An old school photo. I think it was Seventh grade but maybe not.
My hair was always a mess and nobody gave you a chance to look in the mirror and fix it even if I had a comb with me which I never did. It would have been just one more thing to carry.
I don't know why it appears to be folded in fourths. I may have been disgusted and did it myself.
That's a beaded collar of the sort that is not fastened to whatever you wear. It also seems to be askew. There was too much damage. I couldn't fix the photo.
One day Dad decided we needed more rooms. I don't even think in those days and out in the country he even needed a permit. Millie might know if he got one but I doubt it because I don't think she lived here at the time.
The photo above is me trying to sleep in my new room. It was never very warm in there, not even in summer. I admit. I was lazy. I slept in a sleeping bag. I did have a striped pillowcase that Mom made but as you can see this particular day I either didn't put a sheet on or all I had was flat sheets and they slid around. I have also tossed and turned all night. I could never get enough sleep. Now I know why. It was because I had apnea. It wasn't diagnosed until many, many years later. I was working at the catheter place when I slept in the new room and sometimes I had to do night shift second or even third but I think third didn't happen till after we moved to Argyle.
The machine you see beside me is a tape recorder and radio. It went to work with me every day. I wore ear plugs so nobody else heard my music but sometimes the shift boss would come around and tell me it was OK to leave the ear plugs out because the girls next to me liked my music and they were the only ones who could hear it.
He built them on the "inside" of the lot so these would sit where Mom's flower garden and some tomatoes had grown before. We would still have some room between us and the woods.
It was a long and aggravating process. I don't recall the basics for the flooring and walls parts. It was built so you had to step down from the main part of the house to get in our rooms. We each had a one block step. Sue had one and I had the other. I don't remember if we even had a window in them. The floor was icy in winter.
They just loved waking me up. Foxy only left my side to eat or go outside. Well, that and terrorize the big dog and the cats. He was a little brat with his food. Mom would give him a dish of canned food and sit it in front of him. He would take a sniff and walk away. Duke would start for it and he'd throw a barking, growling hissy fit and rush back to it to gobble it up.
Sometimes Mom would give them meat scraps. Foxy would drive me nuts at these times. I would get up and get ready for work. I wore steel toed work boots of leather to work. They were men's but I didn't care. I actually liked wearing them because they fit my feet well.
Foxy liked to hide a piece of meat in one. If I wasn't careful, I get something squishy on my toes.
When Dad was almost ready to put up the walls on these, he had to cut the phone cord which at that time ran from a pole to the back corner of the house and then across the whole side of it to where it went into the house. He cut the cord first in the wrong place and then he cut it at the other end again. Eventually, he had to buy more cord from the phone company and re-string it around the house.
After the walls and the roof was up we had to cover it with plywood and tarpaper before putting the shingles on. I say we because Sue and I helped. I didn't mind doing it but I had trouble when I was up there and I looked down. It was my job to help him get the rolls of paper up there. He put a rope inside the roll and made a loop around it tying the end to itself on the outside of the roll. Then he took the loose end and went up the ladder. My first job was to push that roll up the ladder while he pulled. At the same time I had to manage to climb up the ladder.
I eventually would get a roll to the top and he would take it. Then I'd finish climbing up and help him unroll it where he wants. He takes it down or whatever it is he did. I'm not clear on remembering this part.
When its time
