Journal of the Plague Year: Being a transcription of my handwritten journal for 1987 in Cartersville GA.

We moved up onto the Mountain in August 1986 to live in a travel trailer with 3 kids for "six months" while Winn built our house. Five years after starting this journal, I moved out of the partially completed house with our children and divorced Winn.

This journal was an effort to record expenses and labor by various folks including the live-in carpenter Winn hired, Tim. Winn also wanted me to record when the Georgia Power employees passed by to visit their tower and fenced enclosure at the top of the road.

Tim had never built more than a deck before Winn hired him. He was Type 1 diabetic, living with Allison (a sometime nursing student and/or bartender) in a trailer on our property, separated from his wife (but maintained joint checking account), with 2 or 3 small children who occasionally visited us. A year or two later, I was amazed to hear Winn telling some people at a party that he had imagined we were establishing a kind of communal living arrangement. Oh really?

When we arrived, our trailer had no sewer hookup, although Tim had hooked up his own trailer to the septic tank. I dug a shallow trench with a mattock for Tim and Winn to lay the plastic drainpipe to hook up our trailer.

1986, December 31: froze up. me & kids to Mother's.
1987, January 4 (Sunday): buried & insulated hoses. WRF did pump house. Cost of materials___ total WRF time 3 +/- hours.
Jan 5 (Monday): me--type letter Frederick on timber
Jan 7 (Wed) WRF--measures block walls to order amount of insulation
Jan 10 (Saturday) Tim repairs his hoses and buries. WRF & me yard work; unload and stack glass. Figure the skylights (10) and pieces [of] glass (12)
Jan 11 (Sunday) WRF--trim tree for pulleys. WRF & me cover block walls with plastic. Figure number & size of logs each wall. Restack glass after 4 or 5 broke
Jan 12 (Monday) Mid 20's this morning. Water OK. review check book 1 hour. Pay bills house 1/2 hour.
Jan 14 (Wed) 9 am Freddy and Tim. Freddy is uncovering block wall. Tim running saw. No hot H20 [water]. Allison burned up heater. 4 pm Freddy gone. wall left uncovered. rain predicted.
Jan 15 (Thur) Tim fixed H2O heater
Jan 16 (Fri) check # 222 5 hours to Freddy $25.00 for Jan 14.
Jan 17 (Sat) children OK 11 am. Start coughing pm. Ivy has fever at bedtime.
Jan 18 (Sun) Ivy no appetite 100.8 degrees. Luke only 3 pancakes.
Jan 19 (Mon) Ivy & Anne to doctor (Ivy 103.2) "colds"
Jan 20 (Tue) 8 am Freddy here. 8:30 am Tim and F gone. Noon--Allison lost power.
Jan 22 (Thur) snow. no school
Jan 23 (Fri) Ice--no school. Tim: need to start charging rent--either 4 hours labor or cash
Jan 25 (Sun) Mother's birthday--see Anne's picture (Tues). Had some drinks. John, Rick & Richard [at my parents' house for the birthday dinner. or did we eat out? not recorded]
Jan 27 (Tue) 17 degrees F. All the water froze. W[in] and I spent 2 hours repairing water line in pump house. Picked up metal for house from Scott Parrot.
Jan 28 (Wed) Still no water. Tim due here to build stoop, put heat tape on water line. Says returned 1x6 T&G [tongue-and-groove pine floorboards] to Knight's for credit.
Jan 29 (Thur) Winn got a new [water] pump.
Jan 30 (Fri) Beautiful weather, nearly 60 degrees and sunny. Winn and Tim installed new pump. water! at 9 pm. Met coming down drive Georgia Power truck today.
Jan 31 (Sat) Winn caulked roof of trailer. Bicky, Bill, Jennifer & Jeremiah came played and ate. Washing machine broke.
Feb 1 (Sun) Church of Ascension today. Winn fixed mailbox.
Feb 2 (Mon) Winn, me and Ivy tummy bug. Fred Griffin called--rent will be late...no charge. See note re: pet.
Feb 3 (Tue) sent LATE notices to Freaks & Wmson [tenants in Decatur house] Notified Allied no Tim changes [charges?]
Feb 4 (wed) paid water and Gilreath. Worked with Tim from 8 [am] --12:30 (Tim 7:30, past 2:30) setting steel plates, running diagonals, column line C (?) Tim 7:30-11:30 rent. 11:30-12:30 and 1 or 1:30-3:30, 3 hours credit.
Feb 6 (Fri) water for December and January 35,000 gallons +/- $90. Power for Jan $222.60
Feb 7 (Sat) cookout Dad & Daisy
Feb 8 (Sun) Fire on Spruell Mountain from about 8 pm until midnight. drained H2P lines to prevent freeze damage.
Feb 9 (Mon) You said it, monkeys. 25 degrees and water wouldn't come. Water OK at noon. Tim's trailer hose leaks at trailer connection.
Feb 10 (Tue) Tim returned 57 block
Feb 11 (Wed) Tim @ 8 am--set 1 block, resent one broken block, measured for placement of plates. Hit snag at 10 am; 10:20--11:00 break. figger out time. 11--noon +/- more measuring. noon--12:15 load block (42)
Feb 12 (Thur) Luke's class Valentine party
Feb 13 (Fri) Ivy & Anne Valentine parties
Feb 14 (Sat) Mother & Daddy and Rick & Richard. Tromp through the woods with R&R for 3 or 4 hours ID [identify] trees and shrubs. [I remember this visit as a very special time. Rick talked about the sinkholes in Bartow County which are known by botanists for their distinctive plants, different from surrounding terrain.]
Feb 18 (Wed) 8 am or so until 6 pm. Winn & me & Tim square up house, set plates.
Feb 19 (Thur) Luke misses school--tummy. Mother visits.
Feb 20 (Fri) Visit Allison and Weyman [Winn's cousins], spend night. [That was a fun visit. We rode horses. Allison talked about calling a plumber out to fix a problem. I was awestruck and envious. Allison also pulled me aside and showed me a very strange and beautiful large flower. She talked about how the flower was so much more impressive and amazing than it had to be in order to fulfill its function. I felt she was trying to reach out to me.]
Feb 21 (Sat) Rode horses with Allison and all. Visit Lesters afternoon [John and Fay Lester from St. Hilda's church were Anne's Godparents.] --Tim left our gate open--found beer can on driveway
Feb 22(Sun) rained all day. Went to church, then stayed in bed.
Feb 23 (Mon) Anne is sick (vomit) again. Winn got off early and we worked on correcting south line measurements. Need plumb bob.
Feb 24 (Tue) Luke says he's sick. Anne is OK. Winn got company trip to Cancun. [PSI, Winn's employer, offered this as a reward for good sales I guess.] Ivy has strep throat. Georgia Power read meter.
Feb 25 (Wed) Tim did not work 4 hours for rent.
Feb 26 (Thur) rain
Feb 27 (Fri) rain & cold wind. Smiles party. Arthur will consult on house. [I have no memory of these people.]
Feb 28 (Sat) rain. Clean guns. had dinner at Arby's.
March 1 (Sun) church. Squared house some more. Got south wall right (+) planted rose.
March 2 (Mon) Tim is at 953-2245 (Mari's residence) with his kids this week. Linda Hood needs LaFrance figure date & payout. [This was a house Winn purchased jointly as an investment. I remember lots of work on it while I was pregnant, and some rather unpleasant phone calls. Have no idea if it was profitable.]
Mar 3 (Tues) Winn to Philly; back tomorrow. Sassafras diggers drove up and didn't stop. deposited Tim's check for $427 at 9 am. [crossed out: meet with Lisa, babysitter]
Mar 4 (wed) Tim takes 2 cabinets (wood & metal) and contents & other things. Spent $350 on Stacy's dentist & bought water & dryer for $150 Mother [?]. Allison says apartment at Soap Creek of 120 Loop, Marietta.
[not noted: Tim moves out with help of Freddy; he has a diabetic episode and passes out in his truck as he is leaving. Freddy and I are concerned but clueless, and Freddy takes him to the hospital. Turns out he needed food, Freddy later reports.]
Mar 5 (Thur) call Walraven at Forestry for fire breaks. [crossed out: Lisa Parker babysitter 7 pm at country Cupboard]
Mar 7 (Sat) Meet Lisa at her apartment and she is nice. Paid Aleta Vaugn (Hunt Antiques) for furniture. Winn thinks it's too dark. [My parents gave us bedroom furniture my Grandma had owned. We took it to Hunt's for them to strip and finish. Turned out it had to be painted, and a dark brown color was chosen.]
Mar 8 (Sun) WRF asked man to come and look at job, but he visited Dad & Daisy. Cancelled.
Mar 9 (Mon) Luke helper day? [at his preschool? he was 3] Storage shed open & plans inside? Tim's check cleared. Ran out of kerosene. [our travel trailer had a furnace that ran on kerosene for heat]
Mar 10 (Tue) Luke is sick--high fever, ears, cough. Winn to Birmingham & Nashville. Sleet at night.
Mar 11 (Wed) 10:15 bush hog tractor & stakebed truck to top of mountain and a pickup truck. About half dozen men, tractor left at 2:20 pm. [I] Drove up and looked--doing yard work inside fence. Had a weed eater.
Mar 13 (Fri) 7 pm at Lisa's--kids have a good time. We see movie.
Mar 14 (Sat) head lice. and toilet stopped up. This place is very discouraging. Sewer broke. Anne, Ivy & Winn vomit all day.
Mar 15 (Sun) Anne @ 1 pm 98.8, Ivy 99.2 Winn 97.8. Chuck Clowdus 5 hours with helper @ $40/hour. locating plate positions. Need 13, 6-inch block. Due back Wednesday. long distance phone call. [Winn hired an engineer, Mr. Clowdus at "Clowd Control," to redo the house squaring up that Tim had failed to do.]
Mar 16 (Mon) bills $606.70.
Mar 17 (Tue) St. Patrick's Day & St. Uhro's Day. He drove the grasshoppers from Finland where they devoured grapes. Winn came in for a visit.
Mar 18 (Wed) mixer [for mortar to lay cement block] takes 2-inch ball; must be cleaned or $25 extra. Rain today. Chuck Clowdus tomorrow. Signed up Ivy & Anne for gymnastics.
Mar 19 (Thur) call Walraven today 382-4343. Happy Birthday to me 35-30-40 [age 38]. Peek fixed washer $49.50. [Melvin Peeks of Peeks Appliance Repair Service on Henderson Way, just down the road from us. Mr. Peeks is also a deputy sheriff.] Went to MacDonald's with kids. Anne had diarrhea all night.
Mar 20 (Fri) Chuck Clowdus @ 10:30. long distance phone call.
Mar 21 (Sat) Winn turkey hunt. Ben Cantrell to visit & Daisy. [Cantrell was an actual contractor who built homes, but came from Helen, GA, where Winn's dad had used him from time to time. He and his crew had to be put up in the Bartow Motel and paid for their travel as well as their living arrangements when they came to work on our house.]
Mar 22 (Sun) Party at Mother's [for my birthday]
Mar 23 (Mon) Put together wheelbarrow [a present I asked for from my father] and planted moss roses [present from Rick?]. Glenn Summey estimates brake job @ $200. [local gas station repairman, worked on my stationwagon a lot.]
Mar 24 (Tue) check 2815 (109-08-689) Tim to WRF $60; some rain. planted morning glories [seeds. don't think they sprouted.] Registered Anne & Ivy swim 9 am, 5 Saturdays.
Mar 25 (Wed) Georgia Power read meter. Planted alyssum. [I believe these flowers must have been presents from Rick.]
Mar 26 (Thur) Mug a Bug $35 rat. Termite inspection free. Pontiac [station wagon] brakes fixed $140.52; did not rebuild cylinders.
Mar 27 (Fri) Walraven 382-4343; Bobby Smith between 9 and 9:30 cut fire breaks $15.
Mar 28 (Sat) Winn BBQ ribs
Mar 29 (Sun) Winn talked to David & Richard --contractors. Lamar laborer to start at 4 tomorrow. deloused; inquirers' class at Corky's [Winn is studying to be confirmed in the Episcopal church. Corky is the priest.].
Mar 30 (Mon) Luke wakes in pain at 4:30 am. Freeze warning tonight, rain today.
Mar 31 (Tue) Took tulips to Julia & visited. 3:10 this a.m. Snow flurries all day util sunshine @ 4 pm. 27 degrees predicted tonight.
April 1 (Wednesday) Mother; Luke Dr. Payne 10 am. More or less 25 degrees and out of kerosene. Luke ears OK. Mother brought Jerusalem Bible, watched gym class.
Apr 2 (Thur) Lamar 4:20 until 6:20. Dad & Daisy @ noon. Took router. Went to Rome & found Wilbro & Paul's. [this may have been a company that sold water pumps]
Apr 3 (Fri) snow! @5-inches and falling. paid Lamar $11.25
Apr 4 (Sat) 6:00 pm Lisa. Lamar 9:30 am. Ben Cantrell due 1:30 pm. water froze up. Thawed by 9 am. Lamar 4 hours. David ? the electrician came, too. Mark plans for lights, switches & plugs.
Apr 5 (Sun) Daylight time. 7 pm at Corky's. kids to church.
Apr 6 (Mon) Luke helper day. Hannah's leg burned last Wednesday. [Luke was in preschool at Sam Jones UMC. Hannah was a classmate, a little red-haired girl, also around 3 years old. Her upper thigh had a bright red steam iron burned into it. The teachers said they reported it, but I don't think they did. Hannah was usually brought to preschool by her grandma. I still shudder to remember it.]
Apr 7 (Tue) Winn out wooing clients, home 3 am. Sprayed for roaches at midnight.
Apr 8 (Wed) Sewer drain in footings broke. Have to dig out concrete. Ben called 5:45 arrived 8:45. Levelled basement and dug out drain line & set in place. Roaches still dying.
Apr 9 (Thur) no Luke helper. 8:20 Ben NOT here yet 9:15 here. Ordered gravel--lunch time delivery Ben to charge at Allied and Gilreath's. Rick spilled before delivery. Von how much tomorrow at Allied says they will replace.
Apr 10 (Fri) Ben @ 9:30 told him insulation coming. He will need more rock. I will leave check. 10 am egg hunt at kindergarten.
Apr 11 (Sat) Went out with Lauri, Jeff & Jack. lip-sync benefit & comedy
Apr 12 (Sun) Fred G called about check. $275.00 OK
Apr 13 (Monday) call today for concrete tomorrow. Lindane for lice today. Lamar worked half day. Church with children.
Apr 14 (Tue) truck @ 9, 9:30 call 3d, half-inch rebar, 4 sticks. No cement. Some rain. Mother takes children spend night. Church w/ Winn.
Apr 15 (Wed) ordered cement for tomorrow. packed up winter clothes. unpacked spring clothes.
Apr 16 (Thur) Winn to Jacksonville, back tonight. Occasional periods of light rain predicted. Ben says no concrete today. Maybe tomorrow. And it is raining for one hour. Lamar came.
Apr 17 (Fri) Slab poured today. Settle with Lamar & Ben. Owe Ben $10.
Apr 18 (Sat) first swimming lesson A & I. Lesters for egg hunt.
Apr 20 (Mon) check for lice after lunch. Ben 8:45 off to Apex & Allied 9. back 10:30. log truck noon. Begin spring clean! Chuck C & crew to reset plates.
Apr 21 (Tue) finish clean. continue laundry. washed windows. cleaned freezer & storage frig.
Apr 22 (Wed) swept slab (3 hours) and coated. Lamar worked late. 3 birds came inside trailer, one was a hummingbird.
Apr 24 (Fri) went down to Hillmont [rental property Decatur] but didn't rent apartment. Visited John & Fay Lester with Luke.
Apr 25 (Sat) Gallo [Dick Gallo, friend of Winn's since college] came & visited. A & I had second swim lesson & I swam.
Apr 26 (Sun) We owe A & I last week & this, $2 each. [must be giving kids allowance?]
Apr 27 (Mon) Penny Pinchers' tool tried & doesn't work. 3/4-inch hole saw works with chiseling
Apr 28 (Tue) Winn spent night out. North Highland Hardware strikes out [was this a tool search? probably. Winn invented a complicated drilling procedure to put together the beams and posts for the house.]
Apr 29 (Wed) Mother due to spend gym class with us. Rented Hillmont to Ronnie Pate & family. [what a nightmare they turned out to be.]
Apr 30 (Thur) Freddie McFall came by and we talked about tools. Lamar poured concrete for column line D. Ronnie Pate didn't pay $$.
May 1 (Fri) Lamar worked & we paid him.
May 2 (Sat) Freddy & Lamar came by 3 times while Winn was out swimming. Lamar didn't work. Corky visits this afternoon but didn't eat. Winn cooked deer legs.
May 3 (Sun) between church & class time drilled masonry. Ben & Judy, Dad & Daisy visited. D&D ate.
May 4 (Mon) rented Adairsville motel room [mistake on my part]. Visited Cass motel, Scott's [Motel]. Met Frances (Mrs. Ernest) Johnson. Visited Lisa at work, she can sit. Lamar didn't come because of rain.
May 5 (Tue) Lisa cancelled. Lamar came, didn't do much. I searched out AmEx bills for Delta Crown Club. Winn home at 8:15 [pm]. Put kids to bed at 7:30 but they stayed awake. Went to park, Dellinger.
May 6 (Wed) Corky searches babysitter. Ben isn't coming this week. May meet Winn Friday pm. Mother today, gym class. Took plans for Cindy & ? [no idea] Judy Acosta will sit.
May 8 (Fri) Retreat at 7
May 9 (Sat) 8:00 pm / pediacare pill Luke
May 10 (Sun) 1:00 am 3/4 tsp Dimetane, Luke. 7:30 am 3/4 tsp Dimetapp and 3/4 tsp Rx, juice, nap 10:30 noon. Rx & dimetapp 12:30 juice and 5 p ditto, 7:30 pm juice.
May 11 (Mon) didn't pay allowance $. [Not noted: this is Mother and Daddy's 41st wedding anniversary.]
May 12 (Tue) Ben here at 8:30 but no real work--conf WRF one hour, stack block, sweep slab, eat lunch 10-10:45. Frederick's truck with 3 x 10's at 11, 45 min to unload, then Ben rearranging lumer. 1:45 pm 2nd truck with G & F lines.
May 14 (Thur) [crossed out: 8:30 am plan to Dallas]. 4 pm plane to Cancun.
May 15 (Fri) Cancun [I remember this trip chiefly from getting sick from eating street food; Winn disappearing for hours when the rest of the bosses were waiting on him; crying from frustration during a shopping trip when he bought gifts for everyone except me. I said I was "just tired."]
May 17 (Sun) 4 pm back from Mexico. Dad & Daisy's for girls & dinner.
May 18 (Mon) Luke came home by Granny [my mother]
May 19 (Tue) I owe A & I $1 allowance
May 20 (Wed) Ben & crew working on lines G&F. Sticky note  "Winn, so wet & muddy we're going home. Talk to you later. Need to settle up with motel today. Ben"
May 21 (Tur) still got Montezuma's revenge. Paid charge cards $1200.
May 23 (Sat) M & D [my mother & daddy] leave for beach [annual beach vacation at Mother's hometown Wrightsville Beach, NC]
May 24 (Sun) Big Mama's party at Fay & Harold's farm [near Sandersville GA]
May 26 (Tue) Luke & I discuss his parts today. He TTs outside on his own for the first time.
[not noted May 27 Winn's birthday 36]
May 29 (Fri) we leave for beach
June 7 (Sun) 10:30 Luke's baptism. Lauri can come. Lunch after at ____. [My parents came, and presumably so did Winn's. There were red balloons. It was Pentecost Sunday. In memory, my mother then took to her bed for 2 days. She did not approve of the balloons. As always, Winn picked the godparents, Gallo's ex-GF Lauri, whom I am sure W slept with.]
June 8 (Mon) The Forkners spend a quiet evening in the trailer. Me & kids went to Decatur , delivered 1985 taxes to Larry [Winn's accountant an childhood friend]. visited Lesters--John [Lester, a childhood polio sufferer] had disc removed. Luke to doctor strep throat.
June 9 (Tue) 10:30 am. meet with group at church for Vacation Bible School
June 10 (Wed) pm: me & kids watch bike riding at library and sign A & I up for reading club
June 11 (Thur) girls at Stiles' house [Frederick & Julia Knight in antebellum mansion on the river] with Nora [their housekeeper, cook, and child-minder] 10:30--2:30; me & Luke run errands.
June 12 (Fri) saw Frederick about timber credit; went to movie at library with kids; signed up for swim lessons A & I
June 13 (Sat) Winn & Lamar route beams, repair road, organize shed, etc. Luke falls backward from beam onto slab, head & back
June 14 (Sun) W & Lamar
June 15 (Mon) Rained all week except Wednesday. 3:15 Rick Chastain (unemployed) came up today. Said he'd come on Wednesday. First swimming lesson for all at 10. Girls love it, Luke made a scene.
June 16 (Tue) We begin potty training after visiting Stiles--girls visit but Luke rides with me. We borrow a book, "No More Diapers." Luke watches girls swim lesson.
June 17 (Wed) Luke uses pot, takes first swim lesson, goes in water with Carolyn Evans [church member, daughter of Don and Connie]
June 18 (Thurs) Luke goes in water & doesn't like floating on back. Dry all day. Visits Stiles with girls & me. Tries to use pot at Stiles. Girls jump off diving board into deep end.
June 19 (Fri) Luke fell into the pool, was rescued within minute [by instructor. but I was frantic, climbing the fence and screaming. this was the end of his lessons.]
June 22 (Mon) Dan & Chris here to drill logs. 1600 feet of logs delivered. Luke F 98.65 at 7 am, 99.8 at 9 pm.
June 23 (Tue) Luke 7 am 99
June 25 (Thur) had hoses & belts & thermostat put on Pontiac in afternoon
June 26 (Fri) swimming over. nobody passed. Stayed home PM & worked with crew.
June 27 (Sat) Saw Rock City. Scary place to take small children. Luke got home & fell 4 feet off timbers onto slab and onto own face. Nose turned purple.
June 29 (Mon) Luke helps laundry 1 cent
June 30 (Tue) Anne loses second tooth
July 1 (Wed) Ron with Steel City Crane to visit today [I was especially proud of this: I saw this crane sitting empty off the road near Ladd's Farm Supply, and wrote them a note asking for their help, giving Winn's number. He made a deal with them.] Rain last night.
July 2 (Thur) "Oh Mama, I wish I had some money in my pocket," said Luke out of a clear blue sky. Rain last night.
July 6 (Mon) Raising the frame, Ben's crew, Tom's crew, & Winn & crane crew. Luke bronchitis--x ray at hospital--we take up carpet in trailer and raise his bed.
July 9 (Thur) Winn goes to doctor, infected throat & sinus caused by allergy. Will replace all carpet in trailer. [Instead of carpet, I bought "porch floor paint" and painted the plywood floor. I had an allergic reaction and my arms broke out in a rash, but it cleared up.]
July 13 (Mon) Vacation Bible School. Luke doctor at 2:30
July 14 (Tue) Georgia Power at 7:30 am to go up to weather tower with hard hats in tan Nissan 4x4. 3992 about 5 minutes.
July 19 (Sun) Grant Park Zoo and concert with Lauri & Jeff.
July 20 (Mon) 8:30 Georgia Power stake bed truck 5 men to tower.
July 24 (Fri) Visited Mother & Daddy at Berkeley Lake [their home]. She has cancer.
July 25 (Sat) Visited Dennis & Pam Hanna [Winn's childhood friend, and their kids] Patrick & Katie in new home Lilburn. Planters Drive. With swimming pool. [Patrick was 2 years old, in a cast from foot to hip. Inherited his father's easily broken bones. This is our only visit to them that I recall.]
JUly 26 (Sun) Donald Bricker came up. [?]
July 27 (Mon) Tom's crew last week [?]
August 3 (Mon) Mother into hospital for double mastectomy
August 5 (Wed) Mother goes home [I did not visit]
August 9 (Sun) Dick [Gallo] came to visit, shot skeet
August 15 (Sat) weekend with Mother & Daddy
August 17 (Mon) Georgia Power up mountain. Two puppies stray into yard. We adopt Brownie & Golden.
August 18 (Tue) my car in shop to be painted [why???]. Ben Cantrell at work on house.
August 22 (Sat) visited John & Fay Lester. John back to hospital tomorrow.
August 23 (Sun) I read lesson in church. whew.
August 24 (Mon) Got car back. Southern Bell's John Komanitzky to put phone line up to Georgia Power. Ordered dryer part.
August 25 (Tues) Interview at hospital [for job]. First Day of First Grade! talked to Corky.
August 26 (Wed) application at Tallatoona EOA [Winn was pressuring me to go to work. I eventually concluded that childcare expenses would cost more than I could make.]
[not noted: this is our one-year anniversary in this miserable trailer.]
August 27 (Thur) Luke 99.4, cough and cold
Aug 28 (Fri) David 9:30 to 1:00 with helper.
Aug 30 (Sun) Ivy & Anne allowance up to date. Luke ditto.
Aug 31 (Mon) David & crew. Luke hs throat & ear infection.
Sept 2 (Wed) Ivy got 100!
Sept 6 (Sun) Ivy & Anne $
Sept 25 (Fri) Georgia Power truck & two hard hats
Oct 16 (Fri) Black Toyota pickup #YH1652 at 5:30 pm with another car, dark sedan. 4 men, one dark skin & black hair, 3 with fair skin, one light brown hair, one green cap and one red
Oct 17 (Sat) get together of Forkners in Sautee, everyone but Cary. Dad's house is coming along.
Oct 18 (Sun) Church picnic at Malbone
Oct 23 (Fri) Georgia Power meter
Nov 16 (Mon) Tara etc. babies in baskets/2. pegboard. Gramma--bulletin boards & pencil boxes with scissors, pins & markers. Kyle magic slates & suckers. [presumably a birthday celebration by Winn's family for our children. This is the last entry.]

How I Met Your Father

I had been single for a while, and didn't seem to be meeting anyone I could date. I had had a disastrous (as in "ending in disaster twice") relationship with a bisexual street hustler, and had no healthy strategies for coping with romance. Even after a decade or more of dating and a sad first marriage. So when the gay dude in the office (the boss was in denial! wow, what a scene) suggested I go to a bar. So, in August 1977, I went to the nearest bar, Harrison's on Peachtree. There was this really drunk guy in a cowboy hat with a gold Mickey Mouse on his lapel. I was able to evade him. In the back I watched the pool game. And when I stepped back (without looking) I trod on someone who was apparently breathing down my neck.
This bald fellow looked into my eyes, and explained that he had been bumming around the country and was now looking to get married and settle down. I thought, well, he fits my criteria: single, white, employed. He had grown up near to my hometown, and gone to high school with my brother, it turned out. My brother got thrown out of our high school for something. So I took his number. I called him the next day.
I had been out with some black fellas, but our worlds were so very different, I felt the difficulties exceeded the attraction. Also, I had really bad judgment.
I had been with some married guys, but it felt really shitty to do that. Even the group marriage guy.
I was employed myself, and didn't really fancy trying to support someone else. Keeping a job was not fun, but it beat begging my parents for money.
I was in therapy, which is where I came up with the criteria. A list of qualities I would like in a romantic partner.
I have begun this story many times. My memories are full of pain. Yet, they are also funny and fun.
We went out on a date. He took me to a restaurant, I think, then we went to a bar where you could play backgammon. That was a craze in those days. We drank and played for hours. He was pretty wasted when we got in his car so he could drive me home. Thanks to the therapy I was in, I had determined not to sleep with him right away. I don't really know what I was waiting for, but I knew it made sense to wait.
The car's headlights only worked on high beam, and the police pulled him over. He got out of the car and spoke with them, and then one of the cops told me that I should drive. So I did. After we got to my parents' house where I was staying, of course he drove off in his car.
I remember the date (second?) where we discussed baby names. He wanted to name a daughter after his dead mother. He asked me what I thought of the name "Ivy" and I made some flippant remark. Looking back, it seems like an ambush question, but it also speaks to my own cluelessness that I would not have sussed this question had hidden meaning. He talked about his mother and his conflicts with her, which sounded pretty serious. I found it fascinating, but felt too guilty myself to analyze any character issues in him.
I remember the date when we went to bed. We had participated with some other "young people" (possibly including some of my siblings) associated with my parents current church. We were going to my parents' house afterwards, but my date felt he needed to upset my mother, I guess. So we went to his place, showered and had sex for the first time, and changed into our clean clothes to go eat with Mom and Dad. Did I want this? Did I even ask myself if I wanted it? I remember being along for the ride, neither enthusiastic nor reluctant. Not very romantic.
Even less when you factor in the story about how one of his other girlfriends was supposed to clean the shower, but she was mad at him, thus the dirty shower. A long dissertation about the piles of clothes on the floor. And an introduction to his true friend, the Colt .45 automatic pistol, wrapped in underwear, which had heroicly survived the fire in Colorado that destroyed all his other belongings. 
I remember going to my therapist and having him go, too. She told me a "story" about a "patient" who simply asked every woman he encountered to have sex. According to the story, about 10 percent said yes.
We talked later about that visit, and he recalled vividly how she had brought him to recognize his focus on alcohol. He delighted in recounting how he, when pressed, could identify every ounce of alcohol in his shared kitchen, from the beers in the fridge to the inch of vodka in a bottle in the back of a cabinet, he knew where all of it was. I was entertained by the story, and untroubled by his professed alcoholism. Had I not grown up with alcoholic drinking? It wasn't so bad. I could live with it.
Fairly quickly my need expressed in frantic phone calls led him to move in. I now believe he had an affair with one of my neighbors during those few months we lived together in my apartment. I do remember breaking the news to my boss, and my second boss calling him a "yardbird." He remembers screaming fights, I've been told. In the house I grew up in, screaming fights were a bonding ritual. It was decades before I recognized my part in this kind of dysfunction.
So we began talking about marriage. I well remember his formal proposal. A Mexican restaurant dinner, an attentive waitress. Very attentive. He didn't "pop the question" inside the restaurant, but waited until we were in the car afterward. Giving me the half-carat diamond ring he had picked out. I was pleased to get this formal step in the right direction. Only later did the waitress' behavior trouble me.
Sadly, I do not remember that astounding "in love" feeling that new romances had brought to me in the past. I remember being fairly comfortable with him, accepting his presence as a decision-maker in my life. Years of therapy had, apparently, not brought me closer to understanding and caring for myself.
The marriage ceremony itself proved to be a problem. My parents' basement church interviewed us and decided that my prior marriage and divorce excluded me from their rites. We then turned to the Episcopal Church I grew up in; however, in the first confirmation class we attended, for him, the teacher, a Canon of the Cathedral, attacked my own father's published editorial position against the church. We were very clear that they knew who I was and did not approve.
It was at this juncture, that my therapist pointed out to me elopement was an option. I guess she meant well, but I had only known Winn for 4 months. I did a bit of investigation, and found a one-hour instant blood test lab near the Fulton County Courthouse. I told Winn to meet me there, and we had coffee while we waited for the result. Having the certificate in hand, I directed him to the Courthouse where we filled out papers. I lied on mine. Then, while he was paying the fee (I remember $60), I queried a clerk about Justice of the Peace nearby and got directions. Within minutes we were on the sidewalk headed to another gray stone building where, at 12:13 on Dec. 13, 1977, an old man recited the words. The sign on his wall was what I remembered from that day "Illegitimi Non Carborundum."
I remember that as the last day when Winn did what I told him to.
Having tied the knot, we now entered a new phase of finding an appropriate place to live. Paying rent was not acceptable any more. We must buy a house, accumulate equity. Winn's need to meet a financial goal became the new focus of our lives. His reliance on his father's help was a revelation as well. We went out to their home in Covington to visit as newly weds and they presented us with a cake. It was a bunny, so this must have been near Easter of 1978.

***

I realize as ai write this that I had no friends. Was was graduated college and I had abandone the group of friends I met during my first marriage. I made no friends in high school. A couple of girls got lcose to me, but either we got crossed up or they simply faded away. I did not have the skill of approaching people, going out of my way to make friends. Things just happened to me. Or didn't. and friends didn't happen, they need nurturing. I know that now. College was mostly night school. I found a marriage boyfriend, but no lasting friendships. Some of the professors knew me, because of my father or his friends. I felt like a burden to people. Ultimately, now, at 68, I find the only people who can tolerate me over the long haul are my family. I'm grateful for all the forgiveness and all the love.
The years of working were a little different. Through my therapist, I met an alcoholic. Roy is dead now, no way to break the anonymity of the dead. He was a part-time lawyer in need of a part-time secretary, and I got the job. He turned out to be a very compassionate and patient employer. When I finally graduated college, his "suite-mate" another solo practitioner needed full-time help, and I worked for both of them. Later he retired and I stayed on with her. It was her gay paralegal who suggested the bar...

***

I don't know why or exactly when, but we did end up living in his parents' house while they were gone. It was not a success, and I got very drunk and angry and fired a shotgun in their backyard. My first ever shotgun blast! ...at an empty liquor bottle. I think this truly terrified Winn. I guess it should have scared me, but it didn't. I'm still happy about it. What a great way to let off steam.
Anyway, ashamed to say his parents returned to a filthy house, which his stepmother immediately set to rights.

***

Yeah, so this got hard and I stopped. One thing I'm realizing I must deal with is the decision to have my own tubes tied. I did not want it, but I agreed to it anyway. I had chances to say no, and I didn't do that. I failed myself. Just to "keep the peace." I so regret this decision.
After Luke was born and getting up to age 3 or so, I really wanted another child. I am a good mother, and I loved it.

***

Our first house was on Second Avenue in DeKalb County. I had a previous boyfriend who said the "second crookedest man in Atlanta" lived on Second Avenue. It was (maybe still is) a very bad neighborhood. Our nextdoor neighbors seemed to me to be quite friendly. Winn and I melded our household goods, such as they were, 2 TVs, a sewing machine, some guns. We needed a refrigerator, dining table and chairs, and amazingly, a woman he knew was selling hers. We bought the awful things. While the fridge burned up rather quickly (it's a good story), the table and chairs lasted for years. They were iron, and the chairs had lots of pointy, curly ends that grabbed and assaulted you as you walked by. I still ahve the table. Very sturdy, iron and plastic veneer particle board.
I got introduced to partnership and wifehood when we moved that avocado green, sticker-infested fridge into our new home together. I had never moved an appliance. He kindly put me on the "uphill" side as we tried to get it up 2 concrete steps into the kitchen. At one point I asked my new husband, What happens if this falls on me? And his reassuring answer was, It will crush you to death.
The fridge didn't work too well. I learned where the fuse box was and what round, glass fuses looked like. Then, after the second or third blown fuse, my husband put a penny in the box under the fuse. No more blowouts! The fridge caught fire. I think the next one came from a reseller of used appliances named "A B Used Appliances."
I remember a peaceful routine I established. On Saturday mornings, I would set up the ironing board, and watch the old westerns on TV while I ironed Winn's shirts. Bonanza, The Lone Ranger, Maverick, Have Gun Will Travel all brought a quiet, easy vibe into my otherwise rather difficult adjustment to the icky neighborhood, the commute to Paces Ferry Road to work, Winn's absences and demands. It all faded away while I did a simple chore and was entertained by familiar images and sounds.
Winn somehow found the funds (we now had one joint checking account) for a new stereo system. You may remember music "systems" from the olden days: two enormous rectangular box speakers, a smaller box with lots of knobs called an amplifier/tuner, a turntable for records. I don't remember if there were more parts. Those parts currently reside in my garage. I don't remember what this gem cost us either. What I do remember is that it was deemed essential.
Then the neighbors dropped by to visit and chat. Somehow these two young men got a tour of the house from me. Winn came home and was displeased. Shortly afterwards, someone broke into the back of the house and just took everything of value (not the fridge). My new (and only) leather jacket Winn had just bought me, the stereo, my sewing machine, his deer rifle, and what I miss to this day: my dean's key. Also a silver barrette my X-boss gave me. It was pretty, but too heavy to actually use.
They also took Winn's watch. It had tar stains on it. That was how he recognized it when he ran into the fellow wearing it. Winn got very involved in the investigation, arrest and prosecution of the thieves. He would jump up in the night, stark naked, pointing his Colt Commander into the darkened hallway. Winn was disappointed that Judge Oscar Mitchell (RIP) let the thieves go on a technicality.
We moved.

***

Winn's search for better accommodations--and he did all the searching--led to a small 30 x 30-ft brick bungalow on the industrial side of Avondale Estates. Three little houses in a row, with us taking the middle one. The other two were rentals. The furnace was a floor unit in the middle of the central hallway. There were coal grates in the living room and one bedroom. The kitchen was the size of a large closet, and we put the washer and dryer--wedding presents from my parents--in the mudroom off the kitchen. In our first year, Winn replaced the iron plumbing with copper pipes, and attempted to rewire the house himself. He nearly electrocuted himself with direct current from the street, and I was not sympathetic. For some reason, I believed such projects belonged in the hands of qualified electricians.
Winn claimed the furnace was broken and we must heat with coal. Thus in our first winter, all brand new copper water pipes under the house burst, and Winn and a neighbor spent days replacing and resoldering the entire system. After Winn found a coal yard in south Atlanta that would sell the big hunks of soft coal he said we neede to burn in the grates, it turned out that 2 grates was not enough to keep the whole house warm. Imagine. And then, suddenly, 2 years later, the furnace was working again. hmmm. I remember filling pails with water outside and then hauling them into the house to sit on top of the furnace to heat. I am astounded that my adorable tiny daughters did not grow up with checkerboard scars on their tummies from that furnace.

It is my memory that every single year we were together our water pipes burst. Even though we were living in Georgia, a southern state with mild winters. Keeping a warm house, using central heat, seemed to be something we struggled with constantly. I remember vividly and with gratitude the fuel supplier who showed up at the trailer in Bartow County. He was delivering a 55-gallon drum of kerosene to fuel the furnace in the travel trailer the five of us were living in. The kerosene drum needed to be raised up in order to gravity-feed into the furnace. We did have cinder blocks sitting around, and this stranger, this deliveryman, came up with the plan which we executed together, rolling the drum from one stage to the next until it was high enough to function properly. I don't remember his name, but I'll never forget him. So patient and cheerful.

I'm not even aware of making choices. This is my husband. This is my family. This is my life. I'm going along to get along. I've made some choices that I hoped would work out, but I'm actively seeking anything, not even happiness, I guess. I'm just living and coping and doing what someone else is sure he wants. It makes me sad now.

Now I know why...

Now I think I know why...

So now I know why my grandfather was so angry when I said he looked like Truman! There was a photo on the desk of Granddaddy smiling, with white hair and those rimless eyeglasses on his nose. It looked like Truman to me, and I said so. "No he does not!" was the angry answer.
But today I  learned a little more about the Democrat who succeeded FDR and dropped the bombs on Hiroshim and Nagasaki. Those bombs probably saved my Daddy's life, as a US Marine in the Pacific Theater 1945. He had survived Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Midway, the Solomons, Peleliu; the common wisdom today is that he would not have survived the invasion of Japan. The bombs made that invasion moot. So why did he and his father hate Truman?
I knew that Truman desegregated the military, but I never thought my father hated that. Maybe he did. But also Truman promised to give Negroes the vote in the south, give Negroes the vote in the "white primary" the Democratic primary which decided southern elections. Truman promised to use the power of the federal government to override the state governments which were bent on continuing to deny Negroes the right to vote.
My grandfather was raised on a plantation in Berryville, Virginia. His wife, my dear Grandma, inherited plantation acreage in Alabama from her ancestor Major Tyus. My father told the story about Major Tyus being my "great great great" grandfather. He outfitted a Confederate regiment. He owned 301 slaves and killed one because he didn't like odd numbers. Major and Mrs. Tyus' portraits hung in the living room above the fireplace. Their heritage was white supremacy, and I guess they clung to it all my life.
We were living next door to Grandma and Granddaddy while my Daddy was over in Korea. And we stayed there a while after he got back, until he was posted somewhere else. Many of the Marines' wives had settled in California when their husbands were called to serve in the Korean War. My mother took 3 of us kids and her pregnant self out there, too.
My infant memories of that short stay on the west coast involve a babysitter who did things. I remember his face, I remember being made to take a bath even though it was not bath night. I remember the naked pictures he helped me draw. And I remember talking to another adult, not my mother, about this babysitter. Shortly after that, we all went back to Decatur, Georgia to live next door to Daddy's parents in one of Grandma's rental houses.
There was a lot of screaming in that house. There my mother was very big in her polka dot house robe, and stomped up and down the hallway screaming. She encouraged us to rollerskate inside the house. I tried to "run away" from her to my Grandma next door one night. Grandma was kind but firm, and I had to go back. When I got back home to Mother, she had given my bed to my brothers. During my baby brother's third birthday party, I broke the glass door between the living room and the hallway and scarred up my right arm. My questions about my baby sister who got born then, and how that worked with Mother's tummy were not well-received. I remember the little scar beneath her belly button that meant no more babies. I remember the ugly black sore on my baby sister's tummy, don't touch!
There was never never never any talking about the babysitter, the touching, the trouble. Much later Mother would lament to me the terrible misfortune she "allowed" to happen to my brother. But never any talk to me about anything I experienced. I was almost sixty years old before I found someone to talk to about it. Not twenty or thiry or forty years old. Nearly sixty. The therapist I talked to suggested that perhaps my brother, with whom we siblings were feuding, and my mother, then deceased, had suffered similarly. That might be the source of some of their difficult personalities. I'm inclined to agree with her.