Travels With Cleo Draw Another Jack
It’s almost time for the big event. I’ve got my ‘team’ ready, the house is ready. It’s got a bed and a couch and a TV and a fridge for beer. What else could it need?
Cleo was adapting nicely to ‘town life’. Early June of 1973 and she had grown from a stiff tailed kitten to a ‘half grown’ cat. She really was beautiful, but like all cats, the half grown stage was awkward. She had no problems using a litter box (or the flower bed) took nicely to the Purina Cat Chow and knew her way around the neighborhood.
My part was done. My only real worry was that the Navy would attack Peru or someplace and decide that Gunner couldn’t come home on the first of June as scheduled.
Karen, on the other hand, was completely out of her mind. The pressure of having everything just perfect and on time made her crazy. The stress she and her mother put on was so bad that she broke out in a ‘hive like’ attack and itched like crazy. It was not pretty.
I made my last trip over to Longview before the wedding the first weekend in June. Talk about an extra wheel, I was just in the way. The only respite I got was playing golf with Karen’s Dad on Saturday. Jack (her Dad) who was a John called Jack, played golf at least 5 times a week, and was a scratch golfer (no handicap) when I met him and as long as I knew him.
Not that I knew the story at the time, but Jack was a foundling. Literally. Left in a basket on a doctor’s doorstep. Could have been worse, the doctor and his wife adopted him. His mother and father divorced in 1935 (a thing that didn’t happen often then) when he was 10. He ended up living with the doctor who encouraged him to try things.
I mean TRY things. He cowboyed a bit before WWII, riding rough stock. He knew some of the legendary heroes of early rodeo. He learned to sail and had an 18’ foot wooden boat that he would take ‘over the bar’ at the mouth of the Columbia.
He came home after the Navy in WWII and got his accounting degree at the University of Oregon. He specialized in Timber accounting and worked in the business his whole adult life. That is when he didn’t own a sawmill in Wisdom, Montana. He and his partner owned it three times. They sold it once, and went broke there twice. Karen was born in Butte, but it was really Wisdom. They moved to Longview, Washington to stay in the very early 60s. He went to work for Weyerhaeuser and did just fine. When I met and married Karen he was working for a guy named Stan Rose, a timber baron and broker with huge dreams that were shattered with the fall of Richard Nixon. Turns out Mr. Rose had given some illegal gifts to the President of the United States and when Nixon fell it was time for Mr. Rose to spend a little time in jail for that offense.
When Weyerhaeuser picked up the pieces of the Rose empire Jack went with them to an upper level job. He was quite a guy, and I just loved him. Among other things, he did the NY Times crossword in ink every day at lunchtime while he ate a bologna sandwich.
One more note on Jack before I go on. They came over to Eastern Washington to visit once and had a trip to Spokane scheduled to see his mother. A thing he didn’t do often. When they came back we talked about it some, on the golf course. Turns out I had met her. Her granddaughter was engaged and subsequently married to my best running buddy from Spokane. They were married a few months after we were, but they are still married and approaching their 50th anniversary. Go figure. There is probably a few BC (before Cleo) stories to be told that involve Weave at some point. I mean, the stories are there, it’s only the telling that becomes probable.
I’ll be back with more from the great wedding imbroglio. Thanks for staying with me this far.
All photos in this post are properly sourced and licensed.
All words in this post are mine. For better or worse
Adsactly is a society for freethinking people. Interested? Click Here to join our Discord channel.
In the bottom of the page type in: adsactly-witness and select vote.
All small letters and without the @ sign
Or give us a direct vote here
Thank you!
Wow, Jack sounds like he had a pretty interesting life! I can't imagine leaving a baby on a door step, but I guess desperate times call for desperate measures. The kitty is so pretty! Thanks for sharing a great story!
You have to understand: I am adopted, but I certainly wasn't left on a doorstep. His life was such that he got to do and try things that most didn't. I guess that's the trade.
Look at you man, racking up with these good old tales, congats man.
Thank you. I'm actually having fun telling this story. I know it's dragging on, but...
Awesome post! Oh my that picture of the logs reminds me of the truck loads we used to get when I was a kid for the wood stove. It was much cheaper to buy it like that so that meant my dad would have to use the chainsaw to cut them down and then split them. That left all the pieces for the kids to carry and stack. Tons of fun it was! :P Thanks for continuing to share this story.
I bought a couple truck loads of wood myself. I had a good place for them and slack time when it got cold. I mostly split by hand and enjoyed it. That wood always warmed me at least twice. Once when I cut and split and once when I burned it.
Good way to think of it!
So many stories to look back on. Jack sounds like a very interesting character indeed!
Jack was really good for me. I mean really good. He was always encouraging and solid. To say I had a 'mixed relationship' with my father would be accurate, and Jack was like a breath of fresh air.
Thanks for coming by!
Aw, I'm glad you had that time with him, then. ((Hugs))
Very good story, @ bigtom13. I hope the continuation of the wedding mess, hahaha. I liked this: All the words in this post are mine. For better or worse. Greetings.
Thank you! There have been a lot of smiles in my life, and I'm having fun sharing them on this side of it.
the hive breakouts seem sad and stress from mother, let alone you getting away for golf ... and before you got married. the story seems a bit confusing because you go from the marriage, to the cat, to some other folks stories LOL
kinda funny and a whirlwind ... glad to hear the two made it to their 50th ... not sure why it was surprising but i'm always happy to hear when people make it that far. guess bc you may know something about them we do not? :)
My story is confusing, probably mostly because I write like I talk. I have been known to take a tangent every now and again. When I'm writing and when I'm riding!
I'm really not purposely keeping secrets, but there are some of the side and back stories here that I have simply never told, or in this case, even thought about for over 40 years. I'd like to say everything will come together in the end, but I honestly don't know that :)
Thanks for coming by. I really do appreciate it!
Looks like Jack was quite a character! I love stories like this one! Thanks for sharing!
Jack was incredible. It was a real revelation to me to see a man that could be kind and loving a huge fraction of the time. When he was pissed he was still pretty nice! There is no doubt that Jack had some impact on the man I've become. I owe his memory that.
Congratulations! This post has been chosen as one of the daily Whistle Stops for The STEEM Engine!
You can see your post's place along the track here: The Daily Whistle Stops, Issue 284 (10/17/18)