END OF SUMMER... September (Part 74g)

Back from my ”duty“ I found something to eat and sat at the dining room table. With cash a little tight during the Summer without Elle’s teaching money, we’d created a ”want vs need“ list. Because I’d gotten a Sears credit card to buy tires and other things to help out Lance’s used car business Elle and I used it a few times when we'd came upon a ”need“ that couldn’t be put off. As I sat there the ”Wish Book“ was open to a page that showed dolls. Anne, our youngest was going to be two in just a few weeks. Jean, our oldest had a doll as did her good friend, Julie. Since Jean never went anywhere without Anne it had become a problem since she didn’t have her own doll and was always trying to take one of the other girl’s dolls. Elle and I both felt that age two was a little young for a ”good“ doll so Sears was going to be the source. As I looked at the page I noticed a few pieces of paper slipped into other areas of the catalog. I flipped to the pages so noted and saw that she’d picked out a few items of clothing. With our anniversary the day after Anne’s birthday and her own birthday coming at the end of October I took the hint. One of the items was a sweater in a color that we both liked. I decided to take down the catalog number and to order it. I figured that if she got bold enough to ask for it I’d play hard hearted and say we couldn’t afford it. One way or the other I was going to surprise her.

I needed to do some maintenance on my car that afternoon and and went to Sears for what I needed. While there I ordered the sweater. By the time I was finished Elle was back home. When I walked in I noticed there were now two catalogs on the table but didn’t say anything. The kids had fallen asleep on her way home and were sleeping. As I walked past the table I pretended to ignore the catalogs. It only took Elle a few seconds for her to call my attention to the one opened to the dolls. I told her dolls weren’t in my field of interest so to just pick out whichever one she thought would work. It was then that I asked about the other catalog.

It was from Montgomery Ward. She said they'd just opened a catalog store in the building right next to my grandparents house. I’d just come from there and hadn’t even noticed. She said that Millie, the next door neighbor, had told her about it and had brought over her catalog but she had yet to look at it. I still had things to do in the yard including putting the kids plastic pool away for the Winter. Since it was semi rigid plastic the only place for it was under the trailer. That meant I had to remove some of the skirting to slide it under. I’d put off doing it for just that reason. I’d gotten two of the four pieces off when Jim walked up and said he’d pick me up at 5:30pm. I remember looking at him wondering just what he was talking about. Seeing my puzzled look he asked if I’d forgotten that we were going to the stock car races. I had. When the races were canceled the previous Saturday I’d somehow put it in my brain that the season was over. Jim laughed and walked away. As I finished up with the pool I figured Elle wouldn’t take the news of me heading for the races all that well. She’d hinted that it would be nice for us to have a ”movie date“ especially since the movie that was playing was one she’d heard was good. I’m not sure what the name of it was but it starred Jack Lemmon and Kim Novak... who I’d had a crush on from the first time I’d seen her. I was mad at myself for forgetting about the races.

When I walked into the trailer and casually asked if she could fix me a bite to eat she knew something was up and that it wasn’t good. I tried to explain how I’d promised Jim and Andy that I’d go to the last night of races with them a long time ago. She looked at me and told me I could fix my own ”bite“ to eat and headed down the hallway. She pretty much ignored me until I went out the door.

Our new friend, Eric, also went with us and we had a good time. As I remember it Jim’s cousin didn’t fare too well in the featured race but Eric had a good time chatting with him. For my part I caught up with my friend, Cliffy, who was now out of the Navy and working for his father. Cliffy’s father had built my first race car and had owned race cars at the track for ten years. They weren’t racing that night but Cliffy told me they were in the process of building a new car to race in the top division for the next season. I told him of my ”acquisition“ of a race car and how Eric was going to help me. I also mentioned that I didn’t have a motor and wondered if they knew of one that might be available. Cliffy laughed and said they sure did. It was the motor that his father had been running but it had blown a piston and that was why the car wasn’t there that night. My first thought was that I didn’t really want a damaged engine but before I could say anything Cliff Sr. said it was an easy fix and that he’d sell it to me at a ”right“ price. I was excited. All of a sudden the idea of my racing was becoming somewhat real. All I had to do now was to come up with some money... but I had about seven and one half months to do so. I was happy even though I knew I knew I would be in for a few ”snuggle free“ nights at home until Elle calmed down.

To be continued...