Livingston

            Our move to Livingston was exciting. It was a different place. The kids were into hotrods, Wolf Man Jack, and having fun. It had a California feel with the way the kids hung out driving their hotrods around the courthouse square. One of the most popular kids in school was Donald. He played football and drove a fast car. He also went to church where Daddy pastured, so we became friends.

            But there was one problem with Donald, he was a thief. His Mother was a single Mother working at the shirt factory and barely making ends meet, but Donald was never short of money. He was older than the rest of in school because he had spent a year in reform school. It obviously didn’t reform. It didn’t take long hanging out with him that I realized where he got his money. He didn’t do drugs or drink alcohol, but he could pull your transmission while you were in the car waiting to pick up food order at the Circle K Drive In. He knew which wrenches were needed for any make of car and could pull the transmission in five minutes in the dark. Nothing was safe around him.

            I wasn’t old enough to drive, but I got a lot of experience working on cars with Donald. We would hang out at a gas station where one of his friends worked. Here we would get people coming in for automotive work or tires. Donald would steal the parts and repair the car. I became familiar with all the junk yards and the car lots. This knowledge came in handy later when I needed places to crash for the night. By the end of my sophomore year these junk yards had become a home of sorts, particularly one large station wagon. It was in a large junk yard where no one was interested in it for parts, and I had lots of room to stretch out in the back. Other than being very lonely, it was quite comfortable.

            I had a lot of fun with Donald, we explored caves, we would run for miles, and hike through the mountains. He was always building something. Mama and Daddy weren’t too happy with me hanging out with him, but his Mother was one of the leaders in church, and they didn’t realize what was going on with him. After my time living with Joann, they never got complete control of me again. I had a high level for pain, so when they would punish me, (beat me with a belt or switch) I would take it and do what I wanted to do anyway. I had my Mother’s stubbornness, and I wasn’t going to be conquered.  Also Daddy was getting sick during this time, and was losing control of his self. I didn’t realize it at the time, even after Mama confided in me that something was wrong with him. It wasn’t long after that that it became apparent that something was going wrong.

            Mama never drove a car, and I was too young to get a license. Daddy’s driving was becoming dangerous. I started sitting next to him when he would drive to help him from having an accident. I was to grab the wheel or hit the brakes. This didn’t last too long before he had to give up driving altogether. He was still pasturing church, but was unable to have a sermon that made sense. The church brought in a replacement to take over and we moved back to Campaign.