INTO THE SUMMER... a busy time (Part 173s)

INTO THE SUMMER… a busy time (Part 173s)

It turned out to be an interesting evening… but I’ll spare you the details. I’d previously written that our usual parking lot crew had a change made in it and that the new member was a woman. I’d not previously met her and didn’t particularly take a liking to in the few minutes I’d observed her. My ‘gut’ feeling was borne out as I and the rest of the crew started to mark out the parking spaces. She made no effort to be a part of the fun we attempted to have while working and was anything but co-operative wanting to change what we were doing. The one positive was that the rest of us decided to get it done as fast as possible to get away from her and that meant getting home before Elle went to bed.

She, naturally, was surprised to see me. I was glad for a number of reasons. One was I was curious as to what had transpired at the sailing club when she took our girls to sailing lessons as I was concerned about the obnoxious people who’d disrupted things there. She told me she didn’t observe anything other than a patrol car had driven into the parking lot while she was there. The next thing on my mind was how she made out with Dick and Ra’s girls while ours were at those lessons. Elle sort of laughed and wouldn’t tell me why but said they enjoyed their time at the beach like most kids do. What I was angling for was to know what she thought about the panties that Ra had left for her daughter, Dee, if she needed them. So… I ended up asking if she noticed how different they were… which led her to ask me how I knew about them. I had to admit that after the initial feel of them I had a good idea they weren’t the normal kind. After a short discussion about them I told her I thought that if they were available in a larger size they might work for Elle at night. I remember her making a bit of a ‘face’ which disappointed me and ended the talk at that time. However, I wasn’t going to give up on it but decided to put the idea in the back of my mind for the future.

On Saturday, getting Mattie and Martha organized was a bit of a chore. We arrived at the picnic grounds later than I’d wanted. Even though I’d staked out an area I knew that unless someone was there to defend it it wouldn’t be there when we all arrived. So, I ended up taking our kids and Martha’s daughter with me leaving Elle to navigate the way with the women. If I’d gotten there another five or so minutes later our space would’ve been completely gone. The stakes I’d used to mark off the area had been moved reducing the space by almost half. There were all sorts of bags and toys there but that was all. Trying not to be obvious I pushed some of them over and placed our lawn chairs in such a way as to make sort of a barricade. I wasn’t looking to make trouble as this was supposed to be a fun affair and hoped the other people would be somewhat docile. Like I’ve written any number of times, timing is everything. Fortunately I saw Elle and the rest of the entourage approaching before the other people had returned. I figured that with ’numbers’ we’d be somewhat safe.

I’d not seen either Mattie or Martha before I left and was pleasantly surprised at what I saw each of them wearing. Because Mattie was a little big in the hips she preferred to wear sun dresses. On this day she’d chosen one somewhat similar to one she was wearing when I got the picture of her. It was pale blue with a faint print to it… and very sheer… and short… but not a mini. I was almost ‘licking my chops’ when I saw her approaching. As the two women were ‘unloading’ their things from their hands and arms I saw people approaching the adjacent space. I’ll admit I held my breath hoping that nothing would be said. I took my eyes off of Mattie, reluctantly, to monitor the other people. I couldn’t really see the woman’s face but heard her mention that she'd noticed that their things had been moved so was waiting for her to possibly comment. She was standing with most of her back to me and I took note of her (very) short shorts. I watched her sort of whisper to her husband and saw his eyes turn towards me. I was waiting for their next step when two pre-teen kids ran up distracting them. I decided to busy myself by helping Mattie and Martha get their stuff sorted out. It was when doing this that I took a close look at what Martha was wearing. At first I thought it might be a tennis dress but, back in those days, all tennis apparel was white and what she had on was a pale yellow. In remembering it now I’m pretty sure the hem fell to about half way down her thighs. Regardless, she’d emptied one of her carry bags and was trying to push it under her folding chair. If I’d been talking when I got the ‘peek’ I would’ve stopped talking in mid sentence. It was only for a brief second or two but what it gave me was a preview of what I hoped would prove to be a great day.

While this was taking place the kids became increasingly restive wanting to explore the grounds and to take advantage of the rides. Our older girls had been attending this event for at least seven years and as they got older we allowed them certain freedoms as to where they could go and what rides they could go on. Mattie and Martha were hesitant to let their kids go without inspecting the venue so Elle agreed to be the guide. Still uncomfortable with our ’neighbors’ I volunteered to stay at our location to keep an eye on things. Random people would walk past and in some cases I recognized some as being bank customers and, in a couple of cases, former neighbors from when we lived in the mobile home park. One of them knew our ’neighbors’ and stopped to talk but I didn't know him. They were close enough for me to overhear some of what they had to say. I was trying to be ‘busy’ so they wouldn’t realize they were being listened to. In so doing I ended up sitting in one of the folding lawn chairs that I’d set up as a barricade. As I listened I thought I recognized the woman’s voice. I hesitated for a few seconds before turning around and recognizing (I thought) Lil, a next door neighbor from the mobile home park going back some seven or eight years into the past. With her hair longer and no longer red it took me a close look to be sure. I surely didn’t want to make a mistake by speaking to her, especially under the circumstances. But… I was almost sure it was Lil.

Elle and I’d been good friends with both she and her husband. I remembered some really ‘interesting’ times with them as I looked at her. (See Part 82b on 12/10/11 for one of them) But, they’d gotten divorced right about the time we moved into our house and lost track of them.  She caught me looking at her and started to say something but I beat her to it by calling out her name in the form of a question… “Lil?”

To be continued…