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Seeing as how there was no reunion letter
written for the 2002 because Carla took on an alter ego she refers to
as “Old Sally Ann” and refused to do her usual excellent job of
producing one. However; she did produce the following letter which
may offer some explanation.
A letter To Boyd in Heaven, with a copy to M.E.
2002
Dear Little Brother,
You used to share some of the letters that you
wrote to heaven with me, so I know you will understand perfectly my
need to write one to you.
Let me tell you about the renovation of the
ranch house.
If you are watching I don’t know if you are
crying, or just laughing so hard it looks like you are crying! You
should have known what would happen if you left. Why did you leave
us here alone at their mercy? You were the best mankind in the
family that was ever totally on the sensible side of the
women.
Remember when us girls wanted to get a new
stove with an oven that actually worked, since the only one we had
was that old worn out castoff, that leaked gas and made a person
sick? Did any of the other men want to get it? No way! They said we
have this old one that we can still turn on with a monkey wrench and
a big pair of pliers, it is plenty good enough, so why would we need
a new one? But you thought like we thought-- and ordered us a new
stove, and took it out and installed it for us.
Back to the house renovation:
Move 1. Last spring after the branding was
done (and there were no women in sight) everything from the main
house was hurled down into the Boyd Room. And I do mean hurled! Then
the floor and floor joist were ripped out. Well that is probably
good, I thought, they will pour a cement floor and a couple of nice
cement steps down into the Boyd Room, and perhaps pour a-- stem
wall-- or what ever it is called around the out side of the house.
Then they will put all the things back into their places and all
will be well.
HA!! Do you think that is what happened? No
way! Not by the longest shot that ever come in Triple Crown winner
it wasn’t. No sireeeeee!
Move 2. The next time I saw the house it was in
a hole! A huge muddy hole! And there were no bottoms to the walls. I
ain't kiddin’! No bottoms!
The house was doing some kind of a precarious
balancing act (that would have put old, “what’s his face,” Skywalker
to shame) on some variety of spindly iron fencing pegs, or something
approximating that! (Actually one of them looked more like braided
baling wire wrapped around an old branding iron.) Where the east
kitchen window used to be was now a wretched sliding glass door!
Ya think I’m funnin' ya don’t ya? But I
ain’t! Not only was it a sliding glass door-- but it was also
hanging about three feet from the ground!
I can just hear you saying, "Oh, come on now,
even I couldn’t sell one like that at Dick’s Café on my very best
story telling day of the week!” Believe me I understand your
suspicion that I’m trying to put one over on you, but it is a true
story. Factual all the way!
I was stunned into silence! When I had
recovered speech I did finally mumble, “Why in the hell would anyone
put a sliding glass door in a kitchen window?” The thought did
briefly cross my mind that maybe they were going to construct a bomb
shelter and that would be the secret entrance to fool the
terrorists! However since that was before the 9-11 attack,
perhaps I just imagined that that was what crossed my mind; as my
mind was quite numb at the time. (Some will say that it always is,
and I won’t argue that point)
However at some period in time, when my brain
did finally register that 60 years worth of gravel had been dug away
from the house also, amid its unbelievable balancing act; I did
venture a feeble query. “Did any one have a plan? Even the
smallest scrap of a plan! On a Dicks Café napkin, an empty
matchbook, the unpainted walls of the Boyd room, the outhouse
wall--- anyplace at all? I was met with blank stares.
Now listen to this. To add insult to injury
they took my Mr. And Mrs. Black Sambo utensil holder (that I had
made for Mom when I was in third grade) and threw it away!
For what reason did they do this you might
ask? Well, let me tell you, it was to put a stupid sliding glass
door into the east kitchen window! And of course included in
this move, that also meant that all the counters, cupboards, and
sink just had to go. In the one cupboard were old keepsakes like
certain old dishes, and knives, just stuff that would be important
to women or dumbbells, certainly not to brain surgeons or rocket
scientists.
They also threw away every bed! Yes that’s
right, they did! That’s right, even Mom and Dad’s bed (the one that
you were born in!) Also the sink, the water cooler, the golf clubs,
the wash basin (that we had been using to wash our hands, since
before you were born.) All the sheets, blankets, towels,
tablecloths etc. that were in the wooden chest.
That must be one of the greater mysteries of
the world as to why the mouse proof wooden chest was degutted! But
then again with no beds why would you need sheets?
I was amazed that the table and wood box were
spared. I mean after all they are old, real old (probably as old as
that one knife that you wanted-- but felt that it should remain at
the ranch.) Well I guess it will remain there, but just where I
couldn’t say. It might be the same place as HP’s half a missing
steer! I think it was only by some miracle that the new stove was
saved! Must have been quite a tussle over that decision-maybe they
just didn’t have enough manpower to lift it on the trash truck! Your
guess is as good as mine is. Probably better! Or perhaps the few
remaining items were just an oversight on the part of the trash
hauler, and they plan to take care of that later.
I still find it really hard to believe that
there was an adult there when the casting away took place,
especially since none of the things they trashed belonged to them.
Or maybe I was just mistaken when I assumed they belonged to the
ranch house and reunion, and needed at least a forum of original
cast members before reeking such disposal.
I did hear on The Echo Piney grapevine, that
they claim that the wash basin was stolen! Riiiiiiiiiiiight!!!!
Or perhaps it really was the antique thieves!
And that is why they threw away Mom and Dads bed, and all the old
keepsakes that used to be in the cupboard (that was on the kitchen
wall-- but ain’t no more--) cause it had to give way for an insipid
sliding glass door. That surely must have been the reason pure and
simple! They did it to keep them away from the antique thieves!
Of all the things lost the one that frosts me
the most is Mom’s bed. MOM’S BED! The one saved from the 1940 fire!
Max was there and helped Mom save it, so I know-- dingy
dang double sure for certain--that
he didn’t throw it away!
In fact both M.E. and H.P. have passed lie
detector tests and found innocent of being one of the trash
terrorists.
Well the kitchen walls do reach the ground now,
and the sliding glass door has left the east-- used to be-- kitchen
wall. How or where it went-- I care not, except maybe it is also the
same place as HP half steer! Who knows?
The cement floor is nice, with a fine smooth
finish on it. I did hear, once again on The Echo Piney grapevine
that the finisher had to fight off the broom finishers. Good Job!
An interesting side note here. When I was out
there reunion time (I was still in shock from cleanup day the week
before) there was a that time somewhat of a kitchen counter. It
went right across the window, half of the window above the counter
and half below! Yep, that’s what it did all right. Yeah I
know that you have serious doubts
here! But don’t! Then again,
after many second thoughts, maybe that was just a hallucination on
my part—in a pig’s eye!
The rest of that part of the house was just
mostly empty, as you can probably tell from the list that left the
premises. In fact it was so empty that Kevin, Tina and their boys
pitched their tent in there and camped out for the night. Might as
well, it should serve some reunion purpose. In fact I spent the
night in The Boyd Room (somehow the little red iron cot had been
spared) I was afraid that if I went to town, by the time I got back
out there the next morning, the few things remaining in the house
may have mysteriously disappeared down the black hole of Calcutta.
When I woke up at dawn out there, the first
thing I saw were all the coffee cups, coffee pot, and can of
coffee, sitting over in the corner where they had hooked up Dad’s
gas hot-plate, and guess what went through my mind. I know that you
would never believe that I had such thoughts but I did! I said to
myself—self, why don’t you just go over there and gather them all up
and go pitch them down the outhouse hole. After all, self said to
me, you don’t drink coffee, so why should you care, if anyone else
cares if they are gone? Well do you think I did it? I can just hear
you saying, nope. And you’re right as usual.
Yep, I know it’s all hard to believe but it is
a true fact story! Not at all like your fairy stories, that used to
start out with, “Now this ain’t no BS!”
Lastly, I must tell you about the reunion
quilt. Remember that you were the one who suggested that we have a
reunion quilt. Although you didn’t really like that family tree one,
that we did down at Maxie’s too much; However the reunion quilt was
your idea!
Anyhow, this year, every one was supposed to
help do their part of the quilt. Well guess what, “ One” just
didn’t do it. That’s right, they just sent it back-- as blank as a
cloudless sky, in the middle of the worst drought, that has ever
been experienced on the Arizona Strip!
So we had to take equivocal action; then guess
what? The “one” that didn’t help, had the gall to buy tickets on the
quilt. (Not from me I might add, I would have told them to find a
ticket booth the same place Mom’s bed was or HP half steer, or
something equally nasty.) In my defense I must tell you that I had
myself under heavy sedation, at the reunion, to help maintain some
respectable posture of decorum!
In fact I didn’t even know about this (nerve
of a government mule action, as the folks used to say) until after
the quilt drawing had all ready taken place. When I looked at the
book where it had been recorded who the ticket buyers were and saw
that name, well let me tell you my old self-inflicted battle
fatigued brain just did back flips! If they would have won that
quilt, believe me, I think I would have drawn my dueling pistols and
screamed, “Meet me at dawn, on the bank of the pond! ”
Now I realize that you never did really approve
of some of my wild tirades, and fits of temper, vowing revenge, and
all that stupid nonsense. But you were always very tolerant of them,
and seemed to get me back off the path of self-destruction, without
too much damage control having to be done later.
Do you think you could help just a little
again? A nice dream would be fine.
Maybe you can also explain this mystery to me.
If they just wanted a cement slab with walls and a roof, why didn’t
they just chalk one off down in the flat, and have at it? Would have
been a lot easier all the way around if you ask me, but then I’m
just a woman, and hardly ever understand these men things before you
explain them! :>}
Next year will be the 25th
(silver) anniversary of the reunion. I sincerely hope it will be a
wonderful one.
Love you forever,
from your earthling sister PS I have decided to forgive
them.
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