Cookies and Stuff

By the fall of 1971 I had been out of high school for well over a year and during that time I only had one job (for a few weeks) at a gas station... The point is that I had a lot of time on my hands - and that's the topic of the next few posts.

But first, the cookie story:
Fair warning - there are no actual cookies involved, and this may be one of those "you had to be there" things. But (as usual) I'll tell it anyway...
One day a few of us guys were sitting around (at Steve's house?) in Argyle trying to think of something to do when one of them (might have been Robert) got all excited and suggested that we go over to this house he'd heard about near the North Texas campus where some college girls were turning tricks to make extra money... Needless to say, we were a bit skeptical (not whether such a house existed, just that anyone would tell him.) So he elaborated: "When they answer the door you say 'I want my cookies.' - that's the password!"... Yeah - we all cracked up. We figured whoever told him that was yanking his chain - hoping he'd actually try it. (And no - we didn't.)
After that "I want my cookies" became an inside joke. We'd randomly say it in around people (usually girls) who, of course, had no clue that it was a suggestive remark. This went on for months. You would not believe how mad some of them got after the 5th or 6th request for cookies without an explanation of why it was so funny... Yeah - maybe you did have to be there :-)
Epilogue - it was around 2007 the first time I saw the animated movie "Over the Hedge". At one point "Hammy" (voice of Steve Carell) screams "I want my cookies!!!"... It caught me totally off guard... I laughed so hard I almost peed my pants.

Next: Denton had a community chorus headed by a guy named Stephen Farish (I'm not sure why I remember that) and at some point during the summer of 1971 they were looking for backup musicians for a (contemporary music) concert series. It was a non-paying gig and since I was the only guitarist who auditioned I "made the cut".
There's really not much to say about it other than it was a lot of fun... For some reason I don't remember the practices (we must have practiced, right?) but I do remember playing "Spinning Wheel" by Blood, Sweat and Tears... Also - one of the other musicians played a saw (with a bow) during one of the songs. Yeah - the thing looked like ordinary saw but it totally wasn't - I saw it up close and there's no way you could cut wood with it :-)
The chorus' next project was "The Mikado" and Dr. Farish tried to talk me into singing (even though I told him I couldn't sing). I did show up for the first practice. It was fun and all - but Gilbert and Sullivan is pretty silly stuff and I was just too hip for that - so I didn't go back :-)

Next - there were a few places I would hang out when I was bored. One of them was a car parts store north of downtown on Locust (not there anymore)...
It got kind of slow around mid-morning and some "regulars" would show up and shoot the breeze... One of them had a '56 Ford station wagon powered by a dual quad 390. The car was jacked up about 3 feet off the ground (not 4wd) and would do wheelies. I didn't see the point...
OK - nobody ever thinks this is funny but I'll mention it anyway: One day a teenager came in for parts and after he left one of the younger regulars said "I can't stand him"... When asked why, he said (and I quote) "He thinks he's hot sh*t just because his dad's the Roto-Rooter man." ... What struck me as funny is that he was being totally serious - it was so random :-)

The next place I used to hang out was the "not a 7/11" store...
I don't remember the actual name but it was part of Dallas based convenience chain... I became good friends with the guy who managed the one on Glenwood Lane, just off of East University Drive. (I seem to recall his name was Kerry.) Everyone kept telling me he was gay - that was a really big deal to a lot of folks back then but it was a non-issue to me. I never asked and he never told.
BTW: I do remember that his big brother offered to sell me a 1962 XKE roadster for $1200 (about $6,500 in 2012 currency). I would have loved to have it but just couldn't afford it...
Of course, the convenience store had regulars too. There were these 2 guys in their mid-20s who had dropped out of 8th grade together and became house painters. They lived on a farm and kept dozens of old beat-up cars around because they liked to get drunk and drive through the fields playing "demolition derby"... I remember that one of them had pierced the palm of his hand so when he went to bars he could make money by betting people he could drive a nail through it. It seemed like having a pre-made hole was cheating but anyone crazy enough to do that deserves to make a few bucks off of it... Yeah - you can't make this stuff up :-)

Kerry's brother and a cousin of theirs also managed convenience stores (the same chain) in the Denton area. Whenever the corporate office sent someone out to inventory they'd have to shuffle stuff around in the middle of the night to cover the shortages...
They were perpetually "short" because they were way too kindhearted... There were times I wouldn't have had anything to eat if Kerry hadn't taken pity on me - but that part of the story is yet to come.

And the last part of the story (for today):
One day after I moved back to Argyle (again - story to come) I got a call from Kerry asking if I'd take him down to Dallas because he had to take a lie detector test and was too nervous to drive himself. I didn't mind because I didn't have anything else to do and I'd get to drive his brand new '72 Skylark. And as we headed down I-35E he explained that the company was too cheap to put safes in the stores so the managers had to keep their excess cash hidden somewhere, and he kept his in a paper bag in the freezer. The previous day when he went to make the bank deposit he discovered that he was around $600 short... He figured it was some of the young teenagers who hung out at his store but he really couldn't be sure...
As we drove Kerry sort of slipped into "stream of consciousness" mode. He talked about his anxieties and whether he was too trusting in general... He was replaying the day over and over again in his head, wondering if he was partially at fault for not keeping a closer eye on the regulars. And he wondered how much he should say about the teenagers given that he wasn't even sure when the money was taken... I reassured him that he hadn't done anything wrong and if he answered honestly he'd be fine...

Kerry passed the test (of course). But the point is that when he needed someone to talk to (someone he could really trust) I'm the one he reached out to... Not his lifelong friends ... Not his closest relatives ... Me... I have that affect on some people. But there are many others who seem to look for a place to hide when they see me coming :-) ... Yeah - in all my years on this earth I've never been able to figure out how people perceive me - or why... At this point I figure I'm probably better off not knowing :-)