The race meet in Ohio was over. Time to take the horses home to their owners for a rest and regroup for the following spring. We headed to Texas via Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Iowa. We needed a place to stay while we wintered in Texas and looked for fresh stock. Our old neighbors in Texas had an empty mobile home as they had built a new house. The mobile home had been advertised for sale for two years with no takers, so they offered to let us stay there. We would have to get rid of the skunk that had taken up residence under the trailer, and there had been roaches and mice as well. Old fashioned moth balls moved the skunk out and elbow grease took care of the rest.
Oh well, gotta live somewhere and Christmas was only a week away. The boys were hoping for an Atari under the tree. I helped hubby with horses in the morning, then headed to the mobile home to clean and disinfect. On Saturday I told my honey and the boys that we could move in, and bought a small artificial tree and a few decorations. We put the tree up before we unpacked much of anything. Christmas was now only 5 days away.
On Monday, the neighbor came home from work and immediately knocked on the door. She had some news - they had a buyer for the mobile home, and he would be coming after it on Dec. 26 - we had to move and quickly.
We checked the newspaper for rentals, but everyone wanted a one year lease, and we knew we wouldn't be in the area for more than 2 months. My husband's father had a small rent house he was remodeling and told us we could move in there. The toilet had a crack in it, the floors were plywood, and there were no kitchen appliances, but it was a roof. There was one small bedroom, a small kitchen, a living room, but there was room for our little tree. Once again, I put that tree up before anything else got done. Those boys were going to have a Christmas tree!!
We survived with an ice chest, a hot plate, and a little bottled gas camping stove. We had a tiny TV that an owner had given to us, so when Santa left one gift under the tree - the Atari - the boys were delighted.
When we ordered a pizza delivery, the cracked potty sitting on the front deck made it very easy to find the right address!
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I loved the photo of the beautiful horses at the race track, re: Maggie's "Christmas To Remember". Horses are such beautiful animals...when they are cared for properly. There are so many stories in our wonderful country which need to be published. They are liken to Soul Food during hard times. Stories from all walks of life and circumstances. I believe that if more people went back to their root instinct from time to time, the experience would strengthen us all....Just reading these essays touch our inner being, strengthens our survival instincts and prepares us for future test in life. I encourage anyone with a story to tell...put pen to paper and go it.
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