HARD TIMES... Change, not for the better (Part 55c)

I actually got a good night of sleep in spite of my back. Eugene woke me up and Faith had coffee and scrambled eggs waiting for us. She was wearing a short house coat and although I kept my eyes on her most of the time I didn’t get a peek of what she had on under it. I knew what I’d be looking for every morning. I was in fairly good mood when I arrived but AJ soon took care of that. He told me that he and the owner of the 2 year old that I raced were going to the yearling sales in Lexington Kentucky the following week. My first thought was positive in that I expected that I’d get to race more of the horses. He went on to say that a good friend of his was shipping in a few horses and that he would be driving all the horses during that week including both of my grandfather’s horses. Talk about being deflated. I was so upset that I don’t remember if I ever asked him why. I do remember walking away from him and avoiding him the rest of the day.

Eugene and I drove back to the apartment, about a 20 minute drive at that time of day, for lunch. Faith had it ready for us and seeing her calmed me down. I hadn’t called Elle since I had arrived at the track and needed to do it. They had no phone which meant another trip downstairs. The apartment was located in a small community which was best known as a place for Summer entertainment. The community was located on a narrow spit of land between the Atlantic Ocean and Boston Harbor. Right down the street was a boardwalk with all kinds of amusements and I headed in that direction looking for a public phone. It was Labor Day and the area was packed with people. When I finally found a phone it was hard to hear Elle and hard for her to hear me. I hadn’t told her about my incident with three footed horse and decided that it was not the right time to do so. What I did get to hear was a plea for me to let her come up and visit for a weekend. At that point in time all we both knew was that the baby was due sooner than we had originally expected so I told her that if her doctor said it was OK I’d arrange for it. The only problem with that was that I hadn’t yet told her about my living arrangements. I remember walking back to the apartment wondering why life had to be so complicated.

Labor Day night was the grand opening for the track. To make a big ”splash“ they had asked the trainers to enter their best horses. The best horse AJ had was a big roan one with the name of Crestwyn. Eddie, my friend and the best groom AJ had, was his caretaker (groom) all five years that AJ had been training him. Over the time I had worked with AJ, Eddie and I had seen him drop from a really top of the line race horse all the way down to class B. Eddie was convinced that the problem wasn’t the horse but was in the way AJ raced him. We had chatted about how I would race him if I ever got the chance. Eddie was disappointed that I wasn’t going to get to do it when AJ took off for Lexington the following week. When Crestwyn didn’t do all that well that night it made Eddie even more upset.

I was the most upset when AJ raced my grandfather’s horse. I was the only one to drive him for the past two years and this move was, to me, a slap in the face. The fact that he won with him didn’t help matters either. I decided to try and get in touch with Dan and see if his offer of a job was for real. It took three days for the two of us to connect and nothing was decided. Setting a time and date for the next conversation was about all we accomplished. Elle had gotten clearance to travel from her doctor and my father made the train reservations for her to arrive on Friday afternoon. Watching Eugene and Faith interact with their baby made me miss Elle more than since I’d taken her home.

I made sure to go to the right train station this time but when I got there found that the train would be about 2 hours late. To kill time I decided to walk around the area. One of the area's big department stores was located nearby. Of course I made my way to the lingerie department. Back in those days it wasn’t uncommon for panties to be displayed on partial manikins and as I walked down this one aisle I saw this stunning pair of light blue panties with vertical lace inserts along side the side seams. As I stopped and looked I noticed a very distinctive waist elastic. I’d seen it before but couldn’t place it. While staring at the panties I didn’t see the salesperson walk up and she startled me. I know I was blushing when she asked if she could help. I probably stammered when I answered. It had been quite a while since I’d bought any panties. I pointed to the ones on the display and when she asked what size I hesitated. As I mentioned earlier, Elle was a lot bigger than in the first pregnancy. I knew that size 5 was what she normally wore but I asked for size 6. The manufacturer was Vanity Fair and I remember that I bought 3 pair for right around $5. The idea was to basically do the same as with the last pregnancy and to hold them aside until after the baby was born and then give them to her. It wasn’t until I got back to the car that I took them out of the bag to inspect them closely. When I got to the crotch I found something that I’d never seen before. All the nylon panties I ever seen had two layers of nylon in the crotch. The inside of these felt something like cotton but was much fluffier than cotton. It turned out that this was my introduction to ”brushed nylon“.

To be continued...