My first roommate was named Ella Sue sumpin' sumpin'. She went by Sue. She was from Napa. We rented a house in Novato. It was a three bedroom two bath place. The front of the house had two bedrooms. a fireplace, hardwood floors. a dining room with French doors that lead out to a side yard. The kitchen was fairly decent size. The back of the house was a very large bedroom with bath. That was where Sue lived. She organized her belongings by piling them in sections of the floor.
We had to wash clothes at a laundromat. We were absolute slobs. We had some sort of party where people come to look at goods a perhaps purchase them, I think it was jewelry. After the party on of our co-workers named Pam started washing dishes. She stopped at the halfway mark and said we could finish.
Pam was very interesting, she had married a man in the Air Force who was stationed in England. I was amazed and exclaimed, "You have a perfect accent!" She explained that she had a very heavy Cockney accent. I asked how she got rid of it. She replied that she began with a Southern accent that morphed into unaccented American English. She did admit that when she was mad that the Cockney really came back.
While we lived there we both took flying lessons from Uncle Carl in Petaluma. One Saturday we left to take lessons. I had put a pot of water with eggs on to boil and forgot to turn it off. By the time we got home the eggs had boiled dry, burned and burst. We walked into the house to a smell that I cannot describe. The smoke was thick, and we quickly aired out the house.
Sue was hard on cars. Her father vetted the used cars but inevitably something would go wrong. One day we were going to work. As Sue pulled onto highway 101, flames leapt up from under the hood. We had both seen plenty of films where a car catches on fire and the passengers bail out before the car explodes. We both dived out to cower beside the car. Nothing happened. A car stopped and a guy got out and started throwing dirt on the fire. We called in sick. Sue went car shopping the next day.
At one point I decided to adopt a puppy. She was a small white mutt who I called Precious. One day I was coming home from shopping and Sue met me at the door to say that she had accidentally backed over Precious. End of owning dogs.
I purchased a 1957 Volkswagen from Pam's husband, who was a Sargent on Hamilton Air Force base. He repaired cars and sold them. I bought the Volkswagen for about $250.00 if I remember correctly.
A few weeks later something broke. I couldn't get the car started, Sue kept yelling "Pop the clutch!" I had no idea how to do that. I got the car towed to a foreign car repair shop. I gave him the pink slip to hold until I paid for the repairs.
Pam's husband very nicely forgave what I owed him but Pam was pissed at him. I think the Cockney came out.
The Volkswagen did not have a gas gauge but it did have a foot lever to flip to the extra gas tank. I drove it home a couple of times. Going up the grade before the highway dropped into Truckee was slow going. I just got in the slow lane, crossed my feet on the gas peddle and tootled across the mountains. Once on the other side I could get up to as much as 70 mph. Woot! It also had no radio, so I had to entertain myself by humming.
I was in the habit of stopping at Bergies after I got off the Graveyard shift at Fairchild. To get the attendants to come out, you had to turn on the headlights. They would come out, get the order and deliver it to you. I went home, went to sleep and my battery was dead when I got up to go to work. Oy! That was the last time I ever let that happen.
One summer, I drove the bug home. I had gotten off work, started driving north immediately. By the time I got to the Idaho border, I was pretty tired. As I was driving down Marsing hill I saw something, it like lights flying low over a barn that was lighted. As I got closer, I pulled over and stopped the car. I got out a flashlight. There was a light hovering over the barn. I flashed my light at it. The light shot straight up and zipped out of sight. I think I either hallucinated or I saw a real UFO. I was very tired. Probably hallucinated. If I every hallucinate in future. I intent to enjoy it what ever it is.
I was one of Sue's attendants at her wedding. I wore a peach satin sheath, matching heels and a sunhat. She married a young man named Chester Wong. He worked for Xerox.
They met when she decided to drive about the country for vaca. She called her parents each evening. She stopped at Grand Canyon and hiked to the bottom and back up. She met Chester while at the Grand Canyon.
Sue was an even bigger slob than I was. When Chester came to visit her in her apartment. By that time we had moved into matchy matchy apartments in Novato. She put all her dirty dishes away in the cupboards rather than wash them.
I went to visit them once in Napa, they had a small apartment there. Still pretty messy. Later on they moved into a larger house. I was invited to dinner one evening. Sue had miraculously discovered that when she had enough space, she could be an immaculate housewife. I started to gather up the dishes after dinner and she asked that I not stack them as she did not wash the bottoms. Huh?
One year, I was invited to Chester's folks house in San Francisco for Chinese New Year's dinner. It was fabulous. His mom cooked for days to prepare. My favorite dish was chicken gizzards cooked until tender in some sort of wine sauce. It was delicious! The only thing I have had since was Chicken gizzards boiled in Coke then coated in crumbs and fried. Wow!
Sue liked to take Pam's girls out on adventures. Because the oldest girl was confined to a wheelchair, we were always admitted first.
We went to the Planetarium in the museum located in Golden Gate Park. We were let in and found places to sit. It was cool and dark and I may have nodded off.
I loved going to Gold Gate park. It was fabulous. I loved the museum, the planetarium, the Japanese Gardens and the wonderful moon gate and the art museum always had wonderful things to go see. I would love to return to visit someday. Bon Voyage!
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