old e-mails -- the Elvis story

I figure I already wrote these stories, so I might as well keep them.

This one in response to a friend telling me she was a Beatles fan.

>>Beatles? I was an Elvis girl. I measured 6' 2" on my


wall and put his lil' ole picture right there. I

watched all his movies.

It was 1965 when I went to the movie, Girl Happy. And

when it was over and the western movie played out, I

stayed and watched Girl Happy come on again.



And then, when I left the theater it was dark out and

I had that long walk home up the mountain. The

mountain I didn't mind, but I was afraid of the valley

in the dark.



I usually went home the valley way, while my brother,

John, took the high road -- Maple Street there in

Richwood.



I knew Mom would have sent John after me, so I decided

I better go the Maple street way. And John did go

after me, but he remembered that I usually took the

valley road, past the Rainbow Grille and across the

South Side bridge and down Dyer avenue, so that's the

way he went.



I walked up Maple and John wasn't there and instead of

going home, I backtracked and then I got worried about

Mom being worried and I started crying.



I went across the Maple Street Bridge crying and this

young teen-age girl stopped and I told her what

happened and she took me home with her, there on Boggs

avenue. It was a scary house which bothered my dreams

for years to come. It was glaring yellow and there

were roaches everywhere. It terrified me.



But her kinfolks drove me up the hill and let me off

at my Grandma's and I could "read" people, even then.

And what surprised me was that these grownups were as

scared as I was -- they were frightened of our

peaceful lovely hill and the old time house(shacks?)

that we lived in. They let me out, turned their car

and hightailed it out of there.



And that's my Girl Happy story. After Mom got over

being upset at me worrying her near to death (John

came home and told her I was not anywhere to be found,

which, of course I wasn't, because I was at that scary

house waiting to see what was going to happen -- it

took forever), she bought me the Girl Happy album --

which I had up until I got so religious and gave away

all my records (except Denver and Baez).<<