This Is Your Life.

[CWO3ROBBIE]

Kat, or maybe it was akabukowski, once said to me that everyone thinks their life would make a good book.

She is probably right. What do you think?

Here is your chance.

Let's all tell stories from our experiences as we traveled through time.

 

Ahh, but there has to be rules. They will be pretty loose, but rules there must be.

RULES:

1. It can be any experience that you want to tell us about.

2. It can be as short as one line. Or as long as fifty. Anything over thirty will be deleted.

3.You do not have to end the story at fiftyy lines, but you have to quit writing at the end of fiftyy lines. You can not post again until at least one other person  has posted something.

This ensures that everyone gets a chance.

4.You can continue on the same subject or jump to a new one.

5. Nothing is required to be in chronological order.

6. Very Graphic Sexual discriptions should be posted in the sex talk group. You can direct us to go there if we want to read about it.

7. No one will be checking the facts 

8. Additional rules will be posted and implemented as I see fit.

Step right up and post. who knows, the next knock on your door may be Spielberg asking for the movie rights.

[CWO3ROBBIE]

It is near the end of my 4th semester of college. I'm passing 4 of the 5 courses I am taking.  But, I'm really bored. I'm working part time for Kroger. Very good part time job. Union. Pays $1.10 an hour. Most other supermarkets pay only $.95/ hr.  for clerks. (Darroll, if you are reading this: Kroger is still in business, the others no longer exist.) One day, a high school class mate of mine wanders into the store. We swap gretings. He says he is back in St. Albans for only a week or so. He has been in Colorado working for a company in the uranium mining business.  My ears perk up. He says he should be a millionaire within the next year or so. He is recruting people who have skills, to go to Colorado and work for his company. They want a 3 month commitment and if things work out every member should be worth at least $1,000,000 within a couple years.

Being young, bored, and no idea what i was going to do with the rest of my life, I jumped at the opportunity. I informed my parents about what I was going to do and they gave me their support. Their reasoning was. You are 19 years old. You have no idea what you want to do with your life. If you do this and it don't work out, you are still young. if it does work out you are set for life. If you pass it up, you will wonder the rest of your life what it would be like if you had gone to Colorado.

You are an adult, do what you want. We will support you.

 

So. the following week I dropped out of college and 4 of us left West Virginia  headed to Colorado in my 49 Plymouth. I'm off to the first really big adventure of my life.

[CWO3ROBBIE]

Well, I won't keep you in suspense about the millions. I never made any. It was a scam. A very large one for that time.

We drove straight through. From Charleston, WV to Cincinnati, Ohio, to Indianapolis, Indiana, where we switched to US Highway 36. This was in 1957 and there was no interstate highway system across the country. When you looked at a map US 36 was a straight line from Indianapolis to Denver. We crossed the mighty Mississippi at Hannibal, Missouri. I looked for Huck but didn't see him anywhere.

Through St. Joseph,MO and across Kansas.

Sorry Ruby Red Crystal, but we were way North of Russel. 

We had to time the trip so that we crossed the Colorado, Kansas border during daytime. There was a stretch from some wide spot in the road in West Kansas to the outskirts of Denver  that had no gas stations open between 9 pm and 6am. On subsequent trips we carried a 5 gal can of gas in trunk to enable us to make it across that stretch. Now remember, I was a kid who was not used to being able to see more than a couple miles to the horizon. We started seeing Pike's Peak half a day before we got to it. At least that's the way it seemed.

We drove to a residential area in Littleton ad pulled up to a typical(at that time) upscale house.

This was where we were going to stay until we were indoctronated and assigned to one of the many pieces of property that Trans World Mining/White, Green, & Addison and two or three other company names that I have forgotten had under contract.

The upstairs looked like any normal home in the suburbs would look. In the basement there were bunks. It was an undivided basement and I would guess there were about 7 bunk beds and a few cots. At that time, there were the 4 of us and three others. The three others were a father and two sons in their early 20's.  The father was a first generation Italian immigrant and the three sometimes spoke in Italian. They were from the Norfolk, VA area. The father had a horrendous choking cough that kept the rest of us up most of the time each night. When he got over one of his coughing spells he would then smoke a cigarette and  go back to sleep. Until the next coughing fit. He died of throat cancer about 6 months later. He was an interesting guy. He had been a mechanic for one of the alltime great international race drivers. I can't remember which one. He had been all over the world and could tell some great stories. In between his coughing fits.

 I had known two guys with throat cancer back in my hometown. It wasn't that unusual back then, and of course when you are in your teens you just shrug off those things unless it is happening to you.

I had had two semesters of land surveying in my short lived college career and had passed both with a "B" grade. Therefor I was going to work with the company Civil Engineer. I say "the" because he was the only one in the company. There was another guy who was attending the U of C majoring in geology. One of the owners was susposedly a geologist but I think that was later debunked.  "Joe" was the Engineer. He was a colorful character. He had been a Lt. in the Marine Corps during the latter part of WW II. He had been a stand up Comedian and an actor in gade "B" Movies. He also had been the lead Engineer in the survey for the tunnel between Newport News and Hampton.

After about a week, Joe and I climbed into a Jeep Station wagon loaded with surveying gear and food and headed South to Trinidad, Colorado.

Interesting sidelight, Trinidad, CO is now known as  "The SexChange Capitol of the World".  

I'll be back later with the next installment.

[CWO3ROBBIE]

It is now November 1957. I and one other guy are living in a cabin in the Arapaho National Forest about 12 miles up Colorado Rt. 125. and then 1 mi. up a canyon.

I had been sent up there with a crew of 6 to survey the mining claims. We worked through Oct. and into Nov. and then the cold and snow hit. Everyone but me and George were pulled out.  we had a two room cabin to live in. We had a big wood burning cook stove in the kitchen and a wood burning heater in the other room. The other room was a combo bedroom/living room. We had plenty of wood we thought. But then the crew who stayed there the winter before thought so too. There had been two cabins then. the snow got so deep that they ended up tearing down one cabin and using it as firewood until they dug their way out.

The snow wasn't that deep yet and we were pretty well off, except we were running low on food. The company sent a food run in about every two weeks and we were due.

It was about 8:00pm.

I had the double wash tub with about three inches of water up on the stove heating so I could take a bath. the temp was down to about 30 below zero and the radio said it would hit 45 below tonight. When it got that cold we took turns sleeping and staying up and keeping the fire going in the bedroom. You hoped that you did not have to take a crap during the night. The toilet was a outside two holer and it was not unusual to hear screams when a new guy sat down on the throne.

I heard a noise at the door and went to it and opened it.

In came a guy that we knew as "Rake" he was a ex marine from the Norfolk, Va area. Tall, good looking and tough as nails.  he had his hand stuck out and I thought that was funny but started to shake it. He said no! pull the glove off. I did and saw that his finger tips were white down to the first knuckle. He said "there are two more guys out there somewhere.

while I was getting my clothes and boots on, the second guy staggered through the door.  He said that there was one more guy somewhere between the road and the cabin. I took off and found him about a quarter mile down the road. He wasn't in too bad shape just cold and exhausted.  

Got him to the cabin and found out that they were on the food run to us. They had got hung up in the snow about 200 yards off the main road. 

We spent the night and the next day we got the truck started. Most of the food was ruined. Have you ever seen a frozen uncooked  potato? they turn to mush when you thaw them. Some of the cans had frozen and burst.  

We took what we could salvage and they headed back to Denver.

 

 

 

[CWO3ROBBIE]

I'm a little curious as to why others arent posting here. Everyone's life is interesting.

I  would like to read more about how we have observed the last half of the last century

[Merry]

I'll see what I can do, if anything great comes to mind , I'll jot a few notes down and then come and fill them in. Food for thought. That's what I love about TBD.

[Bob Stepp]

Robbie....I posted a short 'life story' on another thread, which turned out to be more than enough for me. I do, however, enjoy reading all the other posts.

I believe I'll remain private for now.

[CWO3ROBBIE]

Every time I write a segment, it brings back other memories. I wonder how accurate they are? Sometimes when writing about an incedent, I realize that I'm mixing the timelines up. Combining two or more events, or just plain finding gaps in the memory. Other times there is no doubt that it happened the way I wrote it.

[CWO3ROBBIE]

I and four of the other guys who were out there have been getting together in Colorado and/or Utah each year for the last 4 summers. We have managed to find the locations of many of the camps we were in.

In 2009 we found what is left of the cabin north of Granby, that I just wrote about. It isn't as big as I remembered. The roof is gone, but the walls were still there.

I don't have any pictures of how it was in 57 But I assure you it is the place. The outhouse is gone. But, I do remember very well where it was. Going to an outhouse when the temp is well below zero can remain in your memory for a long time. This is where I also found out what happens when you drain the radiator on a jeep, but do not know that the engine block also needs to be drained.

[darroll]

I was driving on old highway 99 in the winter and going about 80.
I came around a corner and a car was in the ditch and they had small children.
I put my foot on the brake and nothing happened. I pushed harder and still no stopping and realized that I was on black ice.
It took me another two miles to stop and turn around and go pull these people out of the ditch.
I sure didn’t drive 80 anymore for the rest of the winter.

[Merry]

Ok kids, check this out. After running around on the face of the earth for almost half a century , I now know what it is that I want to be when I grow up. So this is about the future. Now , I just have to grow up. I love what I'm doing with fabrics. Mundane to some for certain. The piece I'm doing now is already sold and not yet done , it sort of reminds me of a western movie prop. They want a peacock feather embroidered and beaded on it. A honey bee and a dragonfly. (It's a quilt.) ............a cwazy quilt. Somehow I found my niche and all the vintage lace, fabric, odds and ends and sewing machines (I have three sewing machines) are starting to make sense. NO YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND. I get high on colour and making things. Texture, colour, fabric designs, it's endless. Hunting and gathering and problem solving.......O-my!

[Merry]

LOL I'm real happy at the moment cause I might be able to barter some quilting for some badly needed painting on the house. Yeah , I'm stoned on life.

[darroll]

Around my sixteenth birthday I went and got my driver’s license. I went and picked up my buddies, stopped and bought beer and headed for the lake.
We were sitting on top of the picnic bench, diving off the cliffs and making an ass out of ourselves.
Here came an old couple with a couple of kids (about 30) and parked right in our picnic spot and glared at us for drinking beer and a$$ing off.
While we were sitting on the bench a boy walked by and walked straight into the lake until his head went under water and disappeared. I got up and walked into the lake and started feeling for the kid under water. I felt something and come up with his foot in my hand. While I was carrying him upside down, water was pouring out of his mouth and nose. He then started to cry. I asked whose kid this was and some adult yelled, turn my child loose. I didn’t drop the kid on his head, but handed him to an adult upside down.
They never thanked me or realized what happened as they were too busy glaring at us. This happened in the lake right out of Fort Jones. Most everyone didn’t care if we drank beer when we were too young in the old days.