Friday, February 10, 2012

THE CURSE OF BONNIE; Fishducky Friday

    Thanks for joining us again, Fishducky. I love your stories!


 
THE CURSE OF BONNIE

       A while after we bought our beach house in Port Hueneme, CA, my next door neighbor, Bonnie, moved in with her husband from a few blocks away.  She was from Kentucky & as “down home” & unspoiled as you can get.  A month or so after she moved in we were all invited to a semiformal dinner to honor the new commander of the Naval Base.  We asked her what “semiformal” meant in this small town.  Her answer: “Perfume OR deodorant!”
Bonnie & Dex (her husband) invited us to go to the Kentucky Derby with them.  Then Dex said he couldn’t go, so Bud decided to pass & let Bonnie & me go alone.  We did & we had a great time.  When we got home her husband of about 25 or 30 years said he was glad she had fun & got home safely & by the way, he wanted a divorce.  They got it.
A couple of years later—1989—the San Francisco Giants were playing the Oakland A’s in the World Series.  My son was assistant Travel Secretary for the Giants & had 4 tickets for us to go to all the games.  Bud couldn’t take that much time off work so I took Bonnie, my other son (then a teenager) & his friend.  We stayed in the Presidio at the home of a friend who was a  Colonel in the Army.  He & his wife were off somewhere on vacation.  We used his car & I drove to Candlestick Park, less than a half hour away.  It was just about time for the first game to start, the fans were in their seats & the players on the field--& THE LOMA PRIETA EARTHQUAKE HIT!  There was a lot of fear, but not too much panic in the stadium.  We found our car & I started driving home.
Driving in San Francisco is not the easiest thing to do in the best of times--& this was NOT the best of times!  The street signs seemed to be placed at random.  This was before the GPS or the cell phone were invented.  My son was in the back seat reading a road map by the overhead light as I drove a strange car through dark San Francisco.  As we passed one corner we heard someone yell, “Shoot ‘em now!”  We didn’t know if they meant looters or US!  We couldn’t go to a hotel—many streets were closed & the city was essentially shut down.  It took us almost 4 hours to get back to the Presidio where we were met by an armed guard who told us that it was closed & that only residents could get in.  I did the only logical, adult thing I could do.  I cried.  Then I remembered that my friend had a bird (full) Colonel’s decal on the car window.  I pointed it out to the guard & he let us in.  We spent 5 days in a dark, cold house before we could get a flight home.  Thank heavens the phones still worked.  Our only source of information about the earthquake damage & fires was by phone to our family or a few minutes at a time on the car radio.  We were afraid to kill the car battery.
A “Bonnieism”:  We were playing golf behind a very slow group of men.  She exasperatedly asked me why it is that men will spend 10 minutes looking for a lost ball, but they won’t take 5 seconds to find your “G spot”!
Bonnie & I still enjoy each other’s company, but we figure that if we ever travel together again the smart thing would be to buy one way tickets because AT LEAST ONE OF US IS PROBABLY GOING TO DIE!

Fishducky

38 comments:

  1. haha I don't get looking for a lost little ball either, just to stick it in some hole. That sounded a bit bad..lol...Must have been something to be caught in that, stupid earthquakes. It's those aliens causing them I tell you.

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    1. This made me laugh - the aliens, I mean. :)

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    2. I don't get it either--you can always get more balls. Oh, wait--that sounded a bit bad, too. Never mind.

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  2. Bonnie sounds like a real hoot! I can picture all of these things--it sounds like so much fun (well except for the divorce part and the SF thing LOL). :0)

    I was in an earthquake once. We were up in the mountains when it happened. It was terrifying.

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    1. I was born & raised in Los Angeles so I'm actually used to earthquakes. I'd rather have earthquakes than some other things like tornados or hurricanes.

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  3. May as well just call her Hurricane Bonnie! My goodness that poor woman!

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    1. That reminds me, she was also in Acaspulco when a hurricane hit. I had learned my lesson. She had invited me to go with her--I didn't!

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  4. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    1. You didn't miss anything--my comment had been put in the wrong place. I was trying to reply to ANNE.

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  5. I've been through tornadoes, but I think I would be terrified for earthquakes. There's something about the ground moving beneath me that freaks me out.

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    1. I guess it's just what you get used to. I'm not worried about California falling into the sea.

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  6. For some reason I always wind up with an office above the loading dock. Last quake we had, everyone starts panicking and I had to ask what for...my office shook all day long due to the semis pulling in and out.

    Funny about the stuff wih Bonnie. Of all the beliefs, deities etc etc out there, luck is one of the few things I truly believe in...in that some people have it in spades, while others were born under a black cloud.

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    1. I'd bet you've learned several dance steps just trying to sit at your desk.

      Bonnie's been remarried for some time now & is very happy. However, I just spoke to her & she told me she broke her ankle when she fell a few days ago.

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  7. Oh, fishducky, would you believe our paths almost crossed on that horrible day. Errol and I were on our way home form Washington state, we crossed the Golden Gate bridge at one in the morning, or so. Stopped in the Marina that would burn down the next day, and then went on our way to Monterrey and home. That was the night before the earthquake struck. We were lucky, we had our two Dobermans with us and would have had no place to stay had we gotten stuck there. I'm glad you were OK eventually and that you and Bonnie are still friends. Good friends are such a blessing.

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    1. Kara (Swedish for dear) Inger--SO GLAD you were a day early!!

      Kram (Swedish for hugs)----fishducky

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    2. Note: Inger speaks fluent Swedish--she was born there. I wasn't--& don't! She's been teaching me.

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  8. Oh my gosh that was hilarious - except for the earthquake part - that was scary! I have a friend who has a bad-vacation-weather curse, so I don't go on vacations with her.

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  9. You were in THAT earthquake! I still see the images of collapsed freeways in my head. Glad you were able to get shelter.

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    1. Fortunately we were in an open stadium & NOT on the freeway!

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  10. hahaha, girl! I love your fishducky Friday. I cracked up at the lost ball and gspot comment. LOL!

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  11. Goodness! Even though Bonnie doesn't have the best of luck with some things, she has a great friend and sounds like she has a great sense of humor, too. I'm used to tornadoes and blizzards, but the ground shaking would freak me out! ;)

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    1. I seriously doubt if either Bonnie could have survived this long without a sense of humor!

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    2. I meant to say "either Bonnie or I".

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  12. I remember watching that ball game with my son. He was a huge Mark McGwyer(?) fan. That was scary on TV. I can't even begin to imagine how I would have reacted. I'd cry too! Great post. And you guys sound like a lot of fun to hang out with!

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  13. I only cried when the sentry wouldn't let us in--& that was from exhaustion. I didn't have time to be scared. I had to protect everyone else.

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  14. The comment went in the wrong place again. It was for BARB. And, TOOTIE FOODIE, change your pants!

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  15. Hurricanes are easy peasy... the weathermen tell you WAY ahead of time and there's plenty of time to hunker down or get out. It's the stupid people who die. Now torandos and earth quakes that scare the crap out of me.

    And aliens.

    Alien probes scare the crap out of me.

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  16. That's scary. The Hurricane lives very near San Francisco. She experienced her first earthquakes not long ago. She said she found them "off putting." Some men have an amazing talent for announcing their desire for a divorce. I had a brother-in-law who took my sister to work, said he'd fix dinner that night, and then went home and moved out. That's how she found out he wanted a divorce.

    Love,
    Janie

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    1. What a schmuck!! At least he could have told her to stop & pick up some takeout.

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  17. I so wish your body was in better shape and you could go with me. Think of all the mischief we could get into together; and we could just blame it all on senility!

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    1. I wish it were, too--& senility is a great excuse. I've been using it for years!

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  18. Dear Fishducky,
    Having experienced eighteen months of almost daily acute rotational vertigo episodes in which i'm lying on the floor vomiting while the ceiling, floor, and walls rotate around me, I know I'd never want to experience an earthquake. The fact that you drove that car with passengers through those streets we saw on television just astonishes me. As I've said before, "You are a marvel!" And the crying is so understandable. You must have been at your wits' end.

    Bonnie sounds like another person who would make me giggle with delight at her stories. But oh, I don't think I'd travel with her!

    Peace.

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    1. If I HAD seen those streets on TV, I probably wouldn't have tried driving on them--& I would have done my crying much earlier.

      As I said to MELISSA--a wise decision!

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