Leaving Della was difficult but
seemed to be the right thing to do. I had no idea that this would be my last
summer in Omaha. I’m lousy at predicting the future.
Bruce traveled east with me. We
went through Winnipeg to visit Roy and then on through Minneapolis. We pulled
in rather late thinking it will be not problem finding a place to stay. Wring.
It was terrible. We could not find a single motel/hotel with a vacancy. There
was some huge convention in town and they had everything tied up. We kept
moving on south until finding a place in a small town south of Metropolis.
I lived in Omaha and Bruce lived
in Oregon, but he was going to visit his Grandparents in Van Meter IA near Des Moines
before flying home to Oregon. When I moved to Oregon in 1980 I through of Bruce
from time to time and even tried to find him. I never had any success. He
bounced back into my mind because of the blog and I found him through facebook.
For the life of me I could not figure out why we got as far as Minneapolis. It
was too far each for Omaha and way to far east for Oregon. I’m glad I found
him. I love solving mysteries. It appears he may have lived in Portland, OR all
this time. So close yet so far.
I had some part time work back at
Kinney Shoes. I covered for vacations and heavy days. They could call me at the
last minute and I would work if I were in town. I knew I wasn’t going to be
there for the back to school rush as I had been elected Student Body President
and had to be back early to plan for the fall activities and beginning of the
new school year.
Once again I spent a few weeks at
Rivercrest Bible Camp. I really loved Al’s parents and could hardly turn them
down. This year I felt like I knew what I was doing and I wasn’t hobbling
around with my side about to split open. Two weeks were spent with junior boys
and one with high school boys. I met a sophomore guy who spent the first two
weeks working in the kitchen and third week as a camper. He was a nice enough
kid. Very quiet and seemed depressed. We got to know each other a bit in the
first two weeks and he asked for my cabin in week three,
Kips story nearly broke my heart.
The hardest part was that I did not know how to respond, or what to do, if
anything. His parents were divorced and just a few weeks before he came to camp
his mother died in a car accident. Dad had already married a younger trophy
wife and had no more interest in the boy. I think he was 14 or 15. He had
arranged his summer to be away at camps until school started in September.
After Rivercrest he was scheduled to wash dishes at another camp that then be a
camper again. It was with Kip that I had the first real pull on my heartstrings
to rescue someone in distress. I had no idea how to help nor what to do, so we
talked and prayed and separated at the end of camp. I do wonder whatever
happened to Kip?
Because my own movement was a lot
of running around, I was at home, at camp, at home, at work, with friends. It
seemed like I couldn’t stay still. I spend all the time I could with friends
when I was around. I cherished every moment.
While the money was not rolling in,
school was still cheap. I think I got a small amount from Al’s parents and a
couple of their friends. I made my car payments the four months I was home. I
offered to sell the car again, but dad insisted I keep it. But I did have one
thing worth selling. A few years back I had upgraded to a better quality accordion.
Would you believe I played the accordion for five or sic years and never did
get very good. I made enough on the sale of that thing that I no longer wanted so
I could pay for a semester and a half. The gift money and what I had earned at
the shoe store took care of the rest. I calculated what I would need to go to
Ontario for Franklin and Donnas wedding, then drive to Red Deer, Alberta to
collect Della and drive back to Regina. After all that, I had enough to barely buy
the cheapest engagement ring one could get at Zale’s. So that’s what I did. It
was such a pathetic thing I always told Della I found it in Cracker Jack’s; I
swear it looked like it. You had to squint to see if it really had a diamond.
Not the actual diamond, but what it looked like in my mind.
This is 18 carets, mine was more like .00001 carets.
God gave me enough to do it all,
but it would the Christmas rush job at the Canadian Post Office that provided
spending money. Talk about exhaustion. I will, but that will be later.
No comments:
Post a Comment