This is my post for #maynia prompt hymn of sanity hosted by @kaelci also for #freewrite Wednesday prompt hand cream hosted by @mariannewest
My aunt and uncle who were no real relation to me were very old-school Aunt Mae would not use hand cream bought from a regular store she would purchase it at a feed store, I am thinking it was called udder balm. It was made to rub on the milk cow's teets when they got cracked and sore. She said it was the best hand cream money could buy. She also rubbed it on her arms and even her face.
She kept a small bottle that said suave on it, it was a pink lotion and after washing our hair she would put a little dab on her palm and rub her hands together, then rub it in our hair. It was a bottle of magic. The comb went right through our hair. Dad never bought anything like that and I always had a hard time brushing my hair after washing it.
My dad would buy a liniment that was made to rub on a horse when they hurt a leg. He said it was better than something like Ben-Gay.
I had no clue what hymn of sanity meant so I googled it and found it is a song by a group called Faceless. Maybe I am old-school because I did not care for their singing but I read the lyrics and I thought they were pretty good.
In dads' house, if you turned the radio on, it had better be on nothing but country. I loved the music of my time, the 60s' rock. If he came in and the radio was on that he would yell "turn that hippy shit off".
I saved up my money and bought the Woodstock album and he heard me playing it, the fish song was on. He walked over and yanked it off of the record player and broke it over his knee, he picked up the album cover and ripped it, the other record fell out and he broke it, too. I paid over ten dollars for that record, which was a lot of money back then.
That all happened before I was married.
My husband was out of Bootcamp and he got a place for me and the baby to live in California, he was stationed at Camp Pendleton and the place he rented was in San Clemente. The baby was now three months old and we took a plane to California.
This place he rented was awful, it must have been built in the 1600s, at least it looked like that. It was either all concrete or some type of shell, it stayed damp inside as the outside and inside were made of the same concrete looking stuff. It was also full of mold, I hated it.
There was an apartment building across the street that was made of wood, I kept my eye on it and as soon as a for rent sign was put out front I was over there telling them I wanted it. My husband did not want to move there because the rent was more. I did not care I was moving and told him I would get a job to help pay the rent.
We got the apartment upstairs, there were a lot of stairs but I did not care it had no mold. I got a job at the dry cleaners. I had worked there for a couple of months when my babysitter told me she was moving. I told my boss I would have to quit if I could not find someone to watch my little girl. She bought a playpen, set it up behind the counter, and told me to bring my daughter to work with me. She also bought a swing, back then you had to wind the swing and when she was in it whoever was closest to her would wind it.
My husband had a broken leg and knows they will not let him drive on base, so he would drive almost to the gate then I would drive through the gate to the base. I did not have a driver's license but they never asked they would look at the sticker on the car and wave me through. My husband was driving and he was spending, we passed a state trooper who had someone pulled over and we thought we got lucky, but the trooper called the gate and had them hold us there. By this time I was behind the wheel. So I got a speeding ticket and driving without a license ticket. I went the next day and got my license and when I went to court I showed the judge my license, he did not look at the date so all I had to pay was the fine for doing 80 in a 55 zone. That is the only ticket I have ever gotten and I was not the one driving.
My husband was being transferred from San Clemente to Oceanside so I had to quit my job. We were in base housing there so we paid no rent. I was pregnant and the OB doctor was in Malibu, his name was Dr Inch. He delivered a beautiful baby boy.
My son was not very old when I got a phone call that my two oldest brothers were in a car wreck and one was killed. I flew home and found out the details. dad got a phone call from someone that my two brothers were in a fight in a bar and the men they fought with were after them when they left the bar. My dad said he passed a car that was on a wrecker and thought it was a terrible wreck. He did not recognize the car being my brothers. The brother that was driving was pinned under the car, it was flipped, my other brother was thrown from the car and died instantly. The brother that survived broke his back and was told he would never walk again. When he finally got to come home they brought him on a stretcher. He tried his best to move his legs and after two years he was able to stand and slowly was able to walk. This was in 1979 and not only does he live every day in pain but he lives with the fact that our brother did not make it and he still blames himself because he survived. I would have rather had neither die but the one who survived has a wife and six kids, the other one had never married or had kids and I tell him the other would have rather it be him if one had to go. Either way, it is heartbreaking.