Life Writing: Dodge Polara

I have a few assorted early childhood “pictures” in my mind.  Some are of Head Start.  One is having the cots ready for our naps and another is riding in the 1972 Dodge Polara with Mom driving and going down the really big dip in the road.  The time I busted out my top four front teeth while climbing in the dirty clothes pile really was A or T's fault.  One of them left the number five washtub in the mound of clothes Mom was getting ready to take to the laundry mat.  When I started up the pile and pushed down on one side of the tub, the other side came up and busted me right in the chops.  Two of my teeth were already loose but two weren’t quite ready to come out.  They did anyway.  Yeah, that's a pretty "picture".

Ninth grade, T and I both attended the new Broken Bow High School.  T is in the first class to graduate from the new building.  I am in the first class to complete all four high school years in it.  This was the year that I read the “Count of Monte Cristo”.  I have never forgotten that story. (Shiver)

Along somewhere around this time, Dad began building a house primarily by himself.  It is a beautiful log home with 3 bedrooms and an outhouse.  It has no electricity, is heated by wood, and the remaining utilities are run off gas.  At 16 years old I thought this was horrible.  We were moving back to a time in the "old" days.  After we moved in, I became an expert at running over to Grandma's house each morning to take a shower and get ready for school.  At least she had indoor plumbing and a place for me to use my hair dryer.  Those are critical things to a teenager in the '80's.  It took a long time but I finally realized that it was an incredible thing my parents did.  They sacrificed so that they could have their own home and land.  

During tenth grade, we moved to the boonies.  Yes, the real boonies.  It’s just a mile past the end of the earth which is conveniently located in McCurtain County.  I got my driver’s license, barely, that year and started driving to school each day.  Yup, I was driving the same 1972 Dodge Polara that Mom used to take me to Head Start way back when.  I took Drivers Ed and Drafting this year.  Mr. Rick Banta was our drafting teacher.  His wife had been my third grade teacher.  Ah, the joy of small towns.