An Ending and a Beginning

I guess it's probably time for me to officially identify Steve's parents: They are Stella and Dewitt McDaniel... I held off on revealing their last name for so long because I wasn't sure how much I was going to say about some of the things Steve did back in the day. Now that I've "outed" him I guess I'm going to have to take most of it to the grave with me :-)
BTW: Dewitt passed away a few years back, but Stella, Steve and his little sister Stephanie still live within a 1/4 mile of each other in Argyle.

And on to the story:

When I found out I was being evicted from the house in Denton I went through all the rooms and put everything in piles on the living room floor. I had already hauled some of it to the McDaniels' house when Dewitt offered me a place to live but there was still an awful lot left... Not much of it was Karina's - she tended to travel really light back then, but both mom and I had accumulated a fair bit of stuff during the time we'd been in Texas and there wasn't nearly enough room for all of it at the McDaniels'.

That left me in a quandary... I didn't mind leaving most of my stuff behind, but since mom wasn't there to sort through her things I had to make choices. I would've liked to have taken it all, but there really wasn't room. On the other hand, the doctors seemed quite certain she was going to die in which case I'd end up getting rid of everything that didn't hold any sentimental value anyway... So I tried to strike a balance by asking myself "How pissed off is mom going to be if she ends up surviving and this particular item is gone?"

So - I took all of her paintings (but not the frames), some of her nicer clothes, her personal mementos and  most of her books. Everything else (including the unwashed dishes in the sink) I left behind... Since the landlord had taken the TV and stereo I figured he could darn well pay the cost of getting rid of everything else :-)

Aside: Unfortunately, Dewitt was allergic to cats which led to that traumatic trip to the pound I described in an earlier post.

Of course, I had to get the Fairlane out of there too and that posed a bit of a problem because it wasn't running at the time. (Probably the radiator - it was almost always the radiator.) So one evening Dewitt brought his truck over and he rigged up a kind of "tow bar" arrangement using a chain running through an 8 foot piece of pipe. (That way I wouldn't have to worry about braking when he slowed down.)
So we proceeded down Mingo, Bell and Locust, and the setup was working pretty well until we got to the intersection of the I35E frontage road and highway 377. Dewitt started to make the left turn when somebody cut him off and he had to slam on his brakes. I didn't have time to react and the sudden shock broke the chain causing the Fairlane to smack into the back of his pickup... Dewitt made sure I was OK and apologized profusely, but it really wasn't necessary. I seem to recall his back bumper got tweaked worse that the front of the Fairlane :-)
At that point we were completely blocking the intersection of Interstate 35E and highway 377 (pretty busy at that time of day) which meant we had to figure something out quick. So Dewitt just hooked the Fairlane up with a long piece of rope and gave me instructions on how to avoid leaving any slack. (Basically, I had to brake for both vehicles). And we made it back to their house on Old Justin Road without further incident.

BTW - That reminds me: There used to be a street sign at the McDaniels' driveway that said "Heart Attack Alley". It was placed there by a new minister who caught a ride with Dewitt before anyone had a chance to warn him :-)

Another aside: Of course, my mom did survive, and do you know what she was maddest about? ... Those freaking picture frames... They were big, heavy, ornate and unwieldy and my mom was like "You dummy! Do you have any idea what those were worth???" and I was like "Hey! You were supposed to die! Remember? I had to leave something behind!"... Yeah - I didn't hear the end of that one for years... Someone would be admiring her paintings and she'd say "I used to have really nice frames for them but my son threw them away." Like I was the village idiot or something... But I digress :-)

So -  a part of my life ended and a new one had begun... One that was unlike anything I had ever experienced...