Life in my 30's

Life in my 30’s

Will talk a little bit about my life in the 30’s now.  Hugh was in 5th grade when Gail was born and I quit my job on the railroad.  I was busy with Gail and Hugh as he started  piano lessons and also started playing cello in the grade school orchestra.  Dale was going to work at 6 p.m. and home at 2 a.m. every morning.  He owned a couple of school buses and would get up and drive in the morning and come home and take a nap.

I started bowling when Gail was about 2 and sometimes bowled in the summer and would take her to the nursery at the lanes.  She came home with chicken pox one time and think she exposed all the children in the nursery.  I made different friends after quitting work on the railroad and begin to get involved with some volunteer work.  I enjoyed it up to a point but I did become to involved and didn’t have much time to myself.

I made most of Gail’s clothes and also quite a few for myself.  Dale become involved in selling pickup campers and he wasn’t home much.  Mr. Day and Dale did quite a lot of camper repair.  We also acquired the Ponca City Military bus business.  So we always had a little extra money to spend.  We had3 bus routes and the PMA business.

When Hugh was a Sophomore in college I went to work for the Rock Island railroad as a billing clerk.  This was in 1969 and I continued to work until my job was abolished 18 months later.  Dale’s job was also abolished at the same time.  We had 4 school bus routes and had almost finished building a new home at 442 Fairview.

I talked Dale into staying in Ponca City and told him I would learn how to drive a school bus.  This was in 1970 when I was 43 years old.  I had driven a large truck with a camper on it so I figured I could drive a school bus.  Driving the school bus wasn’t that difficult, it was keeping the kids halfway quiet and not moving around.  I developed a firm attitude and a loud voice.

The first morning I drove the bus we had a dense fog and I was scared out of my wits.  That evening one of the kids in the back seat opened the door and I had to stop the bus and close the door.  I really got strict with the kids and got them under control.  I drove the route for 2 years and then I begin to drive when someone called in sick and the I started doing activity trips to Enid, Stillwater, Ark city Winfield and Blackwell.  Mostly Jr. High football and Basketball.  I continued doing this until 1986 when we sold our buses to the school.

Gail was in the 5th grade when I started to drive the bus.  She rode the bus to Jr. High when I started driving activity trips and she sometimes had to go over on 14th St. and buy her supper at a hamburger place.  She also ate at the Taco Shop in grade school and she liked a Taco Burger.

I begin to sew for Gail when she was very small and I was very active in the community.  I was President of my bowling league, was social chairman of the Schubert Music club and was Spiritual Life Chairman of the Methodist’s Women Society and also program chairman of my church circle.  I caught myself coming and going every day.  One month I remember going to 28 meetings.  Needless to say I got out of most of it in a year or two.