The Adventure Begins

I am starting to realize that this Blog has been very beneficial to my memory.
I was thinking last night about The summer of 1979(?). I was out of work at the time and my old lady had left me, took my daughter and moved to Washington State. I had a Oldsmobile Vista cruiser station wagon that I was living in at the time and my Friend Steve suggested that we pack it up and head for the Russian river area for the summer. We each had about $20 and a few food stamps and figured we would be able to pick up some odd jobs in the area since it was summer time and the river area would be teaming with tourism. By the time we reached Guerneville, a small tourist town on the Russian river in Sonoma county we had about $7.50 left between us. We had been camping out for about a week or so and by this time we both were in desperate need of a bath and clean clothes so we flipped a coin to see if we should do laundry or eat.
Heads we would eat and tails we would do laundry. Steve flipped a coin and tails it was. We pulled in to the local laundromat and while we were washing clothes I noticed a bullitin board. Among the cars for sale and the vacation rentals and canoe trips I spotted a small piece of paper that read"Day Laborer needed" It said to inquire with Rosie at the Guerneville chamber of commerce. We finished washing our clothes, Packed them back in the car an headed into town. We found a parking place near Johnson's beach in downtown Guerneville and asked a local resident where the chamber of commerce was located, they kindly pointed us in the right direction and we started off on a walk that would change my summer and the next two years of my life.

Rosie was the nice lady who worked as a secretary in the chamber of commerce. We told her that we were there in response to the add that was posted in the laundromat. She comfirmed that she did have one job available at the time and that it involved some heavey duty yard work that consisted of clearing a small field of weeds. Now Since there were two of us we figured that if we both worked at it we would get it done in half the time , but when we arrived and found that the "weeds" were in fact "Thistles" Steve said no way was he going to get cut up for $3.50 an hour. But knowing we needed the money I accepted the Job. Steve said he would go back to town and look for something else. I worked for about 6-7 hours and finished the job and the owner of the property said that I did such a good job that he was going to give me an extra $10, I think he just felt sorry for me because of our situation. Any way I returned to the chamber office to find Steve relaxing of the bench in font of the office with a big smile on his face."We both have jobs starting tomorrow at 6 am." It turns out that while I was busting my ass in a field of thistle Steve had managed some how to meet up with the owner of the local hardware store who was also in charge of the building of a huge stage on Johnson's Beach for the upcoming Country music festival. The pay was $7 an hour which for 1979 was really good money. and so began an adventure that I feel very fortunate to have been a part of.

To Be Continued.