Ed was a very talented man. He was roly poly cute and funny as heck! He played guitar, and when he sang he sounded like Elvis! He had a band and they played great Country music. For the life of me I cannot remember the name of his band. He had a single 45 made, and I have that record. He wrote the songs on it. “Donna on My Mind” and “Careful”.
The Red Baron Inn had a lot of changes when Ed returned. He tore out the gogo dancing stage and put in a dance floor and we had live music every weekend. Every Sunday we had a Bluegrass jam session. I never heard Bluegrass before, but man oh man did it ever get in my blood!! There was a lot of talent in that area!! I dated Ed for a few months. We had a lot of fun, but I had a hang up on relationships. I couldn’t relax or feel comfortable having an “affair”. It was wrong to do it if you were single, so I usually had to be drunk before I got comfortable with it. Drinking was my priority in those days. It got in the way with all my relationships. Ed’s ex mother in law was psychic, and told him to be careful on a bridge by Lori’s house. We never knew why she said that. She read my glass while I was on the dance floor and said that girl better quit drinking. What the Hell did she know??? Ed’s best friend was Ron Jean. He owned the Pungo Inn in Pungo Virginia. He was a taller version of Ed.
Ed and I decided to go separate ways after awhile. I never broke up fighting with the guys, we always just drifted apart. A gal asked me if I was through with Ed and I asked what she meant, and she said she’d like to date him. I told her to go ahead. They moved in together about three months later. Ron had broken up with his girlfriend, so we dated a few times. We decided we were better off drinking buddies than lovers. I then met a guy named Dick Laird. I remember the song on the juke box “Satin Sheets”. Dick’s ex wife kept playing that song and calling me dirty names. I had no idea what she meant. I ended up at Dick’s trailer and found out he had red Satin Sheets! OH! Now I know what she meant!! I found out too, that satin sheets are very slippery and not to wear anything satin between them. Also the pillows shoot out if you land on them hard. I giggled a lot in bed which doesn’t make a very sexy date!! But I had fun!
Dick was very patient with me and taught me a lot! His birthday was Feb 5 mine was Feb 4, Carol’s (my sister’s husband’s sister) was Feb 3.
Dick lived just over the North Carolina border in a trailer park on a lake. He had a boat and took me cane pole fishing for Bass. It was fun! We came up to a duck blind and he told me to reach out and give it a nudge so we can move around it. I did, and he yelled at me to be careful. I looked and saw a bunch of snakes!! EEEEEK!! That day we were in the middle of the lake and I heard distant thunder. I asked if we should head back and he said naw. Well about ten minutes later we were in the middle of one Hellatious thunderstorm!! Lightning was dancing across the water and right over our heads!! I was petrified!! I kept screaming to go back in, and he tried, but the blades kept getting hung up in the reeds in the water and he had to pull it out and pull the long grass from the blades about every three minutes!! I about ran to shore!! We finally got home and safe. I heard later that a guy was struck by lightning and killed sitting on the beach!!
We went skinny dipping in the lake one night and started to get romantic, and I felt something rub my leg. I wondered what it was and he said probably a black snake. He wasn’t finished with the sentence by the time I ran through the front door of his trailer screaming!!
Again we were on the lake on a nice day and he wanted to go skiing. I don’t know how to swim so he told me to drive the boat while he rode the ski’s . HA!! I was having fun, and he started yelling about the swimmers!! I looked ahead and saw a bunch of heads in the water, and I was heading right for them!! I think that was about it for the lake with me!!
I had left my cat with my old roommate in Oceana, and she told me to get rid of it because she was tired of cleaning up after it. I was feeling very guilty about not giving her the attention she needed so I had to take her to the SPCA. They assured me they will find a good home for her. Again, my drinking took first place over responsibility!
Dick loved to drink as much as I did and we tried to keep up with each other. After a few months I think I was ready for a break. My hangovers were killing me!! I couldn’t drink every day all the time because it made me so sick!! I decided to move my stuff back to my sister’s house and go home for a month or two. Dick agreed we needed a break, and I left on friendly terms. I was in Virginia Beach a year and 2 months. I got on a Greyhound bus in August of 1973 in Norfolk Virginia and it went up to Pennsylvania and over to Chicago and to Seattle. My friend Barry picked me up at the Bus depot in Seattle.
I lost my luggage in the Chicago depot when I changed buses. I got tipsy at the bus depot and got on the wrong bus. It went to Seattle, but stopping at all the stops. My luggage made it on the express bus!!
I took a fifth of Johnny Walker Red scotch on the bus with me and got a glass of water at every stop we made. Gads, I couldn’t even ride the bus without drinking!!
When I got to Seattle I went to report my missing luggage, and there it was waiting for me!!
Next…Oak Harbor!!
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