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TN Valley Fair ca. 1983

I think it was 1983, but it could have been ’82. I was dating this guy named Tim, who was my manager at the Quincy’s where I slaved away for minimum wage.

We were an odd couple, as most of my affairs are, with him being very sweet and me being the firecracker that I was back then. This was even before the red hair, remember! I drove my fabulous fuel injected 1979 VW Bug, convertible
79-VW_Beetle-DV-09-RMM-02
and I went to High School and I worked nights at Quincy’s and generally hung out with older people who taught me how to party!

Anyway, Tim and I went to the Tennessee Valley Fair that fall. It was still warm and the fair was as big and fun as ever.

I’ve always loved fairs, carnivals, Six Flags, whatever. I don’t go to them much any more, but I used to go to the Fair every year when I lived in Knoxville. So, in that vein, I drug Tim to the Fair at the huge fairgrounds in East Knoxville.

We go around, playing the rigged games and riding the tamer rides like the Haunted Mansion and the Ferris Wheel and the Tilt a Whirl. They’d already stopped having the hella fun Double Ferris Wheel (that I learned was called the Sky Wheel) but there were still some cool rides that you don’t see any more.

Tim wasn’t the most adventurous type and he really didn’t care for scary rides like the Zipper or the RoundUp or or the various roller coasters. Well, I saw this ride that looked fairly tame, sort of like a ferris wheel, but with little cars for 2 passengers each that could spin on their own while they go around on the big wheel. (I’ve since tracked it down and it’s called the Skydiver. It’s a specialty ride that is not in service any more, but lemme tell ya, IT’S FUN! Here’s a pic and description.) We go up and get into the small car and they lock us in. There are small metal wheels in front of us that look like steering wheels, but are actually SPINNING wheels. Once you got the car to rock, you could yank on these wheels to make the car start to spin on its axis – while you go round and round the Ferris wheel!

When I realized that our disparate weights would make that car spin like a dervish, I started yanking the hell out of the wheel to make it spin more. Tim was good with this until the whole thing started to go round. So, here we are spinning like mad as well as going round. Then it happened: Tim starts to scream like a little girl!! Well, being the evil girl that I am, I began to laugh my ass off and spin the damn thing faster. I was yelling FASTER! at the operator every time we went by and he really cranked it up. That fucker was FLYING! So I was yelling FASTER! and Tim was yelling STOP! STOP! every time we passed the operator!

God I’ve never laughed so hard in my life (while straight, anyway). I was sobbing with laughter as we spun around in our car and whizzed around the Ferris wheel. I was cackling with glee and Tim was bellowing like a lost calf! It was truly a highlight of my youth.

The operator finally had to slow us down and start letting people off the ride and when we had to get off the ride, I thanked the operator profusely as Tim stomped away embarrassed. My face hurt the next day and my throat was sore from all the laughter. Now, that is what I call FUN!

I’d like to publicly thank Tim, who is a really nice guy and after getting calmed down, he was a good sport about my torturing him and I’ve never forgotten the fun of that night.

Thanks, Tim. You were a part of a very good memory. (7.18.23: I just found out that Tim died in Feb this year. RIP Tim!)

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Tale of the April Fool’s Wedding

So, we decide to thumb our noses at the Universe and get married on April Fool’s day. Boy, did we get ours in spades!! LOL

April Fools Wedding
April Fools Wedding

After much stress and craziness all week, our wedding day arrives and everything is pretty much on schedule. I’m doing some prep work in the kitchen and everything is coming along fine.

We noticed that the toilet was acting clogged, so Nick was in there plunging away. Then the stupid thing appeared to be working, albeit a little oddly. A few minutes later, Nick comes into the kitchen and says ” I can hear the sump pump running when I’m in the office, it must be from the rain yesterday.” Now, I knew it only rained like one quarter of an inch the day before, so that could not be the reason for the pump running…however, a gushing pipe from the toilet certainly could be the reason. I sent him down there and sure enough, there was water gushing from the big pipe out of the toilet.

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George Evinrude Dickens

This beautiful creature and I met in the fall of 1987, August I think it was. I was living with my boyfriend David in an apartment complex called Londontown in Knoxville, TN. I was 21 years old.

It was a Sunday and we were on the couch watching Bugs Bunny cartoons. There was a crying sound out in the courtyard, so I went out to investigate. I went onto the patio and realised that the sound was a cat crying, so I hollered “Here, kitty, kitty!”. Suddenly, a little head popped up over the long grass and here comes this little grey stripey kitty bounding across the yard. He streaked across the yard and practically jumped into my arms.

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The Little Green Snake

So, it was a warm spring day in the early 70s when I was about 5 years old – before I was in school. My little brother and I would go into the large backyard and sit under the huge tree on the hill to watch the school buses bring the older kids home in the afternoons.

Finally, the long yellow school bus came and released the noisy older kids as we watched. I was sitting Indian style and my brother was standing next to me. We had on t-shirts and shorts and we were barefoot, as usual. He jumped, like he was skipping rope and I looked down to see a little green grass snake coming my way. I jumped up and screamed SNAKE!! while my brother took off towards the house yelling his fool head off. I was several paces behind him, yelling my fool head off. I remember dashing thru the glass sliding door and into the kitchen, where my mom had her head in the sink washing or rinsing or something. I remember that she grabbed a towel and wrapped her hair up just as it was: half washed or half rinsed.

Much excitement ensued as my mom and a neighborhood mom got their hoes and began to scour the yard for the offending reptile. I’m giggling as I write this, with the memory of us scurrying about and our turbaned mom stalking with her hoe, determined to kill that teensy little snake.

It was a silly little Rough Green Snake like this:

Lil Green Snake!
Lil Green Snake!

Heh, I guess with all the ruckus we raised the moms assumed it was a 10′ python or something!

Well, fortunately for the little green snake, the moms didn’t find it and it got to live its snakey life in one piece.

For us, I suppose we went off to do whatever kids do on a gorgeous spring day. The snake incident gone from our heads as we moved on to our next kid drama.

I recalled that incident years later and have giggled each and every time I’ve remember it since. In my mind, it’s in sharp spring colors of grass green, robins egg blue sky, deep yellow bus, noisy kids, the tree reaching into the clouds, the teensy snake that was granny smith apple green… It’s too bad that my writing skills aren’t good enough to convey what I see in my thoughts. My hope is that if I do this long enough, perhaps my skills will begin to come close to my memories.