The arrival of my car on my sixteenth birthday in June did not exactly afford me the freedom that every teenager envisions. I was blessed with a Mom who had pretty strict rules. Why would you go to a slumber party when you have a bed to sleep in at home? If you go to the 7:00 movie you should be home shortly after 9:00 since you can have a coke at the movie instead of the local drive-in. A girl should not be out in a car by herself but will be safe if she takes her fourteen year old brother with her. Little brother, Kenny, and I became very creative.
When we moved to the new house Dad built a two car garage on the back of the lot. Kenny had the 1934 Ford inherited from Paul. Children were banned from Mom and Dad's garage since it needed to remain in pristine condition. That garage became a meeting place for every teenage hot rodder in town. Both of our earnings from the paper routes went for tools and car parts. It was amazing how Kenny always needed a quart of oil, spark plugs or some guy had something we had to go look at after dinner. Kenny became the " go-to-guy" for all automotive questions at fourteen. He was also the child in the family who could do no wrong. That worked out well for me.
If the garage was not filled with guys from sixteen to twenty years of age, we created some errand to run in town. This gave us the freedom to cruise all the hot spots. Of course I would rather have cruised without my fourteen year old brother but everyone thought Kenny was pretty cool as we made the rounds. Muskogee had four places you could usually find most of your friends. First stop was Russ's Drive In. It was actually a pretty nice restaurant but at night the drive in stalls were filled with teenagers. Next was Chet's Hot Dog stand where everyone would park, get out of their cars and hangout. (I still go there every trip to Muskogee). After Chet's you drove up into Honor Heights Park and checked out who was there and the last stop was on the east side of town, The Corral, where Kenny's hot rodder buddies were. Since Kenny NEVER got into trouble, it was amazing how long it took to get to the auto parts store and back.
I can't remember ever not loving music. There were those piano lessons I took in hopes of playing rock and roll that were all classical music with recitals in stupid frilly dresses, the years of skating to all the popular songs and all those dances that we all went to. I had a vast collection of the 45's and a larger collection of vinyl albums. The albums, which I still collect, ran the gambit on types of music.
Those were the days of Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry and Buddy Holly but also folk music. I think I had every album the Kingston Trio ever recorded along with the Lamplighters, Joan Biaz and on and on. Maybe due to the fact that a brother of one of my classmates became friends with Mason Williams in college then went on to write songs, perform with The New Christy Minstrels and Kenny Rogers that we got into folk music. How I happened to acquire a four string tenor guitar is still a mystery to me but that was my key to a lot of fun that summer.
On the east side of town was Spaulding Park. There was a little lake, the Girl Scout house, a cage of monkeys (always a question as to why they were there) and a swimming pool with a band shell on the backside of it. That summer on Tuesday nights every folk music player and fan gathered at the band shell to play and sing. Once I discovered the Hootenanny in the park it didn't take me long to learn to sort of play the guitar and join in the fun. My Dad thought it was so cool he actually purchased a six-string Framus for me by the end of the summer. Our folk music summer carried into the school year and it seemed like there was always an assembly, a follies or a talent show or something that brought out the guitars and music.
To add to this summer of fun was not only my paper route but brother Paul's paper route. He left around midnight every morning to deliver bundles and rural papers around the Muskogee area. It usually took him until around six in the morning and he had a problem running off the road when he fell asleep. I remember he had a little Ford Ranchero
that had all four corners dented from running into things in his sleep. Everyone worried about him so his wife, Mitzi and I started leaving at 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning in her VW convertible to do all the rural paper tubes.
That may sound like a real chore but I remember it as a lot of fun. She and I got to be really good friends as we ran up and down dirt roads sticking newspapers in tubes by mailboxes. I can remember one morning at dawn driving down in a ditch when we saw a tornado in the distance. We would meet up with grumpy Paul at some closed up store in the middle of no where to pick up more papers. He never appreciated the fact that we were laughing and having a great time. The best part was that I, who never had many girlfriends, had found someone to giggle and share stories with.
It was a busy summer with many new experiences. Paul and Mitzi's son was born the latter part of July. I can honestly say that was the first time I had ever even seen a newborn much less got to hold one. The thought that I was an aunt seemed very strange. Having a car I started going to the Sunday night youth service at our church which was always fun. Perhaps a little light on the church and heavy on the fun. Of course there were probably negative things that happened but nothing I didn't live through and learn from.
The summer flew by and the start of school always brought more excitement.
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