Page 81 - People & Places In Time

between the men’s gymnasium and the auto shop build- ing along Rocky Hill Drive; then drive onto campus between the cafeteria and some classrooms. From here we walked the hallways to the chemistry classrooms, unlocking that door we proceed to the lab equip-
ment storeroom, all with only a flashlight. Thoughts of breaking and entering or jail never crossed my mind, nor should I even consider what my parents might do. Jeremey’s scheme was to get the necessary lab equip- ment to make a still. For goodness sakes, neither of us even drank. Our mission safely accomplished, we took everything to his house, as his parents were not home and I needed to be home. At this point I had nothing more to do with his project and heard nothing more from Jeremey about the result. In the early 1960’s there were no burglar alarms or night watchmen. Exeter only had one police cruiser at night, and he may not have even been out. I can’t even imagine how this would have played out if we had been caught.
The most significant thing to happen this year was later during the summer. I bought my 1956 Ford 2dr. hardtop with a 312 cubic inch motor and 4brl. Holly carburetor. This is one of life’s most important turning points. I start my senior year with my own car. I was sure life couldn’t help but improve.
Mobility made it possible to spend time with my cousin, Cheri Pruner. We had always been close, but her families ranch was about five miles south of town. Now it became easier to make my way out there. We rode horses around the vineyards and swam in my aunt and uncle’s pool, our common shyness became a bond. Having grown up together, it was easy to let our time together become our comforting escape.
My senior year wasn’t the grand new world it might have been, but things were improving. School work continued difficult as ever, but I had a better sense of who I could become. I had a few dates and by spring I would have my first girlfriend in four years. Peggy Russell who would set the standard for just about every girlfriend forward. Later there was a brief summer ro- mance with Nancy Leach. In between. I would take my long-time good friend, Nancy Hodge to the Prom and neighbor JoEllen Creek to my senior graduation party.
Still for this shy boy, life was on the upswing and high school was past tense.
Graduation from high school is typically a mile- stone in anyone’s life, a celebration for which stories are told and boasts are exaggerated. The prelude has played out and the gates swung open to a new beginning and yet I just didn’t have the sense it was completed. It seemed there was unfinished business, I knew that I had missed out on something.
Moving On
With graduation from high school there wasn’t an obvious plan on the table. This is the summer I turned eighteen and it was spent working at Blue Goose Packing, the same as the summer before.
The Fall of 1963 found me starting classes at the College of the Sequoias a junior college in Visalia.
I did have a pretty good idea of where I wanted to
find myself, eventually. The problem was, I lacked any understanding of what it would take to make a commit- ment that might allow for the possibility of that happen- ing.
I simply was not prepared to continue in school. There are many reasons, excuses and blame for this predicament; some I’ve already discussed. None of these matters if someone isn’t ready.
By the time spring rolled around, my grades were not good and remaining in school was looking less likely.
It’s interesting how certain time frames in our lives remain memorable, while others are like a black hole. From the start at COS through December of 1964 this became one of those obscure periods. During this time, I totaled my first car, had several girlfriends whose names are lost to me, found my footing socially, but not academically and I eventually left school.
The Spring of 1965 found me working at Wa- terman Industries and driving to Fresno on weekends. I stayed at my friend Jim Heaton’s apartment; a place with the name Enfield Hall picture Delta House at Faber college.
I’m not the first young man, or woman to be enticed into the college party life, but it happens and
though most survive, a few lose their way. I don’t say that lightly, it’s a dangerous place to venture for those drifting through life uncommitted. It’s as easy as quick- sand to step into . . . without purpose it becomes dif- ficult to step away.
Some call this experience a rite of passage; a declaration that we’ve escaped the bonds of youth. The problem is, we allowed the immaturity of youth to run amok. With mixed thoughts I look at this period spent with friends, as not the time in my life when I put my best behavior forward but then again, I was with friends and we did have a good time, things we laugh about to this day. I just have a nagging feeling it was time wasted yet, it’s a time rehearsed again and again through the years, usually with a few glasses of wine, which is pretty much what we were doing then. Have we remained the same, or did that time of life change us? We never know, do we; just how circumstances will play out when we’ve done the least to expect the best?
At some point in the spring of 1965 a group of four or five senior girls from Bullard High School in Fres- no showed up at our weekend party. It was on a Friday or maybe a Saturday night, anyway they were looking for some college excitement. It’s important to mention now, that they were nice girls from good families. How they found their way to this apartment and this party remains a mystery.
All of us at the apartment, whether living there, attending Fresno State or not, were from Exeter. Besides Jim and I, there was Doug Buckman, Gary Dungan, Frank Kirkman, Marshal Love and a host of others that came and went over time. The older guys, Frank and Doug were designated to buy liquor at Fresno U-Save for the rest of us; how they didn’t get into trouble I will never understand. The girls from Bullard High found what they were looking for. Little could they know how much their night out would mean to me.
Cheryl Watters was one of the girls who walked into Enfield Hall that first time. From fifty years since, I can’t remember how we became more than just a one- time acquaintances in passing, while at a college party. As it happened, Cheryl and I became boyfriend and girlfriend.
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