| Biographical Non-Fiction posted March 6, 2021 | Chapters: |
...106 107 -108- 109... 
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The old years ends, and 1989 begins.
A chapter in the book Remembering Yesterday
From One Year Into the Next
by BethShelby
For new readers, who may not have read my author notes, this is written in a conversational way as I talk to my deceased husband. When I refer to someone just as "you" this means I am addressing my husband, Evan.
Shortly after Don returned from taking Kimberly to Mississippi to meet his grandparents, he had a wreck in his car, and Connie was riding with him. He took a curve too fast and ran into a tree. This was before seat belts, and Connie got a bad bruise on her forehead. We were thankful that neither of them was hurt seriously.
*******
Carol called, all excited, because the house she and Glen were having built in Debary had been framed in. They were looking forward to having a home of their own and were planning to buy new furniture. Since they had so much going on, they weren’t going to be able to come home for Christmas, so we were disappointed about that.
******
Christi kept bringing new guys over to our house. All of her jobs since she got out of school in May had been short-lived, but she seemed to have acquired a guy-friend who she could date from each job. Most of them weren't around long enough for us to catch their names. The ones I remember included Walter from Red Food Store and Donnie C. from Southern.
She still liked a guy named Jay from California. He was someone she had dated when she went to school for one year in Texas. She had visited him when she flew back from Australia to Los Angeles.
Then, there was the guy she met when traffic came to a standstill in a tunnel, and she managed to stall her car. She embarrassed herself with him when she knocked on his window and said, "Sir, would you be able to jump me?"
He gave her a strange look and said, "Uh..Excuse me, Ma'am? She blushed and asked if he had jumper cables. That seemed to be enough of an introduction for her to find a potential boyfriend. They dated quite regularly for a while. We just referred to him as the "tunnel guy". The house was always full of flowers from these guys, but after a few dates, Christi would pick them apart, and decide they weren’t what she was looking for.
She met one guy when she was visiting Tammy, a friend she had gone to school with in Mississippi. Steve was very good-looking, and she fell hard for him immediately. Tammy warned her not to get involved with him, but she wouldn’t listen. He was visiting from Florida, and Christi decided he was the one. At one point she invited him to come and visit her in our home, because she wanted us to meet him.
When he came to visit, you and I immediately knew there was something that didn’t feel right about this guy. We couldn’t really put our finger on what it was about him that so turned us off. He seemed like a sleazy salesman. Both of us instantly disliked him, although we tried to be polite until he left. Christi ignored what we said and was constantly on the phone with him. It wasn't long until she was planning to move to Florida to be near him. She claimed he was begging her to come.
He was staying with his sister, and the sister got on the phone with Christi and told her that he was still married, although he claimed to be divorced. He had a child in New Jersey and was in trouble with the law, probably for not paying child support. She said he was no good and Christi needed to leave him alone. She cried and said she was so in love with him and begged to talk to him. This went on several months, and she even got his ex-wife on the phone and talked to her. Finally he stopped answering the phone when she called, so we were thankful for that. She cried a lot, but we were pretty sure she wouldn’t be grieving long.
Christi kept you upset, because you couldn’t sleep when she was out into the wee hours of the morning. She seemed to think how late she stayed out shouldn’t matter, since she would soon be 26. You told her as long as she lived under our roof, it would be by our rules. In late November, Christi finally got what should have been a permanent job, if she could keep it. We hoped with a steady income, she would find an apartment and move out.
So far, Christi was still having money problems and borrowing money from everyone that she would never be able to pay back. The old car we had let her drive quit working in late summer and she did get a cute little blue Mazda. Even though it wasn't new, it was one of the reasons she was having money problems.
*******
Connie had a friend named Chris Cramer who lived in Athens, Tennessee. I’m not sure where she met him. He had been over here several times and seemed like an okay kid. You talked to his father once on the phone, when he called to see what a long distant phone charge was about. After that you called him "the kid from the Home."
"Daddy, What are you talking about? It's not `the Home'. It's Chris' home. He lives in Athens," Connie protested. "That was his daddy you were talking to."
"I don't know that," you teased. "That man didn't say he was his daddy. He said, 'It's hard to keep up with these boys and know why they are making long-distance phone calls.' I figured he was the administrator of the Home."
You liked to pick at Connie and try to make her laugh, so you continued to ask her about the boy from the Home.
Connie went back and forth about whether she wanted to go back to public school for the second semester. It seemed she was quite capable of getting into trouble at either school, but at least her friends at Collegedale Academy weren't in trouble with the law, nor were they drinking after school. When she begged to go back to the Academy, you thought that we should let her go back, in spite of the expense. So for the spring semester of 1989, Connie returned to private school. We were relieved that they were willing to take her.
*******
Shortly after New Year began, Don left for Marietta to find an apartment and enroll at Life College. Kimberly took off from work and went with him. Don's car wasn't running well, and it overheated with them several times. This would be another expense which he would need to deal with soon.
The apartment he found was in the home of an older Christian couple. The apartment was furnished, and they agreed to pay for the utilities and do his laundry for him. it sounded ideal, but it wasn't long before he was complaining that he had no privacy. The lady was always coming into his room to clean it and to pick up his laundry to wash.
Kimberly stayed over an extra day, because she wanted to go with him to orientation at Life College. Kimberly was not going to stand for Don being so far away, unless he would be able to come home often. With the car overheating, it didn't seem as if that would happen.
This is Us:
Evan is 59 and a retired drafting supervisor from Chevron Oil.
Beth is 51 and has had a variety of jobs. She is presently working a new job with a local printing company.
Carol is 28, a nurse at Florida Hospital in Orlando. She is married and living in Florida.
Glen Egolf is Carol’s husband. He is 25 and soon will get his nursing degree from Southern College in Orlando.
Don is a twin. He is 26 and starting Life Chiropractic College for the spring semester.
Christi is Don’s twin/ She has a new job as receptionist.
Kimberly Dye is Don’s girlfriend. She is a nurse and is living in an apartment and working at Valley Hospital.
Connie is our youngest daughter. She is fifteen. She is in her second year of high school.
Others mentioned in this chapter are Christi's friend, Tammy, Steve, who Chrisit thinks she's in love with. Connie's friend, Chris C.
Other boys' names are unimportant to the story.
For new readers, who may not have read my author notes, this is written in a conversational way as I talk to my deceased husband. When I refer to someone just as "you" this means I am addressing my husband, Evan.
Shortly after Don returned from taking Kimberly to Mississippi to meet his grandparents, he had a wreck in his car, and Connie was riding with him. He took a curve too fast and ran into a tree. This was before seat belts, and Connie got a bad bruise on her forehead. We were thankful that neither of them was hurt seriously.
*******
Carol called, all excited, because the house she and Glen were having built in Debary had been framed in. They were looking forward to having a home of their own and were planning to buy new furniture. Since they had so much going on, they weren’t going to be able to come home for Christmas, so we were disappointed about that.
******
Christi kept bringing new guys over to our house. All of her jobs since she got out of school in May had been short-lived, but she seemed to have acquired a guy-friend who she could date from each job. Most of them weren't around long enough for us to catch their names. The ones I remember included Walter from Red Food Store and Donnie C. from Southern.
She still liked a guy named Jay from California. He was someone she had dated when she went to school for one year in Texas. She had visited him when she flew back from Australia to Los Angeles.
Then, there was the guy she met when traffic came to a standstill in a tunnel, and she managed to stall her car. She embarrassed herself with him when she knocked on his window and said, "Sir, would you be able to jump me?"
He gave her a strange look and said, "Uh..Excuse me, Ma'am? She blushed and asked if he had jumper cables. That seemed to be enough of an introduction for her to find a potential boyfriend. They dated quite regularly for a while. We just referred to him as the "tunnel guy". The house was always full of flowers from these guys, but after a few dates, Christi would pick them apart, and decide they weren’t what she was looking for.
She met one guy when she was visiting Tammy, a friend she had gone to school with in Mississippi. Steve was very good-looking, and she fell hard for him immediately. Tammy warned her not to get involved with him, but she wouldn’t listen. He was visiting from Florida, and Christi decided he was the one. At one point she invited him to come and visit her in our home, because she wanted us to meet him.
When he came to visit, you and I immediately knew there was something that didn’t feel right about this guy. We couldn’t really put our finger on what it was about him that so turned us off. He seemed like a sleazy salesman. Both of us instantly disliked him, although we tried to be polite until he left. Christi ignored what we said and was constantly on the phone with him. It wasn't long until she was planning to move to Florida to be near him. She claimed he was begging her to come.
He was staying with his sister, and the sister got on the phone with Christi and told her that he was still married, although he claimed to be divorced. He had a child in New Jersey and was in trouble with the law, probably for not paying child support. She said he was no good and Christi needed to leave him alone. She cried and said she was so in love with him and begged to talk to him. This went on several months, and she even got his ex-wife on the phone and talked to her. Finally he stopped answering the phone when she called, so we were thankful for that. She cried a lot, but we were pretty sure she wouldn’t be grieving long.
Christi kept you upset, because you couldn’t sleep when she was out into the wee hours of the morning. She seemed to think how late she stayed out shouldn’t matter, since she would soon be 26. You told her as long as she lived under our roof, it would be by our rules. In late November, Christi finally got what should have been a permanent job, if she could keep it. We hoped with a steady income, she would find an apartment and move out.
So far, Christi was still having money problems and borrowing money from everyone that she would never be able to pay back. The old car we had let her drive quit working in late summer and she did get a cute little blue Mazda. Even though it wasn't new, it was one of the reasons she was having money problems.
*******
Connie had a friend named Chris Cramer who lived in Athens, Tennessee. I’m not sure where she met him. He had been over here several times and seemed like an okay kid. You talked to his father once on the phone, when he called to see what a long distant phone charge was about. After that you called him "the kid from the Home."
"Daddy, What are you talking about? It's not `the Home'. It's Chris' home. He lives in Athens," Connie protested. "That was his daddy you were talking to."
"I don't know that," you teased. "That man didn't say he was his daddy. He said, 'It's hard to keep up with these boys and know why they are making long-distance phone calls.' I figured he was the administrator of the Home."
You liked to pick at Connie and try to make her laugh, so you continued to ask her about the boy from the Home.
Connie went back and forth about whether she wanted to go back to public school for the second semester. It seemed she was quite capable of getting into trouble at either school, but at least her friends at Collegedale Academy weren't in trouble with the law, nor were they drinking after school. When she begged to go back to the Academy, you thought that we should let her go back, in spite of the expense. So for the spring semester of 1989, Connie returned to private school. We were relieved that they were willing to take her.
*******
Shortly after New Year began, Don left for Marietta to find an apartment and enroll at Life College. Kimberly took off from work and went with him. Don's car wasn't running well, and it overheated with them several times. This would be another expense which he would need to deal with soon.
The apartment he found was in the home of an older Christian couple. The apartment was furnished, and they agreed to pay for the utilities and do his laundry for him. it sounded ideal, but it wasn't long before he was complaining that he had no privacy. The lady was always coming into his room to clean it and to pick up his laundry to wash.
Kimberly stayed over an extra day, because she wanted to go with him to orientation at Life College. Kimberly was not going to stand for Don being so far away, unless he would be able to come home often. With the car overheating, it didn't seem as if that would happen.
This is Us:
Evan is 59 and a retired drafting supervisor from Chevron Oil.
Beth is 51 and has had a variety of jobs. She is presently working a new job with a local printing company.
Carol is 28, a nurse at Florida Hospital in Orlando. She is married and living in Florida.
Glen Egolf is Carol’s husband. He is 25 and soon will get his nursing degree from Southern College in Orlando.
Don is a twin. He is 26 and starting Life Chiropractic College for the spring semester.
Christi is Don’s twin/ She has a new job as receptionist.
Kimberly Dye is Don’s girlfriend. She is a nurse and is living in an apartment and working at Valley Hospital.
Connie is our youngest daughter. She is fifteen. She is in her second year of high school.
Others mentioned in this chapter are Christi's friend, Tammy, Steve, who Chrisit thinks she's in love with. Connie's friend, Chris C.
Other boys' names are unimportant to the story.
Shortly after Don returned from taking Kimberly to Mississippi to meet his grandparents, he had a wreck in his car, and Connie was riding with him. He took a curve too fast and ran into a tree. This was before seat belts, and Connie got a bad bruise on her forehead. We were thankful that neither of them was hurt seriously.
*******
Carol called, all excited, because the house she and Glen were having built in Debary had been framed in. They were looking forward to having a home of their own and were planning to buy new furniture. Since they had so much going on, they weren’t going to be able to come home for Christmas, so we were disappointed about that.
******
Christi kept bringing new guys over to our house. All of her jobs since she got out of school in May had been short-lived, but she seemed to have acquired a guy-friend who she could date from each job. Most of them weren't around long enough for us to catch their names. The ones I remember included Walter from Red Food Store and Donnie C. from Southern.
She still liked a guy named Jay from California. He was someone she had dated when she went to school for one year in Texas. She had visited him when she flew back from Australia to Los Angeles.
Then, there was the guy she met when traffic came to a standstill in a tunnel, and she managed to stall her car. She embarrassed herself with him when she knocked on his window and said, "Sir, would you be able to jump me?"
He gave her a strange look and said, "Uh..Excuse me, Ma'am? She blushed and asked if he had jumper cables. That seemed to be enough of an introduction for her to find a potential boyfriend. They dated quite regularly for a while. We just referred to him as the "tunnel guy". The house was always full of flowers from these guys, but after a few dates, Christi would pick them apart, and decide they weren’t what she was looking for.
She met one guy when she was visiting Tammy, a friend she had gone to school with in Mississippi. Steve was very good-looking, and she fell hard for him immediately. Tammy warned her not to get involved with him, but she wouldn’t listen. He was visiting from Florida, and Christi decided he was the one. At one point she invited him to come and visit her in our home, because she wanted us to meet him.
When he came to visit, you and I immediately knew there was something that didn’t feel right about this guy. We couldn’t really put our finger on what it was about him that so turned us off. He seemed like a sleazy salesman. Both of us instantly disliked him, although we tried to be polite until he left. Christi ignored what we said and was constantly on the phone with him. It wasn't long until she was planning to move to Florida to be near him. She claimed he was begging her to come.
He was staying with his sister, and the sister got on the phone with Christi and told her that he was still married, although he claimed to be divorced. He had a child in New Jersey and was in trouble with the law, probably for not paying child support. She said he was no good and Christi needed to leave him alone. She cried and said she was so in love with him and begged to talk to him. This went on several months, and she even got his ex-wife on the phone and talked to her. Finally he stopped answering the phone when she called, so we were thankful for that. She cried a lot, but we were pretty sure she wouldn’t be grieving long.
Christi kept you upset, because you couldn’t sleep when she was out into the wee hours of the morning. She seemed to think how late she stayed out shouldn’t matter, since she would soon be 26. You told her as long as she lived under our roof, it would be by our rules. In late November, Christi finally got what should have been a permanent job, if she could keep it. We hoped with a steady income, she would find an apartment and move out.
So far, Christi was still having money problems and borrowing money from everyone that she would never be able to pay back. The old car we had let her drive quit working in late summer and she did get a cute little blue Mazda. Even though it wasn't new, it was one of the reasons she was having money problems.
*******
Connie had a friend named Chris Cramer who lived in Athens, Tennessee. I’m not sure where she met him. He had been over here several times and seemed like an okay kid. You talked to his father once on the phone, when he called to see what a long distant phone charge was about. After that you called him "the kid from the Home."
"Daddy, What are you talking about? It's not `the Home'. It's Chris' home. He lives in Athens," Connie protested. "That was his daddy you were talking to."
"I don't know that," you teased. "That man didn't say he was his daddy. He said, 'It's hard to keep up with these boys and know why they are making long-distance phone calls.' I figured he was the administrator of the Home."
You liked to pick at Connie and try to make her laugh, so you continued to ask her about the boy from the Home.
Connie went back and forth about whether she wanted to go back to public school for the second semester. It seemed she was quite capable of getting into trouble at either school, but at least her friends at Collegedale Academy weren't in trouble with the law, nor were they drinking after school. When she begged to go back to the Academy, you thought that we should let her go back, in spite of the expense. So for the spring semester of 1989, Connie returned to private school. We were relieved that they were willing to take her.
*******
Shortly after New Year began, Don left for Marietta to find an apartment and enroll at Life College. Kimberly took off from work and went with him. Don's car wasn't running well, and it overheated with them several times. This would be another expense which he would need to deal with soon.
The apartment he found was in the home of an older Christian couple. The apartment was furnished, and they agreed to pay for the utilities and do his laundry for him. it sounded ideal, but it wasn't long before he was complaining that he had no privacy. The lady was always coming into his room to clean it and to pick up his laundry to wash.
Kimberly stayed over an extra day, because she wanted to go with him to orientation at Life College. Kimberly was not going to stand for Don being so far away, unless he would be able to come home often. With the car overheating, it didn't seem as if that would happen.
This is Us:
Evan is 59 and a retired drafting supervisor from Chevron Oil.
Beth is 51 and has had a variety of jobs. She is presently working a new job with a local printing company.
Carol is 28, a nurse at Florida Hospital in Orlando. She is married and living in Florida.
Glen Egolf is Carol’s husband. He is 25 and soon will get his nursing degree from Southern College in Orlando.
Don is a twin. He is 26 and starting Life Chiropractic College for the spring semester.
Christi is Don’s twin/ She has a new job as receptionist.
Kimberly Dye is Don’s girlfriend. She is a nurse and is living in an apartment and working at Valley Hospital.
Connie is our youngest daughter. She is fifteen. She is in her second year of high school.
Others mentioned in this chapter are Christi's friend, Tammy, Steve, who Chrisit thinks she's in love with. Connie's friend, Chris C.
Other boys' names are unimportant to the story.
 Recognized |
I'm continuing to recall memories of life with my deceased husband, Evan, as if I am talking aloud to him. I'm doing this because I want my children to know us as we knew each other and not just as their parents.
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