for getting me fired. Poetic justice, if you ask me. I let everyone else know I was leaving, saying my final good-byes to the Disc Jockey Friday evening who then played a request... 'Take this job and shove it' by Johnny Paycheck. I headed South to spend the weekend in San Antonio... at Laurie's house. I slept on the couch. The perfect gentleman... once again.
I had planned it out pretty good. I was able to find a place to stay, in Fredericksburg and everything. A two-bedroom mobile home. It took me another weekend to move all of my junk from Burnet to Fredericksburg. Laurie helped me, too. I'm not sure what had happened, but we were still seeing each other, perhaps I was already linked to this girl and didn't realize it.
I remember taking a load of my things, and Laurie helping by using her car. She had a 1967-ish 2-door Chevy Impala (I think) at that time. We had it loaded up quite a bit. The only room left in the car was sitting right next to her in the front seat. The trip was made at night. Along the way I tried to feel her between her legs. I must tell you, I was hooked on this girl by this time. She very sternly told me not to do that. I'm not sure if she was trying to keep me from getting myself in trouble with my conscience, or if she was afraid that I would excite her, and cause her to have a wreck... at the time, I just complied... quietly, and the ride to Fredericksburg was completed in silence. When we got there, it was very late, and I recommended she stay over. Although, that may have been the plan from the start.
In either case, she had brought along her sleeping bag. I never was known to own much furniture in my bachelor days, and my bed consisted of a sleeping bag. We tried to zip them up together. Not too successful. Our bags weren't compatible. It was a very very cold night, but I was feeling frisky I guess. My first attempts at massaging her breasts were met with stern warnings. I, however, ignored them, and she finally gave in. I don't know about her, but I didn't get much sleep that night. She was the most gorgeous woman I've ever known.
The next day, I went to work, and she went back home to San Antonio. I continued to make my weekend trips to San Antonio from Fredericksburg... until I got tired of living in the small towns that I would be doomed to if I kept my job in radio. In February of 1979... I believe, I decided to grow up, get out of radio, and get a full-time 40 hour work week type job in San Antonio. I quit the radio station which had started to play games with me by switching my work hours around... almost daily. This was getting old really fast.
When I got back to San Antonio, I had no place to stay. I requested, and was allowed to stay with some friends Karl and Sammi. I was sleeping in Karl's study (at that time). I think things were going slow at that time, no job, no money, etc. After what seems like a couple of days, they requested that I try to find another place to live. I wasn't being kicked out... I was merely being asked (in a nice way) to get up off my hiney and get motivated.
I had by coincidence been talking to David Spencer, a friend whom I'd shared living space with in the past. There was a cottage behind his rent house that was available for me to move into, and so I proceeded to do so, bringing all of my junk from Fredericksburg back to San Antonio. The rent was a whopping $50.00 per month. I remember that somehow, when David's mother-in-law was living in this cottage, the electricity had gone out in a portion of the cottage. David's solution to this problem was to tell me that I'd need to run extension cords from the working outlets. I didn't like this solution, so I set out to see what the problem was. It turns out that the breaker box had a very corroded circuit breaker in it. I looked at it, then went looking for a replacement. It happened to be some oddball size... so I found an unused breaker box on the side of the house that David occupied. I first got his permission, and then I removed the breaker box and swapped it with the faulty one on my cottage. Laurie and her friend Debbie showed up just as I was screwing it to the side of the cottage. She and her girl-friend were sort of a cheering section as they sat on the hood of Laurie's car and watched. There was a lot of kidding about me not knowing what I was doing. Which was true. I then had to turn on the electricity to the cottage. I don't know who was more nervous... me or Laurie and her friend. Well, I did ok, and the cottage had a new breaker box with electricity to all of the outlets.
Now living in San Antonio, it was much easier for me to see Laurie. We spent much time together, although I had little in the way of steady work. I remember going back to the local radio stations doing part-time work while I was looking for that 40 hour full-time job.
Around April or May of 1979, I remember going into a temporary job agency looking for computer related work. I was asked what qualifications I had...
'Programmer?'
'No...'
'Data entry?'
'No...'
'10-key experience?'
'No...'
'Hmmm... well, sorry, we can't place you in a job... unless...'
'Yes, what is it?'
'Well, there is a company that is in need of people to sweep the floors...'
'I'll take it! I can do that!'
It turns out that the company was Fleming Foods, and needed broom pushers at their large food warehouse. I went to work in their warehouse. Starting at one end, and sweeping up all of the spills from broken packages, I'd work to the far side of the warehouse. It would then be time to start all over again. The pay was low, but the work was steady, it paid the bills and provided a minimal amount of food. These were the days when I would treat myself to a meal at Luby's, once a week - on Saturday. A real treat.
I somehow found the time to make it to Texas Employment Commission (TEC) and look for a permanent position in their files. I tried for the perpetual assembly line position that seems to always be there... and not only was _I_ rejected, but the TEC representative... boy was that guy puzzled over that one. To top it all, I had taken an ambidexterity examination. I guess I passed, although I didn't do as good as some others there. Getting those round pegs in the square holes is harder than it looks.
I somehow found the time to make it to Texas Employment Commission (TEC) and look for a permanent position in their files. I tried for the perpetual assembly line position that seems to always be there... and not only was _I_ rejected, but the TEC representative... boy was that guy puzzled over that one. To top it all, I had taken an ambidexterity examination. I guess I passed, although I didn't do as good as some others there. Getting those round pegs in the square holes is harder than it looks.
In May, I was fortunate to find an ad for Southwest Research in their job listing (although, one never knew what company it was for from the listing). I was sent out to the Institute to fill out the application. I was then given the electronics test... which had a few chemistry, and mechanical questions thrown in. I was then sent over to Building 68 to be interviewed. My personal feeling was that I had failed the interview, but I was asked to go for a complete physical exam. Since my volkswagen had a blown engine, Laurie gave me a ride to the doctor's office.
One of the things about Laurie that was kind of neat was that she was a 'leftie'. We were both left-handed, and things worked out pretty good that way. Sitting in booths at restaurants posed no problem for us. Another thing that was neat, at first, but later sort of worried me was that we had some sort of mental link. That is, we had either gotten so familiar with each other or were mentally linked so that we could almost read each others thoughts. Nothing as spooky as having someone knowing what you were about to say, before you say it. It didn't happen all of the time... but enough to be obvious, and noticed by both of us.
I remember long walks along the hike and bike trail next to the San Antonio River near where I lived in my cottage. We would sit on the suspended bridge across the ravine and watch people, and talk, or whatever. My dog Weasel, would come along with us and occupy himself looking for food scraps left by picnic'ers. Occasionaly he would trot across the bridge and get it swaying from the rhythm of his trot. We would laugh at him, but he didn't seem to mind.
Laurie was driving a 1967(?) white Bel-Air Chevy when we met. Later, she decided she wanted a new car. She could ill afford it, but she went looking anyway. She wound up buying a 1971 (or 1972) black Grand Prix. It was a big brute of a car... but I must admit, it was classy. I remember when she drove it out to my cottage, as a surprise. She was very proud of it.
Other cottage memories... one occurred soon after I moved into the cottage. Laurie and I were getting pretty comfortable with each other, and after one of her visits she had left her pantyhose (quite large - queensize). The next day, after I got home from work, I found out on my own (things were out of place)... that's usually the way David worked... that someone had been in my cottage. I asked David about it... it turns out that his mother-in-law had left some things in the cottage from when she lived there... and so came back (while I wasn't there) to retrieve them. Well, she was not a very large woman... somewhat small, but for some reason, she thought that those were her pantyhose. She took them, along with other things. I told Laurie about the incident... at first we were astonished and shocked, but then after a bit we had a good laugh. We could just imagine this little lady trying to put on these pantyhose that were probably two or three sizes too large for her.
... stay tuned for Part 3...