1. Home to Contradictions, 2. Six Degrees from Home, 3. Welcome Back to My Therapy,
4. Lying, Cheating, Stealing and Intent, 5. Power of You, 6. One Split Second,
7. Marvelous Mistakes, 8. I made a choice to make a change, 9. Connections to the Farm,
10. Back to the Farm, 11. It's a small world after all, 12 Fair Weather Friends,
13. Ghost of Roommates Past, 14. You can never go to far, 15. Glamorous Life,
16. Double Standards, 17. Lazy? No Exhausted, 18. Crossroads of Life and Death, 19. One Last Time, 20. When Worlds Collide I, 21. When Worlds Collide II, 22. When Worlds Collide III 23. The Unwanted New World, 24. Means the Old World Must Go, 25. So Where was God in all this? 26. Where did you get that from?, 27. The Reason for My Season, 28. Was Always a Little Rascal, 29. Pictures and Quotes of the Little Rascal and final chapter 30. Closing in Contradictions. ~Use these links to read in order (some chapters have songs, new added content, pictures or all:) Volume 2 >>>>>
I have wrote about a few of the adventures I've come across and some of the people who have really stood out. Today I may shock a few of you with the story I am writing. For some it might or might not seem out of character but in all honesty it was just a part of my life... one of many phases. This one starts after the first round of Marvelous and I was determined to find some new friends. I have always felt like an outsider looking in because I separate from the whole group when and if the time comes to do so. I like people that are so totally different from what most view as the norm but that can come back and bite ya in the butt if you are not careful. I have a live and let live philosophy for the most part and had run across characters that were a lot of fun. I had only heard stories about these particular folks from the friend who claimed she was Randy Travis's cousin who was from Marshville and was fascinated because they sounded like they had all lost their minds! Stories of racing cars, blowing up trucks and family brawls that would make the Hatfields and McCoys proud. There were 9 kids of this one particular family, let's call them the Clampetts and to say they were a bit hillbilly would be an understatement of the century. The time reminds me of Green Grass and High Tides.
After hearing about these folks for about a year or so I finally met one of them one night after the previously mentioned friend and I went out that night. The only problem was I didn't KNOW he was one of the infamous family because she didn't really use their names. Anyway she had a lot to drink that night and as we were leaving a guy walked in. He was a little geeky looking at first with his big glasses but he had blond curly hair, blue eyes, tall, lean and he was quiet! Talking quietly was a refreshing thing for me at this point after all the previous drama. My friend introduced me to him, we'll call him Smokie and after talking for a short while it was determined that our friend just wasn't going to remain conscience much longer so we got her into his car and took her home. We came back to my car and he asked for my number and I gave it to him. He seemed like a cool enough guy but I didn't hear from him for almost a year.
The last few months I had been working at the bank I also made a friend who liked to go out to the dance clubs and we'll call her Blondie. She was loud and from Kansas but she was different and we had a good time. We became good friends for a while but she got mad at me which I'll explain shortly but the rest will have to save for later. One a side note the lady that introduced me to this family was also dating Moe and must have broken up somewhere along this time. It was while I was out with Blondie, I would run into Moe at one of the clubs and honestly it was the last place I thought I'd ever see him because he wasn't the type to hang out in them... or so I thought.
Fast forward to a day when I was walking out the door for a job interview at the local paper as a sales rep assistant and I got a phone call from him. Not overly impressed with the timing I told him good to hear from ya but talk to ya later and went on to the job. He was persistent though so we eventually went out and I got to know him more. I met several of his family members and their mates and after listening to their stories I realized that I had heard them before. I knew this was the infamous family that my friend had been talking about. Smokie was the 2nd youngest of them and at that time he was just a few years older than me. Turns out he lived one street behind my ex husband and me and that's how he knew the woman we took home the first night we met. Over the year or so we had a good time hanging out, traveling to Florida (where one of the sisters owned a florist shop) when I could get the time off from work at the paper. We worked the long Valentine weekend at the flower shop stripping thorns from roses and all the prep work to be ready for that Sunday. Sunday we drove all over North Hollywood Beach and that's when I learned it was a paradise for older people who don't tip very much. Anyway after working we spent the rest of our time and money in the keys and had a blast! Until we got close to home and stopped at a gas station, while Smokie filled up and I went in to pay. I came out and Trey had locked the car and being about 2ish at this time was having a blast dancing and laughing inside while were frantically trying to get him to hit the lock button. Little stinker but it was only 5 minutes or so and we were back on the road.
Eventually Smokie's brother rented a 150 year old farm on 92 acres out in another county north of Charlotte and they moved there... even though it was a dry county! For professional alcoholics it seems like they would have taken that into account and I was happy I wasn't old enough to buy it (yet) although I didn't really drink all that much! I met all kinds of people that hung out at the farm from dealers to users (a whole new set!) to the owner of a clothing store that catered to strippers, to a sheriffs kid smoking a crack pipe and a few West Virginians one of which would become a long time friend. All this didn't happen at the farm but I got to know all the siblings at one time or another and they went many places sometimes just wanting the company or sometimes needing a ride after losing their drivers licenses. If they were brave enough to get in my new/old Mazda RX-7 built for short track racing, I'd take them anywhere they'd want to go. ;) Smokie and I went to Florida I couple of times while listening to his Stones or Dr. Hook and even stopped back by NASA on the way home from the last trip. Blondie and I were also heading out to the beach a lot because I had a high school friend getting married down there who asked me to be in the wedding. Blondie didn't get along with my old high school friend and when she gave me an ultimatum on a July 4th holiday about spending time with her or with Smokie, I said see ya later. Much, much later as it would turn out. You see when she was dating someone she would leave me hanging for hours and it gets really tiring after a while. This was just the last straw at the time because I would have never made the same demand.
Later I also met a man who was reportedly a major player in the drug world in the past and although he had gotten older he was still reliving the glory days. We'll call him Lew and one of his daughters had married the oldest Clampette man and when things weren't working out, she was the one that blew up his truck! She also wrecked the Grand National that was Lew's and was a wild child herself... all the way. During that time I had also met a girl at the credit union in the paper and she was as beautiful on the inside as she was on the outside. Her name was Mandy and in the winter of 92 she went with me to one of Lew's parties and he was smittin'. She wasn't however but we did have a good time and I ended up babysitting her son on New Years Eve so she could go out. On the way home it was raining and I hit a slick spot in the RX-7, jumped a curb, cut a road sign in half and that almost came through the roof. It was 2 am with no options at that time so all I could do was walk the few miles to Smokies house. When the cops called, because the found the car, they wanted me to pay for the sign. Of course they did! We'll come back to Lew later because we are not done with him just yet!
The family barbecues and picnics usually around a bonfire listening to songs like Black Betty or Simple Man ranged from friendly, sedate to wild fights and partner switching. Meaning they would stop dating one and starting dating another person within the group. It was also within this group I learned the name of the best legal attorney in town because most of them had used him...often. While Smokie and I broke up after a year or so, we were still friends sort of. I mean it did hurt a little because I had a lot of fun with him but I know it was time to call it quits. He moved on to even more crazier women over the years but I still remained friends with his brothers' girlfriend from WV and we'll call her Krystal who looked like an Indian princess but could just as easily be a warrior. To say she was buck wild would be an understatement too but she really had a heart of gold underneath. She worked hard on the farm and the land because you have to. Keeping up with the grass on that much immediate land took a lot of work with few working tools because the tractor was always breaking. Krystal couldn't understand why I worked harder outside than the inside but it was because I was tired of cleaning houses. Lots of wood needed to be cut because it was the only source of heat and the house itself needed so much just to get it livable. We all gathered vines from the woods to make homemade wreaths using the left over decorations from the flower shop. Krystal was a good cook too and even had their own garden going for a while. On the weekends the farm had become my home away from home and despite a lot of the drama it was a good place to bring Trey when all the other kids where there too. They did the family thing pretty well considering and all you needed to do was call ahead and see what kind of events they had planned.
But life goes on and I found that I couldn't make it on the salary the paper paid me so I had to take on another job which was waiting tables at a pool hall...nicknamed The Rack. That meant going out to the farm just wasn't going to happen as much but the connections I met there were even far more reaching than I ever thought. Turns out the manager and bartender of The Rack, we'll call her Spunky, grew up with or very near Krystal in WV and there was some bad blood from way back. I also knew Krystal worked at The Rack previously but didn't put it all together until later. Spunky was a short dark hair warrior type woman herself and running that bar was like second nature to her. Like Krystal she had her own demons she was dealing with and she was tough to work for. It wasn't til after I left working at the bar that we became friends simply because we knew so many of the same people that we still run into each other from time to time. But I am getting ahead of myself again because I would find myself back at the farm again, long after being there was fun. And that was only the first connection the led back to the farm...
This photo courtesy of Native Charlottean Group on Facebook.
Only with the help of professionals could I ever look like this!
10. Back to the Farm >>>>>
4. Lying, Cheating, Stealing and Intent, 5. Power of You, 6. One Split Second,
7. Marvelous Mistakes, 8. I made a choice to make a change, 9. Connections to the Farm,
10. Back to the Farm, 11. It's a small world after all, 12 Fair Weather Friends,
13. Ghost of Roommates Past, 14. You can never go to far, 15. Glamorous Life,
16. Double Standards, 17. Lazy? No Exhausted, 18. Crossroads of Life and Death, 19. One Last Time, 20. When Worlds Collide I, 21. When Worlds Collide II, 22. When Worlds Collide III 23. The Unwanted New World, 24. Means the Old World Must Go, 25. So Where was God in all this? 26. Where did you get that from?, 27. The Reason for My Season, 28. Was Always a Little Rascal, 29. Pictures and Quotes of the Little Rascal and final chapter 30. Closing in Contradictions. ~Use these links to read in order (some chapters have songs, new added content, pictures or all:) Volume 2 >>>>>
I have wrote about a few of the adventures I've come across and some of the people who have really stood out. Today I may shock a few of you with the story I am writing. For some it might or might not seem out of character but in all honesty it was just a part of my life... one of many phases. This one starts after the first round of Marvelous and I was determined to find some new friends. I have always felt like an outsider looking in because I separate from the whole group when and if the time comes to do so. I like people that are so totally different from what most view as the norm but that can come back and bite ya in the butt if you are not careful. I have a live and let live philosophy for the most part and had run across characters that were a lot of fun. I had only heard stories about these particular folks from the friend who claimed she was Randy Travis's cousin who was from Marshville and was fascinated because they sounded like they had all lost their minds! Stories of racing cars, blowing up trucks and family brawls that would make the Hatfields and McCoys proud. There were 9 kids of this one particular family, let's call them the Clampetts and to say they were a bit hillbilly would be an understatement of the century. The time reminds me of Green Grass and High Tides.
After hearing about these folks for about a year or so I finally met one of them one night after the previously mentioned friend and I went out that night. The only problem was I didn't KNOW he was one of the infamous family because she didn't really use their names. Anyway she had a lot to drink that night and as we were leaving a guy walked in. He was a little geeky looking at first with his big glasses but he had blond curly hair, blue eyes, tall, lean and he was quiet! Talking quietly was a refreshing thing for me at this point after all the previous drama. My friend introduced me to him, we'll call him Smokie and after talking for a short while it was determined that our friend just wasn't going to remain conscience much longer so we got her into his car and took her home. We came back to my car and he asked for my number and I gave it to him. He seemed like a cool enough guy but I didn't hear from him for almost a year.
The last few months I had been working at the bank I also made a friend who liked to go out to the dance clubs and we'll call her Blondie. She was loud and from Kansas but she was different and we had a good time. We became good friends for a while but she got mad at me which I'll explain shortly but the rest will have to save for later. One a side note the lady that introduced me to this family was also dating Moe and must have broken up somewhere along this time. It was while I was out with Blondie, I would run into Moe at one of the clubs and honestly it was the last place I thought I'd ever see him because he wasn't the type to hang out in them... or so I thought.
Fast forward to a day when I was walking out the door for a job interview at the local paper as a sales rep assistant and I got a phone call from him. Not overly impressed with the timing I told him good to hear from ya but talk to ya later and went on to the job. He was persistent though so we eventually went out and I got to know him more. I met several of his family members and their mates and after listening to their stories I realized that I had heard them before. I knew this was the infamous family that my friend had been talking about. Smokie was the 2nd youngest of them and at that time he was just a few years older than me. Turns out he lived one street behind my ex husband and me and that's how he knew the woman we took home the first night we met. Over the year or so we had a good time hanging out, traveling to Florida (where one of the sisters owned a florist shop) when I could get the time off from work at the paper. We worked the long Valentine weekend at the flower shop stripping thorns from roses and all the prep work to be ready for that Sunday. Sunday we drove all over North Hollywood Beach and that's when I learned it was a paradise for older people who don't tip very much. Anyway after working we spent the rest of our time and money in the keys and had a blast! Until we got close to home and stopped at a gas station, while Smokie filled up and I went in to pay. I came out and Trey had locked the car and being about 2ish at this time was having a blast dancing and laughing inside while were frantically trying to get him to hit the lock button. Little stinker but it was only 5 minutes or so and we were back on the road.
Eventually Smokie's brother rented a 150 year old farm on 92 acres out in another county north of Charlotte and they moved there... even though it was a dry county! For professional alcoholics it seems like they would have taken that into account and I was happy I wasn't old enough to buy it (yet) although I didn't really drink all that much! I met all kinds of people that hung out at the farm from dealers to users (a whole new set!) to the owner of a clothing store that catered to strippers, to a sheriffs kid smoking a crack pipe and a few West Virginians one of which would become a long time friend. All this didn't happen at the farm but I got to know all the siblings at one time or another and they went many places sometimes just wanting the company or sometimes needing a ride after losing their drivers licenses. If they were brave enough to get in my new/old Mazda RX-7 built for short track racing, I'd take them anywhere they'd want to go. ;) Smokie and I went to Florida I couple of times while listening to his Stones or Dr. Hook and even stopped back by NASA on the way home from the last trip. Blondie and I were also heading out to the beach a lot because I had a high school friend getting married down there who asked me to be in the wedding. Blondie didn't get along with my old high school friend and when she gave me an ultimatum on a July 4th holiday about spending time with her or with Smokie, I said see ya later. Much, much later as it would turn out. You see when she was dating someone she would leave me hanging for hours and it gets really tiring after a while. This was just the last straw at the time because I would have never made the same demand.
Later I also met a man who was reportedly a major player in the drug world in the past and although he had gotten older he was still reliving the glory days. We'll call him Lew and one of his daughters had married the oldest Clampette man and when things weren't working out, she was the one that blew up his truck! She also wrecked the Grand National that was Lew's and was a wild child herself... all the way. During that time I had also met a girl at the credit union in the paper and she was as beautiful on the inside as she was on the outside. Her name was Mandy and in the winter of 92 she went with me to one of Lew's parties and he was smittin'. She wasn't however but we did have a good time and I ended up babysitting her son on New Years Eve so she could go out. On the way home it was raining and I hit a slick spot in the RX-7, jumped a curb, cut a road sign in half and that almost came through the roof. It was 2 am with no options at that time so all I could do was walk the few miles to Smokies house. When the cops called, because the found the car, they wanted me to pay for the sign. Of course they did! We'll come back to Lew later because we are not done with him just yet!
The family barbecues and picnics usually around a bonfire listening to songs like Black Betty or Simple Man ranged from friendly, sedate to wild fights and partner switching. Meaning they would stop dating one and starting dating another person within the group. It was also within this group I learned the name of the best legal attorney in town because most of them had used him...often. While Smokie and I broke up after a year or so, we were still friends sort of. I mean it did hurt a little because I had a lot of fun with him but I know it was time to call it quits. He moved on to even more crazier women over the years but I still remained friends with his brothers' girlfriend from WV and we'll call her Krystal who looked like an Indian princess but could just as easily be a warrior. To say she was buck wild would be an understatement too but she really had a heart of gold underneath. She worked hard on the farm and the land because you have to. Keeping up with the grass on that much immediate land took a lot of work with few working tools because the tractor was always breaking. Krystal couldn't understand why I worked harder outside than the inside but it was because I was tired of cleaning houses. Lots of wood needed to be cut because it was the only source of heat and the house itself needed so much just to get it livable. We all gathered vines from the woods to make homemade wreaths using the left over decorations from the flower shop. Krystal was a good cook too and even had their own garden going for a while. On the weekends the farm had become my home away from home and despite a lot of the drama it was a good place to bring Trey when all the other kids where there too. They did the family thing pretty well considering and all you needed to do was call ahead and see what kind of events they had planned.
But life goes on and I found that I couldn't make it on the salary the paper paid me so I had to take on another job which was waiting tables at a pool hall...nicknamed The Rack. That meant going out to the farm just wasn't going to happen as much but the connections I met there were even far more reaching than I ever thought. Turns out the manager and bartender of The Rack, we'll call her Spunky, grew up with or very near Krystal in WV and there was some bad blood from way back. I also knew Krystal worked at The Rack previously but didn't put it all together until later. Spunky was a short dark hair warrior type woman herself and running that bar was like second nature to her. Like Krystal she had her own demons she was dealing with and she was tough to work for. It wasn't til after I left working at the bar that we became friends simply because we knew so many of the same people that we still run into each other from time to time. But I am getting ahead of myself again because I would find myself back at the farm again, long after being there was fun. And that was only the first connection the led back to the farm...
10. Back to the Farm >>>>>
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