Texas

(Orleans, You're Still The One)
I have to admit that sometimes even I have to think long and hard about where we were and when, while with Turner Enterprises. We moved around so much, and after all, it has been almost forty years. I can hardly remember what happened yesterday.

I think Texas was one of the states we worked the hardest in. It was also where we lived the craziest. We were constantly on the go, working day and night, made big money there and we spent it.

Remember this?

On our first trip down to Corpus we stopped at a service station to gas up and for me to make a mad dash to the little girl's room. When I jumped out of the car I slammed the door on my thumb. What a mess that was. By the time I got back to the car, my thumb was twice its normal size. You stopped at a Dairy Queen and got me a cup of ice to stick my thumb in and we drove all the way to the coast with me moaning and groaning.

When we made it to Corpus you were late for a meeting. We checked in at a hotel down the beach, kind of away from everything. Sidebar here: We were on the ground floor and the terrace went right out over the water. I stayed out on that terrace day and night wrapped in a blanket, I made you crazy and mad because I wouldn't come in. I loved the wind, the smell of the salt water and watching the waves hitting the rocks below.

Back to my thumb. You asked someone at the hotel about a clinic where I could have my thumb looked at, then you put me in a cab and off to the meeting you went. The doctor at the clinic said my thumb was broke. He used a special splint and bandaged it, gave me something for the pain, and I was going to call a cab to take me back to the hotel. The doctor thought I needed someone to come get me and he had his nurse call the conference center where you were. We finally found you. I had to wait in the doctor's office a long time before you could leave the meeting. They were beginning to think you weren't coming for me when you finally showed up.

When we got back to the hotel the thumb was still killing me. You kept saying "I can fix that thumb if you will just let me!" and I repeatedly refused, until I couldn't take it any longer. Crying, I finally agreed. You took your pocket knife and heated it with your lighter, removed the bandage completely, and then drilled a little hole in my thumbnail right at the cuticle. In less than five minutes, no pain. My hero.

A few days later we moved back up the coast to the Holiday Inn on the oceanfront in Corpus and that's where we stayed for several weeks. The view was unbelievable from a room on the top floor. We lived on room service, worked day and night and then would crash for 24 hours and get up and do it all over again. We were working with a good group of TE people back then. Some of the crew from Washington were there.

You took me across the border to Mexico for New Year's Eve. I loved Mexico, especially all of the art and pottery, but it was also my first experience at seeing another country's poverty. That was an eyeopener. The children begging for money just about killed me.

We finally settled in Irving, outside of Dallas, and leased a new condo. I thought we were going to stay put for awhile (silly me). I loved that condo. It was beautiful. Furnished with royal blue velvet sofas, deep shag carpeting, and the bedroom upstairs overlooked the living room. It was awesome. It also came furnished with ants. Do you remember the ants? Texas ants. Also known by you as "those damn ants."

We stayed for about six weeks, before the company moved us to Minnesota. You talked the powers-to-be there, into letting us out of the lease and they even gave us our deposit back (I think they just wanted you out of their faces and office).

If I had to describe our Texas time I'd say it was an experience from start to finish. I do remember one other thing. Texas was the first time you ever let me drive while you were in the car. After you felt safe with me driving, I did a lot of the driving, thereafter.

I'll remind you of some of those times, later.

Love you. You're still the one.


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