Oklahoma and Texas

 

In mid-September of 1975, we moved to Oklahoma. When I say “we,” I mean all of us except for Mom. She was supposedly staying behind in Washington to finish working the remainder of the potato season. (She worked for Spada, Inc., a potato-processing shed. I used to work there the previous summer). Little did we kids realize that Mom and Dad were having serious problems and were actually separating, but did not want us to know.

 

We traveled to Oklahoma in a big green V8 Buick Station wagon pulling a trailer which had a bail of hay on the front, a pony (Paint) in the back along with a couple of geese, a dog (Perky), a cat, and most of our belongings. We traveled through Albuquerque, NM, and visited our great aunt, Gladys O. (Wingate) Carrier. “Aunt Evy” (her sister) was there too. Her other two sisters, Eula Vay (Wingate) Bernard (our grandmother), and Thelma (Wingate) Langford were not there. (Of course, Eula had long since passed away).

 

We arrived in Oklahoma on September 22^nd and that night I decided to leave home. I packed a pillowcase with some belongings, including clothes, Daddy’s machete, and a jar of strawberry jam. I also took my big parka and my radio headset. I sneaked out in the middle of the night. My intention was to find Debbie Graham and then we would get married and “live happily ever after.” (I was so naïve!).

 

After I got to El Campo, I then hitchhiked out to Garwood where we used to live and made it to the Graham's place. Debbie's mother was Nita and her father was Raymond Graham. They own a lot of land with rice fields. BTW, Nita and Raymond were also cousins. Apparently, during my absence, Nita had divorced Raymond and had remarried a guy named John (go figure). Then she got sick and was in the hospital, but Raymond was a real redneck type and refused to admit they were divorced. He (or so the story goes) went to the hospital and basically kidnapped her... he took her back out to the ranch and would not let her leave. This John guy either did not know where she was or thought she had left him. Anyway... I did not know any of this when I arrived. You can see I suffered from great quantities of ignorance and naiveté back then!

 

I ended up staying for several days with them, but I was very uncomfortable. Debbie said she was going to divorce this guy she had married (Michael Holt, I still remember), but I was very insistent that she not do that. I could not trust her really, since she had never told me about being married (for one thing) and she was going to just drop her husband on a moment's notice. However, I wasn't that stupid!

 

But I was very uncomfortable staying there. I was not contributing anything; I was just eating their food and doing nothing. Then one evening after I was there for about a week Nita started drinking a bottle of Vodka... heavily. Only she and I were at the house at the time and she said she was going to make a run for it and go back to her husband in El Campo. She had a car, be it was not in the greatest condition, but she started packing her things and I said I would go with her. So, in effect, I ended up running off with Debbie's mother! (Such irony!).

 

We got in the car and headed off down the dirt road from their house. We got to the end where we had to turn left; if you went straight ahead, that would take you out into the field where 'Raymond and the boys' were working. She was very scared that we would not get past that point before they came home from the field and caught us. So we made it to that point and turned left where we had about another half mile of dirt road. About the time we went around the corner thought, the car died!! Right near the gate where 'Raymond and the boys' would be coming out any minute. She was drunk and getting me all freaked out, so I decided to run for help. The car just needed oil and I could run down to our old neighbor's house and get some... so that's what I did. I had to go by our old house on the way. It was kind of creepy. All grown over with weeds and the roof looked like they had put tin sheets on it. This is where my entire family used to live when I was around 11 or 12 years old. The next house down was where the "Flings" lived and that is where I went.

 

I got the oil from the Fling's and took off back down the road (which was now paved. It wasn't when we lived there). I got to the "T-bridge" and turned left back onto the dirt road toward the car (about ½ mile away. It was getting dark and I could see the emergency flashers flashing far away. Then I saw another vehicle pull up next to Nita's car! I thought, "Oh no! It must be Raymond!" and I was already convinced this would be a very BAD thing! So I just stood there on the side of the road with my arms full of cans of oil wondering what I should do. Then the vehicle pulled out and headed toward me. It was getting very dark now... just some purple in the sky, and the headlights were headed my way. I hid the cans of oil in the weeds on the side of the road and decided to hide. I dropped over the side of the canal bank next to me and hung on to some bushes until they passed me. Mosquitoes were swarming all over me, but I held on until they were past and the climbed back up. I did not know what to do, so I walked back to the Fling's house again.... and there was Nita!!

 

It turned out to be her brother, "A.J." who was in the other vehicle and he picked her up and gave her a ride to the Fling's house, looking for me along the way (*me* who was dangling over the side of the canal bank like a fool!). We finally got oil in the car and made it (barely) to El Campo that night. Between her drinking vodka and the car nearly burning up, it was close to being a miracle.

 

I never did meet her new husband (John), but she went to her mother-in-law's house and we stayed there for a couple of days. Then they bought me a bus ticket and on October 2, 1975, they put me on a bus and sent me off to Houston; where I thought I would get a job and live happily ever after (I guess!). I lived on the streets of Houston a few days, surviving somehow. I don't remember real well, but people would buy me food when I needed it. Then I stayed at the Salvation Army "lighthouse" for 3 days, then back on the streets again. Then I hit the road again and headed back to Oklahoma. I remember that I arrived on Skip's 7th birthday, October 9th, 1975.

 

Then, after about 10 days, I remembered why I had run away in the first place. I couldn't take it any more and ran off again!