Where have YOU lived?

I recently asked some of my family and friends to share their "stories" with me for posting here. This first one I said I would publish "anonymously". However, I'm pretty certain some of you will recognize her.

"Let's see, places I have lived, a '54 Chevy, an earth-sheltered house, a boarding house in Tennessee run by a lady of the night, who didn't let her renters have visitors in their rooms, and a mobile home with a crazy person who tried to kill herself. 

"I saved her by putting a tourniquet on her, using the hose off the douche bag. The doctor said he had seen many things used, but never a thing like that. I told him that she had just got my newly-cleaned bathroom dirty and it was handy. As mad as I was that she should pull such a stupid stunt...she was lucky I didn't just leave her in the mess!

"The crazy lady, Ruby, I met in Nashville, TN and worked with her in Charlie's Bar and Grill. Charlie had got in some financial problems and had to close it for a while. So, we went to another town to find a job. This town was closer to where her mom and her two little girls lived. 

(Pinterest)

"It was basically a two-horse town. Two cafes that sold beer and kept the hard stuff in the back. I worked the day shift and Ruby worked the night, except on Saturday and then we both worked. 

"The food we sold was not very much. Chicken and dumplings and sandwiches. Roast beef stew and sandwiches, except the roast beef was goat! Chips, cookies, etc. Mostly beer.

"We made a good pair. She had raven hair and I had red! She was worldly wise, about 32 years old, and I was 21 - and not as smart as I once thought I was. Maybe smart for McKinney....just not beyond that!

"Oh, and since it was a very little town, and the cops got involved, we both lost our jobs and had to move! All because Ruby had been sleeping with our boss and got mad at him....he had several other women on the side and she found out about them. If she was mad when she started drinking...the madder she would get!

"I would watch her work men and they would nearly give her the world. I never learned that skill. Somehow, my sense of good didn't acquire that skill. Needless to say I learned a lot from her about the lower rim of life!"

(Years passed. Marriages. Children. Grandchildren. Different occupations. When her youngest daughter married, life changed for her as well.)

"I thought that since I was making good money now and they had this extra land that had an extra power pole and access to the septic tank...that maybe I could get an old building from the house movers and have it moved to their place. (A new and different kind of residence!)

"In the meantime...I could move into the 12' x 16' building. So, I put my stuff in storage and I did. I had a twin-size bed, an old portable closet, some shelves, my stereo, and my microwave sat on an old table saw. I relieved myself in a quart jar and dumped it in a hole at the far back of the house, near where the neighbor had goats. Other things and showering I did inside her house.

"The old man down the street (he is now over 100) raised ducks and geese. He gave me five orphan ducklings. I kept the ducks in a cage. During the day they got to get in a plastic pond. When I got home from work, of course, they would all wake up, soooo to relax all of us, I would put on a CD of Pachelbel's Canon that had the sound of ocean waves in the background and we would all go to sleep."

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This story came about when my friend and I got into a discussion about

"funky" places we had lived. I thought my time at The Barn would win hands-down for the funkiest place until she started sending me the above info on her different "homes". Most of the earlier residences she lived in long before we met. I left out pertinent information about her line of work and other interesting facets about her life for fear of giving her identity away! That's a story for another time.

Needless to say, she won our contest as to who lived in the funkiest places. However, I never told her about the time when I was a child that my mother, sister and I lived in the rear of a cleaners. And THAT'S a story for another time.

Send me YOUR stories!

Peace,

Marilyn