Glorieta

Sometime around August of 1971 "The Chosen Few" hopped on the church bus and headed to Glorieta, NM for a week of bible study and other exciting activities. Of course, some of the parents went along (in the own cars) to chaperone. Steve's mom and dad (in a Delta 88) were in charge of the boys, and Lynda's mom (in a Vista Cruiser) plus a few other moms took care of the girls... I'm pretty sure all of us "youngsters" could have crammed into the various Oldsmobiles, but we were supposed to ride on the bus (for togetherness, I guess), and we did - for the most part.

Aside: I seem to recall that one of the church faithful was an Oldsmobile salesman. That's why almost the entire congregation owned one... It would have been a serious statistical aberration otherwise :-)

For some reason Brother Dee ended up driving the bus. Apparently you didn't need a CDL to do that in Texas at the time. (I don't know if he volunteered or not - if he did he was crazy...)
BTW: I really wanted to drive that bus - just around the block - but they never would let me. Something about liability...

OK - now this is funny:
The first time we stopped at a rest area it was still a bit chilly and one of the girls was wearing a bright purple jacket. As she was getting off the bus one of the mothers tried to say "You look like a purple people eater!" but she said "peter" instead of "people".
Now - that's pretty darn funny in any context, but when it involves members of an evangelical church it is triple hilarious. Especially when the mother tries to explain it by saying she was thinking of me. (Somehow she didn't realize that sounded worse.) Now - although some of the kids were a bit naive, none of them were so naive that they didn't "get it", and the best part was watching them turn colors trying not to laugh :-)

Let's see... We avoided the freeways for the most part - it was a beautiful day - and the scenery was quite lovely. Well, not so much in the Texas panhandle, but the Rockies in northern New Mexico were awesome...

At one point during the trip Steve, Sam, Royce and I started singing the Three Dog Night version of "Joy to the World" but they stopped when we got to the "high night flyer - rainbow rider" part because they thought something about the lyrics would offend Brother Dee... I still have no clue what the problem was... Maybe it was the "straight-shootin' son-of-a-gun" part??? ... I don't get it - but then I didn't grow up in Argyle.

It was a long, hot bus ride and every time we stopped a few of the girls migrated to the Oldsmobiles, but Becky (that Becky) and us guys stayed the course. Now - as the day wore on Becky started getting more and more flirtatious, and by late afternoon it had gotten "physical". Nothing seriously inappropriate - just mildly inappropriate. Yeah - it was a side of her I'd never seen before... And poor Brother Dee was up there in the driver's seat pretending like nothing was happening... I felt kind of bad for him - he was such a sweet guy. There just wasn't any "disciplinarian" in him... And, or course, the next day Becky was all "I have no idea what you're talking about"... Typical "church girl" B.S. :-)

Another aside: A while back I was on a company outing down in the Bay Area and on the way back to the office one of the admins (who'd had a few beers) was running all over the bus sitting on guy's laps and hugging us and stuff. It was totally out of character - and pretty much the same stuff Becky had been doing on that Glorieta trip...
So - is there something about bus rides with male acquaintances that causes some women to behave that way? Maybe some kind of bizarre latent childhood psycho-sexual school bus thing??? Heck if I know... It just seemed like a really strange coincidence... But back to the story.

When we got to the Baptist retreat Steve, Sam, Royce and I ended up in a big room together with Steve's parents. (They had a double bed and we were in bunks.) It was kind of strange to be sleeping in the same room with a married couple (Boy Scouts would never allow that) but it really wasn't an issue (except for the snoring).
The room had a big table between the bunks where we played cards and dominoes in the evenings. That was fun... And I'm sure there must have been a chow hall somewhere on that campus but I'll be darned if I remember anything about it. (I wonder why that is?)

So - we were given schedules of all the classes that we were supposed to be attending during the week, and I did go to a few of them the first morning, but then I ran into Steve (who was in a different age group) and we decided we'd had enough "enlightenment" and spent the rest of the week chasing girls :-)

Now - this was right after Brenda (that Brenda) broke up with me and I was still hurting... I had tried "cozying up" to a couple of the other girls in the group but none of them would have anything to do with me. I swear it was some kind of conspiracy - very strange indeed... But hanging out with Steve was the perfect antidote. As I mentioned a while back, when it came to girls he adhered to the "infinite supply" theory. Yeah - while I was seeking perfection he would go after anything with a pulse :-)
We ended up spending most of the week with this preacher's daughter from Wichita Falls... She was a cute little blond thing (always wore wicked short mini-skirts) with serious issues. She'd flirt with you, then be mean to you, then apologize, then flirt again, be mean again, apologize - like 3 or 4 times a day. I think the idea was to see how many times she could "catch and release" you before you stopped taking the bait... Yeah - she was really good at it - it was great fun :-)

Yet another aside:
There was a kid named Robert from a town near Argyle who seemed to know most of the "Chosen Few" and was good friends with Steve. I mention this here because I know he was at Glorieta at the same time as us but with a different church group... And, now that I think about it, I'm sure he was the one who suggested I shove the bayonet up my pant leg when Steve got stopped by the highway patrolman... Sigh - I can't believe how much trouble I'm having piecing all of this together...

Of course, we didn't spent all our time at the retreat:

We took a side trip to Santa Fe and spent a couple of hours hanging out in the town square. I couldn't believe all the Native Americans selling blankets and jewelry there - must have been at least a hundred... The other thing I remember is one of the Lindas getting groped from behind on a crowded sidewalk. We wanted to kick the guy's ass but we couldn't figure out who it was... I hope he didn't suspect she was only 13 (she was rather tall). Yeah - I know... It's still totally unjustified, but it seems slightly less creepy if he thought she was older...

At some point we also visited some pueblo ruins. I don't think it was Pecos - this was a smaller settlement next to a dry riverbed. The tour guide claimed there had once been a sizable river flowing through the valley but he didn't seem to know why the area had dried up... The whole thing made quite an impression on me - fascinating stuff...

Eventually it was time to head back home. I'm not sure who (if anyone) rode on the bus - it was hot and we were all tired. I ended up hitching a ride with Steve and his parents (the McDaniels) and they even let me drive for a couple of hundred miles.

OK - this is slightly amusing: Shortly after I took the wheel I realized that Steve's dad had dozed off and I was quite proud that he trusted me enough to nap while the lives of his family members were in my hands... I later discovered that it wasn't a matter of trust at all. That guy could've fallen asleep in a rowboat during a hurricane :-)

Sigh - I really cannot believe how long it took me to write this post... I suspect that the events of early 1972 perturbed my mental "filing system" and I just never got it all sorted out... But I'm getting there...