I have always wanted to write the story of my life. This is not the best venue for that, but I am going to try to write a chapter now and then as I remember it.
A long, long time ago, in a tiny little town in Washington state, I was born. The year was 1967. It was a Saturday in November, just two days after Thanksgiving. My Momma was Barbara, and I had a big brother, Danny, who was 4 and a sister, Debbie, who was 3. Life is strange. Most people have a mom and a dad, and so did I. But my dad did not live with us. My parents were divorced before I was born and my dad had a new family. The lady he chose, Pauline had a son and a new baby girl of her own. So my dad had replaced me before I was even born. I am sure I did not know the difference....yet.
The town we lived in was Hood River, Oregon. But I was born across the river in White Salmon, Washington. You can see Mount Hood from there. I think seeing a mountain from your home town is very cool. Later when I was a teenager, my grandparents took my cousin and I through there when we were on the way to visit my uncle in Salem, Oregon. We did not stop, but it was fascinating for me to see where it all began. Strange that it seemed so foreign. I guess I thought I would feel a connection or at home or something. I'd like to go back someday and get to know it better.
I don't have much to say about Hood River, or White Salmon, since I was a baby when we were there. When I was about 18 months old, we came home to Tulsa. My mom's parents lived in Tulsa, so she was coming home after her marriage failed. There was a lot more to that story, of course. Isn't there always? My mom was a very different person. She was the oldest of 4 children born to David E. Clark and Helen Crow Clark. Both of my grandparents were born in Tulsa or right around Tulsa. Grams was born in Red Fork, which is basically between Sand Springs and Tulsa. To tell you about me I have to tell you about my mom, and to tell you about my mom, I have to tell you about my Grams. Aren't we all very much tied up with our mothers?
Grams parents divorced when she was young. She lived mostly with her mom, Zeila Keeling Crow who was a party girl. She brought a lot of men in and out of my Grams life. Some of them abused my Grams. It makes me so sad to think of how helpless she was. It was the depression. They did not have a real home and often lived in rooming houses. Grandma Zeila would pay for a month, and leave with a man. If she came back in the next month, Grams and her mean older sister, Jeri, would have another place to live, if not they had to stay with friends. Sometimes she stayed with her dad. Grams dad, Milton Crow ran a little neighborhood grocery store, somewhere in west Tulsa, I think. Here is a neat tidbit. The Wills brothers worked for him. Bob and Johnny Lee Wills were Western Swing singers from Texas who worked part time for Grandpa Crow and part time for KVOO radio, according to Grams stories. They are famous for their western swing music and put Tulsa on the map, musicly speaking. Grandpa Crow trusted the Wills brothers enough to let Grams go dancing with them. Oh, how she loved to dance! Once, when I was grown and married, I had a party at my house and Grams got ups and danced! I could tell she was having fun! Sad that that urge stayed hidden all those years. Anyway, Grams settled down and married Gramps. They moved all over the country and had babies. Gramps was a draftsman and worked for oil companies in Pennsylvania, Texas and Oklahoma. Grams was just a little country girl with red hair. She tells the story of when she thought she was pregnant, a neighbor told her she needed to see a doctor. So she went. In the Doctors office, they handed her a cup and told her they needed a urine sample. She said they showed her the bathroom. I can picture my pretty, petite Grams, so young, only a teenager standing next to the bathroom with a cup in her hand and a puzzled look on her face, wondering what the heck urine is. She put the cup in the bathroom and left the doctor's office and never went back. Her friend told her later what urine was, and she said, "I wish they'd just said to pee in the cup!" So finally, the young couple with three kids, landed back in Tulsa. They rented a house from Grandpa's mom and dad across the street from where he grew up. My Grams still lives in that house now. But it looks a lot different. It was moved to it's current location from where TU is now. It was tiny, just two bedrooms. Shortly after they came back to Tulsa, Gramps had to go to war. It was WWII. He reparied guns. When he came back they added one more baby, my Aunt Mary. While Grams was in the hospital having aunt Mary, the tiny house caught fire! It was August and my Momma was getting ready to start kindergarten. Somewher in the family archives is a newspaper clipping asking for donations of baby clothes and little dresses for a kindergartener.
My mom grew up. Quiet. Odd. Different. Schitzophrenic. Of course they did not know that. They thought she was quiet, odd and different. She went off to college at OSU. I think that lasted one semester and she came home. Grams knew something was wrong and took her to the doctor who said there was nothing wrong with her. Momma met my dad, Don, a bad boy. My grandparents detested him. He wrote hot checks and drank too much. Not exactly a parent's dream! But they got married and moved to Oregon, away from her family. Momma had Danny, and things got dicey. My dad said she would use all the grocery money to buy a leather bound bible, or she would give the money and the bible away. He kept writing bad checks and spent a little time in jail. I have to confess, all this is hearsay. Most of the people I know are too young to remember any of this, or they were not present when this happened. Finally, dad left, met Pauline, helped make me, and married Pauline. Mom came back to Tulsa, so we are back to me.
Next time.....less ancient history, more me
