Chapter 23 Synopsis
Spring 1985 to January 1986- Jax Beach
Madam, Blackie, and I were living with Pat Hodel in Sacramento since November 1984. I still had a storage unit there. By then I was the second oldest tenant at the storage place. I left all that there when I returned to the Beach from Sacramento in 1980. I retrieved a few things from the storage unit before I left this time. I was driving a 1965 (I think) Ford Econoline van that I had bought for $50 from Jack Petrie (sp?) @ 2 years before. I did a lot of work to it and painted it and it made it to California and back with no problems.
I stayed with George and Vickie at their house on the corner of 9th Avenue North and 21st Street until I moved back to Palm Valley at the end of 1985. I kept Anna for Rosemary from May to August. I traded tree work with Alice Anderson for Anna's day care. I wrecked my van shortly after returning. George let me have an old 1964 Ford flatbed truck that I had sold him before leaving in 1984. I paid him for it in installments. I built myself a chainsaw from parts that Randy had. I started doing tree work again. I had pretty much given up on security work by then. I also did concrete work for George. My specialty was using the screed board, although I could do it all, including layout and the power trowel. I had a fist fight with one of George's helpers, Joe Jackson, one day at work. He kept picking on me until I blew up and tackled him in the middle of a concrete pour, really, in 4" of wet concrete. He easily got the best of me, but luckily for me, George and someone else broke it up quickly. It did hurt Joe's pride, because he liked to be "cool". That may have been the last fistfight I was in, aside from breaking up fights at Pete's. George got out of the concrete business then and started working for Budweiser as a route salesman. I dated Vickie's sister, Peggy, briefly. MTV was big then, I remember watching lots of cool videos. We also watched Wheel of Fortune faithfully. Jamie cured Madam of not particularly liking children. Little by little, I got back on my feet financially and moved back into my old trailer in Palm Valley in January of 1986.
2/3/2010
Dad and I drove his Winnebago LeSharo to California in October. We went to the Grand Canyon, Yosemite, and the Soldier of Fortune Magazine convention in Las Vegas. Madam got hit by a pickup truck in Sacramento where we were staying with Pat Hodel. This whole trip deserves its own story which I will write later. 3/3/2010
